I'm moving to China next year and had no knowledge of chinese, didn't know where to start, so Rocket Chinese was very useful for me a start to my learning path. Learning the language takes everyday practice and this site allows to do just that. I was plesantly surprised with level of exercises, I didn't think an online course would give me a chance to pratice spelling and writing.

Even if you want to take live lessons, I highly recommend to start with Rocket Chinese and use live lessons as supplementary materials later, once you've grasped the basics. Will save you lots of time and money! I highly recommend Rocket Chinese (and other Rocket Languages, I've also tried Rocket Spanish) for all you beginner learners like me.