Anyone out there on the 40-60 levels, looking back at your whole WaniKani experience, do you wish you would’ve payed for Lifetime now that you’re almost done, or is month to month/year to year more than enough?
I know that paying month by month will be cheaper in the near future. But, I feel like Lifetime holds the most value on the long run. It’s pretty much the equivalent of 3 years, but you get to use it forever. (Being the cheapskate that I am, I hope WaniKani outlasts me.)
I’m pretty satisfied with doing my yearly subscription right now. My first renewal is coming up soon. It’s likely I’ll burn everything with plenty of time left on that second year. At that point, I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I’m leaning toward not renewing for a 3rd year or getting lifetime.
There are several people here that plan to reset back to a level of their choosing after reaching level 60 for further reviews. In which case, lifetime makes the most sense.
If you plan to level up somewhat quickly and don’t intend to reset after hitting 60, yearly might be better.
If you aren’t sure you’ll even want to continue learning kanji after a few levels (not sure why you would PLAN for that but, ya know, just sayin’) then monthly is probably best. Sometimes, for some people, life gets in the way and studying needs to be put on hold. Or they just can’t afford more than month to month at the time. Nothing wrong with this.
I decided to go lifetime because they had a big sale ($100 off) so I got it for $200 rather than $300 and I wasn’t sure if I’d eventually want to reset or not. Also hadn’t yet planned out how quickly I’d be leveling up. So I went lifetime due to a good deal and a “just in case” mindset.
Edit : I realize I’m not level 40-60 but I think my points still apply.
I’m in my third year. Lifetime was definitely worth it for me.
A lot of people get burned out and quit. If you’re not sure you’re in it for the long-haul, going monthly will save you money if you burn out after a year.
There is also generally a sale at Christmas or New Years. You could always do a monthly subscription until then and switch over at that time if you’re not burned out and you see a lifetime sale. (There is no guarantee they’ll do one this year of course.)
I’ve been here for almost two years now. So, I definitely would not finish in under three years, so lifetime is by far the better value for me.
Right now, my estimated “all burned” is 05/06/2020, so… yeah
This is my third year of WaniKani. I’m going a bit slower than I intended because life, but I expect to finish within this year. I paid year to year and don’t regret it. For me, it’s nice to have the motivation to complete everything within a certain timeframe. If I had lifetime, I might not have been as driven to go at the speed I did. However, for many I’m sure that’s a benefit for lifetime. I do think lifetime is a good deal if you’re not sure about your pace, but you’re serious about completing all levels.
I’ll keep it monthly for now, unless there is a real good promotion price going on. I have a reset plan, but I can’t promise I would still be studying Japanese next year. The reason I am still studying beyond the latter half of this year is due to a certain mishap in my life after all.
I am a type that try to level as fast as possible, but hey, that isn’t easy without a good grab on Anki. It is still possible to level up quickly if you have a good Japanese background, though.
Leveling up isn’t easy, and Japanese is so damn hard, so 1.5 years isn’t always plausible.
Also it’s good to know that if you decide to switch from monthly/annual to lifetime membership once there’s a sale, you’ll be credited the prorated time on your existing subscription that you haven’t used yet.
Don’t think that just because you end up getting lifetime that you’ll be refunded any other amounts you’ve paid. I could see some people being confused by that.
It’s definitely been worth it for me. As certain things have come up in my life my use of Wanikani has slowed to a trickle at times. I’ve probably wasted an entire year’s time when added up, although those phases weren’t continuous. The Lifetime deal has given me a lot of peace of mind so I can take breaks without too much setback and I don’t have to rush through the curriculum.
(That said, if you can, REMEMBER TO SET VACATION MODE before you go awol! That will save you a lot of time and grief. Failing to do that is probably the primary reason why I’ve wasted so much time when my review queue was 500+ and I failed to make a dent in the queue.)
I always come back, I just don’t always know when I’ll be able to. So the long haul solution was totally worth it for me. It’s more than paid off. No matter how slow I go, if I can keep working on it, I’m happy. I don’t have to worry about the money now.
once i set my mind to do something, i’m not the type to burnout, so i went straight for the year membership. about halfway through my first year, they had a sale, lifetime for $200, and your current subscription gets prorated, so I actually paid a little less.
Even though I’m on track to have all burned by the end of this year (about 19 months total?) I definitely don’t regret purchasing lifetime. Even at $300, I think it would have been worth it.
I am not a level 40 to 60, but I bought Lifetime in the last Holiday sale, and I find it to be a really good fit for me because I tend to go slowly (join date: February 2014).
When I was paying monthly, sometimes if I wasn’t using it enough or got burned out, I would quit to prevent wasting money and it was harder to pick back up after a few months off.
With the lifetime subscription, I never feel the urge to quit because it’s free to keep going, and I can just keep reviewing but stop doing lessons for a while so things slow down.
It’s also nice to know that I can continue using WaniKani however much I want once I reach 60.
I purchased Lifetime, and I don’t regret it, but I had a few considerations when I did:
Needing a service which took care of a lot of the SRS details for me with minimal fiddling.
Willingness to pay money at the time.
Wanting to support the site, as it’s a useful service.
Uncertainty as to whether I could keep my kanji learning going at full speed from start to finish.
As it turns out, I burned out on level 24, and stopped using WK for a while. I was able to pick it up a year later, as well as take my time to finish. Having a lifetime subscription meant peace of mind in that regard.
However, there are other ways to learn Kanji that cost less money. If you’re willing to do a combination of: getting other books, making mnemonics yourself, using Anki/other flash card apps, using Memrise, or who knows what else, you’ll pay less money at the expense of doing more work.
Also bear in mind that upgrades are prorated. If you want to keep paying monthly/annually and upgrade to lifetime later, you’ll be discounted whatever you payed on the lifetime of your account. This is a super good deal if you want lifetime and you buy in on a sale.
If you plan on finishing WK in less than 2 years, I do not see the point of taking lifetime. Actually I think a lot of lifetimers go very slow because they do not have a deadline to reach level 60.
But if you are from the “take it slow” team, lifetime is probably your best option.
