Babbel and Memrise are the two most popular language learning platforms. Their mobile and website platforms are user-friendly, offering numerous exercises and diverse content for language learners.
Both Babbel and Memrise have similarities and differences, so you need to go over some comparisons and choose the one that fits your style of learning language process.
To help you, I have researched and compiled this comparison guide on Babbel vs Memrise so that you can read and choose yourself!
What languages you can find!
First, let’s talk about the quantity of courses. Babbel offers 14 languages that includes Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, French, German, Norwegian, English, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Danish.
Memrise offers a higher number of official courses- 21 languages. However, not all the language content is of standard quality at Memrise as it contains user-generated courses.
Quality of program?
Babbel offers courses that cover language content designed perfectly for real-life use. Conversational sentence framing, most used words and other exercises of the lessons are easy to learn. When it comes to the layout of the app or website, it is easy to navigate and user-friendly. The lessons are designed for practical use with short and engaging topics and contents.
However, the voice recognition features are not updated and lag while you use them, so your pronunciation might not improve as you expect.
Now, for Memrise, it supports learner immersion content, so you can learn words using flashcards. The flashcards offer a variety of content with images for easy memorization. Repetitive exercise is effective for beginners. However, for intermediate and advanced learners, the content might be too repetitive. Thus, Memrise is less efficient for them.
How to use?
For Babbel, you need to open an account and start with the demo lessons. Once you set your target languages, you can choose your interesting topics and goals, which Babbel uses to provide you with content Once you start using the subscription account, you will have access to more advanced content and progress to higher levels in your committed languages. The app is well-designed,, so you won’t face problems keeping pace with your lessons.
For Memrise, native speakers of the languages develop the content, so you will find practical exercises and even enjoy the realistic process. You need to log in to your account using a website or the app, then proceed with your program. For users, language acquisition through Memrise is fun with easy and engaging content.
Compared pricing
Even though both Babbel and Memrise offer free trial accounts for language learners, Babbel’s is limited, so you need to pay for continuing your course. Babbel costs $12.90 per month on a monthly basis and there are three more packages to choose from. If you opt for the annual subscription, you have to pay $83.40, thus, getting a 48% discount.
On the other hand, Memrise offers free access to the language course, but the paid subscription offers more features and content for $8.99 a month and if you want to choose an annual subscription, you need to pay $99.99.
What I like about Babbel and Memrise
Firstly, Babbel hands down, is better structured than Memrise. The comprehensive content is suitable for beginner and intermediate level learners, and advanced learners can also achieve higher proficiency in a language.
In Memrise, you will find loads of supplementary resources which will help you gain a lot of language learning notes and content in a single platform.
What I dislike about Babbel and Memrise
Babbel’s professional style courses can be tedious to keep up. You might lose the motivation to go through their rigorous content. The intense courses are not beneficial for users who want instant growth.
Memrise focuses too much on the vocabulary and thus, you might not be able to acquire a language completely. The exercises are not well-designed to judge your real progress. Unlike Babbel, Memrise was not developed by linguists, Thus, the quality of most of the language courses is not effective.
My final recommendation
Indeed, both Memrise and Babbel offer suitable content for the language enthusiasts. However, I am not a fan of either because both are more suitable for beginners. Despite that, the content, impressive development and user-friendly features are the features of both Memrise and Babbel. You can surely check both and even start with the free version.
But, my recommendation would be to go for Babbel because of its more professional approach to language acquiring methods. If you are interested and committed enough, then paying for the app will be fruitful, and you too will suggest other people Babbel over Memrise.
