Fluenz Review

Saturday, March 22nd

2025 Chinese Lesson Reviews

Fluenz

• Packages range from $187 to $322
• Over 100 video lessons for Mandarin fluency
• 30-day satisfaction guarantee
• Mimics one-on-one tutoring
• Tutors provide clear explanations based on English grammar
• Three levels of proficiency
• Accessible on all devices

Fluenz is a digital language learning platform co-founded by Sonia Gil, an entrepreneur and travel vlogger. Gil herself went to China to develop the Mandarin Chinese program for English speakers. The Fluenz Mandarin course features over 100 videos, provides a realistic pathway for English speakers to achieve verbal fluency, and connects learning with targeted practice.

No trial and seems outdated, but offers a 30-day satisfaction guarantee

The first thing you'll notice about Fluenz is that it appears quite old-fashioned - it gives the impression that it hasn't seen an update in the last ten years. Out of all the programs we reviewed, Fluenz is the only one that doesn't provide any options for you to test it out first. They don't provide a sample lesson or give you free access to the student dashboard for a week. The best they have to offer is a slideshow with screenshots from the desktop application. Unfortunately, that means that if something is broken (like an image matching game that grades you incorrectly or a recording that won't play) you won't know about it ahead of time, and Fluenz will already have your money. But, if you decide to purchase Fluenz Mandarin without trying it first, they do have a 30-day satisfaction guarantee to protect your investment.

Priced higher than competitors

Fluenz offers their Mandarin courses at rather high prices. The "Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3” package costs $322, while "Fluenz Mandarin 1+2” and "Fluenz Mandarin 3” are priced at $258 and $187, respectively. (For comparison's sake, you can get lifetime access to all levels of some competing services for around $100.) Their homeschooling options, "Homeschool Basic Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3” and "Homeschool Pro Fluenz Mandarin 1+2+3”, are available for a whopping $954 and $1,908. If you share your email address with them, you're eligible for a discount, but nothing big enough to make their prices competitive in this review.

Feels like the classroom

With Fluenz, your learning starts with an introduction video that sets the stage for the lesson. Afterward, you practice through exercises, known as "workouts”. Between these workouts, you watch more videos to dig deeper into the material. This alternating format of video and practice is effective, but the videos can seem a bit too formal at times. Unlike many other language programs that feel pretty hands-off, Fluenz feels more like a traditional classroom and aims to mimic a one-on-one tutoring session. But remember, the videos are pre-recorded.

Video lessons led by tutors

If you struggle to stay engaged without face-to-face interaction, like when studying new vocabulary on a screen, you might find Fluenz useful. It's unique among most language learning platforms because it provides clear video explanations in English while you work through the program. For Mandarin Chinese, a teacher named Yi Wei will guide you with easy-to-understand explanations about how sentences are constructed, the order of words, how to pronounce tones, and vocabulary.

Three levels of proficiency

In the first two levels of the Fluenz Mandarin course, you'll start with the basics: introducing yourself, talking about countries, ordering food, shopping, and planning trips. You'll also understand how Mandarin sentences work, ask questions, compare things, count, and learn important Mandarin concepts. This course preps you for real-life Mandarin conversations. In the third level, you'll build on your basics and learn advanced skills. You'll practice in situations like making plans, eating at restaurants, or even visiting a factory and ordering materials. You'll also learn how to talk about the past and future. After finishing this level, Fluenz says you'll be able to handle most conversations in China or keep learning Mandarin if you want to.

They only teach from English

Another thing Fluenz highlights about themselves as a point of pride is that they teach foreign languages from the point of view of an English speaker. They claim to be the only ones who do this, but pretty much every other service in our review of Chinese language classes works this way. Fluenz might be trying to say that they make more direct comparisons to English grammar structures during the lesson than other platforms, but either way, we don't find this super impressive. It might actually be a reason you don't want to choose Fluenz - for example, if Spanish is your first language and you were hoping to use it to learn Mandarin Chinese, Fluenz doesn't have a unique set of video lessons for your needs.

Study on any device

You can use Fluenz's program on any device, including your computer, iPhone, Android phone, and iPad. Whether you're watching videos or doing workouts, you can switch devices anytime and continue learning Mandarin. Don't worry about losing your place because Fluenz remembers where you stopped, so you can pick up from there on any device.

Only Pinyin

From what we can tell, Fluenz Mandarin doesn't teach you to write in either simplified or traditional Chinese characters. It only focuses on Pinyin. If being able to read and write in Chinese is a priority for you (and we think it should be) this program won't be the best fit.

We can't rate it well without more transparency

Even though Fluenz Mandarin is popular and used by some top organizations like the Navy's Special Warfare Command, it needs to do better to compete with other Chinese learning programs. You wouldn't be able to learn Chinese characters, and it only offers three levels of learning. It's not as complete as some other higher-ranked programs, but it is a lot more expensive. To improve its rank in our review, we'd need to see more, like a sample lesson or access to a student dashboard.