Comparison
TutorPax vs Preply
Preply is a marketplace: students search a directory, book a trial lesson, and Preply handles payment and takes a cut of everything you earn through it, for as long as that student stays with you.
TutorPax is not a marketplace and never sends you students. It rents you the website — your own domain, your own pages, your own course sales — for a flat €19 a month, and takes nothing from what you charge.
Where Preply is the better choice
- It brings you students. You do not have to market yourself at all at the start.
- Payments, scheduling, and the video classroom are handled for you.
- Good for testing whether you enjoy tutoring before you invest anything in it.
Why tutors look for something else
- The commission never stops. A student you taught for two years is still earning the platform a cut of every hour.
- You do not own the relationship — contact details and off-platform arrangements are against the rules, so your student list is not yours.
- Your ranking in the directory is theirs to change. A quiet month is out of your hands.
- You compete on price against tutors in much cheaper markets, which pushes rates down.
How they charge
Free to join. Preply keeps a commission on each lesson — its published model starts at 33% of your first lesson with a new student and slides down as you log more tutoring hours.
Published figures as of 2026-09-19. Platforms change their terms — check your own account for the rate that applies to you today.
Side by side
Preply compared with TutorPax
| Preply | TutorPax | |
|---|---|---|
| Cut of your lesson fee | Sliding commission, forever | None — you charge students directly |
| Who owns the student list | The platform | You |
| Your own domain | No — a profile page | Yes, your own domain |
| Where students find you | The platform's search ranking | Google, your links, your referrals |
| Sell recorded courses | Not the model | Yes, with video hosting included |
| Monthly cost | Nothing up front | A flat subscription, whatever you earn |
Not sure the commission is worth worrying about? Put your own rate and hours into the calculator →
Straight answer
When you should stay with Preply
You have no students yet
A marketplace solves the hardest problem in tutoring: the first student. If you are starting from nobody, the commission is buying you something real. Build your own site alongside it, not instead of it.
You teach occasionally
A flat monthly fee only beats a percentage once you are teaching regularly. A few hours a month and the maths goes the other way — check it before you move.
Most tutors run both for a while. The marketplace keeps producing students while your own site builds up search traffic and referrals, and the balance shifts on its own.
Questions tutors ask
Can I use TutorPax and Preply at the same time?
Yes, and most tutors should at first. Keep the marketplace running while your own site builds up search traffic and referrals, then move your best students across as they renew. The two are not exclusive — one is a lead source you rent, the other is an asset you own.
Is it against the rules to move a Preply student to my own site?
Taking a student you met on Preply off-platform breaches their terms, so do not do that. What you can do is build your own site and send your own students — referrals, social, local search, your existing contacts — to it directly. Those people were never theirs.
How long until my own site replaces marketplace income?
Honestly: months, not days. A new site takes time to rank. The tutors who move fastest are the ones who already have a referral flow or a social following and just needed somewhere to send it.
Try TutorPax free for 30 days
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