Online tutoring is becoming increasingly popular. People from all around the world are using the internet to learn new skills. For students, online tutoring offers flexibility, better rates and an endless choice of subjects to learn.
As for tutors themselves, there are many benefits to seeking out such work. Unlike working at a school, you can work from home and set your own hours (and sometimes your own fees). You also don’t have to follow a curriculum or guidelines and can teach things your way.
Unfortunately, some online tutoring platforms offer very low pay to tutors, making it an unviable career. However, there are some platforms that pay much more generously, or allow you to charge more and still guarantee work. Requirements to teach on these platforms may be higher and there are some conditions to consider, but overall they are a better solution for those that want to take online tutoring seriously and get paid well for it.
What are some of the best platforms to find these lucrative online teaching jobs? This guide lists a few examples.
iTutor
iTutor caters to tutors that want to teach English to foreign language speakers. It offers some of the most competitive wages of any tutoring platform – with the average salary being $1500 to $3000 per month.
You do get to pick the hours that you want to work, but with some conditions. You must commit to at least 10 peak hours per week, and 4 of these hours must be at the weekend to accommodate ESL students in East Asia.
Entry requirements are quite high too. You’ll need a Bachelor’s degree, a TEFL or CELTA, and some prior relevant teaching experience.
Wyzant
Wyzant allows tutors to choose from a variety of subjects to teach, and allows tutors to choose their own rates. When it comes to highly sought-after technical subjects like engineering or computer science, you have the potential to earn $30 to $60 per hour.
There is a catch though: Wyzant takes a 25% cut of all lessons. So if you charge $50 for a one hour session, you’ll only take $37.50 of that.
You don’t have to be a qualified teacher to tutor through Wyzant, but having credentials may help you to secure students and charge more for your services. Because of Wyzant’s reputation, qualified teachers are often able to get away with charging more than on other platforms.
Preply
You can teach a variety of subjects from math to geography through Preply, however the platform is most known for its language learning classes. As with Wyzant, you get to set your rates and schedule, with the average rates of most tutors being between $10 and $39 per hour.
You will be charged commission when using Preply, however these commission fees are continuously reduced over time as you teach more lessons. This can make it quite lucrative in the long run.
Preply welcomes anyone to become a tutor without any qualifications or teaching experience. It is very popular among those that are bilingual but have no language qualifications.
Varsity Tutors
At Varsity Tutors, you can help teach students from elementary to college level – helping them with exams and general studies – while getting paid a flat fee of $15 per hour. You can choose from a variety of subjects to teach.
While you can get paid more on other platforms as a result of being able to set your own rates, a set rate can have its advantages, as it means you don’t have to compete with other tutors over price. Varsity Tutors also takes away the stress of having to source your own students by pairing you up with students, so you’ve always got work.
Varsity Tutors claims that teaching experience is ‘not a requirement’, but does have a fairly rigorous vetting process in place in which experience can come in handy. Having a degree in your chosen subject is often necessary.
Italki
Italki is the world’s largest marketplace for online language teachers. If you want to teach languages, this site is worth trying – you get to set your own rates, with most tutors charging between $12 and $25 per hour.
You must be a native speaker of the language you’re teaching. You do not however need qualifications and can teach as a Community Tutor (if you do have qualifications, there’s also the option to teach as a Professional Teacher, which could allow you to charge more money).
TutorMe
TutorMe is a renowned tutor platform that attracts a lot of students. As a tutor, you get to set your own schedule and are guaranteed a fixed rate of $16 per hour. Due to there being a limited number of tutors on the platform, connecting with students can be much easier than on many platforms.
Unfortunately, TutorMe does have very strict requirements when it comes to hiring tutors. In fact, only 4% of applicants are accepted. You will usually need a degree and at least 2 years of teaching experience for your application to be considered.
