Duolingo vs. Busuu (Which app should YOU use??)

Use Duolingo but not sure if it’s the best language learning app for you? Heard of Busuu and want to know if it’s any good? In this video, I break down how Duolingo and Busuu compare, answering:

1. How well does each app teach you a language?
2. Does the app make you want to use it?
3. What is the value? (for the free AND paid premium versions)

P.S. Stick around to the end since I give 3 BONUS tips on how to learn a language with an app, whichever one you choose!

P.S. If you want to check out Busuu, here’s the link:

I used Busuu to learn a language and now I’m excited to share it with you! I am selective about I recommend and by the time I do, it’s something I’m excited to share with you. If you click any link and end up making a purchase, I may earn an affiliate commission. However, all recommendations are shared with the hope that they will be helpful to you too!

For more details about BOTH apps be sure to check out:

Does Duolingo Work??

Busuu Review

✅ Interested in knowing more about how to make language learning more FUN??

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 What covered in this video
0:39 1 - How well does the app teach you a language?
1:10 2 - Does the app make you want to use it?
2:12 3a - What's the best FREE language app?
3:19 3b - What's the best PAID language app?
3:52 Which language app is best for YOU?
4:18 My experience with both apps
5:01 Bonus tips! - How to learn more from either app

[BreakOutandSpeak]

P.S. Want to DOUBLE what you learn from Duolingo, Busuu or any other language app?? 😃🙌

[AlexJones]

Thanks for your take on each app, and loved the tips at the end!

[sakibali]

I am using bussu since 4 months. And it’s really helps me a lot

[callofeden]

Thanks! This confirms my choice of Busuu. Also, your tips are rock solid.

[salamalekogames]

I use both apps. I am learning English. I am very happy. I see evolution over time

[paullebon]

No one, except me, uses Duolingo in the most efficacious manner. The way that I use Duolingo is by NOT reading the prompts in the target language and NOT typing the responses. I, almost exclusively, only listen to the audio of the prompts (sometimes several times) and then respond using voice-to-text (in the target language) on my phone. In this way, virtually every exercise comprises listening and speaking practice. I find this to be an advantage because with speaking using voice-to-text, you don't have all day to come up with a response. You have to say it close to real time. With written responses you can take hours to come up with the answer. How does that help you learn to speak a language in any real life situation?

[parodysk]

3:00 Its also possible in Doulingo to skip chapter/s and even a whole section, all you need to do is to finish one single test by clicking on the first bubble starting at the chapter you want to continue on after skipping the previous chapter/s where they test you from all the words, phrases and grammar from the skipped chapter/s

[aprilf]

I use both. I think. Busuu lessons are too short to really learn new things. It needs more repetition to really stick in long term memory. I also think it doesn't revisit "learned" things enough to keep in your mind effectively. It should build more on prior lessons.

[EliteMilion]

Wow, excellent video, I'm Brazilian (I'm even using Google Translate), but anyway, I was in doubt between these two applications, I saw several Brazilian videos, but they were all very vague, until your video appeared, and I decided to go to busuu, because you explained both the free and paid versions well, and I haven't seen any Brazilian video explaining it so well, thank you and congratulations.

[thelanguagecube]

Thank you for you tips and opinion, i gonna try busuu .

[MuhibMisbah]

I am using both and both are helpful and helps me alot

[NiCocoKay]

Honestly, I like having summary portion in Busuu if I want to sit down and take notes or save it for later note-taking!!

[robertknull]

Duolingo as far as I am concerned, is the go to starter app for language learners. When it's time to move on and up your language learning, Busuu is an excellent app and much better than Duolingo IMHO.

[robinbailey-leonard]

I use both for japanese. Duolingo's game aspect is okay, but after seeing something simple, you can see it shortly after which meakes it easy to complete the lessons. I feel a little dumb lol. I use duolingo mostly for practicing hiragana and katakana for the moment.

Busuu is very good because of the notes part! There are so many notes that I can take when I start a lesson! Busuu is my favorite.

[rayvogensen]

Forget Duolingo if you are serious about learning languages. It goes against everything modern language learning is about. If you want to translate words and sentences, be my guest. But if you arrive in France, Spain, or Italy and want to communicate, you are going to have a big shock. People do not speak like robots and they definitely don't talk about my friend's butterflies being in the zoo or my ant eats more sugar than your ant. I always laugh when Duolingo says, "lets make that harder." The sentences are often easier than the preceding ones. There are exercises in which you match random words. You imagine at first that the words are connected to the lesson. They aren't. In Italian, for example, you continuously see shark, girl, boy, no, yes, what, who, apples, and bar even at the highest levels. Bar is always translated as bar, which doesn't make the exercise very challenging. Things like this can really irritate you, especially if you are a serious language learner. I've been through the highest levels in Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Italian hoping that I would discover something different, but they are all the same. Useless sentences and words, robotic and often irritating voices, laziness in preparing sentences, no or almost no grammar explanations, and worst of all, no attempt to have really communicative language. If you want to do mental exercises to keep yourself entertained (this is debatable), be my guest But if you want to learn a foreign language, look somewhere else.

[amifrias]

Me gusta Busuu para aprender frases estructuradas y ejercicios complejos, Duolingo me parece como un diccionario de palabras random 😂 para mí está okay aprender vocabulario.

[Master_Your_Minutes]

I have been learning French with both Duolingo and Busuu. A big pro of Busuu is that it actually teaches grammar, tenses, and complex sentence structures. Busuu also teaches you about the different tenses and the difference between the imperfect and the perfect tense (l'imparfait vs. passé composé). Duolingo does not do this and only offers rigid sentences and one-size-fits-all translation tasks. Busuu also sheds some light on French culture and lifestyles whereas Duolingo has none of that.

[Heinzlif]

I don't feel you gave Duolingo a fair shake. You yourself said to take your time to learn the language. Duolingo starts off slow, but they build into some complex material. After a certain point, (I think it was the 5th checkpoint on the French tree), the difficulty ramps up. You get full paragraphs to listen to and answer questions about. Also the tips go away and you have to start figuring out the material through contextual clues. And there's even a decent list of stories to practice that get progressively harder. They're a bit silly, but silly makes them fun and interesting.

It's not perfect for sure. I mean, the course material is created by the users instead of the company, and users are often helping each other by answering questions in the forums, and most questions have a forum specifically for them. I haven't tried Busu to make the comparison myself, but I am a fan of the "gaming format" that Duolingo has. I've struggled to learn any language since high school and Duolingo has been the only program that had kept my attention for more than a few weeks.

One other thing with the Duolingo tree. The main reason the lessons are locked is because each group relies on you knowing the lesson from the previous ones to successfully get through the current ones. They aren't just randomly arranged.

[BlueStinger]

Before getting demotivated, I was using Busuu a lot for Japanese. I learned so much. I also love the fact that it gives you context to what something means. Of course its not perfect. Because later on in the Japanese course, the talking speed of the bot makes it where you simply can't understand. That was one reason why I kind of stopped. Although I'm doing it again

[cmb]

I use Busuu already 212 days. And me like this program .

This is best, then Duolingo