In this post: A comprehensive review of the Babbel Spanish app and whether it’s worth your time and dinero.
With so many language learning apps on the market today, it’s often hard to discern which one will be the best fit for your level and learning style.
This post contains affiliate links.
This month I took a deep dive into Babbel Spanish to see which features make it stand out from its competitors and who it’s geared towards.
Whether you’re preparing for a trip to a Spanish speaking country, or just want to work on your Spanish fluency from the comfort of your couch, Babbel is one of the most popular choices for gamifying your language learning through an app.
As a linguist, I am sharing my honest insights into how this language app is structured and whether the lessons actually help you develop your language acquisition.
Table of Contents
Babbel Spanish Subscriptions
Contrary to most reviews out there, I’m actually starting with how much Babbel is actually going to cost you.
Besides, you need to know whether it’s something that fits your budget, before you get caught up in all the features.
By the way, Babbel is constantly running promotions~ so never pay full price!
As of December 2022 their prices are as low as $7.45 a month when you pay for 12 months upfront. There are a few different ‘tiers’ depending on the length of your subscription but overall I find the prices to be very fair.
Actually, when you compare this to many of their competitors, they come out a little more affordable overall.
You can also create an account and access the first lesson in each course for FREE!
They also have an ‘All languages lifetime access pass’ which is the best value and I really love that they offer that.
If you’re serious about committing to your language development- that’s your best option and you will save a lot of membership fees over time.
At full price it’s $599, but I have a referral coupon for you to get lifetime access for $199! That’s 60% off.
Also worth mentioning is that Babbel offers a 20-day money back guarantee so you have plenty of time to explore and trial the app before your investment is hard.
Babbel Curriculum Structure
Once you’re inside the app, you can choose which level to begin at.
As a former Spanish teacher and curricula creator, the Scope & Sequence of a program is key, and I’m glad to report Babbel has a solid, sequential one in place.
From a broad view, Babbel is organized into 5 core levels based on the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). These levels range from Newcomers (A1) up to Advanced (C1).
There are also several other niched courses that look super fun like Mexican Spanish, Business Spanish, Countries and Traditions and more.
Within each level there are 1-5 thematic courses. Each course is then broken down into about 7-12 lessons.
Related post: A thematic Spanish curriculum for kids
For example, I took the Advanced (C1)- Course 1 which entailed 12 lessons about expressing complex opinions.
Whereas a beginners level focuses more on topics like greetings, numbers, ordering at a restaurant, hobbies and daily routine etc.
Unlike other apps, where you have to complete certain levels to ‘unlock’ more advanced ones, Babbel allows you to freely hop between lessons and levels.
This definitely takes away the frustration of other apps where you may feel like you’ve already mastered a grammar point or level, and just want to move on, but still have more review lessons to complete first. Babbel saves you time and puts you in the driver’s seat for determining the content you select.
Babbel Lessons: What to expect
Lessons are typically 10-15 minutes, which is perfect. Life is busy and our average concentration spans are becoming increasingly reduced.
I think this, and the gamified nature of Babbel, will really appeal to the younger crowd, including teens, and adults who enjoy learning on apps.
For a less gamified and more immersive course, you may prefer this one.
Babbel lessons provide a series of quiz-style activities with audio. They are mostly fun and engaging with a variety of drills like matching pictures to statements, completing the gaps, speaking into the microphone and many more.
I imagine after using the app for several courses, the activities might start to feel a little tedious though.
I do love that they include activities to support all four language development skills: Reading, writing, listening and speaking. They do a really good job at keeping you thoroughly engaged with their highly interactive and fast moving lessons.
Another great feature is the English support. This is not always the case with other language apps, but Babble does offer explanations and hints in English to support you in wrapping your head around rules and semantics.
A typical Babbel Spanish Lesson
Each Babble Spanish lesson follows the following rhythm:
- New vocabulary is introduced through a series of interactive sentence/ picture association with accompanying native speaker audio.
- The vocabulary is presented again through multiple choice activities to test you
- The activities then slowly increase in difficulty as you begin to put words in the correct order, spelling out jumbled words correctly and more
- You can complete speaking activities to practice your pronunciation with the thematic vocabulary through voice recognition exercises.
For more advanced lessons there are also a series of reading comprehension activities that require a deeper level of understanding (pulling out ideas as opposed to single words).
Reinforced Learning with Babbel
Finally, Babbel does a great job at reinforcing learning. Each course provides review lessons so you can consolidate your learning and the smart technology remembers which answers you got right and wrong, which then determines future reviews.
You can choose between flashcards, speaking, listening and even writing activities. So if you are trying to improve a certain skill you can choose exercises specifically for that.
Can Kids use Babbel too?
Babbel lessons require that the learner can read and spell. For this reason, I would not recommend it for young children.
You can check out my round-up of the best Spanish apps for kids here.
That said, Babbel is a great option for teens and a very fun way to supplement and gamify your child’s foreign language studies, but it does not provide a complete, formal curriculum.
That said, my 4 and 6 year olds really enjoyed the voice recognition activities and they did get involved with me on those!
Since my readers are mostly parents raising bilingual children, I wanted to address this question.
The Babbel Mobile App Performance
There’s nothing more frustrating then having an app ‘freeze up’ or run slowly. I was really impressed by Babbel’s app interface.
The Babbel app is smooth to use, extremely user intuitive (even for a non-techy person) and fast. I didn’t have any technical issues at all.
One feature that really wowed me was the voice recognition technology. It is FAR more accurate than other apps like Duolingo. I tested it by purposely mispronouncing words and it picks up on mistakes.
Having the app work so smoothly on your phone means you can use it on the go. This is great for public transport commuters!
In addition, I really like that Babbel allows you to set goals and reminds you with app notifications! This helps you stay motivated and accountable as you can track your progress.
Does Babbel Spanish make you fluent?
I think Babbel provides a solid foundation in a language and builds a lot of confidence in a non-stress, gamified environment.
However, to reach conversational fluency in a language, I think native speaker interaction over a longer period of time is absolutely key.
If you are looking for immersive speaking classes for your child I highly recommend what we use~ Trufluency Kids.
For adult learners, check out this post with my top recommendations.
In Summary: Babbel Pros & Cons
Here are the overall pros & cons of Babbel Spanish
Pros
- Short, engaging lessons 10-15 minutes
- Helpful ‘real life’ language taught
- Regular review lessons for reinforced learning
- Support and ‘hints’ provided in English
- Family-friendly (suitable for teens)
- Navigate freely between levels (no need to ‘unlock’ levels)
- Excellent and sequential curriculum structure
- Lifetime access option (avoid a membership)
- 20-day money back guarantee
- Advanced C1 level course available
Cons
- Live classes not included in the subscription
- No ‘immersive’ experience: lessons are mostly vocabulary and grammar based
- No C2 level for highly advanced speakers
- Lessons can become monotonous after a while
If you agree Babbel would be a great fit for you, remember to save by using this link to receive up to 60% OFF your purchase.
Related Posts:
Affordable Spanish Speaking Classes for Adults
Top Rated Self-Paced Spanish Courses
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Founder of the Llamitas Spanish® Curriculum and former Spanish teacher. Corrie holds a Masters in Spanish and Education and is raising bilingual children in San Diego, CA.