Is italki cheaper than Preply?

Neither is reliably cheaper, because tutors on both platforms set their own rates. italki's own pricing guide puts typical prices at $4 to $20 per lesson for community tutors and $10 to $40 for professional teachers. Preply's cost depends on the tutor's rate multiplied by your plan: its example is a €10 tutor costing €40 for the minimum 4-lesson, 28-day cycle. Compare the specific tutors you would actually book.

Can I get a refund for italki credits?

Generally not. italki's payment terms state that authorized payments are final and that no refunds will be given for italki Credits purchased. Lesson requests that are cancelled, declined or allowed to expire are refunded as credits to your student wallet, and if a package expires, completed lessons are settled at the single-lesson price with any remaining credits returned. Buy credits in amounts you expect to use.

What is the difference between an italki professional teacher and a community tutor?

italki describes professional teachers as bringing lesson plans, progression tracking and verified teaching credentials, and community tutors as offering real conversation, cultural insight and flexibility at a lower price. In practice, choose a professional teacher when you want structure or a curriculum, and a community tutor when you mainly want speaking practice. Either way, book a short trial before committing to a package.

Resources & Tools

italki vs Preply: Choosing a Tutor Marketplace

Q: Does Preply give you a free trial lesson?

No. Preply's help centre states that trial lessons are paid lessons, lasting 25 or 50 minutes, with one trial per tutor. If a completed trial does not meet your expectations, you can request a replacement, which is a 100% discount on a new trial with a different tutor. Each account can receive up to 2 replacements, and the option ends once you start a subscription with that tutor.

I Love Languages · Updated 2026-10-13 · 7 min read

italki vs Preply: Choosing a Tutor Marketplace

SummaryChoose italki if you want to pay lesson by lesson with prepaid credits, try several tutors and keep a loose schedule; its lessons cannot be cancelled within 24 hours. Choose Preply if you want a weekly rhythm with one tutor: it sells 28-day subscriptions with a minimum of 4 lessons per cycle and lets you cancel a lesson up to 12 hours ahead. On both, the individual tutor matters more than the platform, so judge one in a trial first.

Contents

italki or Preply: which tutor marketplace should you choose?
What exactly are italki and Preply?
How does each platform vet its tutors?
How do you pay on italki versus Preply?
What does a trial lesson cost, and what if it goes badly?
How late can you cancel a lesson?
Where does your money go?
How do you write a first-lesson brief?
How do you judge a tutor after one session?
Sources

italki or Preply: which tutor marketplace should you choose?

Choose italki if you want to pay lesson by lesson, try several tutors and keep your schedule loose; choose Preply if you want a fixed weekly rhythm with one tutor and are comfortable with a recurring 28-day plan. Both are marketplaces where independent tutors set their own rates, so the tutor matters more than the platform. The real differences are structural: how you pay, what a trial costs, how late you can cancel, and what a profile badge actually certifies.

This comparison is desk-researched, not a hands-on test. We read each platform's own help, terms and pricing pages on 10 October 2026; we did not book lessons on either. Policies change, so check the linked pages before you pay. Affiliate disclosure: if a link on this page can earn a commission, that possibility does not change our criteria or verdict.

What exactly are italki and Preply?

Both are tutor marketplaces: platforms that list independent tutors, handle scheduling and payment, and take a commission on lessons. That is why "Is italki good?" has no single answer. A strong tutor on either site will outperform a weak one on the other; the platform mostly makes finding, paying and replacing that tutor easier or harder.

If you are still deciding whether live lessons are worth paying for at all, our piece on whether apps alone can get you to fluency sets out what self-study tends to leave uncovered, which is usually unscripted speaking.

How does each platform vet its tutors?

italki sorts its tutors into two types. Its own guide to choosing a tutor says that "Professional teachers bring lesson plans, progression tracking, and verified teaching credentials," while community tutors offer "real conversation, cultural insight, and flexibility at a lower price point" (italki). The label is therefore your first filter: a professional teacher has had teaching credentials verified, and a community tutor is primarily selling conversation practice.

On Preply, look for the verified badge, "a blue shield with a tick in the middle." According to Preply's help centre, the badge means the team has cross-checked the tutor's profile information against documents to confirm identity, and that for verified tutors, qualifications have been double-checked to verify the authenticity of their educational background (Preply). Our reading: the badge confirms who the tutor is and what they studied, not whether they can teach. Neither platform's vetting replaces a trial lesson.

How do you pay on italki versus Preply?

This is the largest practical difference between the two.

	italki	Preply
Payment model	Prepaid credits, spent per lesson	Subscription with one tutor
Commitment	"no subscriptions or monthly fees"	28-day cycles, minimum 4 lessons
Single lessons	Yes, pay as you go	"standalone one-time lesson purchases are not available"
Several tutors at once	Book each separately	One subscription per tutor
Unused lessons	If a package expires, remaining credits return to your wallet	Unscheduled lessons expire at renewal

italki's pricing guide says "There are no subscriptions or monthly fees. italki works on a pay as you go model," that teachers set their own rates, and that credits are pegged to US dollars (italki). Teachers can also offer packages, which italki describes as bundling sessions "at a slightly lower per-lesson rate." Two clauses in italki's payment terms deserve attention before you top up. "Authorized payments are final. No refunds will be given for italki Credits purchased." And if a package expires, "the completed lessons in the package will be settled at the single lesson price," with any remaining credits returned to your wallet (italki payment terms). Buy credits in amounts you expect to spend.

Preply's subscription "is between you and one tutor," runs in 28-day cycles, and has a minimum plan of 4 lessons per cycle. Preply's own example: if a tutor charges €10 per lesson, the minimum plan costs €40 per cycle for 4 lessons of 50 minutes. Lessons you have not scheduled by renewal expire rather than roll over. Cancelling the subscription must be done at least 1 day before the next billing date, and you can pause once per billing cycle for up to 20 days (Preply). The model rewards learners who reliably show up weekly.

What does a trial lesson cost, and what if it goes badly?

On italki, trial lessons are set by each teacher. italki's pricing guide says they are "usually 30 minutes long and discounted at 30-50% off regular rates," and puts typical prices at $4–$20 per lesson for community tutors and $10–$40 for professional teachers (italki). The italki pages we read describe no equivalent of Preply's trial-replacement scheme; the protection is that the trial is short and cheap.

On Preply, "Trial lessons are paid lessons," you choose 25 or 50 minutes, and each tutor offers one trial per student (Preply). If a completed trial did not meet your expectations, you can request a replacement, which is "a 100% discount on a new trial with a different tutor"; each account can receive up to 2 in total, and the option disappears once you have started a subscription with that tutor (Preply). The practical rule: judge the tutor before you subscribe, not after.

How late can you cancel a lesson?

italki's window is 24 hours. Its instructor terms state that "Except in the rare case of true emergencies, no Teacher Service (including a Lesson) may be canceled or rescheduled by a Teacher or Student within 24 hours of the start time," and that a teacher may cancel or reschedule earlier only after obtaining the student's consent (italki instructor terms).

Preply's window is 12 hours. "If you cancel a lesson more than 12 hours before it starts, it returns to your balance"; cancel later and it does not, because the tutor is paid for the reserved time. The clock runs from the lesson's current scheduled time, including after a reschedule (Preply). If your week is unpredictable, Preply's shorter window is the more forgiving of the two; italki's pay-as-you-go model is the more forgiving if your month is unpredictable.

Where does your money go?

Both platforms take their commission from the tutor's side of the lesson price, which partly explains why rates vary so much between similar profiles. Preply publishes its model: "The commission for every trial lesson with a new student is 100%," and later lessons carry a commission of "between 18% and 33%," falling as a tutor's lifetime hours rise. On a 10 USD lesson, a new tutor receives 6.70 USD and a tutor with 400+ completed hours receives 8.20 USD (Preply). In other words, a Preply tutor is unpaid for your trial. italki's instructor terms say its platform fees "may vary based on the type of Lesson or Lessons, the number of Lessons in a package," and the teacher's overall performance, without stating a percentage on that page (italki instructor terms).

How do you write a first-lesson brief?

Send the tutor a short message before the first session, whichever platform you use. A useful brief covers five things:

The goal, made concrete. "Hold a 10-minute work call" beats "improve my speaking." Our guide to setting language goals you will actually reach shows how to phrase one.
Your level, as evidence. What you can already do and where you stall, rather than a self-awarded label.
What you have used so far. Apps, textbooks, courses, so the tutor does not repeat them.
How you want correction. Interrupt immediately, or note errors and review them at the end.
What you want afterwards. Written notes, new vocabulary, a task for next time.

Whether the tutor adapts the lesson to it is itself informative.

How do you judge a tutor after one session?

Ask four questions while the lesson is fresh. Who did most of the talking? In a session bought for speaking practice, it should have been you. Were your errors corrected in the way you asked, and did any correction arrive in writing? Did the tutor ask about your goal and propose a next step tied to it? And were the basics sound: on time, working audio, materials ready?

One poor answer is a conversation; two is a reason to try someone else. On italki that costs another trial; on Preply, do it before subscribing, while the replacement option still applies. Between lessons, solo speaking drills such as shadowing make the paid minutes go further.