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ELSA Speak - English Learning

Product rot Commodity APIs

ELSA, Corp. · Education · Free · v9.2.2

View on the App Store (iPhone) ↗
Review-rating drop
1.35

2024-Q2 4.00 → last 90 days 2.65, text reviews

Peak quarter
4.00

2024-Q2, text reviews

Last 90 days
2.65

text reviews

Store rating
4.75

all 113820 ratings, incl. star-only

Store gap
2.10

store minus reviews

Est. MRR
$124k

#89 top-grossing, Education

store 4.75 · reviews 4.00 → 2.65 · gap 2.10 store 4.75 reviews 2.65

Store ratings include star-only taps from in-app prompts, which skew high. The peak and recent figures come only from people who wrote a review, which skews low. Compare each against itself: the drop is the signal, and a big gap between the two usually means heavy rating prompting is masking unhappy users.

Average rating by quarter from 500 text reviews

2★3★4★5★ 1★ 2023-Q3: 1.40★ from 5 reviews (small sample) 1.40 2023-Q3 2023-Q4: 3.66★ from 32 reviews 2024-Q1: 3.53★ from 45 reviews 2024-Q2: 4.00★ from 58 reviews 4.00 2024-Q2 2024-Q3: 3.51★ from 43 reviews 2024-Q4: 3.05★ from 43 reviews 2025-Q1: 1.89★ from 82 reviews 2025-Q2: 2.08★ from 39 reviews 2025-Q3: 2.44★ from 32 reviews 2025-Q4: 2.79★ from 28 reviews 2026-Q1: 2.63★ from 41 reviews 2026-Q2: 2.70★ from 23 reviews 2026-Q3: 2.38★ from 21 reviews 2026-Q4: 2.75★ from 8 reviews 2.75 2026-Q4
Faint bars have fewer than 8 reviews. Text reviews skew negative versus star-only ratings; read the direction, not the level.
Show as table
QuarterAvg stars Reviews
2023-Q31.40 5
2023-Q43.66 32
2024-Q13.53 45
2024-Q24.00 58
2024-Q33.51 43
2024-Q43.05 43
2025-Q11.89 82
2025-Q22.08 39
2025-Q32.44 32
2025-Q42.79 28
2026-Q12.63 41
2026-Q22.70 23
2026-Q32.38 21
2026-Q42.75 8

Recent 1–2 star reviews

Cobro inapropiado

★ · v9.2.2 · Oct 12, 2026

Me cobraron un dinero que yo no autorice desde google play

Learning Structure.

★ · v9.2.2 · Oct 7, 2026

It's really boring, and you can't change the learning topics. Anyway, it just bored me.

Regret paying for this garbage app

★ · v9.2.1 · Oct 5, 2026

This app will give you some random scores but no clear path to improve anything. It has bunch of features but honestly none of them are effective. I learned nothing from this app, improved nothing.

Awful

★ · v9.2.1 · Oct 3, 2026

They deducted money from my acolytes 2 times for annual subscription and on the app I receiving message that I am out of my free lessons !!!! Don’t buy it !!!

Locked Out for 3 Weeks

★ · v9.1.9 · Sep 25, 2026

Customer services is practically non-existent. There is no easy way to recover your log-in ID without contacting the support. Sent them an email 3 weeks ago and just received a reply email. Will cancel Elsa and try BoldVoice.

Not available content

★ · v9.1.9 · Sep 22, 2026

I just purchased premium subscription 3 days ago and can’t access to any lesson after Lesson 3 in any level. Please help me to solve this issue. Once resolved, I’ll update my rate.

Discount bait. Terrible product. No refund.

★ · v9.1.9 · Sep 16, 2026

I paid $168 because of a “limited-time discount.” The problem is that many important features can’t really be tested before paying. I tried the paid version, realized the same day that it was basically useless for me, and immediately asked for a refund. They refused. The product itself is also extremely disappointing: AI conversation and correction are worse than simply using ChatGPT. Pronunciation scoring is often inaccurate or meaningless. For pronunciation training, BoldVoice is far better in my experience. The whole experience felt like: use a big discount to get you to pay first, then make refunds extremely difficult once you discover the product isn’t good. I later found plenty of other users complaining about inaccurate scoring, subscription/refund issues, bugs, and poor support. Do not pay for ELSA Speak before you are 100% sure. I regret paying $168.

Practicas cortadas

★ · v9.1.9 · Sep 8, 2026

Muchos ejercicios se cortan tengo que empezar

No hay correlación en el progreso

★ · v9.1.7 · Aug 23, 2026

Si la usas para aprender no verás progreso, pero si es para reforzar tu inglés si te servirá

Terrible voice recognition!!!!

★ · v9.1.7 · Aug 18, 2026

The voice recognition is absolutely horrible in the extent that I don’t learn much from pronunciation, especially sentences.

Useless

★ · v9.1.6 · Aug 16, 2026

Absolutely useless app. I can say by myself that my prononciation is bad, without any robot. By no any advices or lessons how to improve it. How to put tongue, what to do by mouth. Nothing. Grammar lessons are primitive. Especially when you try to ask robot about something detailed about rules or exclusions. It as parrot repeats exercise. Waste of money, said that Apple policy does not allow returns.

Overhyped, buggy, and frustrating

★ · v9.1.6 · Aug 6, 2026

I fell for the heavy marketing, but the actual app is a massive disappointment. The user interface is constantly glitching, and the points calculation system is completely broken as it fails to track progress accurately (submitted a feedback long ago but no response or update). The core product simply doesn't deliver on its promises. I definitely will not be renewing my subscription.

Fraud

★ · v9.1.6 · Jul 27, 2026

This app charged me and once I started using it was charging me again, acting like I never purchased anything.

beğenmedim

★ · v9.1.6 · Jul 18, 2026

Yetersiz bi uygulama

I couldn’t even try it

★ · v9.1.6 · Jul 17, 2026

I downloaded this app specifically for the AI tutor and speaking practice. Unfortunately, I can’t evaluate the quality of the tutor without purchasing a Premium subscription first. I’m not willing to pay for something I haven’t even had the chance to try once. A short free trial or a few demo conversations would make a huge difference. Since I can’t test the main feature, I’ll be moving on to another app in search of a different AI tutor.

Don’t recommend

★★ · v9.1.5 · Jul 6, 2026

I am a Lifetime License holder, but now half of the learning interfaces require me to pay extra to unlock them. Gating content behind a new tier after selling a "lifetime" deal is highly unethical. On top of that, the recent app updates completely butchered the UI. The interface and content layout changed drastically and became so complicated and hard to use. They ruined a perfectly good app just to push more aggressively for upsells. Do not recommend.

Unable to unsubscribe from spamming once registered

★ · v9.1.5 · Jul 3, 2026

I’m keep getting spammed by ELSA ever since I’ve created my account. I unsubscribe every single time I get an email. Reached out to support, still getting spammed. Terrible marketing and support. The app wouldn’t be bad otherwise.

Disappointing trial experience

★ · v9.1.3 · Jun 15, 2026

I tried to cancel before being charged, but the app warned that canceling would immediately disable the trial features, so I continued the trial. After 7 days I was charged $99.99 without a reminder. I contacted Apple and ELSA immediately, but both refused to help. The app itself may be useful, but the subscription/trial cancellation flow needs to be more transparent and user-friendly by avoiding these kind forced trial conversions.

Lose heart

★ · v9.1.1 · Jun 9, 2026

Sign

Uncomfortable

★ · v9.1.1 · Jun 8, 2026

I do not recommend this app.

I like the older version

★ · v9.1.0 · Jun 6, 2026

i am using this more then 2 years.I like the older version,now is piece of…….

Scam, get away

★ · v9.0.9 · May 25, 2026

It practically impossible to cancel a subscription. I had to cancel my credit card to get rid of it. Refund, forget about it! They keep renewing even they know you’re not using. No communication, no support, no contact!!!

I have a lifetime subscription 👎

★ · v9.0.9 · May 16, 2026

The only reason why I don’t cancel my subscription is because I can’t. In fact, I made the terrible mistake of purchasing a lifetime subscription. I used to like the old app before they rolled out the “coaches”. The lesson content is sometimes too political and I don’t like to be indoctrinated, but that is not the main issue. The real problem is that the app is slow, the speech recognition software is not longer accurate, and the coaches are awful.

Horrible

★ · v9.0.9 · May 15, 2026

I got the app and practiced for a bit but then it kept bugging me to buy a membership just to practice more in that one day horrible just horrible

Doesn’t work with AirPods 3 pro

★ · v9.0.7 · May 7, 2026

Whe I use the app with AirPods 3 pro the voice of the AI mute. I has reinstalled the app an the same happened

The opportunity

What would it take to build a viable competitor, what would it cost to run every month, and a prompt to get started. Generated from the reviews on file; one LLM call per brief. Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY for a real brief; the stub only fills in a template.