Why teaching English on Preply is really not worth it

In this video, I'm going to be talking about why I believe that teaching English on Preply is really not worth it.

You've probably heard about the online teaching platform Preply, and might be wondering about how much Preply tutors make teaching EFL/ESL? It seems easy to become a tutor on Preply- and it is- but is it the best way to go?

There are several key reasons why I believe that teaching English on Preply is better avoided, and I'll also be talking to one of my coaching clients who tells us about her experience on this online teaching platform.

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Freelance language teachers… do you look at your calendar and dread your day full of calls?

Every client seems to need something different, you're constantly re-inventing the wheel, and
it feels like there’s a (pretty low) ceiling on what you can charge?

Something needs to change, but you’re too busy serving clients to even have time to work it
out.

I’ve created a detailed guide to help you figure out how you could change your business
model to grow your business, be able to serve more of the right clients, in less time, while
making more money- without needing to be on social media 24/7.

And over the last four years I’ve helped well over 100 teachers, trainers and coaches do
exactly this through my group programme, Designed to Flourish.

Follow this link to get instant access to the guide (hint - the first 2 are my personal favourites)

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For more personalised step by step help with identifying your niche, creating a business model and offer, and learning how to market more effectively, check out my 6 month deep dive, hands on group programme, Designed to Flourish: ⬇️

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Hi, I’m Rachael. Like many people in our profession, I didn’t exactly grow up dreaming of working in ELT, but what made me fall in love with it was two main things:

❤ The opportunity to work directly with people and help them to help themselves change their lives for the better.

❤ The great colleagues I got to work with, as a teacher, teacher trainer, manager and materials writer.

Working as a business and mindset coach with ELT freelance professionals enables me to combine both those things, and to use the skills and experience I have to have a real impact.

One of the things I don’t like about ELT is the way that so many excellent professionals are underpaid, undervalued and scraping by. I also far too often see people working themselves into the ground. This might be OK when we’re in our early twenties with no responsibilities, but it’s no way to run a sustainable and enjoyable professional career.

I want to really challenge the low expectations, and culture of ‘having to’ accept poor conditions and teach ELT freelancers the steps they can take to make their businesses truly work for them.

I have: ⭐ 30 years of experience in the industry ⭐ 13 years as a successful small ELT business owner ⭐ heaps of training and coaching in running a small business, organic marketing and social media, copywriting and more …..as well as being a trained psychotherapist, counsellor, and coach.

This makes me ideally placed to empower freelance ELT professionals to earn more, work less, and live more fully. And that’s what it’s all about.

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Let’s connect:

#teacherpreneur #preply #onlineteaching

[jimmyc]

Totally agree with Rachel. Teachers should charge as much as possible so they will have the least amount of students for the highest return on their time. This means the students get a higher-quality of tuition, better lessons, and personal care.

[dollimelaine]

I have been with Preply off and on for 3 years. I just let it be what it is. I teach in m own way and have never gone into their system or watched one of the many video's they send to improve my teaching. I have a high return level and they stay for quite a while. I do not get offered alot of new students. I just go with the flow. I am a voice coach and the only reason I continue teaching English is because of how much I enjoy meeting the people from around the world. Preply has not questioned my method of teaching and for me this has been why I have stayed. I am a super tutor but honestly I am not getting more students because of it. I don't have high expectations from this company and have been fine with how it all works up to this point. I should be making alot more money and am now looking into how to make that happen. Thus I watched your video! Thank you.

[ELTExperiences]

Rachael, this is a great insight into this platform.

Here is my experience of teaching with through them. When I first started out on Preply, the first month was dismal in relation to pay. I taught hours of trial lessons, in that first month and felt used with this. The first rate that I started out with $20 per hour. After 700 hours of teaching, I raised my rate to $40. The next point about native speaker tick box is rather disheartening.

However, some words of advice regarding this platform. I would recommend those that are considering Preply to niche or specialise. If you are offering a general language course, then you are competing with the vast majority of teachers whose rate may be rather low. When specialising, you will be sought and can dedicate more time to seeking more reputable students who are willing to pay a little more.


I did make a video about Preply - the pros and cons - but I use them to supplement my income, especially at this time where it is getting more and more precarious with employment.

[zurichcityenglish]

👏👏Oh my goodness yes! I did one trial lesson on Preply or similar a few years back. It was interesting to teach someone in Turkey for a change but I wasn't paid and they didn't continue with me so I got nothing. After that experience, I decided it wasn't worth it. I thought at the time it was free for the student. What a rip-off for teachers!

[iainhenderson]

Thanks for the warning. Appreciated. By the sound of them I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole.

[DrCrystalHarris]

Thanks for the heads up. I’m new on Preply to understand the business model. I’m a newly retired professor and not sure I want to teach English yet. Thought of it as an easier way to see if I should invest in creating online teaching materials. Glad to find your channel. New subscriber🎉🤓

[sarahkas]

Personally I went on Preply and considered it a free internship to gain experience since it was my first time teaching online 😅😂 after one month on the platform and 40+ lesson taught and less than 100$ made I’m moving on to a better paying company

[editway]

I want to talk about preply from a refund perspective. I’ve used them and I think the ‘buy flow’ is pretty happy experience (meaning from finding tutor, to booking, to set up schedule to pay) but when you want your money back from unused hours, they seriously make it difficult. A bit sad that they try to squeeze as much they can from both tutors and buyers.

[nornironnomad]

Hi Rachel, glad I found your video, I'm just in the process of applying to Preply, having my doubts though. You have a new subscriber!

[DissidentNomad]

Brilliant video, Rachael. Lots of misleading videos about Preply around but this is one of the best l have seen.

[TheEnglishCatESL]

Very interesting point of view. Also very interesting to mention that the student pays full price for a 'trial' lesson, hadn't thought of it that way round. I am currently working on Preply but trying to build my own profile of private students. I think it takes the marketing out of it for you, but it is a huge amount of commission you are paying... for not a lot in return.

[e-genieclimatique]

in brief:

**1. Introduction:**
- Rachael Roberts introduces the topic by mentioning that there are 11, 912 English language tutors on Preply, and she believes they might be making a mistake.
- She aims to help English language teaching professionals earn more while working less.
- Preply's business model is beneficial for the platform but not for the teachers.

**2. Preply's Marketing and Commission:**
- Preply markets itself as a platform that handles everything, allowing teachers to focus solely on teaching.
- Rachael argues that paying commission to Preply is not a good idea.
- A client of Rachael's shares her experience with Preply, mentioning that she chose it due to its widespread advertising.
- The platform requires teachers to give a free trial lesson, but the student pays the full fee, which Preply takes entirely.
- After the trial, Preply takes a 33% commission for the first 100 hours of lessons with a student. This commission decreases over time but remains high.

**3. Pricing and Bias on Preply:**
- Preply encourages teachers to charge low rates, with advice to start at 12 pounds an hour.
- Success as an online teacher is not about having many clients at low rates but about attracting clients willing to pay for quality.
- Preply's search system may bias towards native speaker teachers and those charging lower rates.

**4. Business Model and Teacher Struggles:**
- Preply's business model of attracting many students at low prices works well for the platform but not for teachers.
- Teachers have limited time and energy, making it challenging to teach many students and maintain quality.
- Teachers can end up working extensive hours without earning enough, leaving no time for marketing themselves elsewhere.

**5. Conclusion and Call to Action:**
- Rachael warns against the trap of relying solely on platforms like Preply.
- She emphasizes the importance of finding students who value a teacher's expertise and are willing to pay for it.
- Rachael invites viewers to subscribe to her channel and join her membership for ELT freelancers.

Overall, the video highlights the potential pitfalls of teaching on Preply and encourages teachers to seek alternative methods to market themselves and find students who value their expertise.

[gilles]

I worked on Preply and taught French for 3 years and at the rate of 50 hours per week for 8 or 9 dollars per hour with the first course at 100% commission and the others at 18% (+ 21% for Urssaf and 3% for Paypal...) I had a "Super Tutor" and "Super popular" profile then one day when I was trying to send documents to learn phonetics to a new student a "Bryan", incompetent Arabic from their support falsely accused me of wanting to teach a course outside of their platform. First of all I could no longer send messages to anyone then 24 hours later they maintained their false accusations against me without even answering me and closed my profile even though I had given them the screenshots of my answers negative to the last students who asked me for a WhatsApp as well as those showing that I had tried to simply send documents for phonetics before a first lesson was booked. I am 39 years old, I have been fluent in Chinese, Spanish and English for 20 years, but I have never had any training or work in France. For me this slave job was a chance.

[briansykes]

If you are 18 years old, living at home with parents having just completed your A levels, Preply might be a starting platform for you.

If you are a professional teacher or tutor, Preply is absolutely not for you.

[annika]

Hi i am working on preply since this week. And i am working the whole week, i did a lot of experiment lesson but never earned nothing. I Don t have any time for my daughter, because there a such a Mountain of e mails to respond. If you dont respond the app blocks you. I didn t slept more than 3 hours a night. Really, i am very sad about all this situation

[annmodroborowski]

I am currently using Preply as a Polish language student. I really like my tutor and the platform is easy to use. I feel bad that the teachers do not get paid well, but I would hope it’s just supplemental income. I may become an English tutor. I was planning on using this app in the beginning until I gain some experience. I do have to say that the terms are very clear. Don’t quit your day job!

[emmieheese]

Thank you so much for the information I was just about to sign up with them but felt like I needed to check reviews

[DEUTSCH-kurzundknackig]

Thanks for your insight. I'll be checking out more of your videos!

[frenchwannaloseweight]

I'm on Italki, teachers get 100% of the trial class and 85% of normal class. But there are much fewer students since 2022. I never understood teachers going to Preply

[boyar]

It is understandable that students who are learning English are going to want to be taught by a Native English Speaker. If I wanted to learn Mandarin, Russian, or Khmer I would expect my teacher to be from China, Russia, or Cambodia as I would anticipate they will also know the culture and other aspects that are crucial to know when it comes to learning a language.
As for setting one's pay rate. On Preply I anticipate that I am competing with other teachers for students. I also know that as a customer they want to get the best value for their dollar. I would figure my rate based on my expenses. I am a Native English Speaker from the USA who is living in Cambodia and has a BA in Political Science and a 120 hr TEFL certificate. I also have over 5 years of experience teaching English in Brazil, China, and Cambodia. In the USA I would also teach Cooking classes. Seeing that I am living in Cambodia whose cost of living is low this means I can charge less than what I would if i had lived in the USA. Basically, I would take my living expenses and multiply it by 2 and then add 3 dollars which will likely be preply's cut then i would figure out what my rate would be per hour if I were to work 40 hours a week. This would result in my charging students 9.00 an hour Unless my expenses go up which they aren't likely to as rents in Phnom Penh Cambodia or actually go down due to an oversupply of available rental units I am not likely going to raise my rates as I live comfortably on what I am charging. I also do not rely completely on preply. I think of preply as more of a side gig that i use to earn extra money while working in a local school while between jobs, or if I were to start an unrelated business. While I was in China I learned how Chinese people conduct business. They are happy to operate on 1% price margins which means that many of their competitors will be unable to compete with them based on price alone. I set my rates as low as necessary so that I make at least a 1% profit and I strive to be provide as much value to my students. This ultimately will result in me being lower than 60% of other Native English Teachers