Cambly alternatives for teachers: the rate, the pay terms, and what changes when you set your price

This page is written by a platform that would like you to teach on it, so read it with that in mind. Every Cambly figure below links to Cambly’s own page, and the section on what we are worse at is the one to read most closely.

The short version: Cambly pays one published rate per minute and finds the students; you set no price and need no teaching qualification. A platform where you set your own price only pays more if you can fill your hours at that price, so the useful question is usually what to add alongside Cambly, not whether to leave it.

Cambly’s tutor page says you make $0.17 a minute ($10.20 an hour) on Cambly and $0.20 a minute ($12 an hour) on Cambly Kids, for every minute you spend with a student. It asks for no teaching certificate, bachelor’s degree or prior experience, and sets no minimum hours.

When we read it, the same page said Cambly is temporarily limiting the number of new tutors it welcomes, to protect current tutors’ schedules, and that profile processing may take longer than usual.

That page recruits English tutors. If you teach another language, Cambly is not the comparison that matters to you.

Cambly’s Tutor Addendum (last updated 21 September 2026) says payment is made weekly whenever you are owed at least US$20, unless you choose a different schedule, through a payment processor Cambly designates, such as Stripe or PayPal. Tutors work as independent contractors.

The Addendum also says materials Cambly makes available can only be used on the platform, and cannot be modified, copied or used outside it. If you build your own lessons elsewhere, build them from your own material.

On Cambly the hour is worth $10.20 whatever you know. Where you set your own price, the hour is worth your price minus the platform’s cut, but only for the hours a student books. So compare hours filled, not rates: ten booked hours at your own price can earn more or less than twenty Cambly hours, and only your own calendar can say which.

This is our reasoning, not a Cambly figure. We do not quote what students pay Cambly, because we did not read it on a Cambly page.

1. Who sets the price. On Cambly, the rate is Cambly’s. Exam preparation, business English or a rare language usually sell above a conversation rate; check whether a platform lets you charge for that.

2. Whether lessons are booked or on demand. A per-minute model pays for the minutes you are with a student. Booked lessons with packages let a student commit to a series.

3. The rate on students you bring. Some platforms charge less, or nothing, on students you found yourself: Wyzant charges 0%, and we charge 5%.

4. Whether the platform has students. A higher price with an empty calendar is nothing. Ask any platform, including us, what it can honestly say about students in your language.

The full table for Preply, Wyzant and KoloLingo is on the fee comparison. On other platforms too? See Preply alternatives and italki alternatives.

You set your own prices and lesson lengths, from 15 to 240 minutes, and packages of 2 to 50 lessons, in any language you teach. 15% commission after payment processing fees, and 5% after those fees on students you bring yourself, fixed at booking. Your tier never changes your rate, and the first lesson pays like any other. You are paid to your own Stripe account or in USDT or USDC on Polygon.

We have just launched. We cannot promise you students yet, and on this Cambly is plainly ahead of us: it brings the student to you the minute you are online.

Payouts are done by hand while the platform is new, one request at a time, so ours are not automatic.

We have no track record. The lowest-risk version is to keep Cambly for the hours it fills, and use us for students you find yourself and for the lessons you can price higher.