I really liked the free levels. But I’m broke and currently can’t afford their prices.
And I have to say that I’m not really a fan of their pricing structure in general. I always dislike subscription based models, but in this case it just feels scummy. If you go through WaniKani as fast as you can, it supposedly takes a bit more than a year. So if you don’t remember to change to the monthly model after the first year you will be charged for a whole second year even though you don’t need it.
Also, I can understand why it costs so much. They have to maintain their servers and they add new content. But I would have happily paid $50 to get and offline version without updates.
Because I couldn’t afford WaniKani I switched to Remembering the Kanji which costs $12 and you don’t even need to buy the book if you don’t want to because there is so much great community made content for it. compared to that the value proposition of WaniKani is just ridiculous.
In conclusion, I still think WaniKani is great. I had a lot of fun with their free levels. But only being able to continue by buying the subscription is a dick move. Even if I had $300 to outright “buy” it it would just give me access to the website. If they decide to discontinue their site in 3 years I would be left with nothing because I didn’t receive a product that’s available offline.
To be clear, I don’t think the people at WaniKani act with malicious intend. I’m sure they do their best to deliver a great product. But in my opinion they don’t deliver a product at all and still charge hundreds of dollars for it.
I greatly encourage all consumers to reconsider buying something that is only available through a subscription and/or doesn’t provide an actual product that is available offline. Please think about if you are really okay with owning nothing.
RIP Jourm. May he be forever remembered as the true name of the じょう kanji.
I like how WK is idiot proof. I just show up each day and do what it says.
Level 47/60 here and if I get another synonym for “to shake” or baseball words I’m gonna lose it
4 comments
I really liked the free levels. But I’m broke and currently can’t afford their prices.
And I have to say that I’m not really a fan of their pricing structure in general. I always dislike subscription based models, but in this case it just feels scummy. If you go through WaniKani as fast as you can, it supposedly takes a bit more than a year. So if you don’t remember to change to the monthly model after the first year you will be charged for a whole second year even though you don’t need it.
Also, I can understand why it costs so much. They have to maintain their servers and they add new content. But I would have happily paid $50 to get and offline version without updates.
Because I couldn’t afford WaniKani I switched to Remembering the Kanji which costs $12 and you don’t even need to buy the book if you don’t want to because there is so much great community made content for it. compared to that the value proposition of WaniKani is just ridiculous.
In conclusion, I still think WaniKani is great. I had a lot of fun with their free levels. But only being able to continue by buying the subscription is a dick move. Even if I had $300 to outright “buy” it it would just give me access to the website. If they decide to discontinue their site in 3 years I would be left with nothing because I didn’t receive a product that’s available offline.
To be clear, I don’t think the people at WaniKani act with malicious intend. I’m sure they do their best to deliver a great product. But in my opinion they don’t deliver a product at all and still charge hundreds of dollars for it.
I greatly encourage all consumers to reconsider buying something that is only available through a subscription and/or doesn’t provide an actual product that is available offline. Please think about if you are really okay with owning nothing.
RIP Jourm. May he be forever remembered as the true name of the じょう kanji.
I like how WK is idiot proof. I just show up each day and do what it says.
Level 47/60 here and if I get another synonym for “to shake” or baseball words I’m gonna lose it