Lingoda vs BaseLang: A full review of both Spanish language classes online

Embarking on the journey to learn Spanish can open doors to cultural enrichment, career opportunities, and personal growth. And among the myriad language learning options, Spanish language classes online are a very popular choice.

Nowadays, there are plenty of platforms specialized in online language learning, each offering different programs depending on your goals and flexibility. Since we know that it might be difficult to choose the right Spanish language course online, today we bring you a full review of Lingoda vs BaseLang in order to evaluate the pros and cons of each one. By the end, you should have a good idea about which is the best Spanish language course online for your learning style!

By offering this Lingoda review alongside a comparable BaseLang review, we aim to provide insights into their features, teaching methodologies, flexibility, and pricing structures, empowering language learners to make informed decisions aligned with their individual goals and preferences.

How does Lingoda work?

Let’s start our Lingoda review with the basics. Lingoda is an online language learning platform that offers live classes taught by native-level teachers. It offers courses in four languages: Spanish, English, French, and German. The Lingoda language platform employs a subscription-based model.

Upon registration, students select their desired language and proficiency level, then choose from a variety of courses tailored to their learning objectives.

After subscribing to a plan that grants access to a set number of group classes or individual lessons per month, students can schedule their classes according to their availability. During these live online sessions led by native-level teachers, students engage in interactive activities, conversation practice, grammar explanations, and other learning materials.

Lingoda tracks students’ progress through assessments and class participation, allowing learners to monitor their advancement over time and receive feedback from instructors.

Additionally, Lingoda provides supplementary resources such as study materials, exercises, and access to a community of fellow learners, thereby offering a comprehensive and interactive approach to language acquisition.

How does BaseLang work?

BaseLang is an online platform that offers unlimited one-on-one Spanish language classes online with native-speaking teachers for a fixed rate. Users begin by registering for an account and taking a placement test to determine their proficiency level. Students can then schedule tutoring sessions at their convenience, focusing on topics of interest or following a structured curriculum provided by BaseLang.

During sessions, students receive personalized feedback and guidance from tutors, tailored to their individual learning needs. BaseLang also provides supplementary materials for practice and offers progress tracking to help students monitor their advancement.

Overall, BaseLang provides a flexible and personalized approach to Spanish language learning, with a focus on individualized instruction and practical conversation skills.

Signing up, First lessons

Lingoda

Signing up for Lingoda Spanish classes is fairly easy. You create an account on their website providing basic personal information, you select the language you want to learn, and you explore their course offerings. Once you’ve chosen a course that aligns with your learning goals, you subscribe to a plan that suits your schedule and grants you access to a certain number of group classes or individual lessons per month. You can also take a placement test to know where you should start.

After subscribing, you’ll need to schedule your first lesson through Lingoda’s platform. Lingoda offers flexible scheduling options, allowing you to choose classes at times that fit your availability.

BaseLang

Signing up for BaseLang involves a few simple steps. From the BaseLang website, you create an account by providing basic personal information. Once your account is created, you schedule your first Welcome Class, which can usually be taken immediately. The Welcome Class allows your first teacher to get to know you better by giving you a placement test to assess your current level of Spanish proficiency.

BaseLang offers unlimited one-on-one tutoring sessions with over 400 native-speaking Spanish teachers, so you have the flexibility to choose a time that works for you.

The teachers

Lingoda

Lingoda Spanish instructors are qualified native-level speakers of the language they teach, and they have experience in language instruction. Their compensation is tied to the hours they spend teaching. They have the flexibility to select the topics they want to teach, resulting in a wide array of lessons available at any given time.

While this flexibility benefits students by offering convenient scheduling options, it also means that maintaining continuity with a single instructor from one class to the next may prove challenging. However, this setup presents the opportunity to collaborate with instructors from diverse backgrounds and accents, enriching the learning experience.

On the other hand, transitioning to a new teacher for each session means starting anew, as they may not be familiar with your strengths, weaknesses, or current proficiency level.

BaseLang

At BaseLang, tutors are native Spanish speakers who undergo a thorough selection process, ensuring they meet the platform’s high standards for teaching proficiency. These tutors are not only experienced but also passionate about facilitating student learning and fluency in Spanish. Payment for BaseLang tutors is based on the time they are available, so they receive a fixed compensation even if they are not booked for a class.

To enhance the student experience, BaseLang allows users to mark tutors as favorites, providing greater access to their schedules for booking sessions. This feature fosters continuity and familiarity, enabling students to develop rapport with preferred BaseLang teachers and receive consistent guidance tailored to their learning needs. Through fair compensation and personalized scheduling options, BaseLang ensures that both teachers and students benefit from a supportive and effective language learning environment.

Choosing a teacher

Lingoda

With Lingoda classes, you don’t really get to choose your teachers. This approach promotes exposure to diverse teaching styles by immersing students in a spectrum of accents, dialects, and colloquial expressions, mirroring real-world linguistic encounters.

Since most Lingoda lessons are group classes, learners can increase their chances of being matched with preferred teachers by looking at their favorite teachers’ profiles to see when their upcoming group sessions are scheduled. However, this doesn’t guarantee that you’ll be able to maintain continuity with the same teachers, since they manage their own schedules and may opt for different time slots.

BaseLang

At BaseLang, classes are available from 6am to midnight EST. Students have the flexibility to book classes by time or by teacher. When booking by time, a calendar will display on your screen, organized into 30-minute slots. You can select multiple slots to schedule as many classes as you’d like. If a slot is marked as unavailable, it means that all teachers are booked for that time.

Alternatively, if you prefer to book with a specific teacher, you go to the Teachers section to see a list of instructors available. From there, you can select your desired teacher and access their profile, and check their availability tab for the next 5 days.

BaseLang offers the option to designate up to three favorite teachers, allowing you to book classes with them up to 7 days in advance, providing added convenience and personalized learning opportunities.

Classes

Lingoda

Lingoda offers a variety of packages tailored to student preferences, although the class structure and curriculum remain fairly consistent across all options. The topics cover grammar, vocabulary, and communication. You can choose to follow the curriculum in order, or choose from specific lessons that interest you most.

Lingoda’s Flex package is the most popular one, as it offers the most flexibility regarding scheduling. You can sign up for the Flex package with either individual or group classes. With individual lessons you can select from available classes, or propose your own topic for a customized session with a tutor. If you opt for group sessions, you book the classes you want at the times you want. Lingoda recommends booking at least one week in advance to secure your spot, as group sessions accommodate a maximum of five students.

The Lingoda Sprint is an option for learners interested in an intensive program. This is a two-month learning challenge that rewards participants with a refund of half their fees if they never miss a class. It’s only available for new Lingoda clients. The regular Lingoda Sprint program involves attending 15 classes per month for two months, while the Lingoda Super Sprint program requires 30 classes per month. There are several scheduling rules to comply with, but for learners with a predictable schedule for the duration of the set two-month program, the possibility of getting a refund for the second month adds a strong motivation for intense language study.

Regardless of the package you choose, all classes are conducted via Zoom and last for 60 minutes each. Before each class, you get access to the lesson’s material, which are mostly PDFs, and the learning objectives of the lesson.

While group classes are the most popular due to their lower price and the opportunity to practice with other learners, the quality and pace of each class is somewhat dependent on the other students’ performance. This can affect how much speaking time you get and how quickly you progress through the material.

Moreover, although lessons are available 24/7, you might not always find the one you want to take at your desired time. Nonetheless, with numerous classes offered at any given time, you can likely find a suitable alternative.

BaseLang

BaseLang’s signature course is called Real World. This curriculum uses an immersive approach that helps students apply their language skills in practical contexts, reinforcing their learning and improving their fluency. Each time slot is 30 minutes, which you can book in blocks for as much time as you want. The number of lessons you can take each month is truly unlimited, and there are nearly always teachers available.

During the lessons, you’ll engage in conversation, practice grammar and vocabulary, and receive personalized feedback and guidance from your tutor. BaseLang provides a structured curriculum to guide your learning journey, but you also have the freedom to focus on specific topics or areas of interest and use BaseLang as a way to practice your Spanish immersion skills.

After the lesson, you’ll have the opportunity to provide feedback on your experience, and BaseLang will continue to track your progress over time. Regardless of which teacher you take each lesson with, they’ll all follow your progress to know your current level and how much you’ve advanced.

Materials

Lingoda

Lingoda’s curriculum comprises around 600 lessons, divided into units, which the student can review before each lesson. In addition, the platform provides students with plenty of material for them to study and evaluate their progress on their own, such as exercises, flashcards, summaries, and quizzes that reinforce what they’ve learned during the live lessons.

BaseLang

Likewise, BaseLang has a structured curriculum with around 200 lessons, which students can access at any time from their profile. BaseLang also offers reading materials, listening tools for comprehension, exercises, homework, electives with topics of all kinds, flashcards, quizzes, and tests.

In addition, BaseLang has a very comprehensive language blog where anyone on the internet can find detailed grammar lessons, specialized vocabulary lists, study tips, and cultural content.

Flexibility

Lingoda

Lingoda’s round-the-clock availability of classes offers learners flexibility, allowing them to schedule lessons at their convenience, even booking up to a minute before their start time if slots are available.

Moreover, learners have the autonomy to tailor their learning experience to their preferred pace and intensity, whether opting for a more relaxed approach or diving into intensive courses for faster progress.

It’s crucial to note, however, that Lingoda’s Flex packages have a strict cancellation policy for booked classes: rescheduling is only possible by canceling and booking a new class, and any cancellations within three days of the class result in the forfeiture of the class credit. On the other hand, you can cancel any class with no penalty within 30 minutes of booking it. Still, as evidenced by Lingoda’s recommendation that classes be booked at least 7 days ahead of time, their scheduling policies may not appeal to learners who are looking for greater flexibility.

As for the Lingoda Sprint programs, scheduling is extremely strict. Class cancellations are only permitted at least 7 days in advance. Only one class may be taken per day, and only five classes may be taken per week (for the regular Sprint). Students must be present for the entire 60 minutes of every class to be eligible for the Sprint promotion.

BaseLang

As previously mentioned, BaseLang offers classes from 6am to midnight EST, providing students with ample flexibility to book sessions according to their preferences. Students enjoy the freedom to schedule as many classes as they desire and utilize their time on the platform as they see fit. It’s also very easy to book a class last-minute.

BaseLang accommodates cancellations without imposing penalties on students or teachers. This policy fosters a flexible learning environment, conducive to the diverse needs and commitments of students.

Price

Lingoda

Lingoda’s pricing structure depends on the type (group or individual) and quantity (5, 12, 20, or 40 per month) of lessons. All packages are billed every four weeks, and can be modified from one billing cycle to the next. They offer a free 7-day trial for their Flex packages, with access to up to three group classes or one individual lesson.

So how much does Lingoda cost? For their Lingoda Flex pricing, here are all of their options for their online language lessons, taken directly from their pricing page. Each package is for four weeks of online Spanish instruction; if you don’t use all the lessons in the block you paid for, they’re forfeited. All prices are in US$, rounded to the nearest nickel. We’ve calculated the corresponding per-lesson prices to make comparisons easier.

Group classes	Per-class rate		Individual lessons	Per-lesson rate
$80 for 5	$16		$185 for 5	$37
$160 for 12	$13.35		$370 for 12	$30.85
$230 for 20	$11.50		$510 for 20	$25.50
$430 for 40	$10.75		$900 for 40	$22.50

This pricing plan offers learners access to online Spanish lessons at per-lesson rates that may be more affordable than other options such as private tutors, with obvious discounts for students who are happy to participate in Lingoda’s scheduled group classes. For casual learners who only want one class or so every week, a good option would be to sign up for the smallest block of Lingoda Spanish classes online.

The Lingoda Sprint program has a different pricing plan. Signing up for a Sprint plan means committing to a minimum of two months, followed by a renewal through their Keep Running packages that resemble the Flex packages. Remember that *if you attend all 30 or 60 classes during the two-month program, one month of fees is refunded. These plans are renewed monthly rather than every four weeks.

Lingoda Spanish classes	Lingoda Sprint	Lingoda Super Sprint
1st month	$219 for 15 ($14.60/class)	$389 for 30 ($12.95/class)
2nd month*	$219 for 15 ($14.60/class)	$389 for 30 ($12.95/class)
3rd month onwards	$116 for 8 ($14.50/class)	$200 for 16 ($12.50/class)

BaseLang

BaseLang offers a subscription-based pricing model, providing unlimited one-on-one Spanish lessons for a flat monthly tuition of $179 per month. This pricing model makes BaseLang an attractive option for learners seeking intensive and personalized language instruction without the need to count the number of lessons they do each month. Also, pricing is per month rather than every four weeks, so BaseLang has 12 billing cycles per year rather than 13 for Lingoda.

Even for students who just take three one-hour lessons per week, this pricing model comes to $13.75/lesson. For the same fixed price, a lot of BaseLang students take way more classes than that! It’s truly unlimited, starting from day one. Here’s a table to compare per-class rates with the same number of lessons we saw above in our Lingoda review. The comparison isn’t quite the same since this flat rate of $179 is per month for BaseLang, vs four weeks for Lingoda.

Individual BaseLang lessons	Per-lesson rate
$179 for 5	$35.80
$179 for 8	$22.40
$179 for 12	$14.90
$179 for 15	$11.95
$179 for 20	$8.95
$179 for 30	$5.95
$179 for 40	$4.50

The price for BaseLang’s first week is only $1 to give it a try. Moreover, the first paid month comes with a negative risk guarantee, so if you don’t enjoy the platform in the first 35 days you’ll receive a full refund plus $20 compensation.

With unlimited access to qualified instructors and the flexibility to schedule lessons according to individual preferences, BaseLang offers excellent value for learners committed to accelerating their Spanish language proficiency.

Conclusion: Lingoda vs BaseLang

In the world of online language learning, Lingoda and BaseLang are two online language learning platforms that offer students different options and methods to learn Spanish online. Today we provided an objective Lingoda review, offering learners a fair comparison of BaseLang vs Lingoda.

Although Lingoda and BaseLang share some similarities, they have some significant differences. Lingoda’s most popular offering relies on structured group classes, whereas BaseLang only offers one-on-one lessons. Both offer a lot of flexibility in scheduling lessons, though Lingoda’s cancellation policy is quite strict.

Lingoda’s class system can allow some degree of continuity if a student follows along with the same teacher most of the time. If you take classes more frequently, however, you’ll inevitably end up with different teachers and need to start every class with some catch-up so the tutor can determine your level. BaseLang’s curriculum is shared among all its teachers, with notes on each student, so even if you have different teachers every time they’ll know where you are in your learning journey. Moreover, students can easily book classes with their favorite teachers to really develop a strong learning relationship.

Pricing options are very different between the two platforms. Students need to buy blocks of classes to use over a four-week period on Lingoda, whereas BaseLang offers unlimited one-on-one lessons for a flat rate of $179 per month. Two options on Lingoda are cheaper than BaseLang: $80 for 5 group classes over four weeks, or $160 for 12 group classes over four weeks.

The smallest package for one-on-one Lingoda classes is $185 for 5 lessons. This compares to $179 with BaseLang, for unlimited one-on-one lessons.

As we conclude our review of Lingoda and BaseLang, it’s clear that each online language learning platform has its particular strengths. Lingoda’s group classes may appeal to those seeking a structured curriculum, with opportunities for group interaction. BaseLang’s individualized approach may better suit learners who prefer personalized attention and flexibility in scheduling.

Ultimately, the choice between Lingoda and BaseLang depends on individual learning styles, goals, and preferences, in addition to the number of lessons you can make time for every week. By comparing these two platforms for Spanish language classes online, we’ve given you the information you need to choose the one that best meets your individual needs.

We hope you’ve appreciated this Lingoda review and its comparisons with BaseLang! Just remember that whatever method you choose, the key to success lies in consistent practice, dedication, and a passion for mastering the Spanish language.