Preply

What Preply is

Preply is a marketplace connecting language learners with human tutors for one-to-one online lessons. It is worth stating plainly at the start: this is not an AI tool. The teaching is done by people.

It appears alongside AI assistants because it occupies the same mental space, which is wanting help with a language, but the mechanism is entirely different and so is the cost. Tutors cover a wide range of languages, set their own rates, and learners choose who to book with.

Human tutors, not AI

Lessons are live and individual, with a person adapting to how you learn in a way that no automated tool currently matches. That adaptiveness is the whole reason people pay for it.

You choose your tutor and pay per lesson, so both the relationship and the price are flexible rather than fixed by a subscription. You can change tutors, pause, or book more intensively before an exam.

The trade against an AI assistant is obvious and worth being honest about. A tutor is far more effective for conversation practice and far more expensive for the same hour.

Who it is for

It suits learners who want real speaking practice and some accountability, and who can pay for it, particularly once they have outgrown what an app can teach.

It also suits people preparing for an exam, a relocation or a specific interview, where targeted practice from a person who has done it before is worth the cost.

What to keep in mind

Tutor quality varies because tutors are independent. Some are excellent teachers and some are simply native speakers of the language, so read reviews carefully and treat a first lesson as a trial rather than a commitment.

Cost adds up quickly. Per-lesson pricing at an individual rate is far more expensive than any subscription app, and regular lessons are a genuine budget item rather than a small addition.

Cancellation and scheduling policies differ between tutors. Check them before booking a block, because missed-lesson rules vary and are enforced by the tutor rather than by the platform.

Progress depends far more on what you do between lessons than on the hours you buy, so decide in advance how you will practise, otherwise the sessions become the whole of your learning and the pace disappoints you.

One practical suggestion is to book a single lesson with two different tutors before committing to either. The difference between a good teacher and a fluent speaker is obvious within twenty minutes, and it is far easier to judge in a lesson you have paid for than from a profile page. Ask each tutor how they handle mistakes and how much of the session will be spent speaking, since those two answers predict satisfaction better than qualifications do.

It is also worth deciding how you will practise between lessons. A tutor will often set homework, and progress depends heavily on doing it, so booking a lesson without planning the week around it tends to produce pleasant conversations and slow improvement. Learners who arrive with specific things they struggled with get considerably more from each session than those who arrive to chat and hope it adds up over time.