Rosetta Stone vs Babbel: Which Language App is Better in 2024?

Babbel is better suited for beginning language learners who want a more structured approach to learning a new language, while Rosetta Stone is more suitable for intermediate to advanced language learners who want to improve their speaking and listening skills.

Babbel’s focus on grammar explanations, translations, and fill-in-the-blanks, and its affordability make it a strong choice for beginning language learners, while Rosetta Stone’s immersive approach and coverage of more languages cater to a broader audience.

You may be asking yourself, What is the difference between Babbel and Rosetta Stone? Is Rosetta Stone better than Babbel? Which is easier to learn, Babbel or Rosetta Stone? Can you become fluent through Babbel? Can you become fluent using Rosetta Stone?

In this article, we compare both platforms and ultimately declare a winner. Now check the comparison table Betwean Rosetta Stone and Babbel.

FeaturesBabbelRosetta Stone
Rating4.7/54.5/5
Languages Offered1425
Pricing13.95/mo$11.99/mo
RefundAvailableAvailable
Mobile AppAvailableAvailable
Lifetime Plan Cost$299.99$179
Speech Recognition SoftwareAvailableAvailable
Live ClassesAvailableAvailable

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel

Rosetta Stone is known for its immersive approach, focusing on images and videos with minimal English translations. It can be challenging for beginners but effective for developing listening and speaking skills. Babbel, on the other hand, offers a more traditional approach with grammar explanations and exercises, making it more suitable for beginners and keeping learners engaged.

Here is a table comparing Rosetta Stone and Babbel:

FeatureRosetta StoneBabbel
ApproachImmersiveTraditional
English translationsMinimalModerate
Grammar explanationsFewMore
Interactive exercisesFewerMore
Number of languages offered2514
Price$16.99/month or $179.99/year$13.99/month or $149.99/year

Rosetta Stone is suitable for beginners looking to learn a new language quickly and efficiently. Babbel, on the other hand, offers more support and a wider variety of interactive exercises for beginners and advanced learners.

Overview of Rosetta Stone

rosetta stone logo

Rosetta Stone is a language learning platform that uses audio, images, real-world scenarios, interactive activities, and native speaker’s audio to teach words and phrases. It covers 25+ languages and focuses on vocabulary building, pronunciation development, and overall language proficiency. It has high-quality speech recognition technology for pronunciation checking. Rosetta Stone is also available for business use, helping improve employees’ language skills.

You will love Rosetta Stone for its:

  • Free Classes
  • Offline Learning
  • Live Classes
  • Audio from native speakers.
  • Speech recognition technology
  • 30-day money-back guarantee

If you want to learn an in-depth review of this app, then visit Rosetta Stone Review.

Overview of Babbel

babbel logo

Babbel is a valuable app for improving listening, speaking, and reading skills in 14 languages, including German, Spanish, French, and Italian. It offers live classes with world-class teachers, covering topics like introducing oneself, asking questions, using simple expressions, and expressing complex ideas. Babbel provides a comprehensive understanding of a language, including pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and cultural context.

Students who join live classes receive free access to the Babbel App for additional practice. This app also offers a business plan with access to 14 languages, 6700 courses, 60,000 lessons, and 10,000 hours of content.

You will love Babbel for its:

  • Free Classes
  • Offline Learning
  • Digital Flashcards
  • Live Classes
  • 60,000+ lessons
  • 2-Minute Stories

If you want to learn an in-depth review of this platform, then visit Babbel Review

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel Similarity

Both apps provide vocabulary drills, reading exercises, and live conversations to improve reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills.

Rosetta Stone and Babbel app provide live classes related to popular languages such as German, Spanish, French, and Italian. World-class teachers teach live classes.

Both apps create each course and audio lesson based on your native language to help you learn each language more effectively and efficiently.

Rosetta Stone and Babbel apps are available for all devices: desktop, iOS, and Mobile.

Both apps provide a lifetime plan to access all content. Babbel’s lifetime plan cost is $299.99, and Rosetta Stone’s lifetime subscription cost is $179.

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel Differences

Rosetta Stone offers audio lessons related to 25+ languages, while Babbel offers content and courses related to 14 languages, including popular languages such as Spanish, French, German, and Russian.

Babbel offers other exciting features like podcasts, practice games, and even live tutoring sessions, while Rosetta Stone offers real-world scenarios, interactive activities, and audio from native speakers.

Babbel has a review manager feature where you can see the lessons you have learned previously, while Rosetta Stone does not have this feature.

Rosetta Stone is suitable for beginners and lower intermediate learners, while Babbel is the perfect app for beginner to advanced learners.

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel Features

Both apps have features that are very suitable for those who want to become fluent in the new language.

Rosetta Stone Features

  • Embedded Translations: This feature allows users to translate text or content from one language to another without leaving the platform they are using.
  • Seek & Speak: Speak exercises provide practice related to your target language. You need to choose the topics for practice, from bags or vegetables to the grocery store.
  • Phrasebook: Its Phrasebook shows you common words and phrases and lets you listen to a native speaker pronounce them.
  • Rosetta Stone Live: You will learn new vocabulary live through the native speakers. You can take group classes or private classes through native speakers.

Babbel Features

  • Lessons: Babbel offers a wide range of language courses that cover different proficiency levels, from beginner to advanced. It also provides a user-friendly interface that allows learners to study at their own pace and track their progress.
  • Podcasts: Babel Podcasts are very helpful for those who want to improve their listening and speaking skills. Its podcasts are available in limited languages. 
  • 2-Minute Stories: Babbel also offers 2-Minute Stories, which are very helpful in memorizing your previous knowledge. 
  • Babbel Live: Babbel also offers 1-hour live classes related to specific languages, such as German, Spanish, French, and Italian. World-class teachers teach live classes. 

In short, Babbel has many features to learn a languages compared to Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel Languages

Rosetta Stone offers courses and lessons related to 25+ languages.

Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, Filipino (Tagalog), French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish (Latin America and Spain), Swedish, Turkish

Babbel offers content and resources related to 14 languages.

Spanish, French, German, Russian, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, and Turkish.

Rosetta Stone offers more languages compared to Babbel

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel: Devices Availability

Rosetta Stone is available for iOS, Desktop, and Android devices. Its Android app has 10 million+ downloads. Its iOS app rating is 4.8, and its Android app rating is 4.7 out of 5.

Babbel is available for iOS, Desktop, and Android devices. Its Android app has 50 million+ downloads. Its iOS app rating is 4.7, and its Android app rating is 4.7 out of 5.

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel: Pros & Cons

Rosetta Stone has many pros and cons.

PROS

  • It offers Lessons related to 25+ languages.
  • It offers audio lessons from native speakers.
  • Provides immediate feedback on pronunciation.
  • Offers speech recognition technology.
  • It is also available for Business.
  • 12,000+ organizations trust it.

CONS

  • No writing practice
  • No good content for less popular languages.

Babbel has many pros and cons.

PROS

  • It offers courses related to 14 languages.
  • It also provides live virtual classes.
  • It offers podcasts to learn the new vocabulary
  • A certified language teacher provides all classes.
  • Best App for listening, speaking, and reading skills.
  • It is also suitable for Business.
  • Offers a 20-day money-back guarantee.
  • Its Lifetime plan provides access to all languages.
  • It offers 2-minute Stories for practice.
  • Easy-to-use and attractive design

CONS

  • Content quality varies between languages
  • Live classes are available for limited languages.

Cost Difference Between Rosetta Stone and Babbel

rosetta stone cost

Rosetta Stone offers 3 Subscription plans. Its 3-month cost is $35.97 ($11.99 per month). Its 12-month cost is $95.88 ($7.99 per month). In the monthly plan, You need to select the language and start your learning journey. Its lifetime subscription cost is $179.99 with a discount (original price $299).

babbel live cost

Babbel’s 1-month cost is $13.95. Its 3-month cost is $50.70. Its 6-month subscription plan costs $50.70, and the 12-month plan costs $83.40. It also offers a lifetime access plan with all language access. Its lifetime plan costs $299.99. 

Babbel cost is high compared to Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone and Babbel Alternative

There are many alternatives to these apps. Duolingo, LingQ, and Pimsleur are the best alternative to these platforms.

Duolingo

duolingo logo

Duolingo is a free language learning platform that offers advanced courses for reading, listening, and speaking skills. It is the best alternative to Babbel and offers a 14-day free trial in the Duolingo Plus plan. Learn More Duolingo Review.

LingQ

lingq logo

LingQ is a comprehensive course library for over 35 languages. It offers thousands of hours of audio, transcripts, playlists, flashcard quizzes, unlimited saved words, and full-sentence translations, making it an ideal tool for language fluency. Learn More LingQ Review.

Pimsleur

pimsleur logo

Pimsleur is a convenient alternative to Rosetta Stone. It offers audio lessons in 55+ languages, accessible anytime and anywhere. New users receive a 30-minute free lesson, making it an excellent choice. Learn More Pimsleur Review.

Conclusion: Rosetta Stone vs Babbel

Rosetta Stone offers a full immersion experience, while Babbel focuses on practical, real-world language lessons. Both platforms are known for focusing on conversation and useful phrases, making them suitable for those who want to learn grammar and vocabulary.

However, Babbel has a slightly lower price point and includes explanations and translations in English. It also covers fewer languages than Rosetta Stone, which currently has 14 at the time of writing. Additionally, Babbel offers a wider variety of lesson exercises.

The biggest difference between Babbel and Rosetta Stone is that Babbel focuses on engagingly teaching more comprehensive lessons. Rosetta Stone offers a visual teaching approach and provides a user-friendly interface. However, it is less effective than Rosetta Stone regarding grammar and vocabulary learning.

In conclusion, Babbel’s unique features include its focus on grammar explanations, translations, and fill-in-the-blanks, real-life conversational phrases, flexibility, and structured courses. On the other hand, Rosetta Stone’s unique features include its immersive approach, a wider variety of lesson exercise types, well-structured start, and memorization techniques. 

FAQs

Which is better, Babbel or Rosetta Stone?

Babbel is the best language learning platform because it offers good content for beginner to advanced learners who want to become fluent in a new language. Rosetta Stone is only good for basic language skills.

Can you become fluent through Babbel?

Yes, You can become fluent through Babbel, but some additional learning material is required for some languages because its content quality varies between languages.

What is better than Babbel?

Duolingo is the best alternative to this app because it contains grammar lessons, multiple-choice questions, vocabulary cards, and so on.  

What is the main difference between Rosetta Stone and Babbel?

Babbel offers features like podcasts, practice games, and even live tutoring sessions, while Rosetta Stone offers real-world scenarios, interactive activities, and audio from native speakers.

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