We make Qlango, a language app that competes with Busuu, so weigh our opinions with that in mind. Every fact about Busuu here was checked on Busuu's own website and help center in October 2026, and the criticism reflects patterns we found across Reddit threads, app-store reviews and Trustpilot.
This Busuu review covers an app that sits somewhere between the game-like apps and a classroom course. Busuu was founded in 2008 by Bernhard Niesner and Adrian Hilti, is registered in London, and has been part of the US education company Chegg since January 2022. It teaches 14 languages through courses aligned with the CEFR, and its best-known feature is human rather than clever: other users who speak your target language correct what you write and say.
Busuu review: the short answer
Busuu is good for beginners and intermediate learners of the big European languages who want a structured course with real grammar, short lessons and feedback from actual people. It's a weaker choice for Korean, which stops at A2, for learners aiming beyond the top of their course, and for anyone who wants plenty of speaking practice without paying for the most expensive tier.
What Busuu teaches, and how far
Busuu's 14 languages and the highest level each course reaches, according to its help center in October 2026:
| Course goes up to | Languages |
|---|---|
| C1 | English, French, German, Spanish |
| B2 | Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Turkish |
| A2 | Korean |
The app interface comes in 15 languages, including Arabic, Indonesian, Turkish and Vietnamese, though Busuu notes that some courses aren't available in every interface language. Lessons are short and mix vocabulary, grammar explanations and exercises, and a placement test is available in eight courses if you aren't starting from zero. If you're unsure what B2 or C1 actually means in daily life, our guide to CEFR levels has examples.
As teachers, we like that Busuu explains grammar instead of hoping you'll guess it. The lessons are built in CEFR order, so you know roughly where you stand, and the course regularly asks you to produce free text, which most apps avoid because it's hard to grade.
The community corrections
This is where Busuu is different. Some exercises ask you to write a few sentences or record yourself, and your answer goes to other users who list the language as fluent or advanced. An exercise stays open until it gets at least five corrections, and a correction bot may weigh in while you wait. You can return the favor by correcting learners of your own language. The feature is free for everyone.
Done well, it's the closest thing in an app to a teacher reading your work: someone notices that your sentence is grammatical but not something anyone would say. The catch is that correctors aren't verified. Busuu relies on what people list in their profiles, so feedback ranges from excellent to contradictory, and you'll sometimes get three versions of the same sentence. Read corrections as opinions from speakers, not rulings from a teacher.
AI and speaking features
Busuu's newer features sit almost entirely in Premium Plus, run on mobile and cover only some languages:
- AI Conversations, role-play speaking scenarios with feedback, in the English, Spanish, French, German and Italian courses. Free users get a limited number of tries.
- Speaking practice, with video shadowing and pronunciation feedback, in the same five languages.
- Mistake Repair, which turns your errors into exercises, on iOS for learners of English, Spanish and French.
Premium itself adds Vocabulary Review, which schedules words with spaced repetition, and Grammar Review in seven courses. Live lessons with teachers exist only through Busuu for Business, so individual subscribers don't get tutors.
What Busuu costs (October 2026)
| Feature | Free | Premium | Premium Plus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complete courses | Yes, with an ad before each lesson | Yes | Yes |
| Community corrections | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| No ads, offline mode, skip lessons | No | Yes | Yes |
| Grammar and vocabulary review | No | Yes | Yes |
| Certificates | No | Yes | Yes |
| AI Conversations, pronunciation feedback, Mistake Repair, study plans | No | No | Yes |
You pay monthly or for 12 months. At Busuu's US checkout in October 2026, list prices were $12.49 a month or $72.99 a year for Premium, and $14.90 a month or $87.90 a year for Premium Plus, before discounts. Discounts are so frequent that Reddit users regularly point out that hardly anyone pays the list price. The Busuu website shows the price for your country and platform.
Busuu offers a 14-day money-back guarantee on your first payment only, not on renewals, and App Store purchases have to be refunded through Apple. There is no family plan.
Certificates come with Premium and state your CEFR level, but they're Busuu's own, not official exam results, and they don't cover every course: Chinese and Russian offer A1 only, Japanese goes to B1, Korean to A2, and Arabic, Polish and Turkish have none.
What learners praise
- Structure and grammar. The most frequent compliment on Reddit and in app-store reviews is that Busuu feels like real learning, with more explanation and less game than Duolingo.
- Feedback from real people. Many learners call the community corrections the standout feature, especially for writing.
- A generous free tier. You can work through the course without an energy or hearts system, at the price of an ad before each lesson.
- A good daily habit. Beginners in particular like the short, predictable lessons.
Where Busuu falls short
- Ads in the free version. Unskippable ads before lessons are the main complaint from free users, including many who otherwise rate the app highly.
- Billing. Most Trustpilot reviews are positive, but among the negative ones, surprise renewals, refused refunds and cancellations that didn't take effect dominate. Support is by email and often described as slow.
- Tier confusion. Learners who pay for Premium are sometimes surprised that speaking and AI features need Premium Plus, work only on mobile, and aren't offered in their language at all.
- Thinner past beginner level. A recurring theme on Reddit is that level labels and progress percentages overstate what you can do, and that later units feel rushed.
- Errors and strict checking. Users report occasional content mistakes, answer checking that is stricter than it should be, and speech recognition that rejects perfectly good pronunciation.
- Weaker Asian-language courses. Independent reviewers and learners rate the Chinese, Japanese and Korean courses below the European ones, and the Korean course ends at A2.
Who should use Busuu
Use it if you're learning English, Spanish, French or German, or one of the B2 courses, from the beginning, want explanations as well as practice, and would value comments from real speakers on your writing. Busuu also works well as the structured spine for someone who already uses a tutor or language exchange. Look elsewhere if you need Korean beyond the basics, official certification, or a language outside its 14. Our roundup of Duolingo alternatives compares more options.
Where Qlango fits
If your language isn't among Busuu's 14, Qlango teaches 80, including rarely taught ones; its Albanian, Georgian and Armenian courses run from A1 to B2, and our guide to learning Albanian shows where to start. You also choose the language you learn through, so an Arabic speaker can learn German from Arabic instead of through English. Courses follow CEFR levels with short lessons, spaced repetition and several answer modes, from building sentences to dictation, and you can chat with other learners, with message translation built in. Premium adds offline learning and an AI teacher you can ask unlimited questions, and besides monthly and yearly plans there's a one-time Forever plan; the language list shows the levels for every course.
Busuu FAQ
Is Busuu worth paying for?
Premium is worth it if you're using Busuu daily and want offline lessons, review tools and no ads; wait for one of its frequent discounts. Premium Plus mainly makes sense if you learn English, Spanish, French, German or Italian on a phone and want AI speaking practice.
Is Busuu free?
Largely, yes. Busuu says free users get the complete course, with a short ad before each lesson, plus community corrections. Premium removes ads and adds offline mode, review tools and certificates.
Are Busuu certificates official?
No. They're issued by Busuu, state the CEFR level you completed and are backed by its own education team, but they aren't accredited exams such as DELE, DELF or the Goethe-Zertifikat.
How far can Busuu take you?
Up to C1 in English, French, German and Spanish, B2 in nine other languages and A2 in Korean, according to Busuu's help center in October 2026.
If your language isn't on Busuu's list, or you'd rather learn it through your own language, Qlango is free to start, and the first A1 lesson takes about five minutes.
