Looking for the best Course Hero alternatives? Below you’ll find a collection of useful sites like Course Hero to earn money as an online tutor.
Course Hero is the platform of choice for many online educators, and rightly so. Not many people would say no to $12-$20 per hour to do what they love and in the comfort of their homes.
As a tutor, you can always count on Course Hero to have questions for you no matter the subject you teach. You can also be sure to be safe from scammers and enjoy a safe, easy experience browsing the platform.
It is an above-average online tutoring website and can easily pass as top of the class on several fronts. But, of course, it has its downsides.
It does experience dry spells, for one. I have also seen reports of tutors getting their accounts closed for petty reasons or nothing at all without receiving their pay.
Competition is another thing. You will be battling for clients with 2600+ tutors, some of whom are really good at what they do.
In words of one syllable, there are many reasons you might want to consider a Course Hero alternative.
This article will discuss just that: websites like Course Hero that will pay you to offer online tutoring. Let’s dive in.
Websites like Course Hero for tutors
1. Chegg
The evolution of Chegg over the past two decades has been remarkable. What started as a message board before becoming a resource website is now a flourishing tutoring site with plenty of work for freelance online educators.
By far the most popular tutoring site, Chegg offers a superior earning potential to most websites like Course Hero and is certainly worth considering despite the heavy competition and sporadic dry spells.
Contemplating joining Chegg as a tutor? It’s not hard. You just need to prove that you are a university student or graduate and have the skills to back your documentation because you will be put through your paces. You will receive an approval or rejection email in a week or so.
On average, Chegg tutors make $20-$30 per hour. The platform calculates payments weekly and sends payouts via PayPal every Thursday.
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2. Studypool
Studypool does what every other site like Course Hero does: connecting those seeking education to those providing it. But how it works is unique.
Instead of tutors submitting answers and hoping theirs get selected, they bid for the work and hope their profile portrays them as reliable to the client.
You don’t need experience to become a Studypool tutor – just proof that you are an undergraduate or graduate, and you’re through the first and most important registration phase.
Afterward, you will be asked three short questions in your area of expertise, after which you will be free to start bidding for questions and uploading documents.
Studypool seems to provide an accommodative environment for people on either end of the experience spectrum, with some of the highest earners making upwards of $2,000 a month.
You won’t start so highly, but there is no reason to never make it there someday.
Studypool pays its contractors via PayPal, Wise, and Western Union. You can request a payout anytime you have more than $50 in your account (less the 15%-30% commission the platform retains).
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3. Numerade
Numerade is a site that helps students access answers to premade questions, mostly from STEM textbooks and text prep notes.
So tutors don’t need to bid for questions or offer live tutoring services. Instead, they look for common questions, create video answers, and upload them.
Currently, the platform provides over 250,000 lesson videos by 30,000 tutors. It is a pretty crowded platform mostly because teachers can create their lessons using the built-in recording whiteboard system instead of using a third-party tool.
As a Numerade educator, you can make up to $1500 a month. Payment is on a per-assignment basis, and all payouts will be deposited directly to your bank account.
4. Skooli
Skooli is a Toronto-based online tutoring platform that pays freelancers an average of USD$20 for their tutoring services.
These are what you need to become a Skooli tutor:
- A bachelor’s degree
- A clean criminal record
- An excellent grasp of verbal and written English
- A verified PayPal account
Those are the sheer prerequisites. Like many other tutoring sites, Skooli will be nicer to you if you have a more advanced degree or a teaching license.
As a tutor on Skooli, you cannot initiate an interaction with a student. The only way to magnetize students is to have a good tutoring track record – determined by your rating – and generally have a profile relevant in as many on-site organic searches as possible.
5. Brainscape
Brainscape provides flashcard-based learning services. Tutors curate these flashcards and provide them to students for pay.
As one of the few platforms like Course Hero that have a mobile app, Brainscape is a hit among both tutors and students.
All important features, including the flashcard editor, can be accessed on a mobile device, and you can earn whether or not you have a computer.
The best thing about using Brainscape is that you can do almost everything within the platform. If you can answer questions off your head, you may never have to open a browser for research or any third-party tool.
You can earn up to $1,500 a month by joining the Campus Reps program, the Verified Authors program, or the Reseller/Partnership program. The more programs you participate in and flashcards you create, the higher your earning potential.
More sites like Course Hero
6. Wyzant
Wyzant is a tutoring site that connects tutors with students. Tutors decide their pay rates and are charged a 25% commission on all their earnings.
Of course, since the site offers escrow services, the commission is automatically cut from the project money on hold.
I looked up tutor reviews on the internet, and many didn’t highlight much on the flip side beside the exorbitant 25% fee.
In fact, while at it, I learned of how easy it is to join the site. You can basically become a tutor on Wyzant and earn $30-$60 an hour within days of joining. All you need is to be at least 18 years old and be proficient in a school subject or two.
Wyzant payments are made through direct bank deposit on the 1st and 15th of every month.
7. Preply
With Preply, you can make money helping students finish their homework, learn a new language, or prepare for exams without necessarily being a certified teacher.
The average salary for tutors at Preply is $18.30, but you can place yourself in a better earning bracket by tutoring more subjects and targeting the higher-paying categories. Tutors charge upwards of $50 for advanced subjects like Calculus and Corporate Finance.
What I like most about Preply tutoring is that experience does pay. Most students are choosy and will only trust profiles that have done what they tout. So even if you start slow, you can go up the earning ladder by putting in work and leaving behind a clean trail.
Preply pays its tutors via PayPal, Payoneer, Wise, and Skrill.
8. Sweetstudy
Sweetstudy has tutoring slots for experts in:
- General writing
- Research papers
- Statistics
- Chemistry
- Computer science
- Business and finance
- Humanities
You can sign up for the platform from anywhere. You, however, must be knowledgeable and good at tutoring to pass the entrance test. And even if you bluff your way in, bad ratings would likely have you ejected within days.
You can earn between $5 and $20 per assignment on Sweetstudy. The site cuts 25% of your earnings and sends you the balance via Western Union, Wise, Payoneer, or PayPal.
9. TutorOcean
TutorOcean enables tutor-student relationships by providing an online meeting space, a whiteboard, and support. It accepts tutors in various subjects, including math, sports, and music.
As a beginner, you will like that TutorOcean is easy on its applicants and lets them select their subject areas and decide their availability and rates. Proof of education and experience is all you need to set up an account.
Additionally, TutorOcean’s fee structure is set up so you have a say on how much working on the platform will cost you.
If you come with your own students, you’re free to use the platform without giving up a dime of your earnings. If you depend on the platform for students, you will pay a commission of between 5% and 20%.
TutorOcean pays tutors via Stripe and PayPal. The Stripe option is generally more favorable as it allows for withdrawal anytime, while PayPal payouts are made monthly.
10. Cambly
Do you wish to make over $10 per hour and get paid weekly for your tutoring services? Cambly is a Course Hero alternative that accepts tutors like you.
With or without a bachelor’s degree, teaching certificate, or prior tutoring experience, you can become a Cambly tutor and help thousands of students looking to learn English.
You only need to prove that you are a native or near-native English speaker, and Cambly will give you access to one of the most active English tutoring marketplaces on the internet.
You can work as often as you wish and tutor as many subjects as possible. Your earnings will be sent to you every Monday via PayPal.
Other sites similar to Course Hero
11. TutorMe
Not many websites like Course Hero offer homework help and tutoring services in more than 50 subjects. TutorMe lists a whopping 300.
You are almost certainly covered, no matter the subject you teach. Even better, the site has no specific student target. Anyone, from grade school through college can use TutorMe, and that means tutors can find something strictly within the scope of their expertise.
You’re free to join TutorMe if you are at least 18 years of age and have a Facebook account and some tutoring experience. The platform will pay you $16 per hour and send you your money once every week.
12. Varsity Tutors
If you are good at a school subject, you can make money on Varsity Tutors by providing students with online or in-person tutoring services. The platform pays $15-$20 per hour, which is average by market standards.
To thrive on Varsity Tutors, you need to be a college graduate, at least, or have skill in preparing students for advanced tests like GRE and LSAT.
Students will rate you after every lesson you teach, and your average rating will partly determine your earning potential on the platform.
So as much as you need to be highly qualified and can pass the entrance test, you need to be just as good at doing the actual tutoring.
You can withdraw your earnings from your Varsity Tutors account to your PayPal twice every week.
13. Tutorful
While some tutoring sites will use the user rating system to determine who makes it onto the site and who fails, Tutorful does most of its sieving during registration.
Only about 1 in 7 candidates have their applications approved, which means you have to be among the top 14% of applicants to have a freelancing career on Tutorful. It also means that you will be competing with the very best educators.
The bright side of that is that the rates are also higher, and you are in a community of people you can run from.
Tutorful hires UK-based tutors and mostly targets students in the UK. So you won’t really fit in if you’re from the US or any other country. Even if you did, you would have to work for free or move to the UK as earnings are only paid to UK bank accounts.
14. Club Z!
The difference between Club Z! and many other sites like Course Hero is that it facilitates online tutoring as well as at-home tutoring. It provides services in the US and Canada and hires tutors residing in the two countries.
Additional prerequisites include a bachelor’s degree and a year’s experience in tutoring. Those are the minimums. If you have better qualifications and expertise in typically difficult subjects, you will get more work and earn more per hour.
Hiring on Club Z! is done only when there is a demand surplus. So work abound if you can meet the entrance requirements. Also, it means you must follow the site closely to know when they are open to applications.
15. eTutorWorld
eTutorWorld offers personalized tutoring for children in K12. It also serves as a resource website, where kids can find answers to about any question.
For tutors, this means you have two ways to earn on eTutorWorld: by offering tutoring services and by uploading learning materials in the form of answered questions.
The site provides important tutoring features like whiteboard capabilities and after-session worksheets. The interface is friendly and communication between you and your students is streamlined.
You can join eTutorWorld as a tutor if you are a graduate with subject-specific expertise. On registration, you will undergo two-week training and start working immediately after.
The platform pays its tutors an average of $22 per hour.
Final Thoughts
Factors like language, educational background, and geography will dictate which site you can or cannot join.
However, it’s unlikely that you possess a bunch of qualities that will lock you out of all these 15 Course Hero alternatives. If you take the time to dig deep into each site, you will certainly find the one that perfectly suits you.
