Busuu Review: German Lessons

Busuu is an online language learning platform, founded in 2008 and acquired by Chegg in 2022. It has over 16,000 reviews on Trustpilot with a 4.6 rating average. In addition to German, Busuu teaches Spanish, Japanese, English, French, Italian, Korean, Dutch, Russian, Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, and Polish. Because it includes grammar review and cultural tips, we consider it a little more rigorous than some well-known online German lessons. With Busuu, you'll learn from native speaker videos, listening activities, flashcards, and completing writing exercises.

Lessons only reach B2

Busuu has a handful of German language courses based on proficiency level. If you're starting from scratch, you could jump in with the "Complete German" course, which spans levels A1 to B2. If you're planning a vacation and just need some quick pointers, the "German for Travel" course for A1 and A2 concentrates on immediately useful phrases. Similarly, the "Life in Germany" course, also for levels A1 to A2, offers language skills and cultural tips that could be beneficial if you're considering living, studying, or working in Germany. If you want to work on your pronunciation, the "German Pronunciation" course might be helpful. Lastly, those at level A2 and interested in business-oriented language skills might find the "German for Business" course useful. Unfortunately, none of Busuu's German lessons exceed a B2 level, so if you want to become fluent, you'll eventually need to branch out.

Grammar is as important as vocabulary

On Busuu, you'll find four main sections: Learn, Review, Community, and Courses. In the Learn section, you'll carry on with the course you chose when you first signed up, but you're free to switch to different courses anytime. Lesson chapters must be completed in order, but you can skip chapters by scoring over 80% at the checkpoints. We really like that the Review section has a dedicated tab for grammar, covering topics like articles, pronouns, verbs, cases, connectors, and more. In the Community section, you can both give and receive corrections on English and German speaking and writing exercises.

Earn stars for motivation

When you finish a lesson, Busuu calculates how long it would take you to complete your course at the pace you're learning. We think this is great encouragement to push yourself to do a little more than you ordinarily would. Every time you complete an exercise, correction, new lesson, or practice session, you'll earn stars to move up the leaderboard.

Spends too much time on things you already know

We found some of the pronunciation content to be unnecessarily simple. For instance, in the first lesson of the pronunciation course, you learn how to pronounce the letter "h". It's no different in German than it is in English, so it seems like a waste of time to focus on it. When we signed up, we indicated that we speak English, so there's not even really the excuse that it's for someone learning German from another language.

Important cultural nuances taught from the first lesson

The first lesson in the "Life in Germany" course provides a handy list of common greetings used across various German-speaking regions. You'll learn that "Hallo" and "Hi" are standard ways to say hello in German, while "Hey" is a more informal greeting. In Austria and Southern Germany, people often use "Servus". If you're in Switzerland, you might hear "Hoi". In Northern Germany, you'll come across "Moin" or "Moin moin". It's really helpful to know these regional differences, something that not all online German lessons provide.

Learn with the locals

In Busuu's lessons, some of your vocabulary words are taught to you by German locals themselves, filmed in scenic German locations. We always value this type of content as it keeps learners interested and helps them get familiarized with the genuine sound of German as it's spoken in real life. Typically, the lesson's structure includes listening to a sentence, selecting the correct matching written sentence, and then listening once more to identify the correct word to complete a sentence. When you complete an exercise, a translation of the full sentence is displayed, sometimes with a helpful grammar tip.

You can't turn off hints

We wish Busuu allowed you to turn off the word bank choices and instead type your answers. Are you truly testing the German words you know, or are you just getting good at choosing the correct option from a given list? If you could type in your answers instead, that would mean that if you misremembered a verb conjugation or used the wrong noun case, you would get it wrong. However, when you're just picking from preset options, you bypass these common errors and might overestimate your German skills. Sadly, not many online German lessons offer the option to use your keyboard to increase the challenge, because they have more to gain from you sticking around and playing another round and don't want to risk you getting frustrated and quitting.

Premium users get CEFR certificate

Busuu's Basic version, although free, is interrupted by frequent ads, making it hard to forget that you're not using the Premium version. By upgrading to Premium, you can enjoy an ad-free experience with full access to all lessons. This package also brings you personalized revision plans, speedy feedback from native speakers, and the convenience of offline access. Furthermore, on course completion, Premium users are awarded a certificate from Busuu that aligns with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) standards.

From $4.17 to $13.99 per month

If you're thinking of upgrading to Premium, here's what to expect:

• Annual: $4.17/month (paid upfront for the term; usually $166.80, often discounted to $50.04)
• 6 months: $8.45/month (paid upfront for the term; usually $83.40, often $50.70)
• Monthly: $13.90

If you buy Premium and decide it's not for you, you only have 14 days to get your money back.

Good for beginners

We think Busuu is a good entry-level platform for dipping your toes in the water of learning German online. However, it's not going to be enough by itself. You should also expose yourself to German media appropriate for your level, like children's books, cartoons with German subtitles, and music.

Learn More  ➜

On the Busuu website