Review Insights · App Store
Preply - Language Learning App
Preply Inc. · 40,794 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
40,794 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 45 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"subscription"
16 negative reviews mention this · 36% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating subscription model. The system took away the joy of learning.. I want to share my honest experience with Preply for anyone considering joining. On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me,…" - Sunrise2537
2
"money"
13 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam!!!!!. Do not use. They allow instructors to schedule classes whenever they want without you agreeing to it, and expect you to pay! They will essentially steal your money." - watstyl08
3
"tutor"
12 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Good luck trying to cancel your subscription. Honestly love my my tutor but I don’t want another subscription. I want a few lessons in advance to prepare an exam. Cancelling this was a chore and I absolutely LOATHE these shady company practices. Firstly offer a class pack, simple as t…" - The_Slavster
4
"lesson"
12 negative reviews mention this · 27% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Good luck trying to cancel your subscription. Honestly love my my tutor but I don’t want another subscription. I want a few lessons in advance to prepare an exam. Cancelling this was a chore and I absolutely LOATHE these shady company practices. Firstly offer a class pack, simple as t…" - The_Slavster
5
"lessons"
11 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Good luck trying to cancel your subscription. Honestly love my my tutor but I don’t want another subscription. I want a few lessons in advance to prepare an exam. Cancelling this was a chore and I absolutely LOATHE these shady company practices. Firstly offer a class pack, simple as t…" - The_Slavster
6
"didn"
9 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating subscription model. The system took away the joy of learning.. I want to share my honest experience with Preply for anyone considering joining. On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me,…" - Sunrise2537
7
"preply"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating subscription model. The system took away the joy of learning.. I want to share my honest experience with Preply for anyone considering joining. On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me,…" - Sunrise2537
8
"cancel"
8 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating subscription model. The system took away the joy of learning.. I want to share my honest experience with Preply for anyone considering joining. On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me,…" - Sunrise2537
9
"classes"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam!!!!!. Do not use. They allow instructors to schedule classes whenever they want without you agreeing to it, and expect you to pay! They will essentially steal your money." - watstyl08
10
"without"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Scam!!!!!. Do not use. They allow instructors to schedule classes whenever they want without you agreeing to it, and expect you to pay! They will essentially steal your money." - watstyl08
11
"experience"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating subscription model. The system took away the joy of learning.. I want to share my honest experience with Preply for anyone considering joining. On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me,…" - Sunrise2537
12
"stop"
7 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating subscription model. The system took away the joy of learning.. I want to share my honest experience with Preply for anyone considering joining. On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me,…" - Sunrise2537
📋 All 45 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
App video and audio lags.
App video and audio lags.
Scam!!!!!
Do not use. They allow instructors to schedule classes whenever they want without you agreeing to it, and expect you to pay! They will essentially steal your money.
Frustrating subscription model. The system took away the joy of learning.
I want to share my honest experience with Preply for anyone considering joining.
On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me, and it’s actually the reason I stayed as long as I did.
However, the subscription system is what made me stop. The 28-day automatic renewal creates pressure rather than allowing learning to feel natural and enjoyable. For someone like me, who is learning a language as a meaningful addition to life and not as an obligation, this structure felt restrictive and stressful.
I canceled my subscription because I didn’t want to be automatically charged, and unfortunately, that also meant I could no longer continue with the same teacher I genuinely appreciated. That part is disappointing, because the system ends up separating students from teachers they connect with.
I understand the idea of encouraging consistency, but learning should feel engaging and flexible, not forced. For me, that balance wasn’t there.
If you prefer a structured, subscription-based approach, Preply might work well for you. But if you’re someone who wants flexibility and a more relaxed pace, it’s something to think about before joining.
On the positive side, I was very happy with my teacher. She was kind, professional, and made learning enjoyable. That part of the experience meant a lot to me, and it’s actually the reason I stayed as long as I did.
However, the subscription system is what made me stop. The 28-day automatic renewal creates pressure rather than allowing learning to feel natural and enjoyable. For someone like me, who is learning a language as a meaningful addition to life and not as an obligation, this structure felt restrictive and stressful.
I canceled my subscription because I didn’t want to be automatically charged, and unfortunately, that also meant I could no longer continue with the same teacher I genuinely appreciated. That part is disappointing, because the system ends up separating students from teachers they connect with.
I understand the idea of encouraging consistency, but learning should feel engaging and flexible, not forced. For me, that balance wasn’t there.
If you prefer a structured, subscription-based approach, Preply might work well for you. But if you’re someone who wants flexibility and a more relaxed pace, it’s something to think about before joining.
Good luck trying to cancel your subscription
Honestly love my my tutor but I don’t want another subscription. I want a few lessons in advance to prepare an exam.
Cancelling this was a chore and I absolutely LOATHE these shady company practices. Firstly offer a class pack, simple as that.
Secondly if you insist on a subscription 🙄 make it easy and obvious to cancel.
It was so deeply hidden in the interface, at least 10 clicks deep if not more. I was asked at least 5 times if I “really wanted to cancel”.
A single confirmation is more than enough.
I honestly like the app and think it’s a good service but this last process made me think of it much more negatively. Stop doing this to your customers.
Cancelling this was a chore and I absolutely LOATHE these shady company practices. Firstly offer a class pack, simple as that.
Secondly if you insist on a subscription 🙄 make it easy and obvious to cancel.
It was so deeply hidden in the interface, at least 10 clicks deep if not more. I was asked at least 5 times if I “really wanted to cancel”.
A single confirmation is more than enough.
I honestly like the app and think it’s a good service but this last process made me think of it much more negatively. Stop doing this to your customers.
Problem in the application
Thank you for creating this application, but i have a problem when i want to join at that section that asks about ( what is your job title or role ?) when I want to write my answer at the box I can’t do it because my keyboard doesn’t appear, i tried a lot of times but the same problem happened ,Can you fix it please.
Thanks
Thanks
Garbaje
Está app es una basura , si quieren tiara su dinero adelante.
Worse app to navigate
The app is awful. So confusing, to navigate the needs in that app it’s a nightmare.
Russia is a country
Let us choose teachers from russia. Stop blocking them from being searchable.
Asked for review
Asked me for a review so you get 1 star congratulations.
Oled dark mode please 🤦♂️
Oled dark mode please 🤦♂️
Platform is hot garbage
I hate so much about this app, and would not be on here if I knew of a better way to teach online.
My first experience with the app I found out it doesn’t work with the chrome app on the phone. There is no support for this. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure it out and ended up using Safari.
Second thing to note is on the website version when a student messages you there’s an AI response. The response is always filled out and I have to select it to delete it. The AI response should not be the DEFAULT message. Maybe put it on the side and let me click a button to accept if I want to send it. The AI response sounds inhumane and just wants the students to have more lessons, which means more money for the platform. I get it, you want money, but come on. The AI itself shows me you care very little about the success of language production.
Last, and probably not final annoyance, is I had a student reschedule a lesson from Monday to Wednesday. The Monday lesson is still on my schedule. So did my student add a lesson for Wednesday or change from money to Wednesday? It says the words “reschedule”. Are you using AI to also manage this?
One more bonus: I hate that I have to use a 3rd party program to get my money. Looking at reviews 2/4 suggested apps are not that good according to reviews.
My first experience with the app I found out it doesn’t work with the chrome app on the phone. There is no support for this. I spent 15 minutes trying to figure it out and ended up using Safari.
Second thing to note is on the website version when a student messages you there’s an AI response. The response is always filled out and I have to select it to delete it. The AI response should not be the DEFAULT message. Maybe put it on the side and let me click a button to accept if I want to send it. The AI response sounds inhumane and just wants the students to have more lessons, which means more money for the platform. I get it, you want money, but come on. The AI itself shows me you care very little about the success of language production.
Last, and probably not final annoyance, is I had a student reschedule a lesson from Monday to Wednesday. The Monday lesson is still on my schedule. So did my student add a lesson for Wednesday or change from money to Wednesday? It says the words “reschedule”. Are you using AI to also manage this?
One more bonus: I hate that I have to use a 3rd party program to get my money. Looking at reviews 2/4 suggested apps are not that good according to reviews.
Payment
It should be an option not to have an automatic subscription renewal. It should be manual !
Charges you without consent
This is a really frustrating. If you buy classes once, it just rebills you. I had no subscriptions and checked specifically. Yet regardless, I wake up to a 200 dollar charge that I didn’t authorize. Very deceptive tactics, I’m going to take my business elsewhere.
Referral scan
Be aware they do not apply the referral discount and will claim your referrals didn’t use your link. There is an entire Reddit post about it. Will have to cancel and call my credit card company to cancel.
Didn’t work the first lesson.
My first lesson was a disaster due to technical
Issues. I kept clicking join lesson but nothing happens.
Issues. I kept clicking join lesson but nothing happens.
Buyer Beware
Do not waste your time with this company. You have to pay for another person subscription before the current one is even used. And good luck getting a refund. So just make sure to dot all your i’s and cross your t’s before using this company. Maybe had two good sessions out of 7. So disappointed. Wish I could give it 0 stars.
Preply removed $60 of my credits and just deleted them . Basically took the money .
I had about $60 preply refused to return it to my cc. They just took it and now credits not there. Just stole $60 .
Dishonest company; steals money from students
After giving preply money for several years, I decided to stop because of some issues. 1: Their teachers have asked me to cancel classes and when I do, I have to pay for that. It’s irresponsible for teachers to want to cancel last minute and even though I have messages from the tutor asking me to cancel, I was still at fault. Lesson learned. 2: Tutors can schedule lessons whilst student sleeps. I’ve had multiple lessons scheduled without my knowing and when I wake up, it’s a missed lesson and I’m out that money. I’ve decided to give my tutors a low rating given the circumstances. Preply has deleted my reviews. They usually prefer 5 star reviews for tutors. This causes an issue because when they are truly unreliable, students lose out on time and money. Fortunately, the hundreds of dollars I had invested were refunded to me, besides the “canceled” classes. I will no longer be supporting a corrupt company that doesn’t even allow students to rate their teachers. You are doing a disservice to yourself and others.
You loose money without realizing
Preply is a scam. Any lessons that are not scheduled within the cycle (28 days) will be “expired” - meaning disappeared. Preply just take your money without you even noticing. I didn’t realize this until this month and I have been using Preply for over 2 yrs, who knows how many of my lessons have “expired” before I get to schedule. Instead of crediting your lesson into your wallet, your money just quietly disappeared. Sometimes we travel so we canceled lessons, and I guess those disappeared without us noticing. SCAM!
Horrible
This app Started off good these tutors on here or taking money then they will inactive they account supports takes so long to reach out my lesson started at 11:30am tutor is inactive did not
Get my money back at all when canceling the sessions due to tutor not joining I done had tutors ask me questions that has nothing to do with math which is weird as well
Get my money back at all when canceling the sessions due to tutor not joining I done had tutors ask me questions that has nothing to do with math which is weird as well
Worst membership method ever
They charge you for a certain amount of classes and you will be billed recurring, yet you have limited time to use them and if you freeze your membership, you can’t use them. It’s a joke. Absolutely horrible. Would never recommend this website. There are so many better options that don’t try and rope you into this weird system . I would recommend you connect with a teacher, get their contact information and pay them directly outside of preply
Unethical billing practices
Their subscription system is a textbook case of dark patterns designed to waste your money. Basic simple things like purchasing the amount of classes you need and want are made difficult.
Scam alert
I had technical issues where I could not hear my tutor. Preply refuses to refund
Not good experience
The tutor was very kind, but there were a few work conflicts she had that led to canceled lessons. Since our schedules didn’t align, I ended up being charged at the end of the month without completing all the sessions. I asked them to stop the charges, but they continued billing me. It’s also very difficult to reach someone to discuss concerns or resolve incorrect billing issues.
Very disappointing experience.
My subscription renewed while the app still showed “1 lesson remaining,” which made it look like my final class before cancellation. There was no clear indication that a new billing cycle had started, and the charge happened without obvious user awareness.
Support responses felt template-based and repetitive rather than a genuine review of my case. Polite, but not helpful.
The renewal system is confusing and not user-friendly. Be careful with auto-renewal.
Support responses felt template-based and repetitive rather than a genuine review of my case. Polite, but not helpful.
The renewal system is confusing and not user-friendly. Be careful with auto-renewal.
Preply favors the tutors not the student
I want to learn Japanese. Finds a tutor. You have to subscribe to said tutor. Scheduling with them was inconsistent(on their end) and challenging. Managed to do 3 lessons. Tutor cancels the next 2 due to not being prepared for an exam. Forgives tutor. Next lesson is fine. Next lesson is a no show. Okay I am done with this tutor. Too inconsistent and irritating to work around their schedule. Too bad you have a subscription. You either force the rest of remaining lessons balance or stop trying with this tutor and they get paid to be terrible. 5 star reviews on this tutor BTW.
Hidden fee and hard to get a refund
Recently I had requested a refund but I didn’t get it yet. They said they will do but nothing happens. There is no tel number but only through the chat. They keep saying that they sent money.
Canceling subscriptions
Canceling subscriptions is a nightmare
Disappointed
Terrible app. To be fair everything was fine at first. It was convenient and enjoyable while I was working with my tutor. Then I decided to take a break. I had an active automatic subscription and prepaid lessons. I asked for a refund and was told it was not possible.
The support experience was one of the worst I have ever had. The support agent was clearly a real person not a bot. She read my messages and did not respond for about 30 minutes while every message showed as read. After that she sent a generic scripted reply and said the only option was to freeze my lessons for one month.
Be very careful when renewing or purchasing lessons because getting your money back is extremely difficult. I do not understand how a company that seems so reasonable at first can have such serious issues with customer refunds. I am extremely disappointed and after this experience I do not plan to use this app again. Absolutely awful.
The support experience was one of the worst I have ever had. The support agent was clearly a real person not a bot. She read my messages and did not respond for about 30 minutes while every message showed as read. After that she sent a generic scripted reply and said the only option was to freeze my lessons for one month.
Be very careful when renewing or purchasing lessons because getting your money back is extremely difficult. I do not understand how a company that seems so reasonable at first can have such serious issues with customer refunds. I am extremely disappointed and after this experience I do not plan to use this app again. Absolutely awful.
Hard to cancel subscriptions
They make it really difficult to stop a subscription with a teacher or to cancel and deactivate your account. Support is non existent. They force you into a subscription model.
Very difficult very disappointing
I got into the app really excited to learn and I got sick for one class and we moved the class to another time and the teacher canceled on me and it charged me and for some reason it told me “i can’t contact this tutor find another one” right after that even though I paid for subscription. I moved to another teacher and the first lesson their power went out so I only had half of the class I paid for. We moved it into another day and they didn’t appear. I made so much time and paid a lot into this to get nothing back I really wouldn’t recommend this app because the app forced you to do things a certain way that teachers didn’t understand and charged the students for anyways I don’t see myself going back to this app it was too much.
Horrible
Horrible horrible horrible
The application continuously charges for payments without proper consent and refuses to issue refunds when requested. I purchased a lesson package, but the teacher repeatedly postponed the lessons and often did not attend them. Eventually, the teacher stated that they had a health problem and could not continue the lessons.
I requested a refund through the support section, but my request was rejected on the grounds that some lessons were marked as “used.” This situation is not my fault. I did nothing wrong, I do not want to change the teacher, and the service was not properly provided, yet I am still unable to get my money back.
This company only focuses on taking money and offers no real support to its users. I do not recommend this application.
The application continuously charges for payments without proper consent and refuses to issue refunds when requested. I purchased a lesson package, but the teacher repeatedly postponed the lessons and often did not attend them. Eventually, the teacher stated that they had a health problem and could not continue the lessons.
I requested a refund through the support section, but my request was rejected on the grounds that some lessons were marked as “used.” This situation is not my fault. I did nothing wrong, I do not want to change the teacher, and the service was not properly provided, yet I am still unable to get my money back.
This company only focuses on taking money and offers no real support to its users. I do not recommend this application.
This app will take your money for free
I have been using preply for more than a year and I just realized that their algorithm is very menacing. If you don’t finish your classes for the month, your lessons will not be accumulated and carried forward to the next month. They will simply disappear the lessons that you didn’t finish and automatically pay for the next months. It’s like a “legal stealing” of your money. Be aware, everyone!
Для поиска репетиторА отличное приложение, но есть нюанс
Отличное приложение для поиска репетиторов, но есть вопросы к русской версии приложения, типа, феминитивы, вы серьезно??? Лучше уберите этот позор, серьезно
Perdida de saldo para clases sin explicación 😡
En dos oportunidades tuve un saldo en mi cuenta y como mi trabajo es remoto hay momentos donde me ausento por algunos días y cuando retomo veo que mi saldo se va perdiendo sin haber programado clases, pero eso si muy puntuales le debitan de la cuenta bancaria y cuando uno pide apoyo para ver qué ha pasado con el saldo siempre hay ausencia de respuestas concretas
Absolutely awful customer service and app
The app constantly makes me pay for more than my monthly subscription. Tutors constantly move forward their classes to the next month which means I do not get the class that I paid for and the next month I am paying again for the sub subscription for that month. When I talk to their customer service to get a refund, they refuse to give me the refund even though this has been happening for months on end when I told them I have a balance of nine classes left around $160. they still refused to give me my money back and said I should just schedule classes. The only problem with that is the Tutor only has certain number of classes in a week and is not able to do any more classes to get my money back and they won’t let me delay the subscription so that I can actually use the money that already is in the system so basically again and again they try and con you to spending more money absolutely awful up many many better ones out there would suggest you never ever start this app.
Stuck
It keeps auto renewing my subscription even when i cancel everything. Its a very messed up app and their customer support does not help resolve anything. They are there for namesake.
Horrible!!!
Mr.hassan M. He was a terrible teacher he was flirting with me and wasn’t even talking about the lesson at all and then the app had so much subscriptions!!! and it will say your lesson is in one to two hours, but it ends up being so much longer. Please fix your problems.!!!!!!!!
.
I dislike not knowing you had to pay for the app you should not have to pay to learn a language
Scammers charge you different day monthly and make you go to desktop to cancel meanwhile everything
Scammers charging you a different day each month so you never know when you’ll be charged and miss out on your lessons you’re paying for meanwhile everything is on the app
Subscription Warning
The app has decent tutors but they push hard for long term subscriptions, which CANNOT be cancelled for any reason whatsoever as long as you’ve taken just one class. Watch out for it. I hated this fraudulent policy so much I’d rather learn anywhere else. Overly greedy terms.
User experience could use work
i loved my tutor, but the subscription model is very limiting. and you cant cancel subscription from the app which feels scammy. But i found a great tutor.
Please be careful with this app.
The app is very exaggerated and moving fast to charge you. When you paid, there is no way for a refund. No customer service at all. Be very careful when add your bank account information at this app. They charged me for no class I took. Finally I filed a dispute and my bank refund me the amount this app charged me for.
Love my tutor unhappy with the money hungry company
I hate that this language learning app doesn’t let you take off certain days of a month because you’re on vacation so you can’t make it. So I just end up having to use multiple and one week was just stressful and too much. In addition, my credit card declined for the subscription of the next month and the software literally did not let me log into my already paid lesson scheduled to take because I needed to update my payment. There’s no consideration for paying customers and it’s clearly just trying to siphon as much money out as possible. Plus, if a person paying for a lesson needs to cancel, it doesn’t pay the tutor a single cent for also getting canceled on.
Fake Reviews
The good reviews have to be done by bots. They trick you into taking a trial lesson but what they don’t tell you is that you have to sign up for a subscription where you pay for all your lessons upfront. They do not give you the option to pay per lesson. I had a great experience with my tutor and am now in this uncomfortable position. Plus their app makes it impossible to scroll through the messages to retrieve any homework your tutor sends. Don’t believe the fake reviews.
Sentiment summary
96%
Positive (4-5★)
1%
Neutral (3★)
3%
Negative (1-2★)