Comparison

Babbel vs Watch and Learn

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

Watch and Learn

Learn new languages by watching films and series with synchronized subtitles. Tap on unknown words or phrases for instant translations and save them to flashcards for later study. Supports over 40 languages and offers pronunciation practice and knowledge tests.

Highlights
  • Watch films/series in foreign languages
  • Interactive subtitles with tap-to-translate
  • Save words/phrases to flashcards
  • Pronunciation support
  • Knowledge tests for vocabulary
  • Supports over 40 languages
  • Offline dictionaries
Features
Read full description

A convenient application for watching films and series in foreign languages with subtitles and learning new words and phrases. Just touch an unknown word or a phrase, get its translation and add a card to learn it later. WATCH - support all popular video formats without conversion - support of subtitles in srt format - download new subtitles from opensubtitles.org - set of interesting films with subtitles for most common languages - audio track selection and many other settings LEARN - intuitive control over the sets of words - ready-made card sets for the most popular languages (English, Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese) - pronunciation support for words and phrases in foreign languages - knowledge tests for each set of words - export/import cards into csv format TRANSLATE - translate your own phrases and add them to the words sets - transcription for the most popular languages - speech to text function - just say unknown words and app will translate it - edit translations when needed - support over 50 off-line dictionaries - support of 40 languages AND ALSO - synchronization between all iOS devices via iCloud - support of iPhone, iPad and Mac DEVELOPERS LINK support@readandlearnapp.com Main supported video formats: MPEG-4/2/1, MJPEG, H.264, H.263, VP6, VP5, Theora, DV, MPEG-1/2/4, MJPEG, WMV, Cinepak, H.264, H.263, HuffYUV, Indeo3, Theora, Sorenson, VC-1, VP5/6/8/9, H.265, MOV, MP4, AVI, FLV and much more.. Supported languages: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Basque, Belarusian, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Cebuano, Chichewa, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hmong, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Javanese, Kannada, Kazakh, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Maori, Marathi, Mongolian, Myanmar (Burmese), Nepali, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sesotho, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Sundanese, Swahili, Swedish, Tajik, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish, Yoruba, Zulu.

Screenshots

Babbel4 screens
Watch and Learn4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Babbel at 4.7 against Watch and Learn's 2.0. Babbel also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 7 months) and ratings volume (754K vs 6). Watch and Learn's advantage is monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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 Watch and Learn sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $1.49 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Babbel holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Babbel has 754K ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 44% of Babbel's written reviews are positive against 50% of Watch and Learn's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Babbel ships an update every 4 days, Watch and Learn every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 6, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Babbel versus Watch and Learn: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBabbelWatch and Learn
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (754K ratings) — better2.0 (6 ratings)
Positive reviews43.7% of reviews50.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings754K — better6
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 7 months
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#8 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size263 MB116 MB
Age rating12+9+
DeveloperBabbel GmbHAnton Ivanov

Customer experience

Babbel

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

Watch and Learn

All ratings6 ratings
Positive16.7%
Neutral16.7%
Negative66.7%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

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

Watch and Learn

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
12 purchases

Watch and Learn

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly subscription$1.491 Month
  • Annual subscription$14.491 Year
One-time10
  • The Snows of Kilimanjaro$0.99
  • The Little Shop of Horrors$0.99
  • Carnival of Souls (1962)$0.99
Show 7 more
  • House on Hounted Hill$0.99
  • The Stranger (1946)$0.99
  • Suddenly (1954)$0.99
  • Blood on the Sun$0.99
  • Detour$0.99
  • Plan 9 From Outer Space (1959)$0.99
  • Full version$19.99

Questions

Is Babbel free?
Babbel is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Watch and Learn free?
Watch and Learn is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Babbel or Watch and Learn?
Babbel is rated higher. Babbel averages 4.7 out of 5 from 754K ratings, while Watch and Learn averages 2.0 from 6 ratings.
Do Babbel or Watch and Learn have ads?
Both Babbel and Watch and Learn show ads.
Which is updated more often, Babbel or Watch and Learn?
Babbel ships an update every 4 days, and Watch and Learn every 7 months. Most recently, Babbel was updated on September 25, 2026 and Watch and Learn on September 6, 2026.

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