Comparison

Babbel vs Hallo

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

Hallo

Practice speaking over 50 languages with an AI teacher anytime, anywhere. Improve fluency and confidence through conversation-based learning. Track progress, earn rewards, and connect with a global community of learners.

Highlights
  • AI conversation practice
  • Learn 50+ languages
  • Speak in 3 seconds
  • Track progress and fluency
  • Global learner community
  • Daily practice rewards
Features
Read full description

Speak a new language with an AI teacher anytime, anywhere! Hallo is the effective, free app powered by artificial intelligence for learning 50+ languages through actual conversations with an AI teacher. Practice speaking 5 minutes a day and become fluent. Designed by language experts and loved by millions of learners around the world, Hallo provides you with a scientifically proven method to improve your speaking and listening skills by practicing anytime, anywhere. Why Hallo? • Hallo helps you speak - Press a button and start practicing in 3 seconds. Improve your communication skills with AI and native teachers to build your confidence and become a fluent speaker! • Hallo works - Powered by the most advanced language models, Hallo provides you with the tools you need to learn languages and be able to speak them in the most effective way. • Track your progress. Receive feedback based on your fluency and work toward your language learning goals with rewards and achievements when you make practicing a daily habit. • Join millions of learners. Hallo is home to millions of language learners. You’ll meet other students and teachers from around the world whom you can speak with and get friendly support from. • Every language is free. Practice speaking 5 minutes per day and learn English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Polish, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Hebrew, Croatian, Czech, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, Turkish, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, and more. If you like Hallo, try our subscription plan! Learn a language and become fluent fast with more speaking time, no ads, AI feedback, quality AI voice, and recorded lessons. At Hallo, we believe that the most effective way to learn a language is by speaking and communicating. By focusing on conversation-based interactions, you can overcome the fear of speaking, advance in your career opportunities, and become fluent while learning how to communicate with others. Become fluent and dream big with Hallo! Use Hallo on the Web at: https://www.hallo.ai Terms of Service: https://www.hallo.ai/terms-of-service

Screenshots

Babbel4 screens
Hallo4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Hallo at free with in-app purchases against Babbel's subscription. Hallo also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (53% vs 44%). Babbel's advantage is ratings volume (754K vs 2.4K) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). On price, rating, 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 Hallo sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Babbel against 4.6 for Hallo. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Babbel has 754K ratings behind it against 2.4K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 44% of Babbel's written reviews are positive against 53% of Hallo's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Babbel ships an update every 4 days, Hallo fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Babbel versus Hallo: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBabbelHallo
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (754K ratings) — better4.6 (2.4K ratings)
Positive reviews43.7% of reviews53.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings754K — better2.4K
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterFortnightly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#9 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size263 MB203 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperBabbel GmbHHallo, Inc

Customer experience

Babbel

All ratings753,872 ratings
Positive93.8%
Neutral3.8%
Negative2.5%
Written reviews2,638 reviews
Positive43.7%
Neutral13.9%
Negative42.3%

Hallo

All ratings2,370 ratings
Positive88.6%
Neutral3.6%
Negative7.8%
Written reviews143 reviews
Positive53.1%
Neutral4.2%
Negative42.7%

User reviews

Babbel

From 754K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Excellent structured learning
  • 🚀 Effective vocabulary and grammar teaching
  • 👍 Helpful pronunciation guides
  • 👍 Engaging and practical lessons
  • 👍 Useful review and repetition features

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Inconsistent voice recognition
  • 🐛 Lack of flexibility in lesson progression
  • 🐛 Confusing user interface and navigation
  • 🐛 Overly strict scoring and lack of forgiveness for minor errors
  • 🔋 Drains battery quickly

Hallo

From 2.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🤝 Great community and social features
  • 🚀 Excellent for practicing conversational skills
  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 💡 Innovative language learning approach
  • 🌍 Opportunity to connect with people globally

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent bugs and glitches
  • 💰 Paywall for key features
  • 🔇 Removal of popular features like live streams and InstantMatch
  • 📉 Declining user experience after app updates
  • 🙅‍♀️ Lack of customer support and unresponsive developers

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

Hallo

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes and freezes during lessons
  • Inability to log in or access account
  • Inconsistent performance across devices
  • Errors when trying to use certain features

Requested features

5 requests
  • Bring back live streams and InstantMatch
  • Improve stability and reduce bugs
  • Offer more free features for language learners
  • Provide better customer support and communication
  • Introduce more language options

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
5 purchases

Hallo

Subscriptions5
  • Hallo Plus - Monthly3 Days trial$12.991 Month
  • Hallo Plus - Monthly3 Days trial2 variants$19.991 Month
  • Hallo Plus - Yearly7 Days trial$83.991 Year
Show 2 more
  • Hallo Plus - Yearly7 Days trial$119.991 Year
  • Hallo Plus - Yearly7 Days trial$149.991 Year

Questions

Is Babbel free?
Babbel is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hallo free?
Hallo is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Babbel or Hallo?
Babbel is rated higher. Babbel averages 4.7 out of 5 from 754K ratings, while Hallo averages 4.6 from 2.4K ratings.
Do Babbel or Hallo have ads?
Babbel shows ads; Hallo does not.
Which is updated more often, Babbel or Hallo?
Babbel ships an update every 4 days, and Hallo fortnightly. Most recently, Babbel was updated on September 25, 2026 and Hallo on September 7, 2026.

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