Browsing through multiple language learning apps, we came across Memrise and found it to be very helpful. It has been creating a buzz lately and comes in both app and web versions.
It’s effective, interesting, and flexible when it comes to language learning.
That’s not all, though. We will give you an in-depth Memrise review and also look at Memrise Pro to make a decision on whether Memrise is truly an effective language-learning app.
Let’s find it out!
Memrise Review
Before we start our Memrise review, let’s give you a quick introduction to the platform.
Memrise is a powerful language-learning platform that was created in 2010. The e-learning platform offers many courses in various languages that help language enthusiasts.
It is your study partner who helps you out with different subjects like science, maths, history, literature, and so on. However, the app mainly focuses on teaching different languages. The lessons are fun and interactive as they come with quizzes, flashcards, and many other engaging exercises.
And you wanna know the good part? The app comes with a free plan offering loads of various features, which is, I believe more than enough.
But if you wanna boost up our learning journey, there’s a paid membership, too. It’s a pretty good deal, no?
Let’s learn more about it in our Memrise review.
What Languages Does Memrise Offer?
Memrise offers a vast range of language courses that are carefully crafted for English as well as speakers of other languages. With Memrise, you can learn more than 20+ languages even if you are a free user.
The languages offered by Memrise include both popular and some of the less commonly spoken ones. The popular languages include Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Chinese, Mandarin, and so on. Read our detailed review of Memrise for learning Spanish.
Apart from 23 languages with official courses on Memrise, there are some user-generated courses on the web version. Users keep on adding additional content to study on Memrise and with their official courses, too, so the learning never stops! And it’s a cherry on top if the added content is from the native speakers of the language.
Also, thinking about learning an entirely different language that no one’s heard of? Memrise has that. These include Icelandic, Welsh, Sinhala, Guarani, Fijian, Haitian Creole, and many more.
Can You Become Fluent With Memrise?
Although Memrise offers a number of languages to learn, you might not expect to be completely fluent on its own.
Fluency in a language does not only come from learning grammar or vocabulary but from the ability to to understand culture, nuances, and idioms.
However, if you pair your learning with conversation practice and immersion, Memrise can accelerate your journey toward fluency.
Memrise Review: Key Features
Now, let’s continue our Memrise review and have a look at some secrets to get language learning success through some of the most amazing features offered by Memrise.
Spaced Repetition System (SRS)
Let’s talk about one of the most talked about and hyped features of Memrise, which is their Spaced Repetition System. This feature lets the learners “memorize” vocabulary and phrases who find it hard to memorize information in their minds for a longer or even shorter period of time.
It basically uses a technique where learners are exposed to flashcards at regular intervals of time to help them store the information better. It is like a mentor that keeps on sending friendly reminders and wants to see you succeed.
Of course, this feature had to be included as one of the founders of Memrise is a Princeton Neuroscientist who has expertise in the science of memory and forgetting. Hence it provided a strong foundation to go for this learning approach. We can safely say that Memrise has helped a lot of people learn new languages around the world.
Engaging and Effective Learning Approaches
In order to keep learners motivated and make them feel this learning journey is enjoyable, Memrise has incorporated some game-like elements (a Gamified approach) into its learning methods. Each course is composed of some levels where you get points and badges each time you level up.
Other than that, to keep the learning process engaging, Memrise has tons of activities which include matching exercises where users have to match words, phrases, or images to their corresponding definitions or translations, flashcards, quizzes, learning exercises, fill-in-the-blanks where you have to fill missing words or phrases in sentences and dialogues, role playing activities and speaking exercises which makes the learning even better.
Native Content Incorporation
Learning through apps, as long as it is just vocabulary and phrases, is great, but as for other factors are concerned, it doesn’t seem so effective right, especially when it comes to correcting pronunciations and perfecting an accent.
Memrise has videos and audio for different language courses that are basically recordings of the native speakers of the language. Getting exposure to native speakers provides us with more valuable and credible content that would develop a great understanding of the language. Through this, one can easily improve their overall fluency and communication skills.
Contextual Language Learning
This feature’s main focus is to apply and practice what the students have learned to real-life situations, as language is a tool for communication and interaction in the real world. It is not just focused on the memorization of phrases, grammar, and vocabulary. Memrise implements this contextual language learning in various ways.
Firstly, Memrise provides videos of native speakers, as we discussed above. In the videos, speakers can be seen ordering food, asking for directions, or simply just having a casual conversation.
As in the case of grammar and vocabulary, Memrise lets the users learn through dialogues and meaningful sentences. It has role-playing, through which learners can practice language in different situations.
Memrise Review: How Much Does Memrise Cost?
To create an account first, you do not have to give your payment details as it is completely free. You get a great deal of course material in the free plan that is more than enough, which basically includes access to basic courses, a Spaced Repetition System for learning grammar and vocabulary, limited personalized review plans through which Memrise helps you tailor the courses, and content as per your requirements and your progress, progress tracking, and gamification elements like points, badges, levels, leaderboards, challenges, virtual rewards and what not.
Memrise Free Plan is for sure a pretty great deal to start off your language learning journey. But, wanna enjoy some more perks? Memrise Pro subscription is here for you.
There’s a monthly subscription where you get access to all courses and features, and it costs $14.99 per month. There’s an annual subscription plan that offers savings, meaning it is offered at a discounted price, which is quite reasonable in comparison to what you pay monthly. The annual subscription costs $89.99, which is equivalent to $7.49 per month. The great part is you can get unlimited lifetime access to all of Memrise’s courses and features for a one-time lifetime subscription cost, which is only $199.99.
Other than this, Memrise offers various discounts and promotions throughout the year, so it is best to keep on checking the app and website to get the most out of these deals.
Read a more detailed review comparing the Free and Paid versions of Memrise.
Memrise Review: Pros & Cons
It is always great to list down the pros and cons for developing a better understanding while reviewing a platform in order to decide its worth. Let’s do it then!
Here’s a table to know the pros and cons of Memrise:
| Pros | Cons |
| Convenient offline access for learning without the internet. | The course quality may be compromised as in the case of user-generated content. |
| There are a lot of fun and engaging activities which keep the learners motivated. | Some activities might be repetitive for some users |
| Game-like elements make learning fun and enjoyable. | It might not be suitable for learners who prefer traditional ways of learning. |
| The course quality may be compromised, as in the case of user-generated content. | |
| Personalized learning experience |
So, until now, in our Memrise review, is it safe to say that is Memrise worth it?
We are curious to know that also! But first, let’s have a look at what Memrise Pro is and what’s the hype about it.
Memrise Pro Review: All You Need to Know
Memrise Free is an all-in-all deal that definitely caters to almost all of your needs, but if you are hungry for more, Memrise Pro is here to the rescue. With Memrise Pro, we get additional content and features that enhance our language learning journey and improve different areas of language learning, be it fluency or pronunciation, grammar or vocabulary.
So obviously if you want more, it definitely comes with a cost.
What sets Memrise Pro Apart From Memrise Free
Let’s see what treasure Memrise Pro got that we would “pay” to get it, even though Memrise Free is a good deal.
Course Access
With Memrise Pro, learners get unlimited access to all the Memrise’s courses also the courses that are very diverse and less commonly taught. What we find more interesting is that it offers advanced and specialized courses where it teach stuff which is different from just the basics of grammar and vocabulary.
These courses are actually for intermediate to advanced learners who already know the basics of the language. It even lets the learners know about the culture of the languages that they are learning.
So cool, no?
One of the specialized courses of Memrise is Grammar Nuances, where the learners are taught different grammar rules, their variations, exceptions, idioms, and how to use them. We find it pretty amazing that you can easily correct and perfect your grammar this way.
Memrise Pro also provides vocabulary expansion where learners are taught vocabulary apart from what is used in daily life. These are some specialized terminologies, academic vocabulary, cultural expressions, and so on. Also, it provides an understanding of the cultures. Their customs and traditions, history and social norms, and what not. This creates a better understanding.
The main focus of specialized courses is to develop language skills in a way that is necessary for business communication, like writing business vocabulary or any sort of formal writing, and also to enhance presentation skills. Since the workplace is becoming globalized each day, it will actually help learners in a lot of ways.
Continuous Course Development
Memrise Pro makes sure that its subscribers always have access to the latest, updated, engaging course content to ensure quality learning. Whatever new content is being generated or the existing courses are being updated, Memrise Pro subscribers are given the priority to access them at any given point in time. With this, the learners get to know the updated vocabulary, grammar concepts, and cultures.
Other than that, Memrise Pro’s gamification elements are also constantly updating to keep the learners motivated and engaged by introducing new reward systems, badges, and so on. Memrise Pro’s feature, where you can access the course content offline, is also always kept up to date, and more courses are being added to it to be viewed offline.
If you are a Pro subscriber, then you don’t have to worry about outdated content as Memrise Pro always takes feedback from its learners first regarding what changes and enhancements they want in the course content, and then they tailor it accordingly.
Flexibility and Customization
With Memrise Pro’s flexibility and customization feature, subscribers can alter the course content and gamification elements, in a nutshell, their entire language learning experience as they require and however it suits their schedules or preferences. Subscribers have a personalized course selection option where, since having access to all courses, they can choose any from them, and any proficiency level they want.
For suppose, if I want to travel outside to some country, I would select a course that would teach me basic conversational skills, but on the other hand, if I want to study business communication, I would easily go with the course that is focused on business communication skills.
Offline Access
Unstable internet? Moving to a place temporarily that doesn’t have an internet connection but wants to keep with the learning? Getting bored on a flight? Don’t you worry, pals! Memrise Pro has an offline access feature that helps you to download courses of your choice and lets you view them anywhere, any time of the day, without internet connectivity. For people who travel abroad, this is a great feature for them.
So, how to download the courses for offline viewing? Very easy peasy first, select the courses you want to download. Once you have selected, initiate the download process. Memrise Pro will download the course content from your device’s storage. And hurray! You are ready to view the course online when the downloading is completed.
Memrise is constantly making enhancements to improve its offline access experience. It is expanding the courses that can be viewed without an internet connection. Other than that, it is trying to improve offline performance in ways that the downloaded courses run smoothly.
One interesting feature is that it incorporates a syncing mechanism where your online account comes in sync with your offline progress. This ensures consistency.
So, now is Memrise Pro worth it?
After getting to know all of its features, we can say for sure that Memrise Pro is a valuable investment if you are on to maximizing your progress as it provides extensive features. Do you want to learn a specialized topic or language? That is only available on Memrise Pro.
Have problems and queries and need to get them answered ASAP? Memrise Pro is here to the rescue. If you want to enjoy enhanced gamification elements, Memrise Pro is there for it.
In a nutshell, it is safe to say that Memrise Pro is a worthwhile decision. But then again, you need to first identify your personal goals and needs.
Final Verdict: Is Memrise Worth It?
Is Memrise overall worth it? We for sure have an answer to that now after our detailed Memrise review!
With all the amazing features that come with Memrise free that I guess you don’t need Memrise Pro for, it is a great package. Providing access to 20+ languages, including the ones that are less commonly taught, is definitely worth it. The Spaced Repetition System that makes you remember new words and phrases and keep them in your long-term memory is what makes it stand out.
Gamified elements that don’t make you bored, as in the case of traditional learning methods, are a cherry on top. Also, getting to know the speaking styles of native speakers can definitely improve your skills.
Memrise is a great place, especially for beginners who want to get to know a language and want to have an understanding of the basics. It is a platform that is worth it to understand vocabulary and phrases and get a hang of real-world conversation skills.
We would suggest you go with the free version first as it covers almost all aspects, but if you are intermediate or advanced-level learners, then you may benefit with the Memrise Pro version.