The Real Cost of Teaching on a Language Marketplace: Preply vs italki vs Verbling vs Cafetalk (2026)

Ask five teachers which language marketplace has the fairest commission and you'll get five different answers, because the four biggest platforms - Preply, italki, Verbling, and Cafetalk - all calculate their cut differently. One thing they have in common: none of them are the real reason teacher income tends to plateau.

Key takeaways

• Commission ranges from a flat 15% (Verbling) to a starting 40% (Cafetalk), with Preply's sliding scale (33% → 18%) and italki's reported flat ~21% landing in between.
• Preply and Cafetalk both improve your rate with volume; italki and Verbling never change, for better or worse.
• Even at the lowest commission on this list, a marketplace-only income is capped at hours × rate. That ceiling exists regardless of which platform you pick.
• The coaches earning $5,000–$10,000 a month add a second revenue layer — courses, group programs, memberships — on a platform they own, such as Pensight, at $29/month flat.

The four platforms, side by side

• Preply — 33% for new tutors, sliding down to 18% after 400+ cumulative hours. Every trial lesson with a new student pays the tutor $0. Full breakdown of Preply's tiers →
• italki — reportedly around 21% flat on single lessons (up from a long-standing 15%), with no tiers to climb. Full breakdown of italki's commission →
• Verbling — a flat 15%, the lowest published rate in this group, with no trial-lesson clawback. Admission is more selective than the others. Full breakdown of Verbling's terms →
• Cafetalk — starts new teachers at 40%, recalculated monthly against volume and consistency, down to a 15% floor. The largest Japanese-market platform, with categories beyond language teaching. カフェトークの手数料の詳細 →

Why the commission isn't actually the ceiling

It's tempting to treat this as a simple ranking — Verbling good, Cafetalk bad — but the commission percentage isn't what caps a teaching income long-term. Every one of these platforms sells the same single product: your time, by the hour. Whether the platform takes 15% or 40% of that hour, there is still a hard limit on how many hours you can personally teach in a week.

That's the pattern across all four breakdowns: a teacher on Verbling's generous 15% still tops out around $2,200/month at a sustainable 20 lessons a week, just like a Preply veteran at the 18% floor. The percentage changes how much of the ceiling you keep. It doesn't move the ceiling.

The dual-track model

The teachers who break past that ceiling don't do it by finding a better commission rate — they add income that isn't billed by the hour. The pattern is consistent across platforms:

• Stage one — marketplace-only. All income depends on hours taught and the platform's own acquisition engine. Reasonable for starting out; a ceiling long-term.
• Stage two — marketplace + owned products. Keep teaching on the marketplace for steady student flow, while building a course, group program, or membership somewhere you control. Most full-time coaches land here.
• Stage three — owned-first. The marketplace becomes optional — a top-of-funnel channel, if used at all.

You don't need to leave any of these platforms to start stage two. You need somewhere to put the parts of your business a marketplace was never built to hold — courses, group cohorts, memberships, and a direct line to your own students.

Know a teacher who needs to see this?

If you're active in a coaching or teaching community — a Discord server, a Facebook group, a subreddit — you've probably seen a teacher vent about marketplace commissions without knowing there's an alternative.

The Pensight Partner Program pays you 20% of the subscription, for as long as the referred teacher stays on a paid plan, for every teacher who signs up through your referral link.

Become a Pensight Partner →

FAQ

Which language marketplace takes the smallest commission?
Verbling, at a flat 15%. italki follows at a reported ~21% on single lessons, then Preply's floor of 18% (reached only after 400+ hours), then Cafetalk's floor of 15% (also volume-dependent). Preply and Cafetalk are highest at entry, at 33% and 40% respectively.

Does a lower commission mean a higher income?
Not necessarily. Commission affects how much of each lesson you keep, but every marketplace caps total income at hours taught × your rate. A teacher on a 15% platform and a teacher on a 25% platform hit similar income ceilings if neither has income outside the marketplace.

Can I sell courses or run group programs on any of these platforms?
No. All four are built around individually booked 1:1 (or in some cases small group) lessons. Self-paced courses, group cohorts, memberships, and email marketing to your own list require a separate platform.

Is it against the rules to have my own website alongside a marketplace profile?
No, on all four platforms. Running your own teaching business alongside your marketplace profile is fine — the line is taking students a marketplace introduced you to off-platform to avoid commission on lessons you owe them for. Products sold to your own audience are a separate business. Always confirm current terms directly with each platform.

Disclosure: we build Pensight, one of the tools mentioned above as an alternative revenue layer. We've tried to keep the commission figures accurate and sourced regardless.

A note on accuracy: commission rates and tier thresholds are set by each marketplace and can change without much notice. The figures above reflect each platform's publicly available or community-reported commission policy as of mid-2026 — confirm current rates directly with each platform before making financial decisions.