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

Rype Overview

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.

But what is Rype anyway? It's a language learning platform offering one-on-one lessons with supposedly professional tutors in many languages. The platform positions itself as an app for busy people who struggle to find time for immersion classes or language group meetings.

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!

Our Verdict on Rype

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.

How It Went With Rype

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? Before we continue, check out one omany Study.com reviews. Study.com is equally popular among learners, teachers, parents and tutors. And we can't just leave it like that, so let's see what else Rype has to offer.

Our Experience With Customer Support

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? Before we jump to conclusions, let's revisit our experience with WritePapers and see how their customer service is stacked up in our WritePapers review.

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