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EF English Live is a globally known online English teaching platform. That is why there are more than 12 thousand reviews on EF English Live on Trustpilot, Quora, Play Store, and App Store. In light of these reviews and my own experience, I will share the good and bad sides of EF English Live with my experience and user reviews from 4 different platforms. On these platforms, positive reviews are about the platform having professional native teachers and helping students improve their English speaking skills. Negative reviews, on the other hand, are about the customer support not being supportive, the technical problems, the course content not being sufficient, and some tutors not being good.
| My Score | 3.8/5 |
| Overall Score | 4.5/5 |
| The Best Feature | Working with Pro Teachers |
| The Worst Feature | Course Content Not Sufficient |
| Materials Used | Not Specified |
| Contact With Customer Support | Difficult to Reach Them After the Sale |
EF English Live’s best side is them working with pro teachers. Some of its competitors either work with professional teachers or native speakers. Unlike them, EF English Live works with professional native teachers. When I tried the platform this was the thing I liked the most about the platform. Learning from a native speaker helped me learn the accent better and learn everyday phrases and working with a pro teacher led me to get a proper education. However, I know there are native teachers from countries like India who have thick accents. Their accent may influence your education badly so keep an eye on that.
EF English Live’s biggest disadvantage is its course content. From their website and the user experiences it is seen that EF English helps with its students’ speaking to improve. However, their course is not enough for beginners or people who want to learn more than just accents and everyday phrases. If you just want to improve your speaking, you can get a lesson from EF English Live, but if you want more, you should not waste your time.
As you probably know, Trustpilot is a platform where real users make comments or explain their problems about a product or a service they paid for. Since EF English Live is used by many people there are 7625 reviews about the platform on Trustpilot. 85% of these reviews are 4 or 5-starred, meaning they are probably positive feedback while 7% of them are 1 or 2-starred, meaning they are most probably complaints about the platform. Users on Trustpilot praise EF English Live because of their teaching method, the tutors, and the ability to study from wherever you want. On the other hand, other users criticized the platform saying there are very few private lessons, the users cannot improve their grammar knowledge and skills, and the technical problems caused by the website or the app.
★★★★★
“well! the teaching methodology please me very much. the availability of classes every day half hour is fantastic, thus making it easier for those who work in any period. i'm very happy with the school.” customer Agostinho Gomes, Trustpilot
★★★★★
“This is a very adaptable platform for everyone who wants to study English at their rhythm. You can find a lot of materials and lessons to improve your grammar, listening and reading, also you can prepare yourself for TOEFL and IELTS exams. The functionality of the app on the cellphone is amazing, you can study everywhere” -Sebastián González, Trustpilot
★★★★☆
“There are some excellent teachers with high facilitation skills. I enjoy meeting teachers and students from all over the world.” -Aki, Osaka, Trustpilot
★☆☆☆☆
“I thougt it was a great idea to learn with ef and to start a 1-year-subscription. But for me it is a waste of money. I don't learn within the app and the privat lessons are not very useful as well. I have rarely lessons with the same tutor twice. And so I have to learn very often with a tutor which I don't like. I am sorry, that is a waste of time and money in my opinion and for me personally.” -Sebastian, Trustpilot
★☆☆☆☆
“When I received the price, it included the TOEFL preparation and I received only the basic system. Horrible, horrible experience. I will never recommend them, on the contrary, terrible service” -Raquel Sánchez Hernández, Trustpilot
★★☆☆☆
“Too many calls (hundreds from dozens of different numbers, literally!), messages and e-mails. Never seen any company doing the same.” -customer, Trustpilot
★★☆☆☆
“Acceptable platform BUT after I paid they don’t help you with technical problems. I would be grateful if the Support team would work as the sales people. Very disappointed!” -Ale, Trustpilot
It seems that people had submitted more than 20 questions about EF English Live on Quora. Some of them are left unanswered and some reach people to answer them. Also, most of the questions are about being a tutor there or about specific countries. Therefore, I can share only 2 questions and they are unfortunately unanswered. We know that Quora is an important platform and I believe it is odd that people could not find an answer…
One user asked if EF English Live will accept his cancellation since they are not answering him about it. This question did not get an answer but as it is seen from complaints on Trustpilot, they probably will not accept the cancellation…
Another user asked if EF English Live’s placement certificate is valid. This did not get an answer but probably it is not that valid. I mean you can put it on your resume of course. However, if for example, a university wants you to prove your English level, they will not accept it. This is of course not just about English Live but still…
On Play Store, EF English has different applications and I will share the reviews of one of them with you. I sectioned them as positive and negative to help you. On Play Store, positive reviews are about private lessons being very helpful and the tutors while negative reviews are about poor customer support, problems with cancellation, and technical issues that need to be fixed. Here are some reviews:
“They haven't updated the lessons, the group classes are a bit useless, when 8 students participate for 40 minutes you don't have time to speak. However, private classes are great and the teacher is so helpful. In general, Ef provides better strategies than those used in others.” -Sadam Alrefay, Play Store
“Great work from EF English Live. Really I want to say thanks for this platform. I consider it the perfect way to learn English. Thank you again.” -Google User, Play Store
“Very slow app.. it doesnt contain what the site claims. No support service. I emailed them with my questions but didn't get any answer.” -Sanae Mokhliss, Play Store
“ I tried the platform but after that I decided to cancel my subscription...But unfortunately they did not respond So I give 1 star or maybe ZERO STAR for you ... plz do not cheat people!” -Salih, Play Store
“It's a good app, but the speaking exercises don't work very well.” -Google User, Play Store
“Overall it is interesting, but voice recognition doesn't work properly.” -Google User, Play Store,
On App Store, there are 54 reviews made about EF English Live. Most of these reviews are positive and the platform has a rating of 3.1/5. Here, positive reviews are mostly about the app being good and easily reachable while negative reviews are about the technical improvements that need to be made and charging the customers without their approval.
★☆☆☆☆
“took 49$ from bank account without telling anything and I don’t know why I contacted customer service but no one answering me” -etosu, App Store
★★★☆☆
“You are 2 steps away from a perfect app.I have to admit that I found the app very useful, especially when I’m so tired that I don’t even want to touch my computer, but there are two areas that you guys must improve. First, the videos for every lesson: it would be really appreciated if we could see the videos in horizontal mode (full screen) on our phones, and please if you can enable the subtitles (that’s a plus). Second, when I reach an exercise where I have recorded my voice, I cannot listen to the feedback (my own voice recorded) as happens on the website. I’ll be waiting for the next update.” Redp305, App Store
★★★☆☆
“Suggestion and review. Thanks a lot for your efforts. My first suggestion is to add rotation feature for ipad. Second one is that i cant save my email and password” -Muhammad111, App Store
★★★★★
“English Live is the best! Thank you for this wonderful app! East or west EF is the best!” - Azwar Mzafar, App Store
Shortly, I don’t think you would benefit from EF English Live. I mean, of course, you can try it out but I don’t believe you can get much out of it. I say this because although their tutors are professionals and native English speakers, there are still teachers who do not respect the student. Their group classes tend to be too crowded and ineffective for some students. Their classes are mostly based on speaking, so this platform won’t help you improve your listening, reading, writing skills, or grammar knowledge efficiently. Lastly, they are not helpful when it comes to cancellation or refund and their customer support is not easily accessible.
