Review Insights · Google Play
Babbel - Learn Languages
Babbel · 1,127,180 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
1,127,180 ratings
🎯 Build a better version
Top complaints - extracted from 35 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"language"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Please put European Portuguese on! It's a different language with a different pronunciation and dialect to Portuguese. Many people are asking for this, please give this option." - Rebecca Phillips
2
"languages"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No Tagalog 😢 😞 2.1 million Filipinos live in the US. 10x-20x times more popular than half the languages this app offers. This racist app only supports white Eurocentric languages." - Zach Sobie
3
"anything"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can't learn more than one language at a time. I chose to learn German, and i said "I know the basics" then, i went to change the language i wanted to lwarn to danish, and it puts me at beginner. I can't change it to anything more. I am half…" - First name Last name
4
"lesson"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overhyped app, you are better off finding something free on YouTube to study with than this poorly organized mess. every day that I open this app I expect frustration and tedious lessons that are just all over the place, even free duolingo …" - Poe (PoeDeAngelOne)
5
"people"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Please put European Portuguese on! It's a different language with a different pronunciation and dialect to Portuguese. Many people are asking for this, please give this option." - Rebecca Phillips
6
"option"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Please put European Portuguese on! It's a different language with a different pronunciation and dialect to Portuguese. Many people are asking for this, please give this option." - Rebecca Phillips
7
"lessons"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Overhyped app, you are better off finding something free on YouTube to study with than this poorly organized mess. every day that I open this app I expect frustration and tedious lessons that are just all over the place, even free duolingo …" - Poe (PoeDeAngelOne)
8
"learn"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Can't learn more than one language at a time. I chose to learn German, and i said "I know the basics" then, i went to change the language i wanted to lwarn to danish, and it puts me at beginner. I can't change it to anything more. I am half…" - First name Last name
9
"without"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "A language-learning app without Russian is a strange decision. The interface includes Ukrainian but completely ignores Russian, one of the most widely spoken languages in Europe and Eurasia. Millions of people in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzs…" - Игорь
10
"subscribe"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Downloaded because I kept seeing so many ads saying it helped learning languages and since I was tired of duolingo, I needed something else. Turns out, you have to subscribe to access the rest of the lessons! What's the point of being a lan…" - JoAnna
📋 All 35 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
horrible
Overhyped app, you are better off finding something free on YouTube to study with than this poorly organized mess. every day that I open this app I expect frustration and tedious lessons that are just all over the place, even free duolingo is a better option than this.
No Tagalog 😢 😞 2.1 million Filipinos live in the US. 10x-20x times more popular than half the languages this app offers. This racist app only supports white Eurocentric languages.
voice recognition doesn't work with any regularity. this according to danes. the pronunciation recognition is severely flawed. wish I could get my money refunded.
Can't learn more than one language at a time. I chose to learn German, and i said "I know the basics" then, i went to change the language i wanted to lwarn to danish, and it puts me at beginner. I can't change it to anything more. I am half danish, and want to brush up on my pronouncication, but it wants me to learn "hello" and other words like that. The website says that i can take a placement test, but when i go to do so, it doesn't exist. And there's a banner at the bottom that won't go away.
has you click on word fragments instead of just typing with your keyboard, unnatural and slow way of communicating. there is a long delay after answering every question and showing the next one, wasting so much time
App always forcibly goes into landscape mode on tablet and stuck on loading screen with latest update
The so-called "free trial" requires you to sign up to an auto-renewing payment plan, leaving the onus for cancellation on the user. I consider this to be very unethical and reflects badly on the app providers. I'll uninstall and look elsewhere.
Can't even log in with Google. Tried re-downloading the app and restarting my phone.
Update: June 16, 2026: I provided information via email and chat. Eventually my money was refunded as notified through the chat. Then, I was asked WHY I cancelled. No need to response to incompetence. Customer service is not reliable. Update: I have sent email and chat on app. No response. I paid for a subscription, it's currently pending but have received no email confirmation, invoice, and cannot access the lessons.
A language-learning app without Russian is a strange decision. The interface includes Ukrainian but completely ignores Russian, one of the most widely spoken languages in Europe and Eurasia. Millions of people in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Latvia, Estonia, Germany, and many other countries speak Russian. Excluding such a major language shows poor understanding of the audience. Very disappointing.
Cannot do anything without answering marketing profile. Since you are selling my data why do you charge? I guess gouging is why you are a top income app in education. No Greek language.
didn't have Japanese as an option but better than doubling
can't do anything without the subscription
wanr/need to learn Japanese. Does not have that option.
Downloaded because I kept seeing so many ads saying it helped learning languages and since I was tired of duolingo, I needed something else. Turns out, you have to subscribe to access the rest of the lessons! What's the point of being a language learning app if all it does is squeeze all of the money out of your bank account? I hate apps with large pay walls, and this is just another one of them.
very small selection of languages to try to learn
this was really hard to navigate i couldn't do more than one lesson because I would have to subscribe to get others I do not recommend
I couldn't reset my password because I didn't get any email. ( didn't appear in the spam folder) I tried several times and several days but it didn't work. Disappointed.
I speak Russian and Kazakh, it means I can't use this App, because this not suitable for Russian speaking people ( millions) !
not good
Having to pay to do lesson two and beyond is absolutely ridiculous.
majority of app functions require premium. mostly useless without paying
Exactly 1 lesson before you need to subscribe to their premium plan... not worth it to download. Edit: so what i said. not worth it to download... Compare it with a music app, ads every few songs or even a full album you choose to listen to for free is fine. the first few seconds of every song available is worthless.
I paid for a year's subscription and it still says that I have to subscribe to unlock
$400m+ needs $66 more than I do. App is bland and buggy. Boring retention features. Stock photos for lessons. Missed my window to cancel and contacted them immediately. they kindly refunded half but provided robotic legal jargon as to why they couldn't refund more. Instead of treating me like a person, they only email with no chance to talk to people. kept offering a voucher for the remainder to give to someone. why would I give someone a voucher to an app I wouldn't recommend
Worst language app I have ever come across
Please put European Portuguese on! It's a different language with a different pronunciation and dialect to Portuguese. Many people are asking for this, please give this option.
app is perfectly adequate for learning grammar and basic words, however the app is AWFUL when it comes to asking you to speak. I'm on lesson two of French and my French coworker who lives in France apparently cannot say merci, salut, oui or even non correctly.
Too technical and no fun at all. Has killed the joy of studying Spanish for me. Speaking, even in the beginning, is a pain as the app doesn't accept anything, if the words are not pronounced with perfection. You can really hear yourself fail again and again. I have managed to be understood quite well in Spain, but not here... I should not have paid for this experience.
I honestly didn't like it but you have to pay for most of it which I didn't mind doing but it was going to fast and I didn't get anything
They should have move than just a few languages
I wanted to learn Spanish from Spain. Instead, I get exercises comparing Spanish across regions. what a waste.
moves to fast
the first lesson was great but to continue you have to pay
Sentiment summary
92%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
5%
Negative (1-2★)