Comparison

Babbel vs Japanese Dictionary + ©

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Babbel

Master a new language with expert-designed, bite-sized lessons that fit your schedule. Build conversational confidence quickly through interactive practice and a smart review system. Learn Spanish, French, German, and more for travel, work, or fun.

Highlights
  • Bite-sized lessons
  • Expert-built courses
  • Interactive conversation practice
  • Smart review system
  • Grammar in context
  • Offline mode
  • Learn 14 languages
Features
Read full description

Speak a new language with real-life conversations. Babbel is the award-winning language learning app with courses tailored to your native language, built by 200+ language experts and trusted by millions worldwide. Because lessons are built for speakers of your language, an English speaker learning Spanish gets different lessons than a French speaker does. You learn to speak, listen, and understand grammar in context, then practice real conversations with Babbel Speak, an AI conversation partner that gives you personalized feedback. Learn a new language faster with bite-sized lessons designed to fit your everyday life. With Babbel’s proven method, you could start having real conversations in as little as 3 weeks. Your language learning adventure starts with a lesson. WHY BABBEL WORKS • Tailored to your native language: Courses are created by language experts and tailored to your native language, so you learn naturally and efficiently. • Real-life conversations: Learn the language people actually speak, for travel, work, and everyday life. • Speak with confidence: Practice out loud with speech recognition and Babbel Speak, an AI conversation partner to improve your pronunciation. • Research-proven results: Efficacy backed by researchers at Yale University: 100% improved their oral proficiency in 3 months.* TRUSTED BY MILLIONS • 25 million subscriptions sold • 1.5 million 5-star ratings (based on App store ratings) • After 10 hours with Babbel, 96% of learners saw better test scores on grammar and vocabulary** BUILT FOR REAL LIFE • Short, effective lessons: Learn in as little as 10 minutes a day • Lessons for every motivation: Learn for travel, work, or fun • Listen, speak, write: Options for every learning style • Stress-free conversation practice: Build confidence with Guided Conversations, then practice freely with Babbel Speak (Beta) • Smart review system: Boosts learning and retention • Grammar in context: Clear explanations exactly when you need them • Offline mode: Download lessons and learn anywhere, anytime • 5,000+ courses: Over 60,000 lessons across all languages LEARN 14 LANGUAGES Spanish (Latin American or Spain), French, Italian, German, Portuguese, English (American or British), Russian, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, and Indonesian. TRY BABBEL TODAY Download Babbel now and take a free lesson. SUBSCRIPTION DETAILS A subscription is required to access full courses for one language. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Payment will be charged to your Apple account. Available plans: • 1 month • 3 months • 6 months • 12 months Privacy policy: https://about.babbel.com/en/privacy/ Terms of use: https://about.babbel.com/en/terms/ LEARN MORE Read Babbel Magazine for tips and insights: https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine Follow us: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/babbelusa Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Babbel.usa CONTACT US Questions or feedback? Email: support-mobile@babbel.com *Based on a study conducted with Babbel users learning Spanish. Available at http://bit.ly/BabbelYale. **Based on a study conducted with Babbel users learning Spanish. Available: http://bit.ly/BabbelMSU.

About

Japanese Dictionary + ©

This comprehensive Japanese-English dictionary app offers offline access to millions of entries, a powerful verb conjugator, and a phrasebook. It includes vocabulary quizzes, flashcards, and pronunciation guides, making it an ideal language learning companion.

Highlights
  • Offline Japanese-English dictionary with millions of entries
  • Comprehensive verb conjugator
  • Phrasebook with categorized phrases
  • Vocabulary quizzes and flashcards
  • Offline pronunciation in Japanese & English
  • Apple Watch support with voice lookups
Features
Read full description

The #1 Japanese English Dictionary for iPhone, iPad & Apple Watch ◇ Offline Dictionary Compiled by Professional Linguists ◇ Verb Conjugator ◇ Phrasebook ◇ Vocabulary Quizzes ◇ Flashcards ◇ Loved by Millions "Apps from Vidalingua are hugely popular... they're free and they work offline, handy when you're actually abroad." New York Times Selected by Apple as "What's Hot" in over 40 countries. “This app packs an undeniable allure for travelers.” - iPhone App Review USER REVIEWS “This online dictionary is so comprehensive that it often contains words or idioms that I cannot find in my paperback dictionary. I am a retired language professor.” “This app includes more reliable features than any of the others I’ve tried. The customer service people are great, very helpful.” “My students are ditching their books for iPads so I looked at apps and websites with quality material. This is the app I recommend.” “This app helped me through my class for school. It’s great and has pronunciation, spelling, example sentences with words, etc. 10/10.” “Great for Travel. Very helpful to find words and phrases without an internet connection.” Japanese Dictionary + by VidaLingua transforms your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch into an advanced language assistant, always ready to help. It includes features you won’t find in any other app and it’s trusted by millions of users who have given it the highest rating average of any app in its category. FEATURES • Japanese English Dictionary with over 2,740,0000 offline entries. Includes numerous translations, usage examples, part-of-speech, and images. Compiled and updated by professional linguists. • Best verb conjugator of any app including 10,626 Japanese verbs, 4,318 English verbs. Over 1,094,000 verb forms in all! • Phrasebook with 20 categories such as Conversation, Asking Directions and Making Friends. • Multiple-choice vocabulary quizzes. • Flashcards. Create study lists based on dictionary favorites. • Offline pronunciation in Japanese & English. Settings for speed and accent (Japanese, US, UK, Australia, South Africa, Ireland). • iPad Split Screen support so you can drag & drop words from other apps into Japanese Translator & Dictionary + to translate them. • Apple Watch support with voice lookups so you can say a word and find translations quickly. • Advanced voice recognition to enter words and phrases hands-free. Useful for practicing pronunciation. • Helpful dictionary features such as single index search, reverse lookup and sharing entries with friends. • Integrated access to Wikipedia, Wiktionary and other online sources for dictionary words. • Dictionary word attachments for notes, images and audio clips. • My Phrases section of phrasebook to add your own translations. • Vidalingua Pro includes more dictionary examples, more verb forms, a bigger phrasebook and no ads. By upgrading, you’ll be supporting our team of linguists, developers and customer success partners who greatly appreciate your support! USER REVIEWS “This is a really excellent dictionary. Easy to use, great conjugation tables and some great added features like voice input and word pronunciation.” “This has been an extremely useful app as I prepare for a language exam and review verb conjugations.” “I love this app so much! It is a complete package for finding almost anything starting from words to phrases.” At Vidalingua, we consider every user a partner to help us make the best app in the world for learning Japanese. Download Japanese Dictionary + for free and start learning today! Marc Bolh Founder Vidalingua

Screenshots

Babbel4 screens
Japanese Dictionary + ©4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Japanese Dictionary + © at 100% against Babbel's 44%. Japanese Dictionary + © also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). Babbel's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 months) and ratings volume (755K vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Babbel sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $17.99 per month and Japanese Dictionary + © sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Japanese Dictionary + © holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Babbel has 755K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 44% of Babbel's written reviews are positive against 100% of Japanese Dictionary + ©'s.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Babbel ships an update every 5 days, Japanese Dictionary + © every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Babbel versus Japanese Dictionary + ©: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBabbelJapanese Dictionary + ©
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (755K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews43.9% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings755K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#13 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size263 MB77 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperBabbel GmbHAscendo Inc.

Customer experience

Babbel

All ratings754,664 ratings
Positive93.8%
Neutral3.8%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews2,668 reviews
Positive43.9%
Neutral13.9%
Negative42.2%

Japanese Dictionary + ©

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Babbel

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Lessons sometimes freeze or crash the app
  • Subscription cancellation process is overly complicated
  • Inconsistent behavior when switching between languages
  • Keyboard issues and inability to use system keyboard

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add more language options, especially Asian languages like Japanese, Korean, and Chinese
  • Improve review and practice tools to better reinforce learned material
  • Provide more customization options for lesson pacing and content
  • Implement a more forgiving scoring system and allow users to revisit past lessons
  • Add a dark mode and optimize the app for better readability

Japanese Dictionary + ©

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Babbel

Subscriptions12
  • Mexican Spanish – 1-month plan$17.991 Month
  • Spanish 1 month$17.991 Month
  • French 1 month$17.991 Month
Show 9 more
  • Italian 1 month$17.991 Month
  • Mexican Spanish - 1-month plan$19.991 Month
  • Mexican Spanish – 3-month plan$45.993 Months
  • Learn French – 3-month plan$45.993 Months
  • Learn Spanish – 3-month plan$45.993 Months
  • All Languages – 3-month plan$53.993 Months
  • Mexican Spanish – 1-year plan$89.991 Year
  • All Languages – 12-month plan$107.991 Year
  • All Languages – 12-month plan7 Days trial$107.991 Year
1 purchases

Japanese Dictionary + ©

One-time1
  • Premium Features$9.99

Questions

Is Babbel free?
Babbel is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Japanese Dictionary + © free?
Japanese Dictionary + © is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Babbel or Japanese Dictionary + ©?
Japanese Dictionary + © is rated higher. Babbel averages 4.7 out of 5 from 755K ratings, while Japanese Dictionary + © averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Babbel or Japanese Dictionary + © have ads?
Both Babbel and Japanese Dictionary + © show ads.
Which is updated more often, Babbel or Japanese Dictionary + ©?
Babbel ships an update every 5 days, and Japanese Dictionary + © every 3 months. Most recently, Babbel was updated on September 28, 2026 and Japanese Dictionary + © on September 27, 2026.

Other comparisons