Preply Review
What is Preply?
Before getting deep into the topic, first of all it’s important to know that what Preply is exactly? So basically Preply is an online platform where potential language learners meet tutors so as to learn different languages through online 1-on-1 video sessions.
Whereas the tutors across the globe get the chance of teaching different languages to the students globally and make decent income through these online language classes.
The Preply was initially started in 2012 as an online marketplace for SAT and ACT tutoring and then later in 2013, Preply decided to expand their business globally by transforming their marketplace into an online language learning and tutoring platform.
Till 2021, Preply’s tutor community has grown rapidly to more than 1,40,000 tutors from 203 countries, available subjects ( including languages ) to 100. Preply had also raised $35M from investors like Owl Ventures and Full In Partners.
With having such a huge community of tutors, It becomes quite easy to find the perfect tutor for any language learning.
Preply doesn’t teach languages themselves and acts as an aggregator between the online tutors and students. Being an aggregator, they allows you to access their huge database of online tutors so that a student or a language learner can easily find the perfect tutor for themselves.
In order to find the right tutor, you can browse each tutor’s profile, can watch their introduction videos and can even filter them by price, rating, specialty, language, availability etc.
As an aggregator, Preply provides a platform to both the language learners and the online tutors so as to ensure that everything is going smoothly between the students and the tutors. Through the platform, student first pays the tutor and then the tutor gives 1-on-1 video lesson to the student through the Preply’s platform.
Student who pays for the lesson reserves the right to get the full refund in case the tutor doesn’t deliver the lesson or the student remain unsatisfied with the language lesson. Because of this policy, the tutors on Preply are bound to deliver solid and high quality lessons to the student. If they fails to deliver top notch lesson then they wouldn’t get the positive reviews from the students as well.
Is Preply Legit or Scam?
If you’re worrying about the legitimacy of Preply then you should know that Preply is a legitimate EdTech company and tutor marketplace which has a huge database of 140,000 tutors in 203 countries worldwide teaching 50 languages.
Preply is headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine along with having offices in Barcelona, Spain. There are over 300 employees from 35 different nationalities working hard to provide satisfactory language learning environment across the globe.
Preply was founded by Ukrainian entrepreneurs Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, and Serge Lukyanov in 2012. On August 31, 2013, they raised an initial angel investment of $180,000 from Semyon Dukach, Borya Shakhnovich, Vadim Yasinovsky, Dan Pasko, Torben Majgaard, and Vostok Ventures. You can verify all these information here.
They even got featured in Forbes Magazine when they got huge interest shown from the users during the COVID-19 Pandemic. In March 2020, Preply raised $10M to fuel their growth in North America, Europe.
In March 2021, Preply again raised a $35 million series B as demand for language learning grows.
As of September 2021, the Preply has received $50.6 million of investments in a total of 8 funding rounds. Preply also got featured in numerous big magazines like Tech Ukraine, Silicon Canals, Business Insider and all such buzz about Preply makes Preply legitimate. So you should stop worrying about getting scammed because Preply is totally safe and legit and providing their service to a huge number of users globally.
Is Preply Worth it?
If you’re thinking to give it a try either as a student or as a tutor, you would must have a question in your mind that Is Preply Worth It? If this is the question coming to your mind then I would love to answer you separately both as a tutor and as a student.
So let’s talk about the student perspective first. Let’s assume that you’re someone who is looking to learn Spanish language and when it comes to learning a new language then apart from understanding all the basics of the language, speaking with a native speaker becomes essential.
Generally It’s difficult to find a native speaker when you’re learning a language but when you’re at Preply then things become a lot more easier for you. Why? Because with the help of Preply, you can find, schedule and connect with the perfect native speaker and can take language lessons from them through 1-on-1 video session which will definitely make you prominent in that particular language.
The best part which I really like about the Preply is, student can get the full refund in case the tutor doesn’t deliver the lesson or the student remain unsatisfied with the language lesson. Just because of full refund policy, Preply is worth putting your money for the student to learn several different languages.
Now looking at the tutors perspective, Preply is worth using for tutors as well because of several beneficial reasons. The language tutor on Preply can make decent income by giving language lessons. Tutors on Preply are free to set their prices per hour which they feel that they deserve this particular amount in return of their hard work, dedication, qualification as well as specialization.
Tutoring on Preply gives them freedom of being their own boss because of flexibility of scheduling. At Preply, If you are unable to teach at a particular time then you would have the advantage of rescheduling the teaching time.
However there are also some disadvantages i.e. tutors on Preply wouldn’t get paid for the trial lessons they give to the new students with no possibility that they will sign up for more lessons after getting the trial lesson. However I believe that this disadvantage can be neglected because this is the only opportunity which you can utilize to attract more and more students to enroll your lessons.
You can consider unpaid trial lessons as your own marketing campaigns for which you aren’t paying any money. Just like a brand market themselves by putting lots of marketing budget and still doesn’t have any guarantee that they will get more customers. But they usually know that If their product is good then definitely it will get sold. Similar thing applies to you as a tutor also. If the student is getting ultimate satisfaction with your trial lesson then chances are very high that the student will pay for more language lessons from you.
Preply Reviews : What Do Customers Think?
When it comes to the honest Preply reviews then It’s important to know that what real users of Preply are saying and for that we are considering the reviews from different platform where real customers had left their honest reviews.
If we look at the Preply reviews from Trustpilot then you will find 76% of 4319 reviews rated Preply as Excellent and 9% reviews as Great whereas 3%, 2% and 10% reviews rated Preply as Average, Poor and Bad respectively. We have listed some of the recent positive and negative reviews of Preply below.
#PositiveReviews
” I really liked the tutor. So intelligent and informative. I’m excited to study with her. – Maki “
” Our tutor was patient. Her dialect was geared to our new planned environment of Ecuador. Bravo! – Beatrice Braswell “
” It’s easy to schedule and pay for classes on Preply. My instructor, Angel, is awesome and I’m learning a lot in the structure and pronunciation of words/sentences. – Odette H “
” I love working on the Preply platform – it is great for tutors and also for learners because it is easy to use and adapts to suit the needs and goals of your students. The materials are very useful and there is such a wide variety of topics and activities which include all 4 skills. I also love all of my Preply students – I feel so lucky that I get to work with such amazing people from all over the world. – Teacher Kat “
” Great tool for learning a language. I like that I am receiving instruction from a native who lives in a country that speaks the language that I am studying. I get to learn the language, the culture and about more about the country. What a great find with a great price. Made immersion possible for me. – Deanna Benner “
#NegativeReviews
” Your money is not yours once they get it. Accidently confirmed a lesson that didnt take place and they refused to obtain the money back from tutor. Tutor constantly didnt turn up for lessons when we were waiting for him. Left with 9 lessons on the clock and told to “learn another language with another tutor”. What kind of stupidity is this. Bots answer all messages. Even when tutors cancells you struggle to get your money refunded. Its a scam to rob you of as much money as you can and lets anyone become a tutor. So long as you pay dont expect any kind of service and loads of stupid excuses why they cant refund. The balance has been too long in the account is the latest excuse, so what REFUND MY 9 LESSONS OUTSTANDING WHEN TUTOR HAS QUIT. – Catherine Smyth “
” I hated it it didn’t teach me at all it was so bad I suggest using Duolingo instead. – Mateo Porcelli “
” This is the worst on-line platform for language learning I have ever used. Not only are their fees extortionately high (they take 100% of the first lesson fee then 33%) but the website has terrible functionality with scheduled lessons and time slots repeatedly lost in my experience. The customer service is also very poor. Not only did they lack the courtesy to reply to my question as to why my booked regular lesson slots had all disappeared (irretrievably), but they later refused to refund me money I’d paid in good faith for lessons which were cancelled by their teacher and not by me, insisting that I instead transfer the money to a different tutor, which I didn’t want by that time. A very unprofessional and unethical platform in my experience. – R. Keen “
” I am being told that I have to schedule a lesson within 30 days or my account will be closed for inactivity. I am a student who works so I do not have time to take lessons every week. I emailed customer service asking if I will receive a refund if my account is closed but received no response. – Shanay “
” Frequent bait and switch tactics on Preply: The Preply tutor’s rates are low only until they get students. As soon as they get new students, they dramatically increase their rates! So if you are looking for a tutor to learn a language, be aware that the low rate you get at the beginning will not last for long time. It’s a trap!… You are forced to look for another tutor, unless you want to continue with the same tutor and pay a higher rate. – William “
So these were some of the honest reviews from the real customers and as you can see in the above Trustpilot screenshot, about 76% of the customers had excellent experience with Preply. However we aren’t denying those 15% customers who had bad experiences.
So from my perspective, I believe that no company can satisfy 100% of their customers. There will definitely be some customers who remain unsatisfied with the product or service. In order to take your wise decision, you should look at the majority of the customers who are quite happy and satisfied with Preply.
If there are merely 15% of the customers had bad experiences then that doesn’t mean you will also get the similar experience. I understand that issues can occur but you can also fall under those 85% ( 76% excellent and 9% great ) happy and satisfied customers.
So decision will totally be yours and It depends on you that whether you look at minority customers with bad experiences or majority customers with excellent experiences.
If still you aren’t able to take your decision then we recommend you to watch below Preply video reviews which will help you take your wise decision.
Preply Pricing
If you’re planning to take language lessons on Preply then you must be thinking about their prices and want to know that how much you have to pay in order to learn your desired language from a perfect language tutor. Right? So now let’s have a look at what they charge from their potential students.
At Preply, tutors have the right to set their own prices for the language lessons. Tutors can choose how much they want to charge per hour based on their expertise, qualification, language they teach, experience and so on. These hourly pricing ranges from $1 to $100 per hour and you can choose the tutor whom you found to be affordable for you.
However If you’re buying lessons in bulk then you could get discounts on the hourly packages and such discount increases as the number of hours you’re buying increase. Payments at Preply can be made via Mastercard/Visa, or Paypal.
How Does Preply Work?
Before you signup for the trial lesson on Preply, It’s important to know that how does Preply work so that you could have the proper understanding about the platform and can get best out of it. As we said earlier that Preply connect potential language learners and language tutors together so as to make language learning easy and smooth.
Once you landed over the Preply’s website, you can type the language or subject in the search box which you want to learn and after that, you simply have to click on ” Explore Tutors ” button as you can see in below screenshot.
Just by clicking on ” Explore tutors ” button, It will show you all the available tutors on the platform with whom you can learn your desired language or subject.
I had searched for the Spanish language and the platform shown me more than 4,000 available Spanish teachers. Searching for the available tutors is completely free and doesn’t need any account to create.
Once you got the list of available teachers, you can check each tutor’s profile, their bio, their native language, other languages they speak, their introduction video, their schedule, price, ratings, reviews and more.
When you have all such information about the tutors then it becomes quite easy to choose the right tutor for yourself. Upon checking the tutor’s profile, the short bio will help you know more about the teacher, their specialty, qualifications and experience.
You will also find a ” Message ” button there so that you can message tutor If you’ve any query to ask. And once you made your decision on a tutor then you can also book your trial lesson by clicking on ” Book trial lesson ” button.
How to Choose the Perfect Tutor on Preply?
Finding the perfect tutor for yourself isn’t so difficult when you had all the information about tutors available right in front of you. Once you got the list of available tutors then sort them by ” Number of reviews “.
Sort them by number of reviews if you’re okay with hiring highly priced tutors. Once you sorted them by number of reviews, all the top quality tutors will get shown to you on the first page. There will be 10 top tutors on the first page from which you should select the tutor based on your budget, tutor’s rating and reviews etc.
From those top 10 tutors, check each tutor’s profile whom you can afford and then read their bio, watch their introduction video, read reviews etc so that you can get the idea about whether they will be the right tutor for you or not.
When you filter tutors based on number of reviews then high quality tutor with high number of reviews comes on top and tutors with very low number of reviews or new tutors goes on bottom. So keep your budget in your mind and select a tutor from the top 10 or top 15 tutors by judging them based on their introduction video and customer reviews. Through this way, I’m sure you will definitely find your perfect tutor. You can even find a perfect tutor at $5 per hour rate with good rating and reviews as well. All you need to do is, just checkout the tutor’s profile and their reviews.
How to Book Lesson with a Tutor?
Once you ended up choosing your perfect tutor then booking a trial lesson with them is quite easy. If you’re taking a lesson for the first time on Preply then It will be considered as your trial lesson which will be of 60 minutes long. This single trial lesson is 100% refundable ( or transferrable, it’s your choice ) with no questions asked If you’re not satisfied.
In order to book your trial lesson, simply click on blue ” Book trial lesson ” button.
After clicking on this button, a popup will appear where you have to select the timing for your trial lesson. And after you selected the time slot, click on ” Confirm time ” button as shown below.
After this some questions will be asked to you like why are you learnings a new language etc and then you will taken to the checkout page where you’ve to complete the payment process. You can use Visa/Mastercard or Paypal as your payment method. And once you completed the payment process, your trial lesson will get scheduled successfully.
So with this way, you can book your trial lesson with you tutor.
How Does Preply Lesson Look Like?
Preply has their own online video chat platform which is called Preply space where the language lesson takes place. Preply space can be accessed by logging into your account and then switching to ” My Lessons “.
However If you still prefer using third party applications like Skype or Zoom then you can freely use them for your language lessons. But the Preply space is inbuilt directly in the platform and making a video call with the tutor becomes quite easy.
Preply space also has the fields like Lesson Objective, Materials, New Vocabulary, Error Corrections, Homework and Next Lesson Objectives which can be used to input things when required by both student and the tutor.
The lesson on Preply lasts for one hour and If you wish to extend or reduce the lesson duration then it can be done by discussing with your tutor. Preply space also has the feature that enables the tutor to share their screen with the student which turns the Preply space into the digital whiteboard for the classroom.
Preply space also has a feature by which you can preview your video before the lesson begins. All these features in Preply space will help you a lot during your language lesson and will make your overall experience better.
Before your lesson start, your tutor will contact you and will discuss to you about your language level, learning goals, lesson focus etc so that they can understand you better and teach you accordingly for your better learning and understanding. Here’s what language lesson on Preply space look like.
What Happens After the Preply Trial Lesson?
Once you finished getting your trail lesson, you’ll then be able to give your review, any feedback, any issue you got during the lesson and can rate the whole experience.
If you feel even a little bit unsatisfied then either you can ask for 100% refund or you can take a free lesson. If you’re quite happy and satisfied with the trial lesson then you can book more lessons with the tutor If you want to continue learning the language.
Once you decide on booking more lessons then you have to buy lessons in bulk i.e. in 5 hours, 10 hours, 15 hours and 20 hours plan ( you will get more discount as you book more hours ). You can’t book 1 or 3 hours lesson and have to book at least of 5 hours plan which is the only thing I didn’t liked about Preply.
It would have felt great If I could have the flexibility on booking lesson hours. So If you’re going to book more lessons then I’ll suggest you to book only when you’re satisfied with the tutor and most importantly, must check tutor’s profile, their bio, introduction video, rating and reviews before choosing a tutor for yourself.
Preply Q/A Section
The Q/A section on Preply’s website is basically an online community of students and tutors where students can ask questions about whatever they want and the tutors in the community answer the questions. You wouldn’t have to pay anything for asking the question and just need to have your account on Preply.
This is something which needs to be appreciated because Preply has provided a place where students and tutors can connect outside the lessons. And because of Preply’s Q/A section, students can clear their doubts and queries, no matter whether it’s a small query or a big doubt.
Students can post a question about any language or subject, whether it’s a grammar related query or about understanding the difference between two similar looking words. Simply post question in the community and then the qualified tutors will answer you so that you can have better understanding of the language and can clear your doubts.
The another benefit of the community is, you can also search for the questions or queries in the community which were asked in the past and can get answers for the doubts which you could have later. Similar things applies to other students, you ask some question and some other student might get benefitted with it later when they will have similar doubt.
How to Become Tutor on Preply?
If you’re planning to become a tutor on Preply, you would need to fulfill these below things.
- You have to be a Native speaker or fluent in the language you want to teach.
- A high speed internet connection.
- Access to Skype.
- A webcam is needed.
- A microphone is needed.
- An ID needed ( Passport/Drivers License ).
Once you fulfilled all these above things, you’re all set to apply to be a tutor on Preply. To become a language tutor on Preply, you wouldn’t need any qualification or experience. Although if someone is looking to teach any subject like mathematics or history then the person have to show any prior knowledge or any qualifications or professional experience about the subject you want to teach.
For language tutors, you can simply go to the Preply’s website, create your profile and apply. Also If you have any qualification or professional experience in the language you want to teach then you should definitely mention it in your application as well as in your bio.
After submitting your application, it will get reviewed by the Preply’s team and you’ll get an email notification once your application got approved by them. And after getting the approval, you can add further details in your profile like your introduction video etc.
Now the students will be able to book your language lessons and send messages to you. Although you’re completely free to choose your working hours at Preply, the way you want to teach your language lessons. But contacting the students directly who booked your lessons and understanding their goals, their expectations, their knowledge about the language will always be a good step in order to give your best while teaching the language.
Make sure to create a good profile that includes a good bio, a friendly and professional introduction video and any qualification or experience If you have so as to increase the chances of getting more students.
Importance of Lesson Planning
As a tutor, it’s important for you to plan your lesson so that the student can get to learn the language properly and can have a better overall language learning experience. If you have any relevant textbook, any copies or pdf’s then discuss about them with the student before the lesson.
Contacting the student before the lesson through the messages at Preply will help you give best language learning experience to the student. Through the messages, you can ask them about what they exactly want to learn, what they already know, can discuss several relevant topics and can have good communication between you and your student in order to deliver high quality lessons in a most comfortable environment.
Preply Training
If you’re still not be able to create solid lesson plans then we highly recommend you to take the Preply’s training and learn how to be a very good tutor. Preply provides an optional free training courses and tips for the tutors which has the extensive collection of insightful webinars that will teach you about how to engage students, retain them and create solid lesson plans.
Taking the Preply’s free training is really an excellent way to help you get started. Preply has named this training as ” The Preply Lesson Plan “. It contains x7 60 minute beginner-advanced lesson plans which are designed for achieving fluency.
These lesson plans include a placement test, learning plans and lesson summaries that will help tutors in delivering engaging and high quality learning experience to the students.
How Much Does Preply Pay Per Hour?
If you’re planning to become a tutor on Preply then you must be thinking about the pay you will get after teaching at Preply. Right? As a tutor on Preply, you have complete freedom to decide how much you want to charge per hour. Currently the tutors on Preply are charging between $5 to $40 an hour.
These per hour rate depends on the tutor’s qualifications and experience they had. The more teaching experience and qualification you have, the higher rates you will be able to set compared to the tutors with no to less teaching experience and qualification.
Preply doesn’t take any hidden fee or hidden charges. Although they take commission varies from 33 to 18% depending on the completed number of lesson hours you give to the students.
The above screenshot describes the commission structure at Preply based on the number of hours a tutor have taught. Let’s suppose you’re a brand new tutor at Preply then Preply will take 33% commission from you until you complete 20 hours of lessons at Preply.
And when this number crosses 20 then till 50 number of hours, Preply will take 28% as a commission. Similarly commission percentage will come down to 18% when you will cross 400 hour milestone as a total number of hours you’ve taught at Preply.
This clearly shows that more the number of hours you teach at Preply, lesser the percentage share of your earnings will go to Preply. So once you start delivering more and more hours of lesson, you will keep getting closer to the reduced commission percentage.
However It’s important for you to know that for each first trial lesson hour you deliver to a each new student, you wouldn’t get any money and the Preply will take 100% as commission. After the trial lesson, if the student got satisfied and wants more lesson hours then he or she had to buy lesson hours with you in bulk which will give you the new earning opportunity.
So you make sure to give your best and deliver satisfactory lesson hours in order to get more and more earnings opportunity.
Is Teaching on Preply Worth It?
Yes, It’s definitely worth teaching on Preply as it gives you the decent income by delivering the language lessons you’re extremely good at. Tutors are free to set their per hour rates based on their qualification, experience, way of teaching, reviews etc.
However the tutor wouldn’t receive any money for the first trial lesson they’ll deliver to a new student and Preply will take 100% as a commission. Now to some people, it could be a disadvantage and some people could see it as their own marketing investment.
With that said, I meant that you can see it as a new student acquiring opportunity which can definitely increase your earning opportunity if the student gets satisfied and buys more lesson hours in bulk.
Preply Pros and Cons for Students
Pros
The first thing which I really liked about the Preply is, the platform they are providing to the language learners globally. If someone is looking to learn a new language then interacting with a native speaker plays a crucial role in your language learning.
Interaction with a native speaker not only helps you understand all the basics of the language but it also makes you habitual of the language and you get enough practice of that language speaking which makes you fluent in the language with time.
With the help of Preply, you can connect, engage and get language lessons from a native speaker in a very easy and comfortable environment. It merely take a few minutes to create an account on Preply platform, browse through the massive list of language tutors, filter them based on price range, schedule, native speaker, specialties, rating, reviews and more in order to find the perfect language tutor for yourself.
You can also go through each tutor’s profile, read their bio and watch their introduction video in order to feel what kind of person they are. After you end-up taking your decision on a tutor, you can simply book your trial lesson with the tutor.
The another thing which I liked about this platform is, students can book their first ever trial lesson with 100% refund guarantee. After getting your trial lesson, If you’re even a little bit of unsatisfied with the lesson then you can get full refund with no questions asked or can get another trial lesson for free.
Cons
Talking about the con of the Preply platform, the students can’t have an option to purchase 1 or 2 lessons after getting the trial lesson. They would only have the option to purchase lessons in bulk i.e. 5,10, 15 or 20 lessons.
So before buying lessons in bulk, It is highly recommended to make sure that you found the right and satisfactory tutor for yourself. However you will still have the Preply’s full refund guarantee if you’re unsatisfied with the tutor’s lesson for any reason or you can ask for the tutor’s replacement.
You will be allowed to replace your tutor for up-to two times only and for both the two replacement of tutors, Preply will pay for it. If you’re looking to get the full refund then the refund request can be submitted once.
Preply Pros and Cons for Tutors
Pros
For tutors, Preply is an ultimate and easily accessible platform where they can earn decent amount of income by giving several language and subject lessons to their students. In order to teach at Preply, tutors doesn’t require any prior experience or qualifications which makes Preply platform extremely accessible to the beginner tutors.
At Preply, tutors have complete freedom of what they want to teach and how much they want to charge for it. Generally tutors on Preply set their rates based on their experience and qualifications. A new tutor set lower per hour rates than a tutor with some months or years of experience or qualifications.
If you’re just starting at Preply then after gaining some experience, you can also increase your rates. Also Preply provides free training in the form of webinars and articles to the tutors so that they can learn teaching effectively.
Cons
If you’re planning to start as a tutor on Preply then you should have known that tutors don’t get paid for trial lessons they give. Yes you heard it right and it’s the most disappointing con for so many tutors out there.
For every trial lesson a tutor delivers to a new student, Preply receives 100% of the commission and the tutor doesn’t get any money for it. A large number of tutors find it unfair with the tutors for not getting paid for every trial lessons they conduct, whereas so many tutors are totally okay with it.
If a tutor successfully delivers the satisfying lesson to the student and then the student prompt to buy more lesson hours then chances of earnings get increases. Therefore a lot of tutors consider it as their own marketing campaign to acquire a new student.
So it totally depends on how you see a particular situation. Also for new tutors, Preply takes 33% of your earnings as commission and this number reduces as you start delivering more and more hours of lessons.
How to Contact Preply?
If you’re looking to get any help from Preply then you can email them at support@preply.com and you can also get in touch with them through their social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Also here’s the Preply’s USA address:
1309 Beacon Street, Suite 300, Brookline, MA, 02446
FAQs
Where is Preply based?
Preply is a language learning platform originally based in Kyiv, Ukraine and headquartered in Brookline, Massachusetts USA.
Is Preply a US Company?
No, the country of origin of this company is Ukraine.
Can you buy single lessons on Preply?
No, you can’t buy single lessons on Preply. After getting your trial lesson, you have to buy lesson hours in bulk i.e. 5, 10, 15 or 20.
How many tutors does Preply have?
Preply have 140,000 tutors in 203 countries worldwide teaching 50 languages.
Is Preply trial lesson free?
No, It’s not. However you will have 100% refund guarantee If you remain unsatisfied with the trial lesson.
