Preply and italki are both marketplaces where you, as a student, book one-to-one lessons with a teacher or with a tutor. How you find, pay for and retain a tutor makes a real difference.
When I decided to switch to remote teaching during the pandemic, I applied to both platforms. For some reason, as a teacher, Preply always seemed to work better for me as it gave me a steady flow of students over the years. Especially at the beginning, I found the free webinars really helpful. They focused on professional growth and on how to use the online classroom.
Neither of them is a school
The platform is not teaching you anything; the tutor does. A good tutor on the worse platform beats for sure a bad tutor on the better one. Both Preply and italki are marketplaces mainly for language teachers.
To book a lesson on Preply, you need a subscription, which lets students book regular lessons. When I started on Preply there were lesson packages, which many students loved because they gave them a lot of flexibility. Despite the students being skeptical at first, as a teacher I have found that the subscription works better over time. It gives me more continuity and it keeps students motivated, because they have already paid.
In any case, what matters most is that the lessons are scheduled in the calendar. It is not a problem if from time to time it is not possible to take a lesson. In this regard, italki has always had a different model, built around single lessons and lesson packages.
What actually differs between Preply and italki
Where the lesson actually happens
I have also used italki as a student and I liked it, but the classroom they offered for lessons was not great and we ended up on Skype instead. Preply, by contrast, has improved a lot over the years and now I can teach in the platform's own classroom without any issue.
Sometimes, if there are maintenance issues, we can move the lesson to Google Meet for example, as long as the lesson is confirmed on Preply afterwards. I find both models to work. It depends on what the student prefers, single lessons and packages or a subscription.
Cancelling and rescheduling a lesson
The main difference when a student needs to cancel or reschedule a lesson is the required notice period: Preply requires 12 hours notice, while italki requires 24 hours notice. On Preply, if you cancel at least 12 hours in advance, the lesson is returned to our balance. On italki, if you cancel at least 24 hours in advance, the lesson credit is returned to your balance.
How the trial lesson works on each platform
I have sometimes discussed with my students on both platforms how the trial lesson works. Normally on Preply it is a 50-minute trial lesson, paid by the student, but the teacher does not earn anything from it. If it is a good match, the student takes a subscription and books regular lessons, in my experience usually at least once a week.
On italki, the student also pays for the trial lesson and the teacher is paid for it. Many students find this fairer, because their money does not go entirely to the platform. I have mixed feelings about the trial lesson on Preply, but I try to see it as a marketing opportunity to show what I am capable of, to turn them into regular students and to make them trust me.
It is a moment that marks the beginning of a long-term collaboration and, sometimes, a close friendship :).
How to actually pick a teacher
What a certificate does and does not prove
A strong point in favour of Preply is that it issues certificates. After at least 10 hours of lessons, Preply issues a certificate, which the student has to request from customer service. Preply also has certificates for teachers, which I find useful for being found and booked by new students.
That said, I do not think that a Preply certificate is enough to teach online. I have a degree in European Languages and have lived and taught abroad, which I think broadens what I can offer my students. You also need a strong command of English and an ear for different accents when you meet a complete beginner who cannot yet work in Italian.
On italki there is no certificate system. Certificates are an additional motivation for students, especially for those who want something tangible that shows their progress, but learning a new language is much more than accumulating hours to get a document at the end. It also does not say much about the actual level of the student or of the teacher.
Using the trial lesson to test a teacher
On Preply in particular, the trial lesson is the moment when the student can test the teacher before committing to a longer relationship. Sometimes during the trial lesson I have had students who tested me constantly to see how well prepared I was hahaha. They ended up being some of the longest-standing students I have ever had.
Some of them took their lessons very early in the morning before work, from the office or from home. They were simply demanding and wanted to be sure they were spending their money well, but once the ice was broken, the lessons felt completely relaxed.
On italki, without a certificate system, the platform works in a more transactional way. Students can choose a teacher, book a lesson and decide afterwards whether to continue or to try somebody else.
What to look for in a tutor profile
There are a few things you should look for when booking a tutor:
- their experience, as speaking a language as a native speaker does not necessarily mean they can teach it
- the languages they speak (ideally, at least a C1 level in English)
- what previous students have said about them
- whether they have a schedule that is convenient for you especially if the time zone is different
- and whether they are friendly and patient
As a teacher, I appreciate elements of both models. I like italki's flexibility and the fact that I am paid for trial lessons. At the same time I really value the continuity and the steady flow of new students I get through Preply.
But what matters most is that a good long-term relationship gets built. After more than six years, I still really enjoy teaching on both platforms, even though I am more active on Preply.
What it costs and why the cheapest tutor is not a bargain
Many teachers sometimes wonder if Preply is worth it because on the teacher's side, the commission is the biggest complaint. Tutors set their own rates, rates vary by language and by tutor experience. A commission comes out of what the student pays.
It starts at 33% and goes down to 18% after hundreds of accumulated hours of lessons. italki is a flat 21% (raised from 15%), much better than Preply.
From your side as a student, none of that is added on top. On both platforms you pay the rate you see on the tutor's profile, and the platform's share is taken out of that rate afterwards, not charged to you separately. What the commission does explain is the price itself: when a rate looks very low, the part that reaches the person actually preparing your lesson is lower still.
A tutor charging very little is either new or teaching enormous volume or not preparing.
In my experience, raising my prices on both platforms helped me get more committed students.
But a point in favour of Preply is the app, which I find to be much better since the rebranding and the built-in homework tools. italki feels more dated in that respect.
When a marketplace is not what you need
Marketplaces are good if you want to try out different teachers in a relatively affordable, low commitment way with easy payment options. They are useful when you are not quite sure what you are looking for yet and want to explore different approaches. Learning through my own website though means making a conscious commitment to your own learning, which allows me to invest more deeply in each student.
The models can be slightly different, payment methods, certificates, packages or subscriptions, but what stays the same and what they have in common is that they give me the possibility to establish beautiful relationships all over the world, from the comfort of my home, when I am in the Netherlands, which is my second home now and when doing what I like most, travelling.
Preply and italki communities
As Preply tutors we are independent contractors, working for ourselves as freelancers and we never meet each other. We compete for the same students and the algorithm, based on our performance on the platform, plays a big role. What has grown up is a large and self-organised network on both Facebook and WhatsApp that for many has been even more useful than anything Preply itself provides.
On Facebook, groups like "Preply Tutors Community", which are unofficial and moderated by other tutors rather than by the company itself, are extremely active and have a daily rhythm of questions: whether a bug is affecting everyone or how to rank better.
New tutors are trained here too: how to write a good description, how to record a video, how to deal with unpaid trial lessons, how to organise a trial lesson, how to teach a difficult grammar point and so on. italki feels more solitary to me, so I really appreciate the sense of community I get from the Preply colleagues. We navigate a persistent tension between solidarity and competition, especially when it is about the rates, trying to not lower them too much, which attracts a lot of students but damages those who charge a fair price because they offer a good service. Also, according to my experience, raising the price on both platforms, helped me with getting more committed students.
On italki I feel the community exists too but it is built in a different way. It seems to be more a community for students, where the teachers are there to be visible, not to talk with colleagues. The groups are also much less active than the Preply ones. I think that over the years Preply has changed and improved a lot, which also requires us teachers to keep up, to stay up to date and to try to know everything about the platform itself.
Regarding Preply, I learned through a student I teach, who works for the company, that Preply is really trying to implement AI tools on the platform in an intelligent way, wrapping them around the human lesson rather than replacing it. On Preply AI is bundled into the product. On italki AI is mainly used for lesson summaries and lesson practice.