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Preply vs italki (2026): which tutor platform should you pick?

Updated October 24, 2026

What we tested: Preply and italki English tutor lists browsed (web, EUR, 21 Oct 2026); Cambly student dashboard and plans browsed; no trial lesson booked, nothing paid

Preply and italki are both marketplaces for one-to-one online lessons with independent tutors, so the tutor you book matters more than the platform. italki is easier to price: its learner subscription, Plus, costs $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year, with a 30-day trial. Preply publishes hourly price ranges in euros on its French site, with English lessons starting from €2 an hour and an average of €16 an hour. Preply is larger and says you can try another tutor for free if you are not satisfied. If you want a fixed weekly schedule with a set price per lesson, Cambly is a third option worth a look.

Comparison at a glance

	Preply	italki	Cambly
How lessons are priced	Each tutor sets a rate; English from €2/hour, average €16/hour (Preply’s French site, EUR)	Each tutor sets a rate; you can buy lessons or credits	Per lesson, booked on a plan (1 to 10 lessons per week)
Learner subscription	Not stated on the Preply pages used for this article	Plus: $5.99/month or $59.99/year	Plans billed per lesson, with a discount for longer billing periods
Free trial	A ‘Book trial lesson’ button appears on each tutor card we browsed (we did not book one); the homepage says you can try another tutor for free if you are not satisfied	Plus includes a 30-day trial; trial lessons come with a satisfaction guarantee (up to 2 times)	A €1.00 trial lesson is offered on the student dashboard
Lesson length	Set by the tutor	Set by the tutor	30 minutes
Scale (official claim)	100,000+ tutors, 120+ subjects	Tutors across many languages; each sets their own profile	Lessons booked per week (1 to 10 lessons)

Try Preply · Try italki · Try Cambly

Sources: Preply homepage, Preply, English lessons (French site, euros), italki Plus page, Cambly subscribe page.

Pricing

Preply. Preply’s French page for English tutors (preply.com/fr/online/anglaise-tuteurs, in euros, checked 21 October 2026) gives English lessons from €2 an hour, with an average of €16 an hour. Ranges by type of lesson:

beginners (A1–A2): €2–28 an hour;
intermediate (B1–B2): €4–30 an hour;
business English: €8–50 an hour;
kids: €3–25 an hour;
conversational: €3–26 an hour.

Each tutor sets their own rate within these ranges, so check the tutor’s listed rate before you book. On 21 October 2026, the default sort of the English tutor list we browsed showed ten cards at €27 to €50 for a 50-minute lesson, and one at €13. The €16 average covers all tutors, and the default sort puts higher-priced, highly rated tutors first, so filter by price if you want cheaper ones.

italki. The official Plus page lists two plans: $5.99 per month, or $4.99 per month billed as $59.99 per year. Both start with a 30-day trial, and the first payment is charged only after it ends unless you cancel. Plus is a subscription on top of lessons. The lesson price itself is set by each teacher, and it varies a lot by language and experience. The italki Plus page does not state a lesson price range, so check the teacher’s profile before you book. On the English teacher list we browsed (4,254 teachers, in euros), cards showed a trial price and a regular price, and prices on the first page ran from about €4.46 to €28.52.

Cambly. The subscribe page lists prices per 30-minute lesson, in euros, and they depend on the plan type. Checked on 24 October 2026 for two lessons a week: Small Groups (a tutor and 1–2 other students, adults 21+) €8.00 per lesson billed monthly, €6.65 billed every three months and €5.17 billed yearly; Private+ (one-to-one) €17.25, €14.33 and €11.15; Pro (Pro tutors, structured lessons) €21.25, €17.65 and €13.73. The three-month and yearly prices are labelled 10% and 30% off. Plans are chosen by lessons per week, from 1 to 10 (1 or 2 for Small Groups). Your currency may display differently, so check the page for your region. On the Cambly student dashboard we browsed, a trial lesson with a native-speaking tutor was offered for €1.00, and plans were shown from €24 (Small Groups), €50 (Private+) and €63 a month (Pro), discounted from €34, €72 and €90. These dashboard plan prices are not the same as the per-lesson prices above, so check which page shows the plan you want.

Who should pick which

Pick italki if you want a clear, low-commitment subscription to try first, and you want to browse many tutors with varied teaching styles and prices.
Pick Preply if you want a larger tutor pool, published hourly ranges by lesson type, and a try-another-tutor option if a tutor does not suit you.
Pick Cambly if you want a predictable weekly routine of booked 30-minute lessons, and you do not need to choose your tutor from a long list.

Pros and cons

Preply

Large tutor pool (the homepage cites 100,000+ tutors) and a try-another-tutor policy.
Prices are set per tutor. Preply’s French page gives ranges from €2 to €50 an hour depending on the type of lesson, so budget with the range and the tutor’s rate.
Some tutors are expensive; the cheapest is not always the best fit.

italki

Published, easy-to-understand Plus pricing with a 30-day trial.
Lesson prices are still set by each teacher, so the monthly cost depends on who you book.
Quality varies across tutors, and you need to read profiles and reviews carefully.

Cambly

Clear per-lesson pricing and fixed 30-minute sessions.
Less choice of tutor than a marketplace. Its subscribe page does not mention a trial, but the student dashboard offers a €1.00 trial lesson.
Prices are shown in euros on the subscribe page, so compare in your own currency.

We did not book a trial lesson on Preply or italki, so we cannot report lesson prices after booking, how fast a booking was confirmed, tutor response times, or whether a lesson was at the right level. We browsed both sites with accounts the owner created, without paying.

Frequently asked questions

Is italki cheaper than Preply? It depends on the tutor you book, not the platform. italki publishes its Plus subscription price ($5.99 per month or $59.99 per year). Preply publishes hourly ranges in euros, from €2 an hour for English, with an average of €16. Compare the tutors’ rates for the same language and level.

Does Preply have a free trial lesson? The tutor cards show a “Book trial lesson” button. We did not book one, so we cannot say whether a trial lesson is free. The Preply homepage says you can try another tutor for free if you are not satisfied. Check the current terms in your account before you book.

Is Cambly a good alternative to Preply or italki? It is a good option if you prefer a fixed weekly routine with a predictable price per lesson. It is less flexible in tutor choice. Its subscribe page does not mention a trial, but the student dashboard offers a €1.00 trial lesson.

Is italki’s 30-day trial really free? The official Plus page says the trial is free for people who have never subscribed, and that the first payment is charged automatically after the trial ends unless you cancel. Cancelling during the trial means no charge. Set a reminder for the end date.

Can I use Preply or italki for Arabic? Preply’s homepage includes an Arabic version of the site (preply.com/ar/). The italki App Store listing includes Arabic among its app languages. For tutoring in Arabic specifically, search for tutors by language and check their profiles.

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A worked cost example

Cambly publishes fixed per-lesson prices, so it is the easiest of the three to model. Take two 30-minute one-to-one lessons a week on Private+, which is about 8.7 lessons a month (2 × 52 ÷ 12):

Billed monthly at €17.25 per lesson: about €150 per month.
Billed yearly at €11.15 per lesson: about €97 per month.

On Pro, the same schedule costs about €185 a month billed monthly (€21.25 per lesson) or €119 billed yearly (€13.73).

For Preply, the same calculation works with the tutor’s hourly rate: rate × hours per month. Two one-hour lessons a week is about 8.7 hours a month, so at the €16 average the cost is about €139 a month. For italki, add the Plus subscription if you take it. The numbers only compare fairly when the lesson length and the level match. Compare a 30-minute beginner lesson with a 30-minute beginner lesson, not with a 60-minute advanced session.

How to decide in one sitting

Set a monthly budget before you open either site.
Shortlist three tutors on each platform who teach your language and level.
Compare the total for the same number of lessons per week.
Read the most recent reviews for each tutor, not only the top-rated ones.
Book one trial lesson, then decide whether the tutor is worth a longer commitment.

Sources

Preply prices were checked on Preply’s official French page on 21 October 2026. Cambly per-lesson prices were rechecked on 24 October 2026; earlier versions of this page gave the Pro-plan prices without naming the plan. The italki figures come from the pages linked above. Check each page before you buy, since prices and trial terms change.