Preply review
Preply cost depends almost entirely on which tutor you book, but expect to pay somewhere between 10 and 30 dollars per 50-minute lesson for a popular language like English or Spanish, billed automatically every 4 weeks as a subscription package rather than one lesson at a time. That subscription structure is the single most common source of complaints about Preply: unused hours, a strict 12-hour cancellation window, and auto-renewal charges that catch people off guard. Here is how the marketplace actually works, what it really costs, and where it falls short if speaking confidence, not just finding a tutor, is your main problem.
How Preply works as a marketplace
Preply is not a course app. It is a two-sided marketplace connecting learners with independent, freelance tutors who set their own price, schedule, and teaching style. You search by language, then filter by price, availability, native-speaker status, specialty (business English, exam prep, kids' lessons), and reviews, and you can watch a short intro video before booking. Once you pick someone, you book a paid trial lesson to see if the fit works.
If a tutor is not the right match, Preply's guarantee lets you try a different tutor for free rather than issuing a cash refund. After you settle on a tutor, you choose how many lessons per week you want and Preply converts that into a recurring monthly package, billed on a 28-day cycle. There is no central curriculum: each tutor plans lessons individually, so quality and structure vary a lot between tutors even within the same language.
Real cost ranges in 2026
Because every tutor prices themselves, "Preply cost" is really a range rather than one number. Widely spoken languages like English and Spanish have the deepest tutor pools, which pushes prices down at the low end through competition, while niche languages and specialist subjects sit higher.
| Package or tutor type | Typical price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| New tutor, common language (e.g. English, Spanish) | About 4 to 15 dollars/hour | Fewer reviews, still building a client base |
| Experienced tutor, common language | About 15 to 25 dollars/hour | Most learners land in this band |
| Certified tutor or exam-prep specialist | About 25 to 40+ dollars/hour | IELTS, TOEFL, business English, and similar |
| Trial lesson | Close to full tutor rate, often discounted 50 to 80 percent with a promo code | Rarely free outright |
| Starter package (about 4 lessons/month) | Tutor rate with roughly a 5 percent package discount | Billed every 4 weeks |
| Standard package (about 8 lessons/month) | Tutor rate with roughly a 10 percent package discount | Common choice for 2x weekly lessons |
| Intensive package (about 16 lessons/month) | Tutor rate with roughly a 15 percent package discount | Best per-lesson rate, largest monthly bill |
Package discounts reward booking more lessons upfront, which is a normal marketplace incentive, but it also means the biggest bill hits your card automatically once a month unless you actively manage it.
The subscription model, and why it draws criticism
The part of Preply that generates the most frustration in reviews and forum threads is not the tutors, it is the billing. Because packages renew automatically every 4 weeks, learners who get busy, lose interest, or simply forget to log in can end up charged again for lessons they never book. Complaints about this pattern show up on the Better Business Bureau and in Reddit threads describing it as a "predatory" or deceptive renewal structure, and several learner reviews mention losing 2 to 3 months of paid, unused hours before they noticed the charges.
Two specific policies tend to trip people up. First, canceling a single lesson less than 12 hours before it starts forfeits that hour entirely. Second, refunds are not something you can trigger yourself in account settings; you have to open a support chat and make the case directly. If you sign up, the practical fix is simple: set a reminder a few days before your renewal date and decide on purpose whether to continue, rather than letting the charge happen by default.
Preply vs the alternatives
Preply is one option among several ways to get speaking practice, each with a different tradeoff between cost, structure, and how much of the work is on you.
| Option | Best for | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|
| Preply | Learners who want a specific, chosen tutor and flexible scheduling | Wide price range, subscription billing needs active management |
| italki | Learners who want pay-as-you-go credits instead of a monthly package | No forced renewal, but still fully dependent on tutor quality and availability, as covered in our italki vs Preply comparison |
| Group class platforms (e.g. Lingoda) | Learners who prefer a fixed curriculum and classmates | Less individual attention, fixed schedule |
| App-based courses (e.g. Babbel, Rosetta Stone) | Building vocabulary and grammar before ever talking to a person | Little to no live spoken interaction, a gap we cover in the Rosetta Stone vs Babbel comparison |
| Comigo | Practicing speaking daily without booking or paying for every session | English and Brazilian Portuguese only, not a replacement for live human conversation at advanced levels |
italki is the closest direct competitor and the fairer comparison for most people deciding between the two, since both are tutor marketplaces at heart; the difference is mostly in how you pay and how strict the cancellation rules are.
How Preply pays tutors, and why that changes your price over time
There is no separate "platform fee" line item on your invoice, but Preply is still taking a cut, and understanding where it comes from explains a pattern a lot of long-time students notice: the same tutor's price creeping up every few months. Preply does not charge students a booking fee directly. Instead, it keeps a commission out of what the tutor earns from every lesson you pay for, and that commission is tiered based on how many cumulative hours the tutor has taught on the platform, not how long they have known you.
Newer tutors give up the biggest slice of their earnings, which is one of the reasons brand-new profiles post the cheapest rates on Preply: they are effectively subsidizing their low price out of a smaller take-home cut while they build reviews. As a tutor logs more hours, Preply's share drops, which frees the tutor up to either keep more of an unchanged rate or raise their sticker price now that they have a track record and a returning client base willing to pay it.
| Tutor stage (by hours taught on Preply) | Approx. Preply commission | What it usually means for your price |
|---|---|---|
| Brand new tutor | Around 33 percent | Lowest posted rates on the platform, while reviews are still being built |
| Growing client base | Roughly 20 to 30 percent | Rates start drifting upward as the tutor's cut improves |
| Established, high-hour tutor | Around 18 percent | Highest posted rates, but the tutor keeps the largest share of what you pay |
The practical takeaway is not that you should avoid experienced tutors, since their higher price often buys real teaching skill built over hundreds of paid lessons. It is that booking a promising new tutor at a bargain rate is not a permanent discount. If you build a good relationship with someone charging 6 dollars an hour today, budget for that number to rise as they gain hours, rather than being surprised when it does.
Where Comigo fits before you pay for a tutor
A tutor is genuinely valuable once you can hold a basic conversation, because a real person adjusts to you in ways no app fully replicates. The problem most learners hit first is different: they freeze the moment someone is actually listening, and that anxiety eats into paid lesson time they are already spending money on. Comigo was built for that exact gap. Every lesson is a spoken conversation with Capy, a capybara companion who talks to you and listens as you answer out loud into the microphone, giving you word-by-word feedback on what landed and what didn't, with zero pressure of a paying stranger judging your accent.
When you want to go further, Free Speak turns on a real-time AI voice conversation with Capy about anything you want to talk about, with live captions so you never lose the thread. Daily streaks, a small arcade of language games like Capy Crossing, and even an app blocker that makes you answer a language question before opening a distracting app all keep the habit going between tutor sessions rather than replacing them. You can try it at app.usecomigo.com and walk into your first Preply trial lesson already comfortable hearing your own voice in the language. For a wider look at how different tools fit together, the language apps hub and the tools page round up more comparisons worth reading before you commit to a paid subscription.
Frequently asked
Is Preply a subscription or do you pay per lesson?
Both, in a way that confuses a lot of new users. You pick a tutor and a weekly lesson count, then Preply bills you every 4 weeks for that package as a recurring subscription rather than charging you lesson by lesson. Cancel before the renewal date or you get billed again automatically, even for hours you never used.
How much does a Preply trial lesson cost?
Almost never free. You typically pay close to the tutor's full hourly rate for the first lesson, though Preply frequently runs promo codes that knock 50 to 80 percent off that first booking. If the trial does not click with a tutor, Preply's policy lets you try a different tutor for free instead of refunding outright.
Can you get a refund from Preply if you cancel?
Refunds exist but are not self-serve. You cannot cancel and get money back from your account settings; you have to open a support chat and request one, and Preply's own policy forfeits any single lesson canceled less than 12 hours before it starts. Unused hours inside an active package usually carry over, but they disappear if you cancel the subscription entirely.
How do Preply tutors set their prices?
Every tutor sets their own hourly rate, so cost is really a function of who you pick, not a fixed platform price. New tutors building a client base sometimes charge as little as 4 to 6 dollars an hour, while in-demand tutors with certifications or exam-prep specialties charge 30 dollars or more.
Is Preply good for beginners with no speaking confidence?
It can work well once you are already talking, since a live tutor adjusts to your level in real time. The gap is what happens before that first lesson: most beginners freeze up the moment a real person is listening, so some structured, low-pressure speaking practice beforehand makes those paid tutor hours go a lot further.
Does Preply charge students a platform fee on top of the tutor's rate?
Not as a separate line item. The price you see next to a tutor already has Preply's cut baked in, since the commission is charged to the tutor out of what you pay rather than added on top as a booking fee. Preply keeps roughly 18 to 33 percent of every lesson, with the percentage dropping as a tutor teaches more hours on the platform, which is one reason newer tutors quote lower rates and often raise them once they have built up a track record.
