Busuu Review: Comparing Its Features, Alternatives and Cost

Languages Available on Busuu:

English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Dutch

Busuu Overview

The Busuu language learning app has been around for a while, and for good reason. It’s a comprehensive app that helps you improve all aspects of communication: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. It may not offer as many languages as some other apps like Mondly or Clozemaster, but the quality of its content is higher. Busuu partners with leading brands like Pearson, McGraw Hill, and El País to create useful and engaging exercises.

Busuu is great for complete beginners to intermediate language learners. If you aren’t sure what level you’re at, you can take Busuu’s placement test. The app has an ambitious goal of helping you become fully conversational in your target language, and it does a decent job of it. But it does have its limitations. 

For example, even though native speakers correct your writing and speaking exercises, you don’t actually speak with anyone. That’s why it may be a good idea to practice speaking with a native speaker using platforms like italki or Preply if fluency is your ultimate goal. Busuu can still help you build a solid foundation in your target language and improve your communication skills. Its price is competitive with most other language apps and the value it provides justifies the cost.

Busuu Price

A subscription to Busuu Premium costs $13.95 per month, but costs less per month if you buy a longer subscription. In general, the price of Busuu is competitive with other language apps like Babbel and Drops. A lot of language apps usually have a price somewhere in this range, but not all of them offer as many features as Busuu.

Busuu also offers some content for free including the language lessons and access to tcorrections from native spakers. Busuu used to offer a Premium and Premium Plus subscription, but has updated their pricing model to offer all extra features in the Premium subscription. Subscriptions are monthly, every six months, or yearly. Busuu does not currently offer a lifetime subscription.

In their updated price model, a Busuu Premium subscription starts at $13.95 per month, but this price decreases if you choose a longer subscription. A 6-month subscription costs $50.70 ($8.45 per month) and a yearly Busuu Premium subscription costs $58.38 ($4.87 per month). It’s important to note that prices differ if you purchase a subscription on the web or in the app. The table above shows the price on the website, but there was slightly different pricing in the iOS app.

Busuu Free vs Premium

Busuu offers a free version, but it’s very limited and serves as more of a “free trial” of its lessons. You can access the first few lessons in your chosen language course to get a feel for Busuu’s structure and see how it works. You can also receive corrections on written text or audio by native speakers. To access the full language course, you’ll need a Premium subscription. 

Busuu Discount or Voucher

You will automatically receive a discount on your Busuu subscription if you purchase a 12- or 24-month subscription. These discounts range from 42% to 46% off for the Premium subscription and 19% to 59% off for the Premium Plus subscription.

In addition, Busuu offers a student discount if you have an International Student Identity Card. The Busuu student discount is currently 30% off of a Premium or Premium Plus subscription. You just need to verify your ISIC website to take advantage of its voucher.

Busuu Free Trial and Refund

Busuu doesn’t offer a free trial, but there are still ways you can experience the Busuu app and decide whether or not it’s a good fit for you. Anyone can access the first few lessons of the Busuu language courses for free. The structure of the lessons is pretty consistent throughout, so these free lessons will give you an idea of what the entire Busuu language course is like.

If you want to try the additional Busuu features to see if a Premium or Premium Plus subscription is worth it, you can subscribe. This will give you full access to the app and you can try out every feature. If you decide you don’t like it, Busuu offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. As long as you notify the company you want to cancel your subscription within 14 days of your purchase, you can get your money back. 

Busuu Review: Getting Started

Getting started with the Busuu language app is simple and straightforward. To sign up for a free account, visit the Busuu website or download the app. It’s available for both iOS and Android devices. 

Once you’re using the app, setting up your account is straightforward. Busuu asks some introductory questions about which language(s) you want to learn, why you want to learn them, and then you can choose your level or take the placement test. Then you start with the lessons.

Each lesson starts by teaching you the vocabulary you’ll be using. The flashcards have the phrase in your target language, a translation, an audio clip of a native speaker pronouncing the phrase, and an example sentence.

After you’re familiar with the vocabulary, you complete several different exercises to practice using them. These exercises include filling in the blank, pronunciation practice, word identification, and more. One of the most helpful exercises is the conversational practice. These start once you have a foundation in the language, and they’re great for improving your listening skills.

After you complete these exercises, Busuu asks you an open-ended question. You can answer it by writing or speaking, whichever you prefer. If you’re a Premium Plus subscriber, native speakers of your target language will review your response and give you feedback. This is an awesome feature. I submitted several responses to these questions while I was testing the app, and the feedback was helpful, accurate, and quick!

Busuu Languages

Busuu offers a total of 12 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, and Arabic. In the free and Premium versions of the app, you can study one language course. With a Premium Plus subscription, you have access to all the language courses and can study multiple languages at the same time. Not all language courses are the same in Busuu though, so here’s a quick review of some of the most popular ones.

Busuu Spanish Review

Because it’s one of the most spoken languages in the world, the Busuu Spanish course is quite extensive. There’s a lot of content available to study and it’s all useful and practical. The lessons take you from complete newcomer to fully conversational, and you’ll practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening throughout the course. While the lessons and exercises are similar to other apps, the amount and quality of the content in the Busuu Spanish course makes it stand out from other Spanish apps.

The Busuu Spanish courses include Complete Spanish (beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons), Spanish for Travel (learning important words and phrases), Learn Spanish with El País (specialized audio and video content to improve your comprehension skills), and All About Spanish. All About Spanish is Busuu’s language and culture podcast about everything Spanish.

Busuu French Review

Like Spanish, French is also one of the most spoken languages in the world. When you learn French with Busuu, it can help you gain a deeper knowledge of the language and improve your communication skills. There are a wide variety of French lessons available in Busuu, and they cover everything you’ll need to know to get through daily life. The French courses are helpful for beginner and intermediate learners and will greatly improve your vocabulary and grammar.  It’s definitely one of the better French apps available.

Busuu offers four different French courses. Complete French is a structured course that teaches you the fundamentals of the language and has beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons. The French Pronunciation course helps you improve your speaking skills and speak confidently. French for Travel is perfect if you’re going to travel to a French-speaking country and need to learn how to navigate in the language. Busuu also offers a French for Business course, which helps you master essential workplace French.

Busuu Chinese Review

The Busuu Chinese course is more limited than other popular courses like French and Spanish. It doesn’t offer as many supplementary courses either. However, the Complete Chinese course can still help you learn some basics of the language. The quality of lessons is similar to Busuu’s other language courses, but there are some major downfalls in the Chinese course. That’s why it may be better to use Chinese apps that specialize in the language.

Busuu doesn’t teach you how to write Chinese characters. You’ll need to use another Chinese app to do that. It also alternates between pinyin and traditional characters, which can be confusing. Overall, it can teach you some beginner concepts, but there are many better apps out there for learning Chinese.

Busuu Chinese only offers the Complete Chinese course and the Chinese for Travel course. While the Complete Chinese course covers a lot of content, the Chinese for Travel course is extremely limited. There are only 9 lessons and they only cover basic phrases. 

Busuu Arabic Review

The Busuu Arabic course teaches Modern Standard Arabic. Compared to other Arabic language apps, Busuu’s Arabic lessons are more varied and cover a lot of different topics. Busuu guides you through the different levels in a logical way and helps improve most of your communication skills. It’s important to note that you won’t learn to write Arabic with Busuu, which is one of the main downfalls of the course. The course is still a great way to learn the fundamentals of Arabic and communicate from your first lesson.

Busuu has a Complete Arabic course for learning the fundamentals of the language and an Arabic for Travel course, which is helpful for quickly learning useful phrases. Overall, the lessons and practice exercises are similar to other Arabic apps, but the variety is what makes Busuu stand out.

Busuu Russian Review

The Busuu Russian course teaches you useful and practical grammar and vocabulary. Its lessons cover a wide variety of topics, and your speaking, listening, and reading skills can greatly improve with Busuu. However, like other non-Latin languages, you don’t learn to write in Russian with Busuu (although you do learn the alphabet). You’ll need to use other Russian apps to practice writing. Overall, Busuu Russian is fairly comprehensive and can help you communicate effectively in a short period of time.

Busuu offers two different courses for Russian: Complete Russian and Russian for Travel. The Complete Russian course is more structured and helps you build vocabulary and learn enough grammar to become conversational. The Russian for Travel course covers more basic words and phrases you’ll need if you’re traveling. But it won’t help you learn much of the language.

Busuu Review: Overall Learning Experience

Using the Busuu language learning app was a positive experience overall. The flow of the app is smooth and easy to follow and the lesson content is useful, practical, and helpful. What I liked most about the lessons is that they’re short and don’t take long to complete. This helps you focus on mastering the topics quickly and efficiently. Longer lessons, like the ones in LinguaLift, can sometimes be a little overwhelming for casual language learners (but helpful if you’re serious about learning a language). 

Another aspect I really enjoyed was the community of Busuu users around the world. Every time I completed a writing or speaking exercise, it only took a couple of minutes for a native speaker to review it and give me feedback. Busuu has a large number of users, so I guess it’s not that surprising, but I still thought this was cool.

One feature of Busuu I didn’t find useful was the language certificates. Once you reach certain points in your language course (and if you’re a Premium Plus subscriber), you can take a test to receive official certificates from Busuu and McGraw to confirm your level. These certificates range from A1 to B2 on the CEFR scale, but they aren’t recognized in any official capacity. They’re just an added feature of the app and certainly don’t take anything away from the quality of the content.

Busuu Review: Areas of Improvement

Using Busuu can make language learning easy. Its courses, lessons, and practice exercises are comprehensive and cover every topic you need to know in order to be conversational. That doesn’t mean it’s a perfect app. Even though most of Busuu’s courses are high quality and offer a lot of value, some of them may not be worth the price, like Chinese and Arabic. These courses don’t teach you how to write in the target language, and that’s a skill that simply shouldn’t be ignored. There are other apps that can help you learn how to write in non-Latin scripts, but that would be an additional cost on top of Busuu.

Also, Busuu’s lessons are short and manageable. This is usually positive because learning a lot all at once can be overwhelming. However, the lessons are almost too short. It’s easy to complete four or five lessons in about 10-15 minutes. It’s great to cover a lot of topics in a short amount of time, but remembering all of the content can be difficult.

Busuu Review: Alternatives & Competitors

Busuu is one of the better language apps on the market, but it’s definitely not the best. Before you choose to use Busuu, you should consider some of its alternatives and competitors. Apps like Duolingo and Babbel have similar course structures but don’t have the social aspect. Clozemaster can build your vocabulary a lot faster, but won’t teach you any grammar. LinguaLift can teach you grammar and writing but isn’t as engaging as other Busuu alternatives like Rosetta Stone. If you’re looking for immersion, FluentU is much better than Busuu. All in all, it’s best to think about what you want to focus on, what format helps you learn best, and how quickly you want to learn your target language.

Busuu vs Duolingo

Comparing Busuu vs Duolingo is common since both apps offer extensive language courses and both apps also have a free version. There are some key differences between the two though. Busuu is more flexible and lets you choose which topics you want to study. Duolingo is more rigid in what you study and the content is less useful. Busuu also has a social aspect that Duolingo lacks. If you’re interested, you can read our complete Busuu vs Duolingo comparison or a detailed Duolingo review.

Busuu vs Babbel

Busuu vs Babbel is a common comparison because both apps are popular. There are some differences you should be aware of when you’re choosing between the two. Babbel is similar to both Busuu and Duolingo in its structure, but where it really stands out is the quality of its courses. Linguists specifically design each course for the language it teaches, so the Chinese course is completely different than the Spanish course, for example. While this is a plus, some language courses are lacking, so using Babbel may not be a good option. You can check out this Babbel review or this Busuu vs Babbel comparison to learn more.

Busuu vs Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone is one of the most well-known language apps, and for good reason. It has been around for a long time and has evolved its courses to meet the changing needs of language learners. The course structure in Busuu and Rosetta Stone is similar, but the approach is completely different. Busuu has a lot of descriptions and explanations in your native language instead of your target language. Rosetta Stone completely immerses you and only uses your target language. It also doesn’t explain grammar like Busuu does. This can be a pro or con depending on what your preferences are. You can read this Rosetta Stone review to learn more.

Busuu vs Memrise

Choosing between Busuu vs Memrise comes down to what you want in your language app. Memrise focuses on building your vocabulary and helping you learn basic conversations. Busuu, on the other hand, helps you build a more solid foundation and covers more advanced topics. In addition, the social aspect of Busuu will help you communicate more easily with native speakers, but Memrise may teach you more specialized vocabulary. You can read about Memrise in this review.

Busuu vs Mondly

Busuu and Mondly have a similar structure but completely different user experiences. Mondly places a huge emphasis on learning statistics and tracking your progress, while Busuu focuses more on completing the exercises. Mondly is a good option if you like to see how much and how effectively you’re learning, but Busuu is the better option if you like to learn a wider variety of material. Busuu’s content is superior to Mondly, but the technology behind Mondly is second to none. If you’re interested in Mondly, you can learn more about it here.

Frequently Asked Questions

About This Busuu Review

This is an independent Busuu review. Busuu did not sponsor this review and Langoly has no affiliation with the company. To test the app, I explored several different Busuu language courses to compare their quality and quantity of content. I used the app’s additional features to understand how they enhanced (or didn’t) the language learning process, and I studied the additional content provided by Busuu’s partners, El País and McGraw Hill.