iTalki and Preply are two of the most popular online marketplaces to learn a language. But what are the practical differences between these two services? As a language student who has used both, here is my honest experience, and my recommendation on which to use.
What Are iTalki and Preply?
First things first, what are the two platforms?
They are both marketplaces for language teachers. Kind of like a virtual bulletin board where you can browse teacher profiles, read student reviews, and book lessons. But more than a bulletin board, it is also a liaison between the teachers and the students: you do make payments through the platform itself, and the platform takes a commission on what the teacher makes, but at the same time, teachers are able to set their own rates to adjust for the commission that the platform takes out, and as a student, I appreciate that the platform has policies to protect both the teachers and the students.
The most important structural difference between the two platforms is how you commit to lessons. On Preply, you sign up for a monthly subscription tied to a specific teacher–you’re locked in until you cancel. On iTalki, you pay for however many lessons you want, whether that’s one at a time or a package of five, ten, or more. You will often get a small discount for booking in bulk, but the choice is always yours. Only feel like taking a couple of one-off conversation classes? Book the number of classes you want. Feel like you’ve outgrown your teacher and you’re ready to try someone new once you use up your latest lesson package? Also fine.
Finally, there’s also a small difference in how lessons are conducted. iTalki is flexible: teachers can hold lessons on whatever platform they prefer, whether that’s Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or iTalki’s own built-in classroom. In reality, I’ve used Zoom most often with my teachers. Preply, on the other hand, uses its some version of Google Meet (though it feels kind of like a proprietary classroom built on Google Meet), which is integrated directly into your Preply profile.
I do think my experience on Preply’s Google Meet platform can be a little laggy at times, and the lack of a “backup” platform or the option for teachers to choose their preferred platform can make that a negative for some. However, it’s a small difference and didn’t make a noticeable difference in my experience.
Pricing and Teacher Selection
In my experience, Preply teachers tend to be cheaper than iTalki teachers (at least for Spanish). You can find tutors on Preply for surprisingly low rates, and I’ve seen prices as low as $3 an hour. I do think this is in part, due to competition: while iTalki periodically closes applications to keep the supply of teachers balanced with demand, Preply appears to keep their application system open, and accepts most teacher applicants. More teachers means more competition (and I don’t necessarily think Preply’s student base is larger than that of iTalki’s), which drives prices down.
That said, I’d caution against chasing the lowest possible price. In my post reviewing Baselang, I talked about my stance about our ethical responsibilities as language learners. A $3/hour rate is hard to justify regardless of cost-of-living differences. Even if you disagree with that, a teacher who is fairly compensated and who feels valued is likely to be more invested in your progress (and therefore, teach better, anyway).
On the question of teacher quality, both platforms divide teachers into two tiers: “community tutor” vs. “professional teacher” (iTalki) or “certified tutor” (Preply). The certified/professional designation typically requires extra teaching certificate(s) or a relevant degree in teaching languages, but to be honest, I have never really paid close attention to that. I do tend to take lessons on iTalki with tutors labelled as “professional teacher”, but that is typically just because what they offer on their profile aligns more with what I am looking for. That is to say, I wouldn’t rule out teachers based on their designation alone.
In my experience, I do think the quality and consistency of teachers is higher on iTalki. Because iTalki is more selective about who they let onto the platform, there’s less sifting required to find someone good. Preply has more variety, which has its own value, but you may spend more time trying out teachers before landing on the right one.
A Note on Ethics: Trial Lessons and Fair Pay
One thing that gave me pause about Preply is their policy on trial lessons. On iTalki, the first three trial lessons are free for students, and after that you pay for them yourself. But even though the trial lessons are free for the students, the teachers still get paid from those free trial lessons, just on iTalki’s dime.
On Preply, students also pay for trial lessons (they do run occasional promotions which may land you a free trial lesson or two), but from what I’ve read in community forums, Preply does not pass that payment on to the teacher. In other words: even though you, the student, paid for the trial lesson, 100% of it goes to Preply rather than the teacher.
I find this to be incredibly shady on the company’s part. I also think it explains the urgency that I felt from the teacher to convert me into a monthly subscriber… which I will talk about next.
Flexibility and Scheduling
Being locked into a month-long subscription is by far the worst part of Preply, in my opinion.
I think it is largely a product of the competition on Preply and the fact that teachers are not being compensated for trial lessons, and so during my trial lesson on Preply, I felt incredibly pressured by my teacher to sign up for a monthly biweekly subscription right away. I liked my teacher well enough, but I would have preferred to try a couple more lessons before committing. Instead, I found myself locked into eight lessons over a month.
Of course, I know I could’ve just said no, or told her I’d have to take some time to think about it… but you are someone who is easily talked into decisions or have a difficult time saying no, this is a situation you could find yourself in.
I ended up deciding the fit with this tutor wasn’t what I was looking for, but it was to no fault of her own. Canceling the subscription was technically straightforward, but it also felt really awkward. The teachers do get notified if you cancel, and so I was trying to cancel at the last possible moment in my month-long subscription to avoid an awkward face-to-face conversation. In the end, I just skipped the last week entirely.
In contrast to Preply, iTalki has no such subscription model, and thus was a far better fit for me.
I have found many teachers I’ve liked on iTalki, and there was never any pressure to book subsequent lessons. For some teachers, I took only a single class and decided I would like to keep looking. For others, I purchase a whole lesson package, and then decide if I want to keep going after the lessons are used up. If I didn’t feel like continuing, then I simply don’t purchase any more lesson packages. With iTalki, there’s no subscription to cancel, no pressure to commit, and no awkward exit.
On both platforms, the scheduling itself is flexible: you book whenever works for you and the tutor’s schedule is provided so that you can book at the time that they are also available. Rescheduling policies are reasonably lenient (typically no changes within 24 hours), and of course the same is extended to the teacher. As someone who once worked with a freelance teacher outside of any platform who would cancel or reschedule hours before a lesson with no accountability, I really do appreciate that these platforms hold both sides to this standard.
My Verdict: Who Each Platform Is For
Choose Preply if: you’re working with a tight budget and the lower prices are the deciding factor. Just go in knowing you’ll be locked into a monthly subscription, and be prepared to do more filtering to find a quality teacher.
Choose iTalki if: you want more flexibility, higher overall teacher quality, and no pressure to commit before you’re ready. Lessons can be slightly more expensive, but I think paying for a quality teacher is always worth it.
Of course there are quality teachers that cost more on Preply too… but the subscription model is something I generally prefer to steer clear of.
For these reasons, my recommendation is iTalki. I still use it weekly and I have found some of my favorite teachers on there! If you would like to try it for yourself, you can get $10 USD in iTalki Credits when you make your first purchase, using my link.