What Preply is
Preply is an online tutoring marketplace. Preply does not teach you itself; it is where you hire someone who will, then commit to seeing them on a regular schedule. You browse tutors by language, price, accent, availability and speciality, read their reviews, watch a short intro video, and book a low-cost trial lesson. If you click, you sign up for a recurring slot.
What you are really paying for is something no app can replicate: a person who expects you in the same slot each week, makes you speak, and corrects you on the spot. That standing commitment is the highest-leverage hour in language learning, and Preply's recurring-package model is built to keep you turning up for it.
How the pricing works
This is where Preply needs explaining, because it is the most common source of confusion and the main mark against it. Each tutor sets their own rate, broadly £8 to £30 an hour depending on the language, the tutor's experience and whether they are a qualified teacher or a conversation partner. You start with a cheap trial lesson to test the fit.
After that, Preply sells lessons as monthly subscription packages - you choose a number of hours per month and it bills automatically. That is convenient if you want a fixed routine, but less flexible than buying lessons one at a time, and the effective per-lesson cost is not always shown as clearly as it should be. Do the maths on the package before you sign up.
Where Preply shines
- Tutor choice. The pool is enormous, at every price point and in every major accent. You can find a Mexican Spanish tutor, a Parisian French teacher or a Beijing Mandarin coach in minutes.
- Personalisation. A good tutor builds lessons around exactly what you need - the trip, the exam, the work meeting - which no app can do.
- Finding a fit. Strong filters, honest reviews and the cheap trial make it low-risk to test several tutors until one clicks.
Where it falls short
- The subscription model. Packages are less flexible than pay-as-you-go, and auto-billing catches people out. Its rival italki avoids this with a simple wallet.
- Pricing transparency. The headline rate and the effective package rate do not always line up clearly.
- It is only as good as your tutor - and your consistency. Pick a weak tutor, or stop showing up, and the value evaporates. That is true of all tutoring, but worth saying.
Should you pick Preply or its rival?
Preply's nearest competitor is italki, and the teaching on both is comparable. Where Preply earns its place is the structure: the monthly package and recurring slot suit anyone who learns best with a fixed routine and a bit of built-in accountability. If instead you want to buy lessons one at a time with no subscription, that is italki's territory. I have laid the two side by side in full - prices, payment models and tiers - in the italki review; start there if you want the complete head-to-head, then take a trial on whichever fits your habits.
The verdict
Preply works. Once you are past the raw basics, regular lessons with a good tutor are the fastest way to turn study into speaking, and Preply's pool and teaching deliver that well. The only real reservation is the subscription-package model, which is why we would have you compare it with italki before committing rather than recommend it blind.
The way I would slot it into a learning plan is the pattern this whole site keeps coming back to: lay the groundwork on a structured app like Babbel, then redirect that subscription money into a standing weekly tutor slot. The app gives you the base; the tutor turns it into speech. Preply is a sound way to buy that second half, especially if a fixed routine is what keeps you honest - just trial it against italki first to see whose tutors, and whose checkout, suit you.