Online language tutoring: our guide to the best (and worst) platforms in 2025

Our review of online language tutoring companies and what to expect, from tutors who work for them (including updates on policies and commission rates)

As side hustles go, online tutoring must be one of the easiest. Working from home and to your schedule, four-to-five hours of tutoring a week provides a relatively easy income which can pay for a large purchase or help build savings. Having that extra income stream is also a safety net if you lose your job, or can help tide you over when things get tough. In addition, with online tutoring, your students go where you go, meaning you take your income stream with you when you move cities or even countries.

I’m interested, how do I start?

Well, before you hit that apply button, understand that in the online TEFL world, there are two types of companies. The first are companies like Lingoda, Speexx or English First which sell packages to students for you to teach and set your hourly rate (which is usually low). The second are create-a-profile sites which offer a marketplace of tutors and make their money by taking a commission on each class sold. Between these two, I recommend create-a-profile sites, as teachers set their own rates and there is a greater balance of power between the tutor and site because if commission rates and conditions become unfavourable, tutors can take their students elsewhere.

Here is a list of the largest create-a-profile sites for language teaching, most of which I have first-hand experience with, or know someone who does.

iTalki

Italki is arguably the best-known language teaching site, but with over 30,000 tutors there’s also plenty of competition.

It offers two tiers of tutors: professional and community. Professionals must have a teaching certificate and set a higher rate for classes. In addition, if a tutor teaches a speciality like IELTS exam prep or phonics, iTalki demands a teaching certificate for that also. This policy is to maintain quality and prevent tutors from putting long lists of specialities in their profiles which they may not be able to teach. Personally, I say that this is an advantage for tutors because if you can prove your specialism, you have less competition.

Commission: Unfortunately, in just the last few weeks iTalki’s commission has increased from 15% to 21% for individual classes. For packages, commission is set on a sliding scale with the highest 20-class package receiving the previous 15% commission rate. For more on this, check out Learn English with Katie’s helpful comment below. In a nutshell, if you have regular students who buy big packages, the new rate is not going to affect you. If you have lots of one-offs, however, you may find the new rate stings.

Terms and conditions: Lessons can be cancelled by the tutor or student 24 hours in advance, after that the lesson fee is paid to the teacher. You need to have earned $30 to cash out your earnings.

Probability of getting 4-5 hours a week teaching: Moderate-high

Open for applications: Yes (depending on the language). Check its Become a Teacher page to see if your language is open. I have heard that iTalki opens for English on Monday (UTC +8). Not sure if this is true, but it’s worth a try!

Verbling

I have followed Verbling since its early days, but I have never seen it open to applications and neither have I ever met anyone (and I have known a lot of ESL teachers) who works for it. So, what is this mythical platform and who works there? Well, according to Reddit, Verbling has a reputation for offering a better class of tutors who charge more for their classes. But other than that, I have no more information. Do you, or anyone you know, work for Verbling? If so, let us know your opinions in the comments below.

Commission: 15% flat rate.

Terms and conditions: The trial class is free or, if you choose to charge, $6 for 30 minutes. Students can cancel or reschedule a class with 12 hours’ notice. BUT if they cancel a class after that you only get 50% of the class price. So, in other words, if a student cancels a class with just 5 minutes’ notice, the tutor only gets half the money. The cashout threshold is $10.

Probability of getting 4-5 hours a week teaching: Unknown, but I get the sense from Reddit threads, that it’s probably quite high. Again, if anyone has any experience with it, let me know.

Open for applications: No – is it ever?

LanguaTalk

I teach for Languatalk and have had a good experience. As a small platform, it doesn't have the volume of students as Italki or Preply, nevertheless, I get a steady 4 hours of work a week as they keep the tutor-to-student ratio low. The site is fairly low-fi and classes take place on third party video conferencing systems such as Google Meet. But there is a support team to help you and the commission is just 16%.

Commission: 16%

Terms and conditions: Students can cancel or reschedule 24 hours in advance, after that the tutor receives the payment for the class. There is no cash out threshold, instead tutors are paid through a monthly bank transfer.

Probability of getting 4-5 hours a week teaching: Medium-to-high

Open for applications: Yes, but it is competitive.

Preply

Ah, Preply. If there’s site that’s going to provoke that lightning bolt of anger in tutor forums, it’s this one. But is it really that bad? Well, I have first hand experience as a Preply tutor and in my opinion, no. At least, there are far worse sites out there (see below).

With a 33% commission charge, the site takes a sizable chunk of tutor earnings, it’s true. However, the more you teach, the more that commission falls until you reach 18% after your 400th lesson. I don’t know anyone who has reached that level, by the way, but it is nice to know that things do get better over time. Secondly, as iTalki has just increased their commission across the board, regardless of how many classes taught, does Preply’s commission structure now really look so bad?

The second problem with Preply is that a tutor MUST offer a free trial which lasts between 50 and 60 minutes. That’s a long time to work for free. The only way to avoid this is to hide your profile from new students and only teach the ones you have.

On the upside, Preply advertises itself across the internet and attracts a lot of students, meaning that you should find work. In addition, it’s easy to join. Tutors need a teaching certificate, but the application process is simple and approved in days. Finally, Preply invests in its technology and, I have to say, the quality of the video conferencing is very good – better than most other sites.

So, is it worth joining Preply? Well, if you are willing to grit your teeth and teach the first 20-50 hours of lessons for less money than usual, then yes. If I were going to really invest my time in Preply, I may even drop my rates for this period, packing in the students to get through this stage as fast as possible. Then after 51 hours, the commission rate drops to 25% and if you have found enough students willing to pay your preferred rate, you could hide your profile for newcomers, avoiding the free trial problem.

Commission:

• • 0-20 hours: 33%

• • 21-50 hours: 28%

• • 51-200 hours: 25%

• • 201-400 hours: 22%

• • 400+ hours: 18%

Terms and conditions: Students can cancel or reschedule up to 12 hours’ in advance, after that they must pay the full price to the tutor. There is no minimum cash out threshold.

Probability of getting 4-5 hours a week teaching: Medium to high

Open to applications: Yes

Classgap

This brings me on to the final site, Classgap. I joined Classgap last spring to see what it had to offer. From the get-go, the site seemed eerily empty. On the backend, the availability tab didn’t work and when I contacted support I got no reply. For five months I got zero messages from students, then in October a Spanish guy got in touch wanting classes. We met on the system where I did a 20-minute free trial and after the student booked an hour lesson. That’s when things really went wrong because upon completing this further class, I discovered to my horror that I had actually taught this one for free also. It turns out that if your profile is set to “high promotion,” Classgap takes 100% commission for the next class. (Side note: if it’s set to “medium promotion,” Classgap takes 50%, but as it took me five months to get one student on “high,” heaven knows what it’s like on another setting.)

With that, the high commission rates and cash out threshold, Classgap wasn’t worth it, so I deleted my profile. For anyone interested in Classgap (as a tutor or student), I advise caution. The site’s apparent emptiness, coupled with bugs on the back end and bad communication, is a bad sign. Look at Good Air English’s list of online tutoring platforms and you’ll see how many have shut down just in the last few years. It happens all the time.

Commission:

• • 0-25 hours: 32%

• • 25-59 hours: 27%

• • 60-299 hours: 23%

• • 300-499 hours: 18%

• • 500+ hours: 16%

Terms and conditions: Students can cancel a class up to 8 hours in advance.

Probability of getting 4-5 hours a week teaching: Low

Open to applications: Yes, but don’t do it

If online tutoring interests you, stay tuned for the second instalment later this month with tips and tricks on how to attract students once you’re on a platform.

For ideas and activities covering hundreds of grammar and vocabulary points, check out my book series: The Ultimate ESL Teaching Manual, available on Amazon.

That’s all for now and happy teaching!

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