Chegg is an online learning service and software that assists students in a variety of ways. First, it sells and leases old and new textbooks. Second, it provides subscription-based services to assist kids with arithmetic, assignments, and writing. Third, it provides a free flashcard app. Finally, it includes a section on financial counseling tailored to students’ requirements, as well as a listing of internships and scholarships.
PROS: A wide range of services are available to students. Very useful for solving mathematical problems.
CONS: Subscription content is expensive. Paying customers are easily locked out of accounts due to strict device restrictions. The pricing of books are not always competitive. Rather of being perfectly united, services are disjointed.
BOTTOM LINE: Chegg offers a collection of online services for students, ranging from textbook rentals to assistance with math problems. Some of the services are very useful, however the membership fee for students is rather expensive.
Chegg’s services seem fragmented and fractured rather than united, in part because some are only accessible via the internet and others have their own mobile applications. Nonetheless, a handful of the services, especially those focusing on arithmetic, are very helpful. Paid services are overpriced for the student market, and a tight two-device restriction for paying clients seems to be excessive.
Among student learning applications, Khan Academy is an Editors’ Choice winner, but it does not provide the same level of personalized assistance as Chegg. We choose Quizlet over Chegg for flashcard applications because it is simpler to use and has excellent multi-language compatibility, allowing you to study alongside a language-learning program. Grammarly is a fantastic tool for writing assistance, particularly for authors whose first language is not English, but it is pricey for the student market, as is Chegg.

HOW TO BEGIN WITH CHEGG

When you sign up for a free Chegg account, you must specify whether you are a student or an educator, as well as your level (high school or college) and other information, such as which college or institution you attend and your year. No one, as far as we could determine throughout testing, confirms this information. You don’t need an.edu email account to join up, for example; you can use any old email and password, or you may use Apple, Google, or Facebook to authenticate.
There are many areas on the website: Books, Study, Writing, Flashcards, Math Solver, Internships, Scholarships, and Money. (This year, Chegg’s tutoring marketplace will be phased down.)
It would be irresponsible of me not to bring up Chegg’s ethical quandaries. Is it considered cheating to pay Chegg or other similar sites for solutions to textbook questions? You may always argue that whether a student cheats is determined by how the student utilizes the information they receive. It is cheating if they pay for answers and then pass them off as their own. If they’re utilizing Chegg to figure out how to get answers, which is part of what Chegg offers, it may be a productive activity with good learning results.

LIMITATIONS OF CHEGG APPS AND DEVICES

The website and accompanying mobile applications provide access to virtually everything Chegg has to offer. Chegg Study, Chegg Math Solver, Chegg eReader (for accessing digital books), and Chegg Prep are the applications (flashcards). The mobile app for Chegg Math Solver allows you to take a photo of an equation and submit it to receive assistance solving it rather of typing it into an onscreen calculator, as you must do with the online version.
Chegg paying members are limited to two registered devices at any one time. This information is not provided on any of Chegg’s registration sites (we verified it with a Chegg representative). Although you must look for it, a help website describes how to register and unregister devices. According to that website, you may remove and replace up to one device every 30 days.
A frequent complaint among Chegg paying members is that they are unaware of the device restriction and are therefore locked out of their account. While the device restriction may be in place to prevent password sharing, it seems to be difficult for kids who may be utilizing library computers and school-issued devices in addition to personal devices or those borrowed from friends and family. It makes no sense for paid members. Chegg should do a better job of making the rules clear from the beginning.

SUBSCRIPTIONS TO CHEGG

When you sign up for a Chegg account, you may get part of it for free, such as the flashcard app, money guidance, and scholarship and internship listings. You receive a free sample of service-oriented elements, such as receiving assistance with arithmetic assignments or writing papers, but otherwise have to pay. You may purchase a single service ($9.95 to $19.95 per month) or a bundle of all services ($19.95 per month).
Each service is summarized below.
Math Solver ($9.95 a month): Math Solver allows you to submit math problems to the site and get an answer that includes an explanation of how to complete each step toward the right solution. Students enrolled in algebra, calculus, or linear algebra classes might profit from it.
If you have a Chegg account but do not have a paid membership, you may only use Math Solver for three questions per day and do not get comprehensive explanations of how to arrive at the solution. You also do not have access to a graphing calculator, which is available to paying subscribers.

“A frequent criticism among Chegg paying members is that they are unaware of the device restriction.”

Chegg Study (Monthly fee of $14.95): Chegg Study provides access to homework assistance. You may specifically search for answers to questions contained in textbooks, which Chegg maintains as a database. You may also ask fresh questions to experts, who will ideally respond within 30 minutes to 24 hours. The experts are Chegg employees, but there isn’t much information about them on Chegg’s US website. However, on Chegg’s Indian website, there is information on how to apply to become an expert and get paid each question answered.
Chegg Study is useful for business (finance, economics, accounting, operations management), engineering (computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, chemical engineering), math, science (physics, chemistry, biology, advanced physics, nursing, anatomy and physiology, earth science), and psychology courses.
Chegg Writing ($9.95 a month): Chegg Writing is a writing service that includes a plagiarism checker, proofreading, grammar, and spell checks, as well as a tool for creating and storing citations in the proper style. You may submit up to 15 papers of up to 3,000 words each each month. According to Chegg, an expert offers comments on the primary concept and writing style, and the return period is usually 24 hours. When you submit papers, they are automatically included to Chegg’s plagiarism database, as is the case with most plagiarism detection programs.
You will get restricted recommendations and no plagiarism check if you do not have a paid account. For a free service, you should choose Grammarly’s entry level tier.
Bundle, often known as a Study Pack: $19.95 a month): The last deal is for $19.95 per month, which includes all three previously stated services: Math Solver, Study, and Writing.

THE COST OF BOOKS

Chegg provides textbook rentals as well as purchases, often of secondhand copies. (It used to buy old books from students, but it no longer does.) When you rent books from Chegg, you can see the return date before you have to put down a credit card. Typically, you will be given the books for the duration of a semester, or approximately five months. The cost of return postage is included in the price.
You may highlight pages in rented books, but you are not permitted to write in them. Rentals are subject to a 21-day return period. If you want to buy a book that you’ve rented, Chegg always offers you the choice. Used books and rentals do not contain any additional resources, such as DVDs, lab instructions, or access codes, that a new copy would.
Let’s have a look at Chegg’s pricing for renting and purchasing a few real necessary books for courses at a big institution. Prices for purchasing and renting books straight from the university bookshop are provided for comparison. Here are three illustrations.

“When you rent books through Chegg, you can see the return date before you put down a credit card.”

3rd Edition of Physical Geology:
Chegg rental and purchase prices are $14.49 and $21.49, respectively.
University rental, purchase: $165.75 used or $220.75 new
REJOICE for Essentials of Sociology, 11th Edition, A Practical Approach – Chegg Access Card is currently out of stock.
University digital rental: $80.00 for a one-year subscription.
1st Edition of Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction:
Chegg rental, purchase: $11.99 (starting at $16.99).
Rent at the university is $4.78 used and $6.57 new.
Renting a digital camera at a university costs $4.00 for 180 days.
$9 used, $11.95 new for university purchase
As you can see, obtaining books via Chegg may be cost-effective in certain cases, but it can also cost twice or treble what it would cost to rent or purchase the book elsewhere.
Of course, Chegg isn’t the only place to purchase and rent necessary books. Campusbooks.com searches several sites for textbooks and displays pricing from online merchants that stock the title. You may then compare prices from Chegg, Amazon, AbeBooks, SecondSale, and other retailers in an easy-to-read table.

STUDENT SERVICES IN A GRAB BAG

Chegg is a jumble of student services—a hodgepodge of resources and databases, hired specialists, and so on. It lacks cohesion, and some of the components, such as the poor flashcard app, are underdeveloped. Chegg would be better if it had a clearer emphasis, such as concentrating only on math and science or creating a separate brand for textbook rental and sales. It comes across as unrefined and unfocused as is.