Lexo vs Babbel: a course or a reading habit?

Babbel and Lexo are both apps for learning a language on your phone, but they work in different ways. Babbel is a course: structured lessons that teach grammar and conversation a step at a time, with speaking practice and review built in. Lexo is a library: classic novels rewritten at your level in the language you’re learning, narrated, with every word a tap away.

We make Lexo, so read this with that in mind. We’ve tried to describe Babbel as its own learners would recognize it and to be clear about what Lexo doesn’t do. It was checked in October 2026; Babbel’s plans and features change, so check its site for the current details.

The short answer

If you want to be taught, with grammar explained, dialogues practiced, your pronunciation checked and a review system that brings back what you’ve forgotten, Babbel is built for that. It teaches 13 languages to English speakers, in lessons organized by CEFR level from beginner up. If you can already follow simple sentences and want to read whole books, that’s what Lexo is for. The two fit together well: a course for structure and speaking, books for the reading a course has no room for.

At a glance

	Babbel	Lexo
What it is	A structured course of short lessons	A library of classics rewritten at your level
What you read	Dialogues and short texts inside lessons	About 100 classics, from Pride and Prejudice to The Three Musketeers
Levels	Newcomer (A1) to Advanced (C1); how far each language goes varies	CEFR A2 to C2, chosen per book
Grammar teaching	Yes, step by step	None as lessons; words and idioms explained in context
Help with words	New vocabulary taught in lessons, then reviewed	Tap any word: its meaning in this sentence, base form, part of speech, idiom, and a translation of the sentence
Audio	Throughout the lessons, plus podcasts for several languages	The whole book narrated, with character voices and word-by-word highlighting
Speaking practice	Speech recognition in every lesson; an AI conversation partner in beta	None
Review	Spaced-repetition review of what you’ve learned	A saved Words list you can go back over; no spaced repetition
Teachers	Babbel has also offered live online classes; check its site for current options	None
Languages	13 for English speakers	About 80
Offline	Lessons can be downloaded in the app	Yes; books download to your device
Platforms	iOS, Android and web	iPhone and iPad (iOS 18 or later)
How you pay	Subscriptions from a month to a year, or lifetime access; the first lesson of each course is free	$4.99 a book, or Lexo Plus at $4.99 a month for two book credits (planned US launch prices)
Can you use it today?	Yes	Not yet; in beta, launching on the App Store soon

What Babbel does well

Babbel is a course in the traditional sense, and it does the things a course should do well.

Clear structure. Courses are organized by CEFR level, from Newcomer (A1) and Beginner (A2) up to Advanced (C1), and a placement test tells you where to start. Lessons are short (Babbel says a typical one takes about six minutes) and built around practical conversations, with grammar explained as you go.

Speaking from the start. Speech recognition is built into every lesson, so you say words and phrases aloud and get feedback. Babbel Speak, an AI conversation partner still labeled beta, lets you practice real-life scenarios and get feedback on what you say.

Review that remembers for you. Words and phrases you’ve learned come back in spaced-repetition review, and your mistakes come back for more practice.

More than lessons. Babbel has level-tagged podcasts for learners of Spanish, French, German, Italian and English, games, a free online magazine about languages and culture, and Toucan, a browser extension for picking up Spanish as you read the web.

Depth in the big European languages. European Spanish goes up to C1, and French, German and Italian reach B2 or beyond. Some of its smaller courses stop earlier, so check how far your language goes.

Flexible ways to pay. You can try the first lesson of each course free, then subscribe for a month up to a year, buy lifetime access, or share a Group Plan. The apps run on iOS and Android, lessons can be downloaded for offline use, and you can also learn on the web.

What Lexo does

Lexo is a reading app. You choose a book, say Pride and Prejudice or The Hound of the Baskervilles, and a level from A2 to C2, and read it in the language you’re learning. The story is the same at every level; the vocabulary and sentences change. At C1 the book is close to the original, lightly condensed, and at C2 it’s the complete novel.

When a word stops you, tap it. A card shows what it means in that sentence (not a list of every possible meaning), its base form and part of speech, the meaning of any idiom it belongs to, and a translation of the whole sentence into your own language. Save it to your Words list if you want to come back to it. Press play and the book is read aloud, with different voices for different characters and each word highlighted as it’s spoken. A sentence-by-sentence mode shows one sentence at a time with its audio and translation.

Lexo covers about 80 languages to learn, with explanations in your own language. Books download, so you can read and listen offline. There’s no account and no sign-up. The adaptations, glosses and narration are produced with AI models, guided by the CEFR level descriptors and checked automatically, and most editions are written when the first reader asks for one: chapter 1 is ready in a few minutes, and the rest follows while you read.

A course and a book do different work

A course is efficient at the things you’d otherwise have to piece together yourself: how verbs change, how to ask for directions, which word order sounds natural. It moves you from nothing to the basics in an order someone has thought about.

Books do something a course has little room for. They give you volume. Stephen Krashen (1982, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition) argued that we acquire a language by understanding messages in it, and a novel is one long, connected message, with a story pulling you through. Day and Bamford (1998, Extensive Reading in the Second Language Classroom) describe the value of reading a great deal of material that’s comfortably within your ability. A lesson is built around a dialogue or a set of sentences; a novel keeps going for chapters, and the plot gives you a reason to keep reading. More on that in extensive reading and comprehensible input.

The two meet at level. Hu and Nation (2000) found that readers needed to know about 98% of the words in a story to understand it adequately without help, which is why an unabridged novel is such a big step after a course, and why Lexo rewrites each book at five levels. Our CEFR levels guide shows how the levels line up.

Using both

If you’re learning one of Babbel’s languages, you don’t have to choose:

1. Start with the course. Babbel’s Newcomer and Beginner levels give you the grammar and everyday vocabulary that simple reading depends on.
2. Add a book around A2. When Babbel’s Beginner (A2) material feels comfortable, try an A2 edition in Lexo, such as The Hound of the Baskervilles. If you’re tapping more than a word or two in most lines, give the course a few more weeks.
3. Speak in the course, read in the book. Babbel’s speech recognition and conversation practice cover what Lexo doesn’t; Lexo’s narration and chapters give you the long listening and reading that lessons are too short for.
4. Climb both ladders. When you move up a level in Babbel, try the next level of your book.

Who should choose Babbel

• You’re a beginner. Babbel starts at A1, a level below Lexo’s easiest.
• You want to be taught, with grammar explained and lessons in a deliberate order.
• You want to practice speaking and get feedback on your pronunciation.
• You’re learning for conversation, travel or work in one of its 13 languages.
• You want built-in review that brings back words before you forget them.
• You use Android or a computer, or switch between them.

Who should choose Lexo

• You can already get by and want to read. Lexo starts at A2. If you’ve done a course and can follow simple sentences, a book at your level is the natural next step.
• You learn best through stories. The word for “barrel” is easier to remember when Jim Hawkins is hiding in one, overhearing Long John Silver plan a mutiny in Treasure Island.
• You’re learning a language Babbel doesn’t teach. Lexo covers about 80, from Albanian and Amharic to Vietnamese, with explanations in your own language.
• You want long listening practice. Whole books are narrated, with the text highlighted as it’s read.
• You’d rather own books than subscribe. Buy one book at a time, or use Lexo Plus if you read a lot.
• You use iPhone or iPad, and sometimes read without a connection.

Lexo is in beta and launching on the App Store soon. Get notified at launch. For other comparisons, see Lexo vs Duolingo and the best apps to learn a language by reading.