What the online language market actually charges, and pays
Every figure on these pages was read from the platform’s own public pages on a stated date, and none of them are ours — we do not appear in the tables. They are released under CC0: take them, reuse them, no credit required.
We sell language lessons, so read this as interested rather than neutral. The defence is the method: every number is checkable on somebody else’s site, the comparisons that beat us are in the text rather than left out, and where we could not verify something it is named as unverified instead of filled in.
What online language lessons cost
Advertised tutor rates across sixteen languages, plus country-by-country breakdowns inside eight of them where the language is natively spoken. The native-speaker premium runs from +40% to −34% — and the order tracks where the speakers live, not how well anyone teaches. Includes the row that contradicts it.
Read it →What language teachers actually earn
The same published prices with the platform's own published commission applied. An average Arabic lesson is $10 an hour; a new tutor keeps $6.70. Also the mechanic no advertised rate shows: the commission on every trial lesson with a new student is 100%.
Read it →Language exams compared
JLPT, TOPIK, DELE, HSK, Goethe-Zertifikat, telc, CAPLE, Staatsexamen NT2, Celpe-Bras, YKI, DELF / DALF, CELI, TestDaF, SIELE, Certyfikat (state), Norskprøven, Norskprøven C1, IELTS, Cambridge English, TOEFL iBT, ТРКИ / TORFL, Держсертифікат (state), TYS, Swedex, Tisus — twenty-five certificates read side by side from their own documents. The TOPIK lapses after two years and SIELE after five; the JLPT fails you on a single weak section however high your total; the Celpe-Bras sets your level at the lower of your two halves; the TestDaF publishes no pass mark at all; ten publish no fee at all, and telc says outright that it cannot tell you what a centre will charge. The exams whose bodies block first-party reading are named rather than estimated.
Read it →Language level for citizenship, from the law itself
Eighteen countries' own statutes, quoted: France B2 since 1 January 2026; Norway B1 and oral only; Switzerland B1 spoken but A2 written; Sweden and Denmark with no CEFR letter in the text at all; the Netherlands A2 by reference to a repealed act; Finland adding a citizenship test in 2027. The spread for one legal act is two full CEFR levels, and Portugal is listed as unread rather than guessed.
Read it →TOEFL and SIELE fees by country
Every per-country price the two bodies publish, read from their booking pages: ETS prices the TOEFL for 212 countries, US$170 to US$475; SIELE prices 95, 135 € to 175 €. Same exam, 2.8 times the price, and the two bodies disagree about which countries are cheap.
Read it →Exam timelines: register by, sittings, results
The three questions no exam body answers about its rivals, asked of 14 of them: how late you may book, how often it runs, how long you then wait. TOEFL iBT takes you 4 days from booking to score; TOPIK takes 116. 8 of the 14 publish no registration deadline at all, and one body's own FAQ page answers "how long do results take" twice, differently.
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