Introduction: The Commission Problem Nobody Talks About
You landed your first student on Preply. Then another. Before long, you're teaching 20 hours a week and feeling good about your tutoring business.
Then you look at your actual earnings.
That $30/hour lesson? You're taking home $20. Sometimes less. The platform that helped you find students is now taking a significant cut of every single lesson—including the ones with students who've been with you for months.
Here's what most tutors don't realize: the tutoring marketplace model is designed for student acquisition, not student retention. These platforms excel at connecting you with new students. But once you've built a relationship with a student who rebooks week after week, you're still paying the same percentage.
This guide will show you exactly how to keep more of your tutoring income while still leveraging marketplaces for what they do best: finding new students.
Understanding the Marketplace Commission Model
How Tutoring Platforms Make Money
Tutoring marketplaces like Preply, iTalki, and Verbling operate on a commission model. They invest heavily in marketing to attract students, then take a percentage of every lesson booked through their platform.
This model makes sense for student discovery. The platform spends money on Google ads, social media marketing, and brand building. You get access to students you couldn't have reached on your own. In exchange, they take a cut.
Current commission rates (2025):
| Platform | New Tutor Rate | Best Rate | How to Get Best Rate | |----------|---------------|-----------|---------------------| | Preply | 33% | 18% | Teach 400+ hours | | iTalki | 15% | 15% | Flat rate | | Verbling | 15% | 15% | Flat rate | | Cambly | 17¢/minute (~$10.20/hr) | Same | Fixed rate model |
The Hidden Math: What You Actually Earn
Let's do the math on a typical tutoring month:
Scenario: You teach 60 lessons at $35/hour on Preply (new tutor, 33% commission)
- Gross revenue: $2,100
- Platform commission: $693
- Your actual earnings: $1,407
- Effective hourly rate: $23.45
Now imagine you've been teaching the same 15 students for 6 months. They love you. They're not going anywhere. Yet you're still paying $693/month for "student acquisition" on students you already have.
Over a year, that's $8,316 in commissions on repeat students alone.
The Two Types of Students in Your Business
Not all students are equal from a business perspective. Understanding this distinction is the key to optimizing your income.
Discovery Students
These are new students who find you through the marketplace. They:
- Found you via platform search or advertising
- Are evaluating multiple tutors
- Haven't committed to long-term lessons yet
- Represent the platform's core value proposition
For discovery students, marketplace commissions make sense. The platform did the work of finding them, building trust, and facilitating the first booking. That's worth paying for.
Retention Students
These are students who:
- Have taken 10+ lessons with you
- Book consistently week after week
- Would follow you if you left the platform
- Have a direct relationship with you, not the platform
For retention students, you're paying commission for a service you no longer need.
The Ethical Framework for Direct Booking
Before we go further, let's address the elephant in the room: Is it okay to take students off-platform?
What the Platforms Say
Most platforms prohibit soliciting students for off-platform bookings while you're actively using their platform. Sharing contact information in messages or profiles typically violates terms of service.
The Ethical Reality
However, consider these facts:
-
Students are not property. A student who has taken 50 lessons with you has a relationship with you, not the platform.
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Students have choices. If a student independently searches for you outside the platform, that's their decision.
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Value has been exchanged. After the platform successfully introduced you to a student, both parties have received value. Continued commissions in perpetuity aren't necessarily fair to either party.
-
The industry is evolving. Many tutors openly maintain both marketplace profiles and independent booking systems. Students choose where to book based on their preferences.
The Ethical Approach
The cleanest approach is:
- Use marketplaces for what they're good at: discovery
- Build your own booking infrastructure for direct inquiries
- Never actively solicit students away from platforms
- Let students make their own informed choices
- Provide equal service regardless of where students book
Building Your Direct Booking Infrastructure
To capture direct bookings, you need the same capabilities the marketplaces provide:
Essential Components
1. A Professional Booking System Students need to see your availability and book instantly. Manual back-and-forth scheduling feels unprofessional and loses bookings.
2. Payment Processing You need to accept cards, PayPal, or other payment methods securely. Chasing payments via bank transfer is unsustainable.
3. Automated Communications Confirmation emails, reminder messages, and Zoom links should send automatically. You can't manually manage this at scale.
4. A Professional Web Presence Even a simple landing page with your bio, services, and booking link establishes credibility outside the marketplace ecosystem.
5. Student Records Track lesson history, notes, and student preferences. This is often called a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.
The DIY Stack vs. All-in-One Solutions
DIY Approach:
- Calendly or Acuity for booking ($12-20/month)
- Stripe or PayPal for payments (2.9% + fees)
- Mailchimp for emails ($13-20/month)
- Wix or Squarespace for website ($14-23/month)
- Google Sheets for student tracking (free)
- Total: $39-63/month + payment fees + lots of setup time
All-in-One Tutor Platforms: Purpose-built solutions like TutorLingua combine all these features specifically for tutors:
- Integrated booking calendar
- Payment processing (Stripe, PayPal, Venmo)
- Automated reminders and Zoom links
- Professional website/link-in-bio
- Student CRM with notes and progress tracking
- Starting at $0-29/month
The choice depends on your technical comfort and how much time you want to spend on setup vs. teaching.
The Transition Strategy: Discovery to Direct
Here's a practical framework for building a sustainable tutoring business that uses marketplaces strategically:
Phase 1: Establish Your Direct Booking Presence
Before anything else, set up your independent booking infrastructure:
- Create your booking page with availability
- Set up payment processing
- Build a simple professional profile/website
- Test the entire flow yourself
Phase 2: Create Multiple Touchpoints
Make your direct booking option discoverable without violating platform rules:
- Your own website (appears in Google searches for your name)
- Social media profiles (Instagram, LinkedIn) with booking links
- Link-in-bio on all platforms
- Professional email signature if you communicate outside the platform
Phase 3: Let Students Choose
When students search for you outside the platform—which many will—they'll find your direct booking option. Let them make their own decision about where to book.
Phase 4: Optimize the Mix
Over time, your student base will naturally split:
- New students often prefer the security of marketplace booking
- Established students often prefer the savings of direct booking
This isn't about abandoning marketplaces. It's about using each channel for its strengths.
Pricing Strategy for Direct Bookings
A common mistake is pricing direct lessons the same as marketplace lessons. Consider this:
On Preply at 33% commission:
- You charge: $35/hour
- You receive: $23.45/hour
Direct booking option:
- You charge: $30/hour
- You receive: $30/hour (minus ~3% payment processing)
In this scenario:
- The student saves $5/hour
- You earn $6.55 more per hour
- Both parties win
The Win-Win Pricing Formula
Direct Price = Marketplace Price × (1 - Commission Rate) + Small Premium
Example: $35 × (1 - 0.33) + $5 = $28.45 → round to $29 or $30
This creates a clear value proposition for students while increasing your earnings.
Real Numbers: The Annual Impact
Let's see the impact of shifting just 50% of your repeat students to direct booking:
Current State (100% marketplace):
- 60 lessons/month at $35/hour
- Annual gross: $25,200
- Commission (avg 25%): $6,300
- Annual net: $18,900
Optimized State (50% marketplace, 50% direct):
- 30 marketplace lessons: $787.50/month net (after 25% commission)
- 30 direct lessons at $30: $873/month net (after 3% processing)
- Annual net: $19,926
Annual improvement: $1,026 (and students save money too)
Now scale this: At 100 lessons/month with 50% direct bookings, the annual improvement exceeds $4,000.
Common Objections (And Reality Checks)
"I'll lose students if I change anything"
Students who have taken 30+ lessons with you aren't leaving because you offer an additional booking option. They're loyal to you, not the platform.
"Marketplaces provide security for students"
True for new students. For students who've worked with you for months, they already trust you. Many prefer paying less.
"It's too complicated to set up"
Modern all-in-one platforms make this genuinely simple. You can have a professional booking system running in under an hour.
"I don't have time for marketing"
You're not replacing marketplace marketing. You're capturing demand that already exists—students who search for you by name or find you through social media.
Action Steps: Your Next 7 Days
Day 1-2: Set Up Your Infrastructure Choose and configure a booking system. Set up payment processing. Test the complete booking flow.
Day 3-4: Create Your Professional Presence Build a simple landing page or link-in-bio with your services, availability, and booking link.
Day 5-6: Establish Your Pricing Calculate your win-win price point. Ensure it's visible on your booking page.
Day 7: Go Live Add your booking link to social media profiles. Update your email signature. Your direct booking channel is now open.
Conclusion: Own Your Repeat Business
Tutoring marketplaces solved a real problem: connecting tutors with students across the globe. That's genuinely valuable, and they deserve compensation for it.
But the model isn't optimized for long-term tutoring relationships. Paying 25-33% commission indefinitely on students who've been with you for years doesn't serve you or your students.
The solution isn't abandoning marketplaces. It's using them strategically:
- Marketplaces for student discovery
- Direct booking for student retention
This isn't about gaming the system. It's about building a sustainable tutoring business where every party—you, your students, and yes, even the marketplaces—gets fair value for what they provide.
Your repeat students are your business's most valuable asset. Isn't it time you stopped paying rent on relationships you've already built?
Ready to Build Your Direct Booking System?
TutorLingua gives you everything you need to accept direct bookings: professional booking calendar, payment processing, automated reminders, and student management—all built specifically for language tutors.
También disponible en español: Cómo Conservar Más de Tus Ingresos como Tutor
Également disponible en français : Comment Conserver Plus de Vos Revenus de Tutorat
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