Italki is a great and fun place to teach people English , people are friendly and the pay is not bad , you choose your own hours and students book the lessons.

Pros

You choose your own hours

Cons

Not enough students

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Totally up to you

Teacher (Current Employee) - Remote - May 17, 2022

You are your own boss which has its pros and cons. You set your own rate and times. The issue I have is that there is very little support for teachers and often the company backs the students.

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italki insights

Based on 33 survey responses

What people like

Ability to learn new things
Clear sense of purpose
Time and location flexibility

Areas for improvement

Support from manager
Supportive environment

La mejor plataforma online para profesores

Professional online teacher (Current Employee) - online - March 26, 2022

Llevo cinco años y no tengo quejas. Todo lo contrario. Ha sido productivo y ajustado a mis condiciones. Es la mejor plataforma para profesores. Tiene un gran alcance y de verdad puedes llegar a muchos estudiantes. No es igual en otras plataformas de enseñanza.

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Flexible and you can set your own rates

Online ESL Teacher (Current Employee) - online - March 22, 2022

Italki is great if you want to supplement your regular income. Don't rely on it as a full-time, stable source of income. You can choose your own salary and meet lots of interesting people from around the world!

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Great place to teach... only for some languages

Professional teacher (Current Employee) - Remote - November 29, 2021

Good luck finding students and keeping them if you teach languages that are not in demand. I have been teaching for 4 years and there is no way to ensure a steady flow of students on this platform. The algorithm always keeps the same people at the top of the teacher search list and you are competing with thousands of people who, in my case, are willing to work for much less than the average salary in my country. These people think they will get more students if they offer the absolute lowest rate, but they are just hurting everyone. Low rate = poor quality!

Pros

Flexibility

Cons

Job instability, low salary, competition

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Great flexibility, too many teachers?

Italki Teacher (Current Employee) - Online - November 26, 2021

I've worked here for a year and a half. The flexibility is great and italki has always had my back. There have been students who don't attend class and then don't want to pay you despite my (and italki's) 24-hour cancellation policy. Italki has sided with me every time a student tried not to pay. That's made me feel very secure there. Italki takes a 15% commission, which, compared to other sites, is actually pretty good.The only issues are these: 1. It's hard to get paid a decent wage. You set your own prices, but many of your students will be from poorer countries, so they won't be able to afford higher prices. 2. I think the market might be oversaturated with teachers right now. Not long after China passed a law to ban foreign teachers, my bookings dried up. If you've searched around for ESL jobs, you'll know that the best paying ones were for China. And a LOT were for China. Even though I don't have any Chinese students, I think the teachers from those sites have been flooding other online teaching sites looking for work. It's just my theory, but in a year and a half, almost every slot I opened was booked, and for the past 3 weeks, I've gone from 28 bookings to 3-5, forcing me to look for another job. All in all, it's still probably worth checking out. The application process is not grueling unlike some other websites. No demos or interviews. And I do like the company.

Pros

Very flexible, set your own schedule week by week, italki has your back

Cons

Wage isn't great, hard to get bookings right now

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language learning/teaching marketplace with a good user interface

Professional Teacher (Current Employee) - remtoe - November 16, 2021

italki is generally easy to use in terms of scheduling and communication between students and teachers. Some of the policies are not ideal (commission, wording of student cancellation policy) but for the most part, there isn't much to complain about.

Pros

freedom to teach when you want, with students you like, and content you choose

Cons

15% commission is a bit high, student cancellation policy is unclear and does not protect teachers

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relaxing, autonomous

English Teacher (Current Employee) - Online - August 14, 2021

Although the competititve nature of work on italki makes the wages a bit lower than usual, I'd still recommend it, as it would give you the opportunity to select your teaching methods, hours, and basically everything else. Also I have had a good experience with italki support. They are quick and efficient in their responses.

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be your own boss, teach how you want

Professional Tutor (Current Employee) - Remote - July 15, 2021

I really enjoy working at italki. I teach English to adult students all around the world. I can set my own hours and teach however I want and whatever I want. I do not have a boss telling me what to do. I only have to sell lessons to the students and there seems to be many students wanting to learn English, thanks to italki's marketing efforts. The website and app work well in scheduling lessons and collecting money. Italki fees are less than many other similar websites and you can charge whatever you want to charge. You can plan your own lessons or buy a curriculum and use it. I plan my own lessons, which takes time and was stressful at first before I figured out a system. You are pretty much on your own, without a boss or interaction with co-workers, but the students are very interesting to get to know. The only downside is it is hard to make enough money to live in the USA, and of course there are no benefits.

Pros

freedom to teach how and when you want, meet interesting students

Cons

pay

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Worked for over 2 years had been good for me

Tutor (Former Employee) - Remote - June 30, 2021

I was an Indonesian teacher for over 2 years, taught for nearly 1.000 lessons. It was an amazing experience to introduce the language and the culture of my own country to people from all around the world. Such an experience and I had good times to work with my schedule and had my freedom to choose timelines and holidays on my own.

Pros

Free to choose your own schedule and holidays, price based on the language demand.

Cons

No other benefits beside your rate.

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Great platform with flexibility to work when you like

Community Tutor (Current Employee) - online - April 3, 2021

This is a great platform for teachers, instructors, and tutors. You set your own pay and hours of availability. The learning and training resources they offer to students and instructors are great.

Pros

Set your own schedule and pay, teaching & learning resources

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Excellent work from home opportunity

English Instructor (Current Employee) - Remote - April 1, 2021

I have worked on Italki for 3 years. It is hands down the best platform for language instructors. You can control your compensation & work schedule, and Italki provides decent support if any issues come up.

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Teacher at italki for over a year

English Teacher (Current Employee) - Houston - February 15, 2021

I have taught hundreds of classes on Italki. It allows you a lot of freedom on how to conduct your classes as long as students are happy. It is easy to get into but the pay is very low. As it is a market place it is very easy for students to go to another teacher because there are thousands of them competing with each other. Paycan be below minimum wage in the USA though you set your own rate. The job is not ment to be full time and it is intended to be a side hustle.

Pros

Flexibility, work from home, students are motivated adults

Cons

Very low pay, Competitive for teachers because it is a market place

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fun, diverse, exciting

Professional Arabic Tutor (Current Employee) - Online - November 29, 2020

italki opened my eyes to the world. I like that I can teach Arabic there effortlessly to students from all over the world and talk about language, culture, history, etc

Pros

online, fun, easy, convenient

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Overall good but commission a little high

English Teacher (ESL) (Current Employee) - Remote - October 1, 2020

I've worked for a while on italki teaching English and Russian. What I really like about the site is how easy it is to find students - or more specifically, for students to find you. As a native English teacher fluent in Russian, I find I have quite a high level of demand from Russian-speaking students. It's also totally flexible - you choose when you're available to work and how much you charge for your various lessons. I like that you can offer different kinds of lessons and packages and price them accordingly. If you're an experienced teacher with lots of resources on hand and good conversation skills, I don't see any reason you couldn't earn a full-time living on italki. I personally don't myself, because I wouldn't want to teach for 30 hours a week, but I know there are those who do. What I also really like about italki compared to teaching privately is their cancellation policy - students can't just no-show you at the last minute and expect to get away without compensating you for your time. If someone wants to cancel you have to agree to it. The one downside of the site is earning capacity feels a little limited in two ways - the amount you can realistically charge due to the sheer number of other English teachers on the site (the most I charge is $22 per hour), and the fact that italki take 15% commission for every lesson you teach. The commission thing can get quite annoying, because even by charging more for your lessons, you just end up paying more in commission. Of course they need to make money, but I think either 10% or just a flat $1-$2 rate per lesson would -

Pros

Easy to get work, good cancellation policy, flexible

Cons

15% commission for every lesson you teach

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Online Job..The Company Sucks.

Teacher (Current Employee) - Online - July 27, 2020

They no longer look after their Teachers since May 2020. After 2 years of working for Italki ..I am ready to leave...They are AWFUL .. Do not work here if you want to make $$

Cons

You will no longer get students..

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Fun and Flexible job

Online Community Tutor (Current Employee) - Remote - April 15, 2020

This job allows you to fully manage your time and income. You can meet students from different background and ages and you area able to manage your schedule 100%.

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An easy going and fun place to work. Work on own time.

Tutor (Current Employee) - Online - January 8, 2020

I love the fact that I can make my own hours and I am in charge of my work life. I love meeting all the new people. The hardest part of this job is getting clients. Interaction and teaching are the most enjoyable parts of this job.

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Company is a joke, teachers obviously not the least bit qualified, working for 1 dollar an hour!

Teacher (Former Employee) - Online - July 26, 2019

This is absolutely ridiculous. I just received a notification that my application had been rejected because they already had such a large number of qualified teachers. I've spoken english every day of my life, have several years of teaching experience and I will guarantee you my english is far better than the thousands of teachers they have listed whose first language is even listed as being chinese, malaysian, etc. Who are working for 2 dollars an hour! Absurd!!!! It's ridiculous. They have so many teachers working for almost nothing whose first language is obviously not even english. Just look through their lists!!! The quality is laughable. The guy from customer service who communicated with me couldn't even speak english well! English-language sweatshop!

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Worse and worse

Language Teacher (Current Employee) - Online - July 4, 2019

I've taught there for 3 years. They have no idea of what teachers need. They keep changing things for the worse and ignore feedback. Many teachers are revolting after the new website was launched.

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great flexible work

teacher (Current Employee) - home location - October 2, 2018

Great to meet new students and manage your own time. Teachers work independently, plan their lessons, select their own materials and teach students 1-1 or in groups.

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