How Busuu Works

In this Busuu review, we’ll go over how Busuu works, their strengths and weaknesses, and alternatives worth checking out. To save you time, we have gone through peer reviews, app testing, and more to obtain an overview understanding of Busuu and its functionalities.

What is Busuu?

Busuu is a paid language learning app that can be downloaded on your Android or iPhone to learn new languages on-the-go. They offer 11 different languages including many popular ones such as Spanish lessons, English lessons, and French lessons. The functionalities of the application is software based and it uses many similar elements to apps like Duolingo or Babbel.

Their core free product is a digital flashcard that you can use to memorize new vocabulary words. If you want the actual lessons for the different languages, you’ll have to upgrade to a paid subscription. We’ll go over their full pricing later in this review.

Who is Busuu For?

The core functionalities of the application helps you learn new vocabulary and sentence structures, making it useful for beginners. It’s hard to say whether it’ll be useful down the road or if you plan to focus on improving your conversation skills, as that will require someone to converse with.

How Busuu Works

As we previously mentioned, Busuu is a mobile app that contains lesson plans to help you improve your target language. They use audio, images, and text throughout each lesson to diversify the way you learn.

Now, let’s go over how Busuu works in action.

1. Pick which language you want to learn

The first step is to choose from one of the 11+ languages that Busuu offers. From there, you’ll create a free account to get started.

2. Upgrade to a Paid Subscription

The free version of Busuu’s app will only allow you to use their exercises and quizzes. If you want to gain access to advanced grammar units, tests, and full lesson plans, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

As of this writing, Busuu’s plans are broken down into four different billing cycles: 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months. Like other apps, they’ll offer a larger discount if you sign up for a longer period of time.

3. Pick your level and topic of choice

Once you’re inside the Busuu app, you can choose which language level (and topic) that you want to learn for. These breakdown into:

Beginner A1
Elementary A2
Intermediate B1
Upper Intermediate B2

4. Complete the full set of lessons

Each lesson on Busuu will aim to focus on the following features:

Vocabulary
Dialogue
Memorize
Quiz

As you choose different levels, the difficulty level will also adjust to reflect your choice. The paid premium option will allow you to download their lesson offline and learn while you are on-the-go. Based on reviews of other influencers like Benny Lewis, it seems that the materials being taught don’t always reflect the appropriate levels chosen. They do offer a chat feature which several have mentioned that it’s the main use of the app.

An Alternative to Busuu

With any option that is presented to you, there’s always an alternative. We’d like to share with you an alternative (and perhaps complementary) service to Busuu. Rype is the world’s leading membership for private language lessons online, where we connect you with handpicked professional teachers who are available 24/7. The easiest analogy we can offer is to personal training. While Busuu may play the role of a fitness app, you can think of Rype as having a personal trainer to help you reach your goals faster.

To help explain the differences in detail, we’ll breakdown the major features of both offers.

1. Quiz-styled learning (Busuu) versus. Real Live Immersion (Rype)

Studies have shown the impact that learning via live immersion can have on our brain. In short, it has shown to retain more information than most traditional learning methods, combined.

Research from the National Training Laboratories has discovered that the human brain retains…

5% of what they learn when they’ve learned from a lecture.
10% of what they learn when they’ve learned from reading.
20% of what they learn from audio-visual (Busuu)
30% of what they learn when they see a demonstration
50% of what they learn when engaged in a group discussion.
75% of what they learn when they practice what they learned (Rype)
90% of what they learn when they teach someone else/use immediately (Rype)

Given the functionalities of Busuu using visual images, audio, and flashcards, we’ll place their learning method in the audio-visual category (20% retention). That means that learning on Rype (live immersion) can be up to 4.5x more effective in retaining information.

2. Rype’s language program is 100% personalized

With live 1-on-1 lessons, our teachers have the ability to customize a language program that’s designed specifically for you. This isn’t possible in a group classroom with multiple students or an instructional language app like Busuu.

This ability to receive personalized lessons will significantly accelerate your learning, because you won’t waste time on materials tha aren’t relevant to you. What happens more often than not in ‘one-size-fits-all’ curriculums is that you’re forced to learn a lot of material that doesn’t apply to you. Whether it’s because they’re too easy, too difficult, or it’s a topic that doesn’t interest you.

On Rype, you get full control over what you learn, how you learn it, and most importantly, when you want to learn it.

3. Rype helps you go beyond just learning

The reason why most of us learn languages isn’t just for an educational experience. It’s to build deeper relationships with other people from different cultures and to communicate more effectively.

Instead of practicing alone or recording your voice, you can speak to a real human being on Rype and get immediate feedback for improvement. Most importantly, you’re able to build relationships with your language teacher(s), and have real conversations just like you would in your everyday life. It’s the most authentic and effective way to learn a new language.

How are Busuu and Rype Similar?

With that said, Busuu and Rype share similarities that you may want to know about.

1. You can learn on-the-go

There’s never enough time in the day to get all the things we want done. This is where the benefits of Busuu and Rype both come in. With the ability to learn on all devices – mobile, tablet, desktop – you’re to take your learning on-the-go, and learn anywhere in the world. All you need is a reliable internet connection.

2. Risk-Free Trials

Lastly, both Busuu and Rype offer an easy and seamless way to get started. Busuu gives you several free exercises and quizzes to get an idea of how the language app works. Rype offers a 7-day risk-free trial to give you a real-life experience on how lessons will go with your teachers.

Want to try it now for yourself? Get started with your risk-free trial here.

Concluding our Busuu Review

We hope this Busuu review was valuable for helping you decide whether Busuu is for you or not. With any solution, there are pros and cons that you must be aware of, and you should look at alternatives available before committing.

As we shared, starting your language learning journey with Rype is not only easier than ever, but it’s 100% risk-free. You can sign up today for your language lesson trial.

If you still have questions, email us at anytime: help@rypeapp.com.

We can’t wait to have you inside our family.

Other language reviews you may like

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Busuu Review

How Busuu Works

What is Busuu?

Who is Busuu For?