Babbel vs Rosetta Stone – Which One Should You Choose?

In today’s ever-changing world, we never know when a new foreign language might come in useful for us. Perhaps, your new neighbors could be from Europe or Asia. It is always nice having a few additional languages apart from your native language.

There is no harm in learning a new language like French, Spanish, Italian, Hindi, and so on. You just never know whom you might meet on the bus, train, or even on airplane. Won’t be fun to see their reaction when you speak in their dialect.

Learning new languages used to be a hassle a few decades ago, with the lack of devices and technology. Today, thankfully, we have several forms of devices like your PC, laptop, tablet, and smartphone.

Besides, you also have the internet combined with learning apps. So, what is your excuse now? Ok, so you have decided to learn a new language. What next? Now, all you need to do is choose the apt platform or learning language app, as we would like to call it.

If you look at the internet, you can find a ton of learning language apps. While some are pretty old, some are new, and some have been around for a few years now. Moreover, some language apps are free to use, while some are paid for.

We would recommend that you make use of the paid learning language apps because you actually get to learn something. The free tools though good, are a mere waste of time. They may teach you a word or two at the most.

In today’s comparison post, we will be reading about two popular learning language apps. They are Babbel vs Rosetta Stone. Babbel has been around for many years now and has been going strong for several thousand users.

Likewise, Rosetta Stone is no stranger to the learning language app market. They both come infused with a few amazing features, programs, and pricing. We will be seeing everything in detail in this comparison post.

They come with pre-recorded words, phrases, and quotes, through which you can learn languages. There is also speech recognition technology, which we found pretty useful. To help you understand the language apps better we have provided you with the pros & cons as well.

We will read about the main differences, and even share our truthful opinions about these apps. After reading this post, you will understand more about these two platforms which can make it simpler for you to choose one.

We have given the winner at the end of the post.

Babbel	Rosetta Stone
PROS	PROS
The language courses are better than most other apps. You can enhance your grammar skills. The structure of the courses is much better. You can listen to podcasts. You can download the lessons if you want.	You can learn words better as they are repetitive purposely. The vocabulary lessons are opulent. The audio quality is clear and easy to grasp. You will find learning fun with this tool. Most of the features are similar to that of Babbel.
CONS	CONS
Sadly, it offers only 13 languages.	This app may not be useful to learn a language completely.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone – Pricing

Now, let us compare Babbel vs Rosetta Stone based on their pricing. This will give us an idea of which learning app package to choose for our language learning. Babbel provides you with four subscription models.

You can choose any of them to access any one language. The monthly plan is available at $14 every month. The 3-month plan is priced at $30, and the 6-month plan comes at $8.50/month. The yearly subscription is available at $83 for 12 months.

Rosetta Stone offers you with almost three types of subscription packages. The 3 months and 12-month plans provide you with access to one language only. You also get a lifetime subscription for all the languages available on the platform.

The 3-month plan comes at $12/month, and the 12-month plan costs $8/month. The lifetime plan is available for $180. We feel that Babbel is the cheaper learning language app here because it offers you with tremendous potential and capabilities.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone – Comparison of the features

We will now do a comparison of the features. We will take an in-depth look at their features, languages offered, and programs. This can help you understand whether the learning language apps are worth your money or not.

Babbel has been developed for individuals who want to learn a language through and through. The app is elegantly designed for beginners who have no idea about the language. Within a few months, you can find yourself becoming almost a professional in the language.

This is in terms of speaking, writing, and overall communication. For example, let us say that you want to learn Spanish. But you are a beginner. This learning language tool enables you to learn the language effortlessly.

The program is simple to use, understand, and grasp. That is what caught our attention. Several users have commended the program on its ease of usage. The program consists of the grammatical aspect of things, rules, and a new vocabulary.

A new user is made to practice several verb conjugations and tenses in the Spanish language. This immensely helps you to grasp or take hold of the language flawlessly. Besides, the learning app provides you with a wide range of examples that can help you as well.

The exercises are based on live examples that are commonly used in the everyday life. So, you know how to speak or write common words and phrases. When you do that for a few months, you can become a professional in no time.

They have their B1, which is considered as a professional. Of course, you need to cross several hurdles and perform many exercises to reach there. Though you may not become proficient, but you can communicate with a Spanish citizen flawlessly.

You can efficiently structure your sentences without much of a hassle. But when you are already familiar with the language and just want to brush up on the language, then you may want to delve so deep into it.

Sadly, there are no advanced lessons in this learning language app. Moreover, you may not be able to get the pronunciations properly. This is a major flaw in this learning language app that we felt the developers must look into.

This app has been in the market for several years now and much more could be expected from it. Rosetta Stone has its own set of features, schedules, and programs. Though it may not be on par with Babbel, it is quite fun learning actually.

After all, you want to have some fun and excitement when learning a new language. What is the point of sitting by yourself doing the exercises, programs, and learning? Besides, you will have to do it yourself.

Unlike Babbel, Rosetta Stone has a very entertaining mode of teaching new languages. You are provided with several programs that come in the form of images, visuals, and pictures. These help you grasp and learn the concepts much better.

The vocabulary aspect of things is one of the best in this learning language app. Most users found it extremely helpful and recommend it. They not only had fun but made immense progress with the learning language app.

The designers have not stressed on the importance of learning grammar. The grammar of any language can be the most difficult aspect of things to learn and grasp. So, they do not provide you with too much of grammar in the languages.

This language app offers you with pictures & images. You have to choose the right answer. That is about it. Yes, it is quite popular among kids and those who want to brush up on their language abilities.

But we may not term it as the best learning app. That is because it comes with too less of content than you actually would require for learning a new language. You can’t learn a new language by looking at images.

At the most, you can get to know some common terms, words, and phrases. You can look at pictures and understand what they mean. But when you want to become proficient in the language, then it is going to be difficult with this app.

All in all, you can learn many things using Rosetta Stone. Besides, we found it to be quite more entertaining than Babbel. But when you want to actually learn things, then you may require a proper app, which can place things in a better perspective to help you become a fluent speaker.

Courses

The Babbel courses come with several interactive exercises. It begins with you having to listen to the new words. Then you have to repeat it a few times until you are able to get the pronunciation correct.

You are then made to say a few words through flashcards. These cards appear on your monitor, and as they come, you need to say the right word or phrase. This exercise is useful. You are then provided with a short lesson on grammar or conjugation.

You have to type or redo some phrases or words properly. In the end, you have to do fill in the blanks. This is pretty normal and can be found in most learning language apps. We find that filling in the blanks gives you the ability to help you understand and learn the language better.

At last, you have to take a mock conversation. Doing that can help you understand the language in a better manner. Rosetta Stone offers you with several lessons that take close to 60 minutes to complete.

It has a core learning module that takes close to 30 minutes. There are close to 3 to 15 supplemental drills that take around 10 minutes each. They help you improve your reading, writing, pronunciation, and listening skills.

Languages

Babbel offers you with languages like German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Italian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Polish, Russian, Turkish, and Indonesian. Some notable languages that are missing are Chinese, Hindi, Thai, and so on.

If you are looking for Asian-based or American-based languages, then you might be unhappy with them. Perhaps, the developers might want to take a cue from the users and provide more languages.

Rosetta Stone on the other hand provides you with a massive list of languages, which is quite impressive. They provide you with Greek, Irish, Polish, Swedish, French, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Italian, German, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Dutch, and Vietnamese.

Users can also learn Latin, Chinese, Portuguese, English, Filipino, Tagalog, and Demotic. Here we can see a wide range of languages from all around the world. There is a right balance between Asia, Europe, and South America as well.

If you are interested in learning these languages, then you can find this learning app useful. We found it quite ridiculous that Babbel offers only 13 languages for you to learn. Moreover, the app does not provide you with Chinese & Thai as well, which is quite surprising.

Supposing, if you want to learn Thai & Chinese, then you may not be able to do it using the Babbel app. Similarly, the Rosetta Stone is another interesting language app that comes with serious flaws as well.

For example, if you want to write & speak in a language you want, then this language app may not be suitable for you. Besides, we also found that the exercises are somewhat slow on the language app, in comparison to Babbel.

The pricing is also there because Rosetta Stone is kind of expensive compared to Babbel. So, you will have to consider these factors before making a decision on the language app of your liking.

Conclusion

Our winner in this comparison review between Babbel vs Rosetta Stone is the Babbel language app. It comes with several eloquent features and programs that were too hard to ignore. We loved the user interface, features, and pricing, and even have given our consent for the pros & cons.

Though this was an evenly fought comparison, Babbel has some clear advantages over the other language app discussed in here. Rosetta Stone does have some incredible features, good pricing, and worthy programs.

But the fact that most of the content is repetitive, and the package is meant only for beginners kind of got us worried. At the same time, Babbel provides you with crucial elements like powerful explanations, and translations, and has a systematic schedule to learn the language.

Rosetta Stone makes use of the target profusely. The audio recognition though good can be quite repetitive, and annoying. We also noticed that some lessons taught on Babbel came with precise content that was helpful.

You can learn and grasp the language quicker through this language app than through Rosetta Stone. Both apps offer you with immense learning programs, and wonderful features. Rosetta Stone has an entertaining program schedule that teaches you a lot actually.

We thought that the main issue lies with the pricing of both language apps. When you are particular about the pricing of both the language apps, then you might want to make use of Babbel, than Rosetta Stone.

At the end of the day, it is going to be your call. When you are worried & concerned about learning the language properly, then go with our verdict, Babbel. But Rosetta Stone provides you with an entertaining method of learning, which might appeal to you.