Preply Reviews

Preply vs Lingoda: which one your money is better in

Lingoda is a language school rather than a marketplace. You buy a pack of 60-minute classes that follow a fixed CEFR syllabus, taught by certified teachers, and you finish a level with a certificate. Preply sells you hours with a tutor who sets their own rate and plans their own lessons. Curriculum against choice, and the price follows from that.

[verified 2026-09-17]

See Preply's current tutor rates

Comparison table

Figures below come from each company's own published pages where one exists, checked on 2026-09-17. The highlighted cell is the side with the practical advantage on that row, and the reason sits under the row label so you can disagree with it.

Preply compared with Lingoda, 2026-09-17. A highlighted cell marks the side with the advantage on that row; rows with no highlight are too close to call.

Compared onPreplyLingoda
What structures the lessonsYou always know what comes next and when you have finished a levelYour tutor, lesson by lessonLingoda has the edge here: A fixed CEFR syllabus from A1 upward, with a certificate at each level
Class formatGroup classes are cheaper, one to one gets you more speaking timeOne to one onlyGroup classes with 2-4 other students, or one to one
Published priceA 40-class group pack at €5.99 undercuts almost any one-to-one hour$3 to $40+ an hour, plus an 18% one-time fee per new tutorLingoda has the edge here: €5.99 to €12.99 a group class, €12.99 to €30.99 one to one, by pack size
Class lengthA full hour, and the price is quoted per hour rather than per part-hour25 and 50 minute formatsLingoda has the edge here: 60 minutes
LanguagesLingoda teaches six, so many learners are ruled out immediatelyPreply has the edge here: Dozens, including the ones a school will not timetableGerman, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Business English
Getting started freeYou can sit in a real class before any money movesPaid trial lesson, refundable in credits if you are unhappyLingoda has the edge here: 7-day free trial, up to 3 group classes or 1 private class

Pricing compared

Rates are only half of it. Put the same weekly plan through both platforms and the gap usually opens up on the fees and the billing cycle.

Lingoda's cheapest honest number is €5.99 a class, and it comes with conditions: a 40-class pack, bought up front, in a group of up to five. At that end nothing on Preply competes, because you are buying a share of a teacher rather than all of one. Its smallest group pack is €12.99 a class, which is already inside Preply's mid range.

One to one, the picture flips. Lingoda's private classes start at €30.99 a class on a five-class pack and only reach €12.99 once you commit to forty. A $20 Preply tutor sits under both of those for the same hour of undivided attention, and you do not have to buy forty of anything to get the rate.

The plan renews every four weeks and unused credits roll over, so a missed week is not money burned, and there is a 14-day money-back guarantee on top. That is a gentler structure than Preply's 28-day charge, which simply happens.

Is Lingoda cheaper than Preply?

For group classes, comfortably. Lingoda's own pricing page lists group classes from €12.99 down to €5.99 a 60-minute class as the pack size rises, and a share of a teacher in a group of up to five is something Preply does not sell at all. For one-to-one teaching the answer reverses. Lingoda's private classes run €30.99 a class on a five-class pack and only fall to €12.99 at a forty-class commitment, while a mid-range Preply tutor charges around $20 an hour with no pack to buy. Preply adds an 18% one-time platform fee on your first lesson with each new tutor, which is worth a few dollars once rather than a running cost. So the honest comparison depends on which product you actually want: Lingoda wins on price per hour of teaching, Preply wins on price per hour of attention.

Verdict by use case

There is no winner here, only a better fit. Find the description that sounds like your week.

When does Preply suit you better?

Your language is not one of Lingoda's six, or you want the hour to be about you. One-to-one time from a mid-range Preply tutor costs less than a Lingoda private class at most pack sizes, and nobody else is in the room using up the speaking minutes. It also suits a goal that no syllabus covers, like a work presentation in three weeks.

When does Lingoda suit you better?

You want somebody else to decide what you learn next. A CEFR syllabus, a certified teacher and a certificate at the end of each level answer the question Preply leaves open, which is whether any of this is adding up. The 7-day free trial makes it the cheaper thing to test as well.

Check rates on PreplySee all four alternatives on one table

Questions people ask about this pair

  1. Do Lingoda group classes actually get you speaking?

    Some, and less than a private lesson. Lingoda puts 2-4 other students in the room, so a 60-minute class divides speaking time between you. That is the trade for the €5.99 rate. If output is the thing you are short of, price the private classes instead and compare them against a Preply tutor.

  2. What happens to classes you do not use?

    Lingoda's plan renews every four weeks and says unused class credits roll over, so the money stays with you. Preply bills for a set number of weekly hours every 28 days, and hours you skip are the platform's argument for why you will turn up.

Keep reading before you pay

Preply charges a 18% one-time platform fee on your first lesson with each new tutor, then only the tutor's own rate, and it bills every 28 days in advance. Both of those are on Preply's own help pages and both change the arithmetic above.

Where these figures come from

Checked on 2026-09-17. Prices on these platforms move, and a figure that was right in September can be wrong by spring, so treat the date as part of the number. Anything we could not verify is marked on the page rather than filled in.