Busuu Review 2026: Is Busuu Premium Worth It?

Busuu is worth it if you want a structured course that explains grammar and lets real people check what you write and say. Premium is worth paying for if you study most days and want review and offline lessons. Premium Plus only makes sense if you will actually use its AI Conversations, which work in the mobile apps and in selected languages.

Most people who look up Busuu have tried a game-style app and want something that feels more like a class. We used Busuu Premium Plus for several weeks in 2026, mostly in German and Spanish, sent answers to the community, and read this year's store reviews. Here is what you get, where it stops, and which plan is worth your money.

What you get

Busuu is a course app with a textbook's order. Lessons are short and follow the same shape: new words with short video flashcards of real people, a dialogue, a grammar tip, then exercises that end with you writing or saying something of your own. Lessons sit inside CEFR levels, A1, A2, B1 and B2, and a Study Plan tells you how much to do each day to reach a level by a date you choose [1].

The part that makes Busuu different is the community. Your written or spoken answer goes to other learners who are native speakers of your language, and they correct it. You can do the same for people learning your language. On day four of our German week, on a lunch break, we recorded a short answer about our job. By the evening a speaker from Hamburg had replied: our sentence was fine, but Feierabend would sound more natural than Ende der Arbeit. No algorithm gave us that.

How far you can get

Most Busuu courses run from A1 to B2, which is the level where you can work, study or live in the language with some effort. Bigger courses like Spanish, French and English have the most content, and smaller ones like Polish or Dutch are thinner. The Study Plan shows how long a level will take at the pace you pick, which makes the goal feel real.

What Busuu gives you at the end of a level is a certificate from Busuu itself. It is useful to show progress, but it is not an official exam, and employers or universities usually want a recognised test. Busuu takes you to a solid, clear B1 or B2 on paper. Speaking comfortably at that level needs more talking than the course asks of you.

Our 7-day test

Our goal: on day 7, introduce ourselves to a new team in German, say how long we have worked there, and ask two questions back. We used Premium Plus at A2, about 20 minutes a day.

1. Day 1. Placement put us in A2. First lesson on work words and seit. The grammar tip explained that German uses the present tense with seit, which we had never noticed.
2. Day 2. We wrote Ich habe hier seit Montag gearbeitet for a writing task and sent it to the community.
3. Day 3. Two replies overnight. Both changed it to Ich arbeite seit Montag hier, and one explained why in English. The day's lesson added Wie lange arbeitest du schon hier?
4. Day 4. Speaking task on the lunch break, recorded twice because we stumbled on Abteilung. Correction came back that evening.
5. Day 5 and 6. AI Conversation on the phone, set in a new office. It asked about our role and our team, and flagged that we kept dropping the verb to the end in weil sentences.
6. Day 7. The full introduction out loud, no notes. Ich heiße …, ich arbeite seit Montag hier, in der Marketing-Abteilung. Then two questions. The second question came out with the verb in the wrong place, and we fixed it mid-sentence.

The grammar tips and the human corrections did the real work this week. The AI Conversation was useful but short and polite, and it waited patiently while we searched for words, which real colleagues will not. Each day took 20 to 25 minutes, including reading the corrections.

Where it falls short

• Few languages. 14 courses, and some of them are much thinner than Spanish or English [1].
• Community help is uneven. Some helpers explain carefully, others just rewrite your sentence, and replies can take hours.
• AI speaking costs extra. AI Conversations and speaking practice sit in Premium Plus and work on mobile in selected languages only [3].
• Not much habit pull. There are streaks, but Busuu is quieter than game-style apps, and it is easier to drift away.
• The free plan stops short. Busuu's plan page lists complete courses on the free plan, but you have to take lessons in order, with ads, and without review, offline lessons or certificates [3]. Older reviews describe a smaller free plan, so check what your own app shows.

Plans and prices

Prices are from the US App Store in September 2026, where Busuu lists many different offers [1]. They vary by country and between the app and the website, and plans renew on their own unless you turn that off.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

Busuu became central to Chegg's plan. Chegg, which owns Busuu, has been shrinking its student homework business and building around skills and language learning. In 2025 it said Busuu revenue grew 15 percent in the second quarter and expected about 48 million dollars of Busuu revenue for the year [5].

February 2026: new leadership. Chegg appointed Karine Allouche as general manager of its language learning business [6].

Premium Plus got more AI. The plan page now lists AI Conversations, speaking practice with instant pronunciation feedback, and Mistake Repair, which turns your grammar errors into custom exercises [3]. AI Conversations first launched in late 2024 [7].

The free plan grew. Busuu's current plan comparison lists the complete courses on the free plan, where many earlier reviews described only a few lessons [3][4].

What learners are saying

Store ratings are high: 4.7 from about 101,000 ratings on the App Store and 4.6 from 1.2 million reviews on Google Play [1][2]. The praise is consistent. Learners like the clear levels, the grammar tips that come before the drills, and the feeling of a real course. The community corrections are the most loved feature, and many people say a stranger fixing their sentence taught them more than a week of exercises.

The complaints are consistent too. Price and billing come up most, often from people surprised by an automatic renewal. Others say the smaller courses run out of content, the AI features are locked in the top plan, and some community corrections are wrong or too short to learn from. Reviewers also note that Busuu has fewer fun elements than Duolingo, so it takes more self-discipline.

Is Busuu Premium worth it?

Premium is worth it if Busuu is your main course and you study most days. Review and offline lessons are what keep words from slipping away, and removing ads makes the lessons calmer.

Premium Plus is worth it if your language has AI Conversations on your phone and you will use them several times a week. If you already talk with a tutor or a partner, Plus adds little.

Stay free if you are still testing the language, or you only want the lessons and the community.

Pick something else if your language is not one of the 14, or you mainly need a daily push. Our Busuu vs Duolingo comparison covers that trade-off, and our Duolingo review explains what the game-style app does well and where it stops.

How to get the most from it

• Send one answer a day to the community. It is free, and it is the best thing Busuu has.
• Read corrections out loud. Then say the fixed sentence twice before you move on.
• Set a Study Plan with a real date. Busuu is quiet, so a deadline does the job a streak does elsewhere.
• Try your language on the phone first. Check that AI Conversations exist for it before you pay for Plus.

Where Slova fits

If you like Busuu's structure but want more talking, Slova is worth a look. It builds your course around your goal, like a new job, a move abroad or something you love such as anime or football, and every lesson can be done out loud with our AI tutors. Every word you meet lands in one list that brings it back for review.

Conclusion

Busuu is one of the most honest course apps in 2026: clear levels, real grammar, and real people who check your work. The free plan is enough to try the course properly, Premium is a fair price for daily learners, and Premium Plus is worth it only if you will use the AI speaking in your language. What Busuu does not do is make you talk enough. If that is your problem, look at apps built for conversation practice alongside it, or browse the wider list of Babbel and Busuu-style course alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

Sources