Dive into this Beelinguapp review where we discuss the platform's strengths and weaknesses and see how it fares against its competitors.
Our Verdict
The Beelinguapp is one of the few language-learning platforms that puts an emphasis on reading and comprehension, and it's for that reason alone that we'd highly recommend giving this app a go.
This app won't replace a comprehensive course, grammar lessons or speaking practice, but it will be a great supplementary tool to boost your skills alongside your studies.
TL;DR Beelinguapp Review
If you haven't got enough time to read this Beelinguapp review, here's a quick summary:
PROS
- Unique concept that focuses on reading and comprehension.
- Intuitive interface that's very user-friendly.
- Suitable for beginners, intermediate and advanced students.
- Generous free version.
- Affordable premium version.
- Stories are read by natives speakers.
- Everything can be downloaded and read offline.
CONS
- Some frustrating glitches in the app.
- You'll need a basic understanding of a language to use the app.
- As the name suggests, there's no desktop version.
- Marketing is a bit pushy – lots of pop ups appear asking you to buy premium.
- Only focuses on reading and comprehension – no other language help.
What is the Beelinguapp?
The Beelinguapp is an app-only product that allows you to read an audiobook in your target language with the support of the English translation alongside it. It's a fairly new product that seems to be gaining popularity quickly. Unfortunately, that means that we did experience a few glitches along the way when we were researching this Beelinguapp review. However, none over-shone the awesomeness and usefulness of the app itself.
What Can You Do on the Beelinguapp?
While reading audiobooks is the app's primary purpose, you can also read the news and even listen to music in your target language. Here's a sneak peak at the Beelinguapp's main features:
Access a Library of Audiobooks
Beelinguapp's library is where you'll spend most of your time and where you'll find a selection of audiobooks to get stuck into. Filter your search results by category, ability level and language to find the right material for you.
Once you've chosen your story, you can start reading! Each story is read out loud by a native speaker, and you'll also be able to follow the text in either/both English and your target language. At the bottom of the screen, you'll find icons that help you to pause, play, rewind or fast forward your story. As the narrator speaks, the text changes from black to orange so you can quickly find your way if you get a bit lost.
At the top of your screen you'll also find a number of other buttons to help you cater the text to your ability level. Here you can speed up the narrator (or slow them down), or change the size of the text on your screen.
Exercises and Questions
Once you've read a story, you'll be tested on your knowledge with five questions. These help reiterate what you've just learnt and make sure that you understand it too. We were a little disappointed with how limited the exercises were, but hopefully, this is something the team at Beelinguapp are working on to improve. It'd be great to see a variety of exercises, a bit like those you'd find in Yabla.
Get Your Kids Involved
If you're hoping to get your children learning a new language, the BeKids section is designed for them. That being said, this section is also great for absolute beginners who are just getting started.
Watch the News
If you're more interested in current affairs, the Beelinguapp's news section brings you up-to-date snippets on current affairs. We loved this addition as it felt a lot more accessible than tackling a whole book in a foreign language. The selection of articles is still a little limited though, especially if you're using the free version.
Listen to Your Favourite Tunes
The music section is the newest addition to Beelinguapp, and is slightly limited to what it has to offer at the moment. Currently, you can choose from a small range of songs and listen as you read the lyrics being shown on the screen.
Create a Personalised Glossary
As you read stories, watch news snippets and listen to music, you can click on any word to add it to your glossary. Over time, you'll build up your own list of words to review, which you can revisit at a later date. Similar to those you'd find on Memrise, the Beelinguapp also includes a flashcard feature to help with your vocabulary and self-study.
What Does the Beelinguapp Look Like?
One of the things that the team at Beelinguapp have got right, is the user-friendly interface, including just the right amount of graphics in the app without it being overly fussy. The main page, otherwise known as the Library, is where you'll spend most of your time. You can scroll down to find audiobooks classified by genre, as well as news stories and music tracks.
When you read a book or listen to some music, your screen will split into two: one displaying text in your target language, and the other in your mother tongue.
What Languages Can You Learn on the Beelinguapp?
So far, the Beelinguapp offers 14 languages, but this number seems to be growing each year:
- English
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- French
- Italian
- German
- Japanese
- Russian
- Chinese
- Hindi
- Turkish
- Korean
- Arabic
- Swedish
How Much Does the Beelinguapp Cost?
Beelinguapp offers a generous free version of its trial, but if you'll be using it regularly, you're better off signing up for its paid plan. Here's what you get with each.
Free
Beelinguapp's free version is enough to get by if you're going to be learning a language more casually. You'll have access to any language pair that you choose along with limited audiobooks and songs. As you build up a streak, you'll gradually be able to unlock some of the premium stories too. The most frustrating part of the free version is the ads that pop up in between stories, but if you can deal with this, it's a fantastic resource that comes at no cost to you.
Premium
~$25/year or $8/month
The premium version of the Beelinguapp is well worth the investment if you're going to use the app a lot. You'll get rid of all of the ads and frustrating popups, and you'll have the choice to learn multiple languages on the Beelinguapp, rather than just one pair. Even better, you'll have even more stories to choose from and unlimited songs to listen to.
What are the Pros and Cons of the Beelinguapp?
PROS
- Unique concept that focuses on reading and comprehension.
- Intuitive interface that's very user-friendly.
- Suitable for beginners, intermediate and advanced students.
- Generous free version and an affordable premium version.
- Stories are read exclusively by native speakers.
- Materials can be downloaded and read offline.
CONS
- Some frustrating glitches in the app.
- You'll need a basic understanding of a language to use the app.
- As the name suggests, there's no desktop version.
- Marketing is a bit pushy – lots of pop ups appear asking you to buy premium.
- Only focuses on reading and comprehension – there's no other language help.
Are There Any Beelingua App Alternatives?
The Beelinguapp is more or less a unique concept, with very few direct competitors. If you prefer learning languages through audio and reading, here are a few other products you might want to try out.
Beelinguapp vs LingQ
For us, LingQ is one of the closest alternatives to the Beelinguapp. It too focuses on reading in your target language, through either a library of books or your own imported content. In addition, LingQ offers grammar help, a variety of quizzes and a chance to spend one-on-one time with a tutor (for an extra fee). While LingQ offers its users a wider choice of languages (30+ at the time of writing), its interface is not nearly as intuitive as the Beelinguapp and it's all too easy to get lost in its unorganised content. That's without mentioning its high price tag.
Beelinguapp vs Lupa
Lupa is about the closest equivalent to Beelinguapp, though it only focuses on one language so far: Latin American Spanish. Rather than creating new stories, Lupa takes real-life stories from the popular podcast, Radio Ambulante, adds an interactive transcript to them and helps you break down each sentence word by word.
Beelinguapp vs Yabla
Yabla is a little different to the Beelinguapp in that it uses immersive video materials, along with subtitles to help users develop their language skills, rather than simply presenting text and audio. Yabla is a little more expensive, around $13/month for access to one language course, and only currently supports six languages: Chinese, Italian, Spanish, French, German and English.
A Round-Up of Our Beelinguapp Review
Beelinguapp is a great app for learning languages with dual-language audio books. It offers a generous free plan, and an affordable upgrade. We highly recommend checking it out, especially if you're a fan of reading in your native language this will be the perfect app for you.
There are some improvements that can be made, It just needs to be tidied up slightly and potentially add a few extra features. For now, it's a fantastic reading companion to supplement your studies, and you can get away without buying the premium too.
Try Beelinguapp and learn languages with dual language audiobooks
Kris is the founder of Actual Fluency, and has spent the last 8 years becoming an expert in language learning software, methods, and techniques.
He lives in Denmark and speaks 5+ languages at varying levels. His other interests are Wine, Online Marketing, and Travelling.