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A real person who corrects you, weekly, is the single biggest lever in language learning. I learned that the slow way. On a language course in Taipei the classmates who improved fastest were not the ones with the best apps - they were the ones actually opening their mouths in front of a teacher, being wrong, being fixed. italki and Preply both give you that. Everything below is a footnote to it.\n\nWith that said, italki is the one I reach for, and the reason is the checkout, not the teaching. italki sells credits: you top up a wallet, book lessons when it suits you, and stop when life gets busy without cancelling anything. Preply sells monthly packages of lessons, which is fine if you want to be locked into a rhythm, but is less flexible and, frankly, less clearly explained up front. When two products teach equally well, I will take the one that respects my schedule and shows me the price plainly.\n\nPreply is not the loser here, though. If your actual problem is not method but consistency - if you are the sort who buys the flexible option and then never books anything - Preply's subscription is a feature, not a bug. It commits you. And its onboarding is a touch slicker for a nervous first-timer. So the honest split is this: italki if you are self-directed and want freedom and the widest language choice, Preply if you need the structure of a standing weekly appointment to make yourself show up.\n",{"type":41,"value":42,"toc":226},"minimark",[43,48,52,67,71,168,172,175,184,188,191,195,198,202,212],[44,45,47],"h2",{"id":46},"the-short-answer","The short answer",[49,50,51],"p",{},"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.",[49,53,54,55,59,60,63,64,66],{},"The difference that actually decides it is billing. ",[56,57,58],"strong",{},"italki"," sells pay-as-you-go credits - top up a wallet, book when you like, no monthly lock-in. ",[56,61,62],{},"Preply"," sells monthly packages of lessons, which build a steadier habit but tie you in. We pick ",[56,65,58],{}," 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.",[44,68,70],{"id":69},"italki-vs-preply-at-a-glance","italki vs Preply at a glance",[72,73,74,87],"table",{},[75,76,77],"thead",{},[78,79,80,83,85],"tr",{},[81,82],"th",{},[81,84,58],{},[81,86,62],{},[88,89,90,102,113,124,135,146,157],"tbody",{},[78,91,92,96,99],{},[93,94,95],"td",{},"Price (from)",[93,97,98],{},"~£5-30\u002Flesson, set by each tutor",[93,100,101],{},"~£8-30\u002Flesson, set by each tutor",[78,103,104,107,110],{},[93,105,106],{},"How you pay",[93,108,109],{},"Pay-as-you-go credits (top up a wallet)",[93,111,112],{},"Monthly subscription packages of lessons",[78,114,115,118,121],{},[93,116,117],{},"Flexibility",[93,119,120],{},"High - book, pause and stop freely",[93,122,123],{},"Lower - you commit to a set number per month",[78,125,126,129,132],{},[93,127,128],{},"Languages",[93,130,131],{},"150+",[93,133,134],{},"50+",[78,136,137,140,143],{},[93,138,139],{},"Tutor tiers",[93,141,142],{},"Community Tutors and Professional Teachers",[93,144,145],{},"One tutor pool, filtered by price and reviews",[78,147,148,151,154],{},[93,149,150],{},"Free tier",[93,152,153],{},"No (free community features to browse)",[93,155,156],{},"No",[78,158,159,162,165],{},[93,160,161],{},"Best for",[93,163,164],{},"Self-directed learners who want freedom",[93,166,167],{},"Learners who want a fixed weekly routine",[44,169,171],{"id":170},"how-they-differ","How they differ",[49,173,174],{},"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.",[49,176,177,178,180,181,183],{},"Where they part company is the wallet. ",[56,179,58],{}," 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. ",[56,182,62],{}," 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.",[44,185,187],{"id":186},"price","Price",[49,189,190],{},"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.",[44,192,194],{"id":193},"tutor-pool-and-languages","Tutor pool and languages",[49,196,197],{},"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.",[44,199,201],{"id":200},"so-which-should-you-buy","So which should you buy?",[49,203,204,205,207,208,211],{},"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 ",[56,206,58],{}," - 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, ",[56,209,210],{},"Preply's"," subscription model turns that into a feature and will keep you honest.",[49,213,214,215,220,221,225],{},"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 ",[216,217,219],"a",{"href":218},"\u002Freviews\u002Fitalki","italki review"," and ",[216,222,224],{"href":223},"\u002Freviews\u002Fpreply","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.",{"title":227,"searchDepth":228,"depth":228,"links":229},"",2,[230,231,232,233,234,235],{"id":46,"depth":228,"text":47},{"id":69,"depth":228,"text":70},{"id":170,"depth":228,"text":171},{"id":186,"depth":228,"text":187},{"id":193,"depth":228,"text":194},{"id":200,"depth":228,"text":201},"Comparison",[238,241],{"name":58,"affiliateKey":58,"reviewSlug":58,"priceFrom":239,"oneLiner":240},"~£5-30\u002Flesson","Pay-as-you-go credits, 150+ languages, the most flexible checkout. The better default.",{"name":62,"affiliateKey":242,"reviewSlug":242,"priceFrom":243,"oneLiner":244},"preply","~£8-30\u002Flesson","Subscription packages, a slicker onboarding, a fixed weekly habit. The better fit if routine is your problem.","2026-07-10T00:00:00+00:00","italki vs Preply: two huge 1-on-1 tutoring marketplaces that teach the same way but charge you differently. We compare the pay-as-you-go wallet against the subscription packages on price, flexibility, tutor choice and who each suits.","We may earn a commission if you book lessons through either link, at no extra cost to you. We earn on both, so we have no reason to push one over the other - the verdict below is genuinely about which suits which learner.","md",[250,253,256,259],{"q":251,"a":252},"Is italki or Preply better?","For most people, italki, and mainly because of how it bills you: pay-as-you-go credits let you book lessons freely with no monthly commitment, and the pricing is clearer. Preply is just as good on teaching but uses monthly subscription packages, which suit learners who want a fixed weekly routine but are less flexible. Same core product, different checkout - pick the billing that matches how you actually study.",{"q":254,"a":255},"Which is cheaper, italki or Preply?","They overlap heavily, because on both platforms each tutor sets their own price - roughly £5-30 a lesson on italki and £8-30 on Preply. Neither is reliably cheaper than the other; the real difference is that italki lets you buy lessons one at a time, while Preply asks you to commit to a monthly package. If you want to spend the least without over-committing, italki's pay-as-you-go model gives you more control.",{"q":257,"a":258},"Can I use both italki and Preply?","You can, but there is little point. Unlike pairing an app with a tutor, these two do the same job, so running both just splits your practice and your money across two wallets. Pick one, find a tutor you click with, and put your hours in there. If your first tutor is not a fit, switch tutors within the same platform rather than switching platforms.",{"q":260,"a":261},"Which is better for Mandarin?","italki has the edge for Mandarin, simply because its pool is larger and spans more of the Chinese-speaking world, so it is easier to find a native tutor at your budget, accent and specialism - characters, tones, business Mandarin, exam prep. Preply has strong Mandarin tutors too. Either way, a weekly 1-on-1 is the fastest way to fix the tones an app will happily let you get wrong.",{},true,"comparison","\u002Freviews\u002Fitalki-vs-preply",{"title":36,"description":246},"reviews\u002Fitalki-vs-preply",[269,58,242,270,264],"italki vs preply","online tutoring","These two are near-identical products with one real difference: how they bill you. 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Choose italki for pay-as-you-go freedom and the widest language choice; choose Preply if a fixed weekly commitment is exactly the discipline you lack.","on3P7H9zyn3-kXon8g0hI0fzYoUmZSsFLjrhkxjg5qk",{"left":4,"top":4,"width":5,"height":5,"rotate":4,"vFlip":6,"hFlip":6,"body":274},"\u003Cg fill=\"none\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\" stroke-width=\"2\">\u003Ccircle cx=\"12\" cy=\"12\" r=\"10\"\u002F>\u003Cpath d=\"M12 16v-4m0-4h.01\"\u002F>\u003C\u002Fg>",{"left":4,"top":4,"width":5,"height":5,"rotate":4,"vFlip":6,"hFlip":6,"body":276},"\u003Cpath fill=\"none\" stroke=\"currentColor\" stroke-linecap=\"round\" stroke-linejoin=\"round\" stroke-width=\"2\" d=\"M15 3h6v6m-11 5L21 3m-3 10v6a2 2 0 0 1-2 2H5a2 2 0 0 1-2-2V8a2 2 0 0 1 2-2h6\"\u002F>"]