Our Worst Experience
Of Learning A Language?
An Honest Rype Review

Rype has a rating of 2.7 stars based on ~60 reviews, which shows that many clients aren't too happy with their experience. Mostly, complaints focus on poor customer service, low-skilled and unprofessional tutors, and an inconvenient pricing system.

As you can see, the reviews are mixed, and there aren't many of them to begin with. That's why our team decided we should give it a try. Our editor, Emma, who you may remember from the Lingoda review, spent a month trying to learn a new language with Rype tutors. Since she already has a basic knowledge of French, we thought Italian would be a good choice this time. Both languages aren't the same, but they have many similarities.

We booked 16 lessons, and Emma diligently attended them over the last month, trying to learn as much as possible. Curious about her progress? Let's jump into the review then, and you'll see!

Rype is a terrible service that is not worth its price. The concept of short but consistent daily one-on-one lessons has so much potential, and it would be useful for busy people, especially students. But it's so poorly executed that we were kind of disappointed.

The service has an awful online reputation; people on Trustpilot are completely bashing it down. And we can confirm that those Rype reviews weren't lying after all!  Unreasonably high prices, amateur tutors, and dead customer service ‒ almost every bad thing mentioned in those reviews was true.

Finding a free teacher is just impossible sometimes, even for English classes. Not because there's high demand for them but rather because there are only a few tutors on the platform. Customer support responds once a week; emailing them feels like throwing a bottle with a letter into the open sea, waiting for someone to find it. Great website design is perhaps the only positive thing about Rype.

In short, we can't recommend Rypeapp.com to our readers and strongly advise you to avoid it. The platform has been in the business for years, but it did virtually nothing to improve the user experience over this time.

In a nutshell, it was terrible. You can't do anything on Rype from the beginning without entering your billing information and paying first. You can't even set up an account and start the promised trial without paying the full membership price in advance. The "trial" itself is a joke; it's just three lessons with their tutors AFTER you have paid for a month.

And the "best" part is that you can't get a refund; Rype doesn't even have a refund policy! Theoretically, you can get a refund from your bank, but 70% of the reviews on Trustpilot say, "Good luck trying to see any of that money again."

But we were determined to test the platform and paid. Only after that could we fill out our language profile by answering different questions about language experience, preferences, and so on. And finally, Emma could choose the date for her first lesson.

The first introductory lesson was fine, but generally, out of 16 classes she took, only 3 or 4 were enjoyable and informative. From what we've learned from other reviews, there's no feedback or support, and nobody's checking on what teachers are teaching. So, you can't tell if they personalize your lessons like they claim, and even if they do, we'll never know how exactly.

The material covered in lessons didn't match up with Emma's determined language level. Who needs to study the vowels for two lessons straight, a third-grader? The lesson plans seem designed to drag out even the easiest stuff for as many sessions as possible. Sometimes, it felt like the tutors were ready to move to another topic, but the curriculum they were given just wouldn’t let them.

Plus, our tutors always had issues with Skype and internet connection or often arrived 5-10 minutes late. One time, one didn't show up, and we had to reschedule the class.

And it's just a tiny and extremely compressed bit of our experience with these folks. At one point, we even regretted creating this Rype review. $200 for 8 hours of questionable Italian lessons sounds crazy, but who else but us, right? And we can't just leave it like that, so let's see what else Rype has to offer.

The customer service at Rype is useless, at least at this point. The best scenario is you'll get a reply in a week or two, but hope not to be left on read. The website doesn't have a chat with live support, and there is no phone number to call them directly; the only way to communicate with support is by email.

However, instead of emailing them directly, you need to leave your email, describe your problem, and simply wait for someone at Rype to notice your request and respond. Should we mention that a platform charging $200 monthly for eight hours of language lessons needs to be more accessible and offer responsive customer service?

Claiming to be a "platform for busy people wanting to learn a new language" seems ironic when you're stuck waiting days or weeks just to hear back from support. We contacted them twice. The first question about refunds was answered four days later, while the other one about the possibility of creating a mobile app is still in their inbox, waiting to be noticed.

Maybe they’re crafting the world’s most thoughtful responses, and that's why it takes so long. Or perhaps that's how businesses nowadays work, huh?

The best description of the hiring process and tutors, in general, comes from a review on Reddit by a guy who used to teach at Rype. The review is legit and written by a real Redditor who is active on the platform (you can check both his profile and the users' profiles in the thread for yourself). Feel free to read the thread in full.

In short, Rype teachers don't need to be certified or professional. If you speak Italian, you can become a tutor; that's just enough. The process of teacher selection is non-existent. Spanish tutors, for example, are mostly from South America because people from Spain won't work for $5 per lesson.

Emma had experience with five different tutors, and they seem to be the only few available in general. At least one of them was definitely not a native speaker and had a strong accent. It's not a problem, of course, if you still progress in language learning, but there's no need to advertise your tutors as L1 speakers in the first place.

The real problem is them losing internet connection and often being late. But at least all of them were nice and excused themselves every time that happened.

Of course, one of the main questions on everyone's mind is, "How much is Rype?" And let us tell you, it's quite expensive.

Rype utilizes a subscription model and offers two options for users: an annual and a monthly plan. The cost per month with the yearly plan is 20% cheaper. Thus, eight lessons per month will cost you $90 or $100, 16 lessons ‒ $165 or $200, while the full package with 30 lessons included will run you $295 or $350, depending on the plan. That is expensive, especially since one lesson is only 30 minutes long.

Theoretically, you can get a full month at the annual plan's lower rate and just leave, but quitting early here makes more trouble than it's worth. We didn't do that, but just to let you know, other customers mentioned that canceling your subscription at Rype is almost impossible, and even so, your membership can't be canceled right away.

Rype also has a referral program. When you refer someone, you can give them a 7-day free trial worth $70. For each of your friends who joins Rype, you'll receive $70 and a free month on the platform. Unfortunately, it doesn't explain how to withdraw or use your $70, and with the customer service mostly unresponsive, we can't tell you either.

As we already said multiple times, Rype doesn't offer refunds for any membership payments. You can only cancel your subscription and see how your plan runs out until the end of the billing cycle.

But to be fair, Rype's Terms & Conditions mention that they can make certain exceptions. If you end the subscription because you're relocating, become disabled, or pass away (!) before your billing period ends, Rype might consider a refund. It's not even guaranteed ‒ they only might consider it!  

Sure, they also mention that other kinds of refunds may be possible, but they are "at their sole discretion," and it doesn't guarantee you'll get similar deals in the future.

We're not going to lie; this is an absurd system and not how a service should treat its customers. If you're a reputable platform confident in the quality of your services, why eliminate the option for refunds?

Our team was very lucky with how Emma's lesson regarding time management went. Aside from one rescheduled class, all other lessons took place on time as planned, even with some tutors being a bit late. Rype doesn't work 24/7, but, as the service claims, you can find free tutors from 4 am to 12 pm EST.

The problem is the limited number of tutors, and you may have difficulties finding one at the right time. There's a dedicated chapter in the Help Center on how to handle such situations. Rype suggests booking a chat with their customer support, but the link they give you doesn't take you anywhere useful.

We think that the concept of getting short 30-minute lessons is great, especially for busy people. Make it consistent, and you'll make progress in any language. But we feel like Rype kind of messed up the whole idea.

Basically, any other language learning platform! We don't know what Rype can do better than the competitors like Italki or Lingoda, which we've already reviewed. Even Duolingo will be of better use because you don't need to wait for teachers to free up and pay a fortune for it.

Returning to the Reddit review, that guy who worked for Rype made a good observation. Many students he was working with didn't know anything about Italki or similar services because they'd never tried online learning before. Rype's website is very well-designed and looks attractive, so many newcomers to online language learning can be fooled by that.

Don't be misled by appearances, and read as many reviews from different platforms as possible before trying something out. Including ours, of course ‒ that's why we're making these reviews in the first place.

Summing up this Rype review, we believe it's quite clear that disadvantages completely overshadow the only few advantages. Every aspect of the service we looked into is poorly designed or not fully developed. Along with ridiculously high fees for limited study hours and a lack of crucial policies, it's no wonder why Rype is not nearly as popular as its main competitors in the field.

Nevertheless, what pros and cons do we have in the end?