The short answer
italki and Preply are the two biggest online tutoring marketplaces, and they are more alike than either would admit. Both connect you to a huge pool of 1-on-1 tutors, in dozens of languages, at prices each tutor sets. Both give you the one thing no app can: a real person who listens to you speak and corrects you.
The difference that actually decides it is billing. italki sells pay-as-you-go credits - top up a wallet, book when you like, no monthly lock-in. Preply sells monthly packages of lessons, which build a steadier habit but tie you in. We pick italki for the flexibility and the wider language choice, and it is our default. But if a standing weekly commitment is the discipline you actually lack, Preply's model is a point in its favour, not against it.
italki vs Preply at a glance
| italki | Preply | |
|---|---|---|
| Price (from) | ~£5-30/lesson, set by each tutor | ~£8-30/lesson, set by each tutor |
| How you pay | Pay-as-you-go credits (top up a wallet) | Monthly subscription packages of lessons |
| Flexibility | High - book, pause and stop freely | Lower - you commit to a set number per month |
| Languages | 150+ | 50+ |
| Tutor tiers | Community Tutors and Professional Teachers | One tutor pool, filtered by price and reviews |
| Free tier | No (free community features to browse) | No |
| Best for | Self-directed learners who want freedom | Learners who want a fixed weekly routine |
How they differ
Not much, in the classroom. On both platforms you scroll a wall of tutors, watch their intro videos, read reviews, book a cheap trial, and start weekly lessons personalised to whatever you need. The teaching quality on both is genuinely good and depends far more on the tutor you pick than on the logo above them.
Where they part company is the wallet. italki is pay-as-you-go: you buy credits and spend them lesson by lesson, so a busy fortnight costs you nothing and a keen one costs you more, with no plan to cancel. Preply runs on monthly subscription packages - you sign up for a number of lessons a month and it renews. That suits people who want the commitment baked in, but it is less flexible, and its true cost is less obvious at the point of sale.
Price
Close, and mostly down to the individual tutor rather than the platform. Both let each tutor set their own rate, so you will find cheap Community Tutors and premium Professional Teachers on italki, and a similar spread on Preply. Rough ranges are around £5-30 a lesson on italki and £8-30 on Preply. The meaningful difference is not the per-lesson number but the commitment: italki charges you only for the lessons you book, while Preply asks for a monthly package. Check current rates for your specific language before you commit, as both vary widely.
Tutor pool and languages
Both pools are enormous, but italki is the broader church: 150+ languages against Preply's 50+, and a deeper bench in the less-common ones. For a major European language you will be spoilt for choice on either. For anything rarer, or for finding a very specific native accent or specialism, italki's larger marketplace usually wins. italki also splits its tutors into cheaper Community Tutors for informal conversation and pricier Professional Teachers for structured lessons, which is a useful distinction Preply does not draw as clearly.
So which should you buy?
Decide by your own weakness, not theirs. If you are self-directed and want to book freely, pay only for what you use, and pick from the widest possible pool of tutors and languages, choose italki - it is our default for good reason. If you already know that you will only stick with lessons when you are committed to a fixed weekly slot, Preply's subscription model turns that into a feature and will keep you honest.
Either way, the platform is the smaller decision. The bigger one is booking the first lesson and turning up to the tenth. Read our full italki review and Preply review for the detail on each, and if you are still building the vocabulary to make those lessons count, that is exactly what the rest of Kilo Lingo is for.