Babbel vs LinDuo
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Babbel
Learn a new language through real-life conversations and bite-sized lessons. This award-winning app, built by language experts, offers courses tailored to your native tongue and includes an AI conversation partner for pronunciation practice. Start speaking in as little as 3 weeks with a proven method.
- Tailored courses for native speakers
- Real-life conversation practice
- AI-powered pronunciation feedback
- Bite-sized, effective lessons
- Grammar explained in context
- Offline lesson access
- Smart review system
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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 (Beta)*, 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 • 1.6 million 5-star ratings across platforms (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. 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: • 3 months • 6 months • 12 months • Lifetime 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/babbel Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/babbel.languages CONTACT US Questions or feedback? Email: support-mobile@babbel.com *Babbel Speak is in beta: functionality, quality, and availability may change or be withdrawn at any time. Babbel reserves the right to charge for this feature in the future. **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.
LinDuo
Learn Italian with bite-sized lessons and native speaker pronunciation. This app uses visual aids and a spaced repetition system to help you memorize essential vocabulary quickly and easily. It's designed for busy learners who can dedicate just 10-15 minutes daily.
- Native speaker pronunciation
- 180 topic-based lessons
- Offline access
- Illustrated vocabulary
- Phonetic transcription
- Customizable lessons
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ADVANTAGES OF OUR APP: * Pronunciation by a native speaker * 2375 words split into 180 topic lessons * Does not require permanent Internet connection * Beautiful illustrations for each word * Phonetic transcription for each word * Dark interface to study at night * Choose from male and female voice * Built in app dictionary with progress * Game "True or False" to review pas material * Special lessons with favorite, difficult, old, random words * Flexible sound settings (music, speaker, effects) * Just 10-15 minutes per day to learn all words * For adults and teens 13+ Only 10-15 minutes per day - Spending just 10-15 minutes every day, will easily allow you to remember all useful Italian words. While memorizing words, the frequency of lesson is more important than duration of each lesson. 10 minutes on each day of the week will be more productive than one hour of tuition a week. One minute lessons - Taking into account busyness of modern life, we designed each lesson in the way so it would never take more than one minute to complete it! So you no longer need to search for free time to practice Italian! Simply, once you get a chance, launch the app and do one lesson at a time =) Only useful Italian words - Italian for Beginners is a free and quick start to learn Italian language! Unlike others, we have only the most useful words, which are divided into 180 topic based lessons. Quality is here! Teach-yourself Italian is designed, that it will use your visual and echoic memory to help you memorize Italian words fast and easy! Special illustrations - We use only specially developed infographics (developed by psychologists), so your eyes can quickly identify meaning of word or action without stressing them with small unnecessary details. Word pronunciation by native speakers - Our app will help you master pronunciation of Italian words! Each word is recording by professional native speaker! Additionally, in the settings you can choose between male or female voice. Dynamic lesson difficulty - The app changes lesson difficulty gradually as you progress. To achieve this, it keeps stats for EVERY word! Example: in the spelling mode, initially you need to insert several missing letters in a word, then create a word having extra letters and finally, when you are ready, you will need to type the entire word on the keyboard. Modes for quick learning - The App includes four additional lesson types which are made of Favorites, Difficult, Old, Random words. You can add any word to your favorites and later create custom lesson from your Favorite words. Words are automatically added to "Difficult" (the ones you struggle to memorize) and "Old" (which you have not reviewed for a long time) sections. A "Random" mode will create a unique lesson. Do not need to know how to read - If you cannot read yet, no problem! Each word has a transcription in your language! And for more experienced ones, in the settings, you can choose a phonetic (like in a dictionary) transcription. Additional features - Thanks to your reviews, we are constantly updating the app to make it better! To help you take care of your eyesight, with just one tap, you can activate dark theme. If you temporarily do not have internet access, no problem! The App can work offline as well! Review Past Material - Many good apps do not pay enough attention to review past material! For this purpose we created the word game "True or False". It is very simple, but it's addictive and the most importantly, it helps to repeat past material and never to forget it! Support and Contact Us If you have any questions or suggestions, please never hesitate to send us an email admin@lin-duo.com or use in-app contact form. We are always happy to answer your questions! Thank you very much for your trust and choice! If you like our app, do not forget to share it with your friends in social networks.
Screenshots
Verdict
Babbel and LinDuo both sit at 4.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 96% of LinDuo's written reviews are positive against 44% of Babbel's. LinDuo also leads on ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.0). Babbel's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (758K vs 17). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Babbel sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $17.99 per month and LinDuo sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Babbel against 4.8 for LinDuo. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Babbel has 758K ratings behind it against 17, 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 96% of LinDuo's.
Babbel ships an update every 4 days, LinDuo every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Babbel | LinDuo |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (758K ratings) | 4.8 (17 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 44.1% of reviews | 96.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 758K — better | 17 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 days — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #14 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 286 MB | 283 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Babbel GmbH | Vitali Simsive |
Customer experience
Babbel
LinDuo
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
LinDuo
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Babbel
- Mexican Spanish – 1-month plan$17.991 Month
- Spanish 1 month$17.991 Month
- French 1 month$17.991 Month
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- Italian 1 month$17.991 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
- 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
LinDuo
- Work Offline!$0.99
- Unlimited Energy!$4.99
- All Inclusive!$9.99
Show 1 moreShow fewer
- Help the Project!$29.99
Questions
Is Babbel free?
Is LinDuo free?
Which has better reviews, Babbel or LinDuo?
Do Babbel or LinDuo have ads?
Which is updated more often, Babbel or LinDuo?
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