Looking for the best Cambly alternatives? Below you’ll find a collection of legit apps and websites like Cambly to earn money as an online English tutor.
Cambly is a well-known ESL learning platform that connects tutors and English learners from all over the world.
It was founded by Sameer Shariff and Kevin Law in 2012 – a time when the industry was still in its infancy – and is credited for its immense contribution to the evolution of the online ESL landscape.
As a registered Cambly tutor, you can earn $10.20 per hour teaching adults or $12 teaching kids. Both positions require you to be a native English speaker but not necessarily a degree or diploma holder.
The lack of entry barriers is perhaps Cambly’s biggest point of attraction for tutors, but there is a lot on the flip side that may have you considering alternatives. It could be the relatively low pay rates, its partiality for native speakers only, or the drawn-out hiring process.
Whatever it is, nothing should stop you from trying your luck elsewhere. Read on for 15 apps and sites like Cambly that will pay you to teach English online.
The best Cambly alternatives
You Might Also Like: 15 Sites Like Studypool For Tutors
1. Preply
Preply is not strictly an English teaching platform, but English is the most in-demand language. Little under half of the 25,000 teachers on the site teach English, with the second language (Spanish) attracting a mere fraction of the English category.
Like Cambly, Preply gives little regard to academic qualification when hiring tutors. Anyone with a good grasp of both verbal and written English can join and get on with tutoring. The problem is you might have a harder time attracting students without some kind of certification.
Thankfully, Preply lets you set your own pay rates. You can use low rates to attract students and perhaps gradually increase them as your proficiency starts to speak for itself.
Preply takes 18%-33% commission on your earnings, depending on your cumulative teaching hours. You can withdraw the rest of your money through Payoneer, PayPal, Skrill, or Wise.
2. Lingoda
Lingoda is different from many other companies like Cambly in that you don’t need to be a fluent speaker to qualify as a tutor. You, however, need to have ESL teaching certification, be a native speaker, and have at least two years of teaching experience.
The Lingoda hiring process can take up to six weeks and consists of two main stages. The first one involves creating an account and providing personal details. The second one is a 30-minute interview followed by a demo lesson.
While there is no base pay for Lingoda tutors, most end up earning between $8 and $13 per hour, which is quite low by current market rates.
Regardless, there is plenty of work on the Europe-based platform, and some tutors have been shown to average upwards of $100k per year.
3. Berlitz
Berlitz is a German-based platform with ESL learning stations in more than 500 locations. The site teaches several languages, besides English, and is a source of income for hundreds of English teachers in Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and North America.
As a Berlitz English tutor, you can teach in-person or virtually, depending on your location and preference.
The Berlitz Virtual Classroom (BVC) ensures the virtual lessons are life-like, with features like a whiteboard, text tools, paint box tools, and photograph and library illustrations being available to both teachers and students.
To be a tutor, you have to be at least 18 years old and a native English speaker. You don’t need a degree or any prior teaching experience. You must, however, be available for at least 10 hours a week and be willing to work for $9-$15 an hour.
4. Tutlo
Tutlo is a one-on-one learning platform that targets everyone from school-going children to adults learning for fun.
Different subjects pay differently, of course based on the age-old law of demand and supply, but a good track record can always put you in an even better pay bracket.
Averagely, Tutlo tutors earn between $5 and $11 per hour. Lessons are all on-demand, meaning teachers retain control of their schedules.
The requirements to join are, perhaps, what may lock you out of the platform. All candidates ought to be:
- Native English speakers and residing in the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and Ireland.
- At least 18 years old
- TEFL certified
- Experienced
- Excellent conversationalists
You also need to have a verified PayPal account as that’s the only channel to withdraw from Tutlo.
5. AllRight
AllRight is a fast-rising Europe-based English school that won’t mind hiring you even if you’re not a native English speaker.
It will also overlook your education background if you have some significant teaching experience, and vice versa.
Regarding pay, natives enjoy better rates of $12+ per hour, while their near-native counterparts start on $8 per hour, which may later be increased to $10.
All tutors are expected to dedicate at least 15 hours of their week (6 hours for the weekend) to teaching on the AllRight platform. The lessons are 25-55 minutes long and are taught following an in-house curriculum.
The trial lesson (25 mins) is your chance to market yourself as a new teacher. Here, you meet parents and students, and they decide whether you are good enough for paid lessons.
You will receive your earnings from all paid lessons biweekly via PayPal or Payoneer.
More apps like Cambly
You Might Also Like: 15 Companies and Websites Like Chegg (get paid for homework help)
6. iTalki
iTalki is part community and part marketplace that connects language teachers and learners.
When signing up, you have to state the type of teacher you want to become – community tutor or professional teacher.
Professional teachers must have teaching certification and are expected to draft lesson plans and be on hand with learning materials.
If you plan to send in your application today, you will likely receive a response within ten days. Then you will go through onboarding, which will entail watching teacher success tutorials and taking a test.
Professional teachers can earn up to $80 per hour, while community teachers start from $4. As an English teacher putting in work, you can be confident to make $25-$33 per hour.
iTalki cuts a 15% commission on all teacher earnings and pays out the remainder via PayPal, Payoneer, Hyperwallet, and bank transfer. A $30 withdrawal threshold applies.
7. NativeCamp
There are many sites like Cambly that offer one-on-one tutoring. NativeCamp is among the most flexible and inclusive ones.
Albeit it targets Japanese students only, it doesn’t discriminate on age or educational level. It also doesn’t prevent you from signing up and pursuing your dream online job just because you don’t have certification or experience.
In essence, you can start as a complete newbie and work your way up the levels.
At the top, you can make $10-$18 per hour.
8. Pop On
Pop On offers teaching opportunities for tutors who wish to make good English speakers of non-natives around the world. It promises between $1 and $60 per hour to teach 3-15-minute lessons.
No experience is required. You don’t need a computer either. You can do everything from your phone and, sometimes, without the need to switch apps mid-lesson.
An entry barrier for many is the site’s strict preference for native speakers. That and the fact that many jobs require good conversationalist skills, which you may not have, are the downsides of the otherwise perfect platform.
9. SkimaTalk
SkimaTalk is a marketplace connecting Korean and Japanese students with English tutors. You qualify as a teacher if you are a native speaker and are willing to teach three free classes as part of the onboarding process.
The platform pays a minimum of $12.80 per hour after cutting a 20% commission. It may sound uninviting, but at least you get to set your rates.
SkimaTalk lessons are 25 minutes long. The platform doesn’t have a built-in whiteboard or customized teaching interface, so you will have to teach via Skype.
Being a marketplace, SkimaTalk grants easy entry but does run short of work occasionally. It’s basically survival of the fittest, with your track record doing the talking for you.
10. Verbling
Verbling is a friendly learning platform that gives you the freedom to decide your schedule, your teaching style, and pay rate.
No matter where you come from, the platform has room for you if you have verifiable teaching experience or a formal teaching certificate.
You can register as a full-time or part-time teacher and create a calendar that aligns with whichever other activities you have.
Tutors can teach as many lessons as time allows, and there is really no lower limit in the number of teaching hours.
Verbling charges tutors a commission of 15%. Make sure to consider it when setting your rates.
Supported payment options include PayPal, Payoneer, Verbling Credit, and Wise.
Other websites and companies like Cambly
You Might Also Like: 15 Websites Like Course Hero (earn money as an online tutor)
11. Open English
Open English is among the most popular websites like Cambly in Latin America. It identifies itself as an online English school and claims to have helped a half a million students attain English fluency.
You could see why; all its teachers are certified native speakers.
If you think you qualify, you’re just five effortless steps from earning up to $15 per hour: application submission, video submission, on-boarding, training, and teaching.
Open English is an excellent option if you have a 9-5 and want to use the evening hours to supplement your income. It should be noted, however, that you must commit at least 10 hours of availability per week.
12. PalFish
It is not often that you find a site like Cambly that asks for no time commitments or minimum hours and has a mobile app.
With PalFish, a computer is an option. You can do virtually anything you want from your mobile phone as long you have the app features down pat.
What makes it even more appealing is the fact that your nationality won’t be a detail of consideration in the hiring process. All you need to do is prove you know English and have valid teaching certification.
Many teachers charge between $10 and $18 per hour, but it’s not uncommon to bump into rates upwards of $30 per hour.
Regardless of your rate, PalFish will cut a commission of 20%. Your earnings will be sent via Payoneer.
13. TUEX
TUEX is a multi-language learning platform that allows tutors to set up profiles and students to pick them out using keywords and other search filters.
If a student chooses your profile, it means they thought you were the best value for money they could find per your self-description.
Many times, tutors will fail to land clients because their profile is confusing or shallow. You want to squeeze in as much information as possible to grab the attention of clients who just won’t give the benefit of the doubt to someone they are paying.
Since TUEX lets you decide your own rates, you can start with low rates and increase them gradually.
The majority of the teachers charge $5-$18. You don’t have to fit in the spectrum; feel free to go lower or higher if your approach demands it.
TUEX supports daily withdrawals to tutors’ bank accounts.
14. VivaLing
VivaLing is one of those English learning platforms that only give work to tutors they have trained and tested.
Before you get your first paid lesson, you will be required to prove that you’re a native English speaker with two years’ teaching experience, go through a 4-week training period, and then join the teaching practice program for another 2-4 weeks.
You don’t get to set your pay rates neither do you get full control of your schedule. Well, you have some say in setting your calendar, but you have to be available for at least 12 hours every week.
I don’t reckon you could go lower anyway. The lowest-paid tutors earn between $13 and $20 per hour, which may not amount to anything substantial if you do less than 12 hours per week.
15. Learnlight
Learnlight is an EdTech multinational that offers more than just English learning.
The tutoring section is just as busy as the skill acquisition and company training categories and has a standard pay rate of $12-$14.
Both a diploma and teaching certification are registration prerequisites. A 2-year language teaching experience is also required as is a 10-hours-per-week availability commitment.
All Learnlight lessons are one-on-one. You may even apply for in-person teaching if you are in one of the cities in Spain, Germany, France, and Italy that have Learnlight offices.
Make sure you are familiar with Microsoft Teams and Skype before submitting your application. A bank account will also be needed.
Conclusion
Not all sites and apps like Cambly have everything an aspiring tutor might need. You will need to find the one that best meets your minimums. Hopefully, it is on the list and will give you a memorable freelancing experience.
