I was considering signing up for Skritter and then noticed the price was raised 50% to 14.99 per month. I'm not sure when this occurred, but has skritter really changed so much that it justifies such an enormous price increase in about the year or so since I last visited?

Also why is the trial period just 1 week? Most software trials I've seen last at least a month.

Lastly why doesn't skritter have alternative pricing plans? Wouldn't it be a good idea to let customers pay for a year upfront at a slightly reduced cost?

Skritter has changed a lot since we started with the $9.95 price four years ago, so the increased price reflects increased value since then, not just since the one year ago that you last saw it. And yeah, it's a lot better.

The trial period is one week because people often forget about something when they know they have a full month to check it out. If you sign up and aren't sure after a week, send us an email and we'll give you a longer trial to really get the chance to check it out.

You can indeed pay for a year upfront at a reduced cost: it's $99.99 for the 12-month subscription plan ($8.33/mo). Just go to https://www.skritter.com/account/billing/subscribe after you sign up to switch away from the monthly plan. More details here: http://blog.skritter.com/2012/11/skritter-subscriptions.html

Hope this helps!

It's worth every penny. No other character study method compares.

Agreed, totally worth it if you are serious about learning Chinese. If you use a referral link you can get an extra two weeks free... can we put those here? 'Cause I do totally recommend subscribing :D

http://www.skritter.com/refer/wallaby78erik

+1 on worth every penny. Even though you can do similar things in other tools, some even free, they are light years away from the efficiency you get from Skritter. I am a slow learner but still learns much faster than my class mates that are using Anki etc. What you pay for you will get back many times over in saved time. I manage to work full time, and still keep my place among the fastest learners in my full time university class.

Also the deals on longer sign ups are worth having - after a few months on a monthly basis I decided I was sticking with this and have signed up for 2 years - and that is an absolute bargain!

Another +1 in the totally worth it camp. Other people in my Chinese class have been reticent to try it for the same reason, but what you mustn't do is look at it as an app (and thus compare it to other app prices) - rather, consider it as the best 1:1 writing (and reading) instructor you'll ever have, who will study with you on demand, whenever and wherever you want, and will never charge you more than a modest flat fee even if you study for hundreds of hours. It is an absolute BARGAIN. It's the best investment you can make if you're at all serious about learning Chinese/Japanese.

I agree this is one of the best resources out their for learning Chinese. There are other websites, apps, many which are free which are good and even more useful for certain aspects of learning Chinese. But skritter is by far the best resource for writing and is also good for reading and tone learning. The monthly charge is fairly high in my opinion, but its a limited market so potential sales are limited. The long term deals are much better though and if your serious about learning Chinese or are a chinese studies student this is a must. I got the two year deal because I still have over two years of my degree left so will definitely be using it. I don't know how many times I have insisted to my classmates that this is a must have app, but they just all won't commit the money to it. We have tried to get funding from the university but our course has been scrapped due to low intake of students and is most probably running at a loss, so they are very reluctant to put any more money into it. I would prioritise skritter over any other apps or books for learning chinese.

Hi Nick! Thanks for your reply. I am definitely interested in that one year plan and wish it was advertised along with the 14.99 monthly plan. I also saw that some have a 2 year deal, how much is that?

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but that one week trial excuse sounds to me like more of a high-pressure sales tactic car salesmen try to use all the time. If a person forgets about using Skritter in the same month he signed-up for it, chances are Skritter isn't right for him since the membership is only worth it if you use it. It's good to hear there are ways to extend the trial period, but it should be at least a month by default IMO.

Oops, just clicked through your link and saw that the 2 year deal is $179.99, so unless it has changed never mind! :D

In the same way that if you don't use it after 1 week it's probably not for you, I'm sure after a week using it you can decide if it IS for you. Personally I decided after just a few hours. I can see for students the price is quite a lot of money and they probably have bigger priorities than skritter, likewise if learning Chinese/Japanese is a casual hobby. If the market for learning Mandarin was bigger, maybe the price could be lower, but although people say it is a growing language to learn, I'm not sure how true this. Every university in my city, has scrapped their Chinese degree courses, so until it becomes a more popular language this probably won't change.

skritter is totally worth 15 a month

@bjnsharp
I have certain routines that I do once a month along with a family and a personal life, it'd be nice to see how skritter fits into a full 30 days. IMO, 7 days is too small a sample size. I really hope that the reason Skritter is not giving a 1 month trial is just because they don't have competition!

I would like a 365day trial to see how it fits into my year plan. They do have competition.

By writing how small you said the market was, I assumed you thought otherwise. But if not so be it.

It's quite a stretch for you to imply a 365 day trial is just as reasonable as a 30 day trial. I also don't like the sarcastic tone I am sensing and do hope the rest of this community is not above accepting what I thought to be constructive feedback. If you disagree, fine. I do not wish to get into an argument with you so I'll be the first to extend the olive branch.

If you are serious about learning Chinese and want to be competent in the language, skritter is fundamental. It really helps with retention and thus reduces the amount of wasted time trying to review characters that you already know. I think 14.99 a month is cheap, not that they should charge more. But for how much I use it, it is pretty cheap overall.

"I also don't like the sarcastic tone I am sensing"


Welcome to the internet

lookingforhelp,

I believe you can continue using Skritter after the 7 day free trial. You cannot, however, add new words to your account. So you can use the product as long as you like to see how it fits in with your schedule; just no new words.

What are your goals in Chinese? I think articulating those on the board would be helpful to you. If other people have similar goals, and even achieved them with Skritter, they could give you some helpful advice. Or if your goals don't match up with Skritter, it could save you a few bucks.

Alex

lookingforhelp, just let me know what your account name is when you sign up and that you'd like more of a trial and I'll make it happen. We're pretty flexible on these things.

As far as I am concerned, this is money well spent.

lookingforhelp,
I was meaning to get around to learning the characters . . .for thirty years! Skritter finally made it happen. A good investment, in my case at least. By the way, if you are doing web based you will want to get a tablet (Wacom or similar), which will add to your total investment.
Good Luck!

Nick - the flexibility you mention is another point in your favour. I've submitted bug reports at really unsociable hours, and got a really quick response! I do think you guys really care about us, and about the product.

CC, I +1 to that! I have worked in the IT industry for a long time and know how bad we usually are in this and many other areas. Skritter is amazing in taking care of the customer and give value for the bucks. Extremely flexible, helpful try to see to the whole customer base needs etc. Naturally there are areas where some of us might want something more, like an native android app, but that is after all not possible due to the rather limited customer base and the cost for making it all happen. I fully respect that and just say that this is by miles the best customer relation I have experienced and without skritter my Chinese would be so very much less good that it is today. I still have so much fun with skritter and it still feels like playing a never ending game. 加油! Now I have to go back and study/play some more:-)

"Welcome to the internet"

i lol'd

I keep seeing people writing 加油 and I didn't know what it meant - I do now! I love it when I can see things, then have the tools to find out what they mean. I assume Mandarinboy2 means it in the context of 'try harder' but I rather like that one of the alternative meanings is 'add more gas' - so I've just had some chocolate before I skritter again :)

Sorry to go off topic a bit, but I wanted to share that with people.

Thanks again Nick! I just will take you up on that offer. The next time I post will be from the other side of the pay wall! ;)

@JB
No, not the entire Internet thankfully! To Skritter's credit, the majority of the comments on this thread have been cheerfully helpful without the slightest bit of snarkiness some people might indulge in under the aegis of perceived anonymity. Any potential customer should have no qualms joining based on that!

^^

@CC, 加油 have many meanings and the most important maybe is to cheer on someone. If you do see a Chinese sport event you will see all the crowd screaming 加油,加油,加油 all the time. Very useful word that we when studying also will get often from our teachers when they like to say we have to work harder or add some extra energy to our work. I do like you and add plenty of 巧克力 (chocolate) when studying. Better that than oil;-). On my daughters Chinese homework papers the teachers always choose one of three gradings:
- 你真棒 You are really great
- 很好 very good
- 加油哦 Add some more energy in to this please.

When I tried out the app I considered it very expensive, but after 2 days I realized that I couldnt learn this fast with any other method. And no other app teaches to write kanjis with handwritten style. The price is good

expensive? what's expensive is the iPhone i had to buy to be able to study on the subway... and on the bus... and on the car when my girlfriend is driving... and on the lunch break... and on those really dull company lunches... and when the tv is giving commercials instead of the movie you wanted to see...
I think the price of the year subscription is about the same as the price for that-great-new-computer-game-that-just-came-out. And indeed I think of it as a game... But it's a game that teaches you something new every day.

$14.99!!! you know i could get a month's playtime of world of warcraft for that which by the way taught me to read and write english. perhaps i should just change to a chinese server in WoW instead of subscribing for your way over the top exspensive app? :P take care.

Don't need to buy anything, don't waste your money on WOW - I learnt to read and write chinese by reading the in-flight magazine on the way over, that's why its printed in 2 languages, after all, and its an long overnight flight so still time to sleep a bit too.

@Thomas, I'm going to call BS. There is a difference between typing and writing, especially when it comes to Chinese. You seem to be misunderstanding what Skritter is and does.

Does World of Warcraft keep track of your vocabulary and let you write on a stroke by stroke basis with feedback, I think not.

The good thing is that it is a monthly charge, not per word/chars etc -
so the more you Skritter the cheaper it gets! ;)

one thing I really love here at skritter is the fact that it keeps track of the time I spent.

so it is impossible to cheat :)

I really would say that the money spent here is money spent well.