# renshuu - Japanese learning — user reviews > 1,010 indexed App Store user reviews of renshuu by Michael Hominick, rated 4.90/5 from 1,346 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/renshuu-japanese-learning/id1542730063/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/renshuu-japanese-learning/id1542730063.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,288 · 4★ 33 · 3★ 6 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 16 ## What do users think of renshuu? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Helpful for learning Japanese - 🎨 Cute and engaging design - 🔓 Extensive free features - 🤝 Responsive and caring developers - 📚 Comprehensive learning resources - 🎮 Fun and interactive games - 🌱 Evolving character motivates learning - 🧠 Effective for memorization and retention - 🗣️ Useful for practicing speaking and writing - 🌐 Supportive and active community **Cons** - 🤯 Overwhelming UI for some users - 🕰️ Occasional performance issues - 🔒 Certain features locked behind paywall **Commonly reported bugs** - Occasional freezing or crashes - Inconsistent responsiveness of writing/drawing input **Most requested features** - Offline mode - More advanced grammar and kanji lessons - Verb conjugation practice - Ability to type answers instead of selecting - Integration with other language learning resources ## Newest reviews (20 of 1,010) ### 4/5 — Great app, highly recommend *2026-08-19, version 1.15.22* I’m enlisted into the United States Air Force, and I got stationed in Okinawa. This app is extremely helpful, I’m on the nerdier side of things so learning a new language was also a bucket goal of mine! I gave this app a 4/5 (I wish I could do 4.5) because this app is very well versed with their voice actors being native speakers as-well as having many fun games to keep you busy and learn, there is a ton of little gizmos on the app that I haven’t even touched yet. I’m not too interested in them myself but they are cool concepts. The reason they lose one star (half star) is because the UI and interface were a little confusing at first, I’m sure they are working on something better and I can’t wait to see that! But for now it can be a little confusing and kinda looks like it’s on a budget, though that does not take away from the learning aspect! ### 5/5 — literally the best app for learning japanese *2026-08-15, version 1.15.22* loved it sm as ut had mneomics to learn from and a structured system with focused reviews and quizzes after evry session !! <3 ### 5/5 — 👍 *2026-08-13, version 1.15.22* 👍👍👍 ### 5/5 — Love the community notes for each vocab! *2026-08-13, version 1.15.22* Community is active on Discord as well ### 5/5 — Great and impressive! *2026-08-12, version 1.15.22* I’m very impressed that this app is only ran by 2 people and you’re able to learn a whole new language. This app is very helpful and is obviously free so it’s the best to learn Japanese in my book. ### 5/5 — The best Japanese learning app I’ve used so far *2026-08-10, version 1.15.22* I have used plenty of Japanese learning apps but this one stands out the most. It is very thorough in its teachings, offers a variety of questioning methods, and has plenty of tools and resources like dictionaries and video lessons to further help with learning. The voices that pronounce the words sound real and authentic, and not robotic, text-to-speech like. There are mastery levels to track your proficiency, daily goals and schedules to encourage consistency as well as cute games to help reinforce what you’ve learned in a fun way. It has its own manga, collectible item designs you receive at the end of quizzes, and character evolution, wow! Very cute and creative and all nicely designed. There’s also an active user community which is cool. I can tell the developer and the artist went the extra mile to provide us with tons of value and for that I am extremely grateful. ### 5/5 — The best Japanese learning app there is! *2026-08-10, version 1.15.22* 5 stars always. Never disappoints, I tried duolingo but it wasn’t really helping me as much as Renshuu has. I have even recommended it to my friends who also want to visit/live in Japan. ### 5/5 — its great!! *2026-08-08, version 1.15.22* i love how the characters are taught in a way where you dont need romanji because that has been a struggle for me. i used to rely heavily on romanji but not anymore!!! this is a great app and ive been progressing quickly :) the games are great and i love that its one big community here to help each other :) also, the non-usage of ai is so rare and wonderful to see nowadays. overall its a great way to learn japanese from ppl who actually speak it! ### 5/5 — Amazing app *2026-08-06, version 1.15.22* I discovered this app completely by accident, and I’ve been loving it ever since. About a year ago, I wanted to start learning Japanese, but I had no idea where to begin or how to make steady progress. I kept hitting wall after wall trying to find a resource that was actually helpful without being locked behind a paywall. Eventually, work got busy, and I ended up putting the idea aside. Finding this app has been a blessing. It finally gave me the structure I needed to get started properly, and I’ve learned more in just two weeks than I did in three months of jumping from one resource to another. Thank you so much to the developers for creating such an amazing app! ### 5/5 — Better Than Duolingo *2026-08-04, version 1.15.22* 1100 days. That was my Duolingo streak before I started Renshuu. I switched because I wanted something that would teach me Japanese in a more structured way while still giving me that dopamine hit of hitting goals and maintaining a streak. Duolingo did teach me things, don’t get me wrong, but I felt I was being held back and I’d actually forgotten certain things in that time. I like that I can specify what I need to practise with Renshuu. I don’t want to just keep trying something new before I’ve got a proper handle on what I just learned. The fact it’s free and doesn’t bug me with ads constantly is amazing! ### 5/5 — Easy introduction *2026-08-04, version 1.15.22* I’m not too far into Renshuu so far, however, the quiz style learning for Hiragana and Katakana are very helpful for me ### 5/5 — App Review *2026-08-03, version 1.15.22* At first the app looked a little intimidating with all the features and it had to offer, but after overcoming the navigation curve and learning how to move around it, it’s been really helpful. I love the mnemonics for the different kanji and the dictionary and kana charts that I can reference at any time without fully exiting quizzes or reviews. ### 5/5 — Free tier is so generous! *2026-08-01, version 1.15.22* Im a broke collage student who needed help studying my kana, and this app is great for that. One thing I wish this app had is kanji. ### 5/5 — Genuinely great for free learning. *2026-08-01, version 1.15.22* This app is so amazing. I kept combing the App Store for a good and useful app that would let me learn for me free while also offering options to pay for subscription or donate later if I wished. Finally I found it in this app. It has a really fun and playful feel to it while also feeling professional and personal. I like the games too, they help me practice writing and reading excellently, unlike Duolingo which can’t even bother to teach me Hiragana. This app with my Japanese dictionary will be amazing for my learning journey. ### 5/5 — Thanks *2026-07-30, version 1.15.22* I am making a daily task list for my home network with a personal reward system and would love to be able to launch the renshuu app from my daily task labelled "learn Japanese" linked to org.renshuu:// ### 5/5 — Is amazing *2026-07-23, version 1.15.22* Works great for learning Japanese as it introduces you to the jlpt (Japanese language proficiency test) format and teaches you from the lowest level to the highest level, letting you learn from basic words and grammar, to slightly more advanced as you would normally progress if you were a child in Japan. ### 5/5 — awesome!!! *2026-07-23, version 1.15.22* renshuu is such an amazing app for learning japanese! The interface is user-friendly to navigate, and the lessons have helpful pictures and even tips from other users on how to memorize kana more easily. I also love how non-pushy and customizable the schedules and notifications are, letting me progress at my own pace while still being encouraging. Would 100% recommend! :) ### 5/5 — fast learning *2026-07-22, version 1.15.22* This app is so cute, as your japanese skill grows your little pet grows as you progress, there’s interactive learning games and it keeps you engaged and motivated!! 10/10 ### 5/5 — The quizzes are very helpful *2026-07-21, version 1.15.22* After learning basic Hiragana and Katakana through Duolingo renshuu was very helpful for getting the alphabet to stick. ### 5/5 — The best app to really learn Japanese *2026-07-21* I’ve been learning Japanese for about 10 months now with Renshuu and it’s legit the best app by far I’ve ever used, even up to the point that I wish this was available for other languages too. It’s absolutely free but after a couple months of using I upgraded not because I had to but because I really wanted to contribute to the fantastic work done here in some small way. I can confidently say it’s the only app that has kept me hooked and motivated for that long and I’m not planning to stop. It took some time getting used to the tons of features and how they are laid out and I guess I still have much left to discover, but I recommend this app to everyone who seriously wants to learn Japanese. I’m very grateful for the developer‘s hard work and the community behind who helps with additional explanations. **Developer response:** Thanks so much for taking the time to leave such a detailed review, and for sticking with renshuu long enough to get a feel for most of what we have. It's possible to find more features and tools years into learning with us :) If you need anything as you continue to learn on renshuu, do let me know. I'm always here at michael@renshuu.org, or the ? button at the top of the app! ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — It’s good. *2026-06-26, version 1.15.22* This is a genuinely good app. Right now I am learning hiragana and some grammar. You can practice as much as you want and it’s completely free. ### 1/5 — The UI *2025-11-07, version 1.15.19* The UI kills this otherwise amazing app. There's a ton of useful content here but i can hardly find any of it. There's UI looks visually bad and too cluttered. It is buggy, you can't sort schedules in alphabetical order meaning there is no (good) way to do lessons in order. You manually have to tap checkboxes to enable premium features. If the UI was improved this would be the best learn Japanese app on Earth. ### 1/5 — Would be great if it doesn’t take more than an hour to load *2025-10-07, version 1.15.19* I downloaded the app 3 days ago. When I launched it yesterday, it didn’t load right after more than 30 minutes. When I tried opening it earlier, it still did not load after almost an hour. How would you use an app that doesn’t even load?? ### 1/5 — Love it wholeheartedly *2025-05-28, version 1.15.17* This is such a stellar app that I want to cry, the fact that most features are free looks ridiculous in this capitalism ridden world, but lo and behold here this treasure is, spreading free knowledge and joy to the people who wish to learn japanese ### 1/5 — Bugs out on the last question of the first test *2024-11-04, version 1.5.10* Seems alright at first but is very slow. Appears to be a web app, bugged out on question 20 of my first test and now the app displays nothing but white screens. Internet connection is fine. ### 1/5 — Bug *2024-01-19, version 1.4.6* Ad ogni attività a cui tento di accedere l'app si blocca e, in ogni caso, non arrivo neanche ad avviare un esercizio/ un gioco. Spero si possa risolvere, perché mi era sembrata un'app molto valida ### 2/5 — Severely Lacking *2026-05-28, version 1.15.22* This app is very difficult to use. The interface is not intuitive and it’s very confusing to find what I’m looking for. I don’t understand what’s happening half the time; the kanji section is so confusing that I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be doing, I just end up randomly clicking buttons. I stopped using it because the app wasn’t ever teaching me any new words, just making me practice the same 20 or so words over and over again. Very disappointing. ### 2/5 — Ehhh… *2025-12-26, version 1.15.19* Right from the start it’s confusing and looks like some ancient website. I use ipad 11”. The exercises are small, using half the screen so the text is teensy. In fact everything is too tiny. Looks like the stuff you do is just guessing what sentence they want from some words. I’m already not liking it. I can’t imagine anyone paying for this?? ### 2/5 — Could be nice if not that slow *2025-12-15* The application is very nice but the need to be permanently online and broken connectivity to the server makes the app irritating to use. There are days I cannot even do my review because the server seems to be overwhelmed… **Developer response:** Sorry to hear that you're having issues! The server is running pretty smoothly throughout the day, so it is most likely not congestion, but something else. We have had issues with external networks for European users that sit between the users and renshuu that cause issues. One way to hopefully improve that is to do this: go into the menu, settings, then the experimental panel. There is a server selector, and I'd recommend choosing the Global server, and see if it works better for you! If you have any other questions, you can reach me at michael@renshuu.org. ### 2/5 — Перестало работать *2024-06-18, version 1.5.5* Приложение классное, но перестало работать. При входе загружается очень долго, а когда наконец загрузилось, то отображается белый экран. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — beautiful app *2026-09-02, version 1.15.22* renshuu is an excellent choice for beginners trying to learn japanese:) ### 5/5 — Great engaging way to learn Japanese *2026-08-30, version 1.15.22* Phenomenal experience, lessons are super quick and comprehensive. The collection aspect of achievements just keeps me engaged! (The community aspect is also very fun!) ### 5/5 — Very good for retaining *2026-08-29, version 1.15.22* I only wish it could go offline when needed ### 5/5 — 5 stars *2026-08-27, version 1.15.22* Nice pacing and easy to understand with good examples ### 5/5 — Great learning experience *2026-08-24, version 1.15.22* As a beginner to learning Japanese this has been a great help. It’s allowed me to already understand multiple of the hiragana in only a few days and I can make out the words in all hiragana without the romaji. The art is a bonus and it adds a game like aspect to it making it more enjoyable. ### 5/5 — Great for a starter *2026-08-23, version 1.15.22* I am starting from the abc. Looks like a great app for any beginner. ### 5/5 — No subscription needed *2026-08-23, version 1.15.22* This is definitely the best app for learning Japanese because there is no subscription. Its honestly rare to find a laugange learning app that doesn't have a subscription. Can you please make a Chinese and Korean Laugange learning app? I'm trying to find a subscription free Korean and Chinese app. ### 5/5 — Clean, NO AI Learning *2026-08-22, version 1.15.22* Absolutely loving renshuu so far— the mnemonics are an especially helpful tool. This is my first time learning Japanese, and I wanted an app committed to being NO AI! Renshuu goes above and beyond. ### 5/5 — Super duper ultra sonically awesome *2026-08-20, version 1.15.22* Renshuu will always prevent you from overloading yourself with more new characters than you can handle a day and switching to review mode after is a W system, also has many tools that are only there when you need it so everything you need if you’re only trying to learn kana/kanji and vocab words its there, combine it with an app like Teuida to translate your knowledge from Renshuu to Teuida since Teuida teaches you how to use vocab in real life, I mastered all of Hiragana in 2 days (with breaks) ### 5/5 — Really great! *2026-08-17, version 1.15.22* I went from knowing absolutely nothing to mastering the hirigana alphabet and starting katakana in only a few months! App design is great and very easy to use! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-05.*