To have a quick overview of Preply, please check a short video on Youtube below:
There are many variants of online tutoring: certified courses offered by world-famous universities, databases of lectures by specialists from different fields, custom writing services that help users master their essay writing skills, and online tutoring websites for those who want to get solid knowledge on a subject.
Unfortunately, not all of them provide services of proper quality. Users should still be aware of scams and irresponsible attitudes of teachers or management.
There are different parameters to consider when choosing a service, while user experience, pricing, security, and reliability remain universal.
What is our Preply assessment based on?
Different options to choose from. When a client has several options to choose from, things are simplified.
First, you do not have to compromise, and second, competition is very beneficial for your budget. You can always choose a price within your budget and a service that suits your needs.
If you hesitate, chat with customer support to make the final decision.
Pricing. A good agency should not be cheap, but it should not charge exorbitant prices! We have selected companies, which are affordable to most people.
Don’t shy away from appealing prices, thinking that high-quality products should always be expensive.
Not in this case. Good service providers understand that clients are more likely to come back if their expectations have been met for good money.
Security of payments. Nowadays, the service of your choice must offer some secure payment options.
Therefore, we have eliminated any fishy websites that do not pay enough attention to customers’ credit card data security.
By choosing one of the reviewed services, you can be sure that your money is safe, and that you will pay only for the completed job.
Guarantees. There are not a lot of agencies that offer guarantees for the services rendered. Thus, any company must have some protection for its customers.
For example, they might render additional services at no extra charge and much more. No matter how complicated the tasks are, professional online companies should always do their best to deliver high-quality products/services.
And even if they fail to do that on the first try, you will be eligible to give them another shot or find another company professional enough to finish the required job.
When you want experts to help you out, you have reasonable grounds to do that, and no one has a right to judge you.
For this purpose, we selected only those services that grant total anonymity to you as a customer, so you don’t have to worry that your sensitive data may leak somewhere.
Preply Overview
In this peer Preply review, you’ll find out more about this online platform for learning foreign languages.
We scrutinized most of the Preply reviews and are striving to provide an objective estimation of every service, analyzing some of the most important aspects:
- Quality of Services;
- Pricing Policy;
- Payment Options and Procedures;
- Customer Support;
- Website Usability;
- Security;
- User Experience.
If these criteria matter to you equally much, you can be sure to make your conclusions based on this Preply review. You can also check our comparison between Preply vs italki if you are interested in language learning.
Preply Story
Preply Inc is a platform where tutors can connect with students. It works as a marketplace: you find a teacher, schedule a lesson, and meet in the Preply Space.
This is an online language center, where you will find many tutors from different countries, native speakers, and experienced teachers.
It is a global community that will also help get some cultural insights, and tips, share personal experiences, etc. Is Preply legit? Is it safe? YES, it is.
If you are interested in the comparison of Preply and Cambly, check it out here.
Preply.com Pricing
Every tutor sets their own hourly rate based on their experience, proficiency, and the languages they teach, and their rate is determined by the feedback. Users buy lessons in packages. Currently, users can choose 5, 10, 15, and 20 hours.
The information about prices on bulk lessons, however, is not specified. On the other hand, it is convenient for you can test before committing to long-time cooperation.
Prices for tutoring services are quite different, so try to check several options on Wyzant.com to make the right decision. Is Wyzant legit? Find more details on our Wyzant review.
Preply Payment
Our Preply review found that there are five payment options: PayPal, MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and American Express. Just choose what works better for you.
While we review Preply, we have to mention their options for tutors, they have different options for money withdrawal: Skrill, Payoneer, and PayPal.
A teacher gets paid only after a student’s confirmation. If a lesson was rescheduled or didn’t take place for some reason, you reserve the money for the next payment.
After the first trial lesson, the money is released from the user’s account only if you confirm that you are satisfied with this lesson.
Otherwise, you get a 100% refund. Users pay for the hourly rate of a selected English tutor, so the funds and times aren’t transferable. Check the best websites to learn English here.
Preply Quality
According to the website’s policies, every tutor’s profile is checked manually by the support team before the verification. Their representative checks the background of a newly arrived tutor, their qualification, and profile completeness.
In other words, the final decision is made based on the information this person fills in after googling “Preply become a tutor.”
Meanwhile, the team reserves the right to reject the application without explaining the reasons for such a decision. There are no tests that would standardize the application process and prove a person’s proficiency in a specific area.
Looking for top math tutoring services? Check the best online math tutors list and ratings on our website.
There are many Preply student reviews, where users determine the quality of the services as excellent. Tutor ratings are formed based on the feedback and Preply tutor reviews.
Each new tutor gets a corresponding tag on their profile. People who try to bypass some rules and whose behavior doesn’t comply with the announced rules and policies are permanently fined or removed from the platform.
Is Preply a safe website?
The system blocks all personal information besides the tutor’s name and country to provide contacts outside Preply — a smart move for the service, a restriction for users, and a good way to prevent Preply scams.
So, is Preply a scam? No, it is not.
Not sure about how good the tutors you hire are? Check Varsity Tutors’ ratings on our website. There are professional tutors for hire available.
Preply.com Customer Service
Live chat window pop-ups as soon as you open the site and start looking for a tutor displaying some basic tips and steps to use the platform.
A click on a chat opens the Help Center with numerous FAQs. Answers there are helpful if you need to figure out some general questions.
You can start a conversation with a support team member, who usually replies in up to five minutes (but only during business hours) — 6 am – 11 pm on weekdays and 8 am – 6 pm on weekends.
You’ll need to leave a message and an email to get a response at any other time.
Preply.com Website Usability
The website has a pleasant, intuitive interface. It is not a state-of-the-art or award-winning solution, but it is minimalistic, with color and font variations, and is easy to understand.
Preply features all the necessary filters for choosing a perfect tutor: spoken languages, hourly rate, origin, available days and hours, and displays them by relevance, reviews, etc.
One of the best things about this company is its search system in general.
Before choosing a tutor, you specify several parameters, including your proficiency level, the purpose of learning, origin, etc. The search is available without logging in.
The Preply.com website design has changed during its existence. Comparing their design from each year since 2011, the biggest changes were made in 2013, and 2015, and the last one in 2018, which you can see now.
Preply works perfectly; we’ve found no errors whatsoever.
Also, remember to check pros and cons of Preply and websites like Preply as well.
- Low hourly rate of English tutors (even for native speakers).
- Preply uses Skype, which makes the connection between users from different countries easy.
- Trial lessons with a money-back guarantee are available.
- Tutor rating is based on students’ reviews, so you can be sure they are good at teaching and not passing tests only.
- Personal information is secure and not displayed to either student or tutor.
- User-friendly interface with advanced search options.
- You won’t find quick help on subjects other than languages (we found this point in one of the Preply Canada reviews).
- Not all teachers are credentialed as their backgrounds aren’t properly checked.
- Users aren’t able to transfer time or money for other lessons or tutors.
- There is a good chance you may need to spend some time looking for a tutor with the required qualification.
- Package lessons don’t always make sense when it comes to accuracy and flexibility.
- The commission is reportedly high; as you cannot contact a teacher elsewhere, you pay more for Preply’s services than actual education.
For tutors, it is not really worth your time and investment. It has some real positive attributes but some negative items with regards to transparency about pay and the level of withholding by the entity. If you work for Preply you basically have to sell or market yourself which may be far easier on your own. Also, there are some things that you should know upfront: you set your own rate which is a good thing but for each student that you begin to tutor your first lesson is free to them and you are not paid for the lesson (the company takes the entire funding), a student can often not show up for the event and your planning can be costly for your dedicated time, with all of this in mind you are essentially an independent contractor which means that come tax time your have to account for all of your services without a 1099 tax form. Another real negative is that the level of expectation from many students is that you not only teach them in your native language but that you are dedicated to helping them with unrealistic goals that are outside the area of intended goals for a tutor. For example, they may want you to provide them with capabilities that can not be accomplished in a relatively short amount of time.
I had some amazing students to work with but it is far and few between the level of expectation by the company and some students which will be difficult to manage because you have to approach this in two ways: dedicate all your time to just tutoring and hope to earn enough to make it worth your time or work a regular position and supplement your income with a few high quality and dedicated student. I really enjoyed working with a small percentage of my students but there were many students that asked for my dedication and then would not show up to the session. My rates were very reasonable but some students would say that we charge too much and yet the company would take in excess of 30% of your earnings and suggested that you should feel grateful. This is something that was not disclosed in the lengthy process, to begin with, the service. I enjoy tutoring and have done it for quite some time but the company took much of that joy with the process and training. Many students would far benefit from the use of a private and totally independent tutor rather than the use of this company. The company does not tell the students that their tutor is required to give up their first lesson fee completely and that the company also takes a very high percentage of funds thereafter. I would encourage all tutors and those seeking a tutor to simply search for opportunities on their own.
Preply is a scam. They took my money and my lessons. The tutor was very good. However, Preply’s platform is very complicated to use. The virtual classroom and sharing only work with the tutor. They kept billing me and taking my lessons from me. They make it complicated so they can scam you. They said I had lessons. Then, they bill me again and those lessons are gone. I don’t recommend them.
My first contact was very frustrating because I had to cancel a trial lesson after less than 30 minutes of scheduling it and there is no way to have contact with Preply. Also, the tutor was rude after I sent her an email about the time zone she replied: ” Wasn’t the time difference clear from the beginning Maria?” Ouch! In summary, no trial, and I will never contact this platform again. I hope I can get a refund…
My daughter likes how the material is served. The attention of the tutors helped her become the best in class. Thank you.
Do not be afraid to go to online services for study. Preply true professionals. Tutors here are really qualified and have a good approach to children.
My son says that he has become interested and fun to learn. This is exactly what I wanted! Thank you.
I’m glad I found Preply. Tutors here are always attentive and well explain the material.
If you want to help your children tighten their grades, then you are right for Preply. Professional service will find you a good tutor for a small fee.
Tutors have a well-built plan. It’s easy for children to follow and the lessons bring them pleasure.
Preply is a great tutoring site. I first contacted such services, but I am satisfied with the result at 100%. My daughter improved her grades and I am glad about that.
The website is scammy. It showed a list of search terms at the top of the list of Spanish tutors, like teacher gender, teacher qualifications, and teacher location. I had arrived at the site following a google search for teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico, so the location was already selected to Oaxaca. I spent an hour looking at possible teachers in Oaxaca. Finally, I emailed one. Within ten minutes my inbox was flooded! Flooded with emails from other teachers, all of whom had the email that I had sent to only one person in particular. They all wanted to teach me Spanish. That’s when I also learned that nobody is in Oaxaca, and the site scammed me. I deleted my account. I would never use it. That’s extraordinarily dishonest.
A biased student’s point of view. Being a tutor on Prely is a joke and a scam. Prely takes 100% commission on your first lesson. Then up to 33% thereafter. You spend forever simply looking for students and when you finally find one, you don’t even get to keep the money you earned. Do no recommend as a tutor.
The preply app is straight forward and easy to use. Everything is set up for you all you have to do is pick a subject, tutor, and a time to meet up. It’s all very simple!
I am very pleased for the positive and supportive response I had every time I needed Preply.com support. Before contacting your company I had tried several services, and you provided a welcome and unique teaching approach. We know that our son had the best support he could have. You always went the extra mile in preparing material for him and also gave him lots of encouragement! I do believe your love and support has made a big difference for him and we will happily recommend your business to others.
I really just simply love this online tutor service and the tutors I have worked with. Absolute pros. Each teacher I have dealt with has been wonderful. The best tutors for me have been Rosalia, Maria and Katrina.
My tutor follows a plan and is polite. She uses different learning approaches including: conversation, audio, video, reading and writing. I am very-very satisfied with my online lessons and progress so far.
A very good selection of Spanish teachers for different levels at different rates. I tried two different teachers and settled with the second one as he was just perfect for what I wanted to learn (mostly conversational). I found Preply online teachers to be more cost effective than face to face classes.
Service is great. Only flaw is that the calendar feature sometimes doesn’t load properly. But that’s really no big deal. User Dashboard can improve, right now is a little confusing from the student perspective. But that’s not a big deal too.
Thank you, Preply.com., Sally is an excellent tutor. She has been tutoring our daughter since February 2015, and we have
noticed an improvement in our daughter’s learning and confidence. We are sure that it is due to Sally’s amazing patience and
teaching skills, as well as the one on one attention that our daughter receives from Sally. She quickly determined the source
of our daughter’s learning difficulties and has been able to help her with appropriate learning skills.