Comparison

Babbel vs LyricFluent

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

LyricFluent

Learn Spanish, Portuguese, French, and other languages through music. Discover new artists, play lyric games, and understand song lyrics with translations and pronunciation guides. Build vocabulary and grammar naturally while enjoying your favorite tunes.

Highlights
  • Learn languages with music
  • Full lyrics and translations
  • Line-by-line lyric mode
  • Word pronunciation and translation
  • Spaced repetition for vocabulary
  • Discover new artists
  • Cultural context through music
Features
Read full description

Learn languages with music you love Learn Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, Korean, German, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Polish, Turkish, Finnish, Romanian and Ukrainian. Turn the songs you already play into language lessons, using lyrics from the artists you actually listen to. You're discovering new music, playing lyric games, and singing along. You're also practicing vocabulary, grammar and sentence patterns, and getting pronunciation practice every time you sing. That's the whole idea: learn a language during time you were going to spend on music anyway. Achieve your language-learning goals by listening to music You already listen to music for hours every day. That same time can move you toward your goals instead. Find your next favorite artist Bored with your current playlist? Discover new artists while you learn. Culture comes with the language Music carries the culture a language lives in. A song tells a story, and a story is easier to remember than a word list. Everything you need to follow a song Tried listening to music in your target language and lost the thread? Every song has full lyrics, translations and explanations, so you can follow along. Song too fast? Line-by-line mode lets you take it at your own pace. Tap any word for its translation and hear it spoken. You can also hear the full lyric line read aloud. Spaced repetition Save the words you meet and review them later. Our spaced repetition algorithm brings each one back just as you're about to forget it, which is what moves it into long-term memory. Music is repetitive, and that is the point If you love a song you play it again and again, and every replay is another pass over the same words. Different lesson types give you more ways to practice them. Learn with over 49,000 songs across 14 languages Songs from artists you already follow are probably here. If one is missing, request it and we'll try to add it. It takes 600 to 2000 hours to learn a language. This is a way to spend some of them on music. Languages available Learn Spanish with music Learn French with music Learn Portuguese with music Learn Italian with music Learn German with music Learn Dutch with music Learn Swedish with music Learn Russian with music Learn Polish with music Learn Korean with music Learn Turkish with music Learn Finnish with music Learn Romanian with music Learn Ukrainian with music Try our premium subscription for full access. If you purchase a LyricFluent subscription, payment will be charged to your iTunes account, and your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can turn off auto-renewal at any time in your iTunes Store account settings after purchase. Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when you purchase a subscription, where applicable. Privacy policy: https://lyricfluent.com/privacypolicy Terms of service: https://lyricfluent.com/termsofservice

Screenshots

Babbel4 screens
LyricFluent4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: LyricFluent at free with in-app purchases against Babbel's subscription. LyricFluent also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (73% vs 44%). Babbel's advantage is ratings volume (754K vs 3K) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 10 days). On price, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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 LyricFluent sells 18 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

LyricFluent holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Babbel has 754K ratings behind it against 3K, 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 73% of LyricFluent's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Babbel ships an update every 4 days, LyricFluent every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Babbel versus LyricFluent: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBabbelLyricFluent
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (754K ratings)4.9 (3K ratings) — better
Positive reviews43.7% of reviews72.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings754K — better3K
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#8 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size263 MB85 MB
Age rating12+12+
DeveloperBabbel GmbHLyricFluent Ltd

Customer experience

Babbel

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

LyricFluent

All ratings2,964 ratings
Positive96.7%
Neutral2.0%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews91 reviews
Positive72.5%
Neutral5.5%
Negative22.0%

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

LyricFluent

From 3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Fun and helpful
  • 👍 Excelente app, muy práctica para aprender cantando
  • 👍 Definitely a must get for anyone wanting to learn Spanish
  • 👍 By far the most fun an interesting way to learn so far
  • 👍 Keeps music lovers motivated to learn new vocabulary, idioms and slang

Room to improve

  • 🐛 A little buggy
  • 💰 Have to pay for everything
  • 🔍 it's good but there's only one brujeria song
  • 🔍 It only goes to the page that says SAVE WORDS
  • 🔍 Not working for me

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

LyricFluent

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • The Speak Lyrics function doesn't work
  • Can't see my subscription and can't search songs

Requested features

4 requests
  • Needs more of learning tools
  • Allow for a one time purchase if anything
  • More songs added
  • Searching up songs

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
18 purchases

LyricFluent

Subscriptions18
  • Weekly Plan$3.997 Days
  • 1 Week Subscription$4.997 Days
  • Weekly Plan$4.997 Days
Show 15 more
  • 1 Month Subscription7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Plan$14.991 Month
  • 1 Month Subscription3 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • 1 Month Subscription$14.991 Month
  • Yearly Plan7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Yearly Plan7 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • 12 Months Subscription Special7 Days trial$39.991 Year
  • Yearly Plan Discount$39.991 Year
  • Yearly Plan7 Days trial2 variants$49.991 Year
  • 6 Months Subscription7 Days trial$49.996 Months
  • 6 Months Subscription$49.996 Months
  • 12 Months Subscription14 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Yearly Plan7 Days trial2 variants$59.991 Year
  • 12 Months Subscription7 Days trial$59.991 Year
  • Yearly Plan7 Days trial$69.991 Year

Questions

Is Babbel free?
Babbel is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is LyricFluent free?
LyricFluent is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Babbel or LyricFluent?
LyricFluent is rated higher. Babbel averages 4.7 out of 5 from 754K ratings, while LyricFluent averages 4.9 from 3K ratings.
Do Babbel or LyricFluent have ads?
Babbel shows ads; LyricFluent does not.
Which is updated more often, Babbel or LyricFluent?
Babbel ships an update every 4 days, and LyricFluent every 10 days. Most recently, Babbel was updated on September 25, 2026 and LyricFluent on September 24, 2026.

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