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Preply is a platform that allows its users to receive online language training from the teacher of their choice for various fees. Working with certified tutors, Preply has more than 10,000 instructors teaching in different fields. Preply is also apparently very confident, offering a 100% satisfaction guarantee. But does it really work? I don’t think so. I’ve looked into more than 21 thousand reviews about Preply on Trustpilot, Product Hunt, Quora, Play Store, App Store, and Best Language Learning Apps.
Through these reviews, I‘ve come to the conclusion that Prpely is not good. I think so because a lot of users claim their teacher blocked them during the lesson, their tutors were neglectful, and I know for a fact they teach too many languages with the help of too many tutors. I believe this affects the quality of the tutors and the lessons. In addition, although Preply offers affordable lessons and trial lessons, it does not provide refunds when users request them.
| My Score | 2.5/5 |
| Overall Score | 4/5 |
| The Best Feature | Affordable Prices |
| The Worst Feature | They Don’t Refund As They Promise |
| Exclusiveness on Teachers | Not Exclusive |
| Materials Used | Not Specified |
| Contact With Customer Support | Good |
From my experience and the user reviews I’ve read, I can say Preply’s best quality is the range of prices. Preply prices range between 15 and 100 Dollars. This range enables students to choose a tutor according to their budget. It seems a sensible thing to do but you must be careful when choosing a tutor and not make the mistake I’ve made. When I first started learning English on Preply, I thought I should get the cheapest lesson available. I thought I was being smart, but I wasn’t. My lessons with that teacher -whose name I won’t share- were not good at all. I regretted that a lot and paid more to get work with a better tutor.
From the reviews I’ve looked into and my experience, I think Preply’s best quality is its unfaithfulness towards its students. What I mean by that is, Preply has a 100% satisfaction guarantee, but they don’t refund their students. They claim they will refund the students when they cannot take a lesson due to problems caused by Preply. For example, when I got my lessons, the teacher I first took lessons from did not attend the lesson. Therefore, I could not have the lesson but I paid for it. I tried to reach the customer support department but I failed. Even though I continued with the platform with a different tutor, I still believe it is not okay to not refund the money to the students when they deserve a refund.
Trustpilot is a global platform where users around the world can make comments on products or services they’ve purchased. That is why I wanted to look into reviews here. On Trustpilot, Preply has more than 8.700 reviews and a rating of 4.2 out of 5. 83% of these reviews are positive, 2% are neutral, and 15% are negative. Positive reviews are mostly about the helpful customer service and the tutors. Negative reviews, on the other hand, are about the technical problems with the app, problems with prices and the payment, and the unfair subscription models. Here are some reviews I sectioned as 4-5 starred and 1-2 starred reviews:
★★★★☆
“I really appreciate your prompt response. But it would have been better if there was a further action on my side too! Unfortunately the statistics including my conversion rate and profile position dropped after having this student, which I think it's quite unfair for me.” -Kyo Jon, Trustpilot
★★★★★
“Firstly, I would like to share my experience about Preply. The people who work in this company are really friendly and wrote me back immediately. That's why I appreciate for your service.” -Tevfik, Trustpilot 5
★☆☆☆☆
“Everything is wrong with the app. Really difficult to use. Since I first started using it I haven't had a good experience. Luckily Hanna and another worker from the customer service solved preply mistakes.” -Cristian, Trustpilot
★☆☆☆☆
“Beware! When my tutor increased her fee they charged the increased amount for lessons that I had already paid for at the previous rate. They would not refund me for a lesson that I had NOT scheduled. *Another time they charged me for lessons that I did NOT schedule but refunded less than the amount taken from my card. Preply are crooks. Such a shame when my lessons and tutor were really great.” -Sue Wilson, Trustpilot
★★☆☆☆
“The tutors I used were good but the subscription model drove me absolutely mad. There is no flexibility for when you might be busy with work, on holiday etc and you WILL end up losing money on lessons when they expire. Preply has lost a customer of 10 months due to this stupid model. Sort it out!!” -Helen, Trustpilot
★★☆☆☆
“Bad business practices. If you choose to cancel your monthly subscription, they unilaterally cancel any scheduled classes you have already paid for. Extremely sketchy and deceiving.” -G P, Trustpilot
On Product Hunt, Preply has 80 reviews and a rating of 4.6 out of 5. These reviews are only either 5-starred or 1-starred. 5 starred reviews are made by satisfied users who liked the flexible schedules and the variety of tutors. However, 1-starred reviews are from disappointed users who criticize the platform because of the tutors being neglectful, unfair charges, and the poor support system. Here are some reviews about Preply on Product Hunt:
★★★★★
“I definitely recommend Preply for language learning, and not only. Here you may find an ideal tutor for you with a schedule that suits you. I constantly develop my English on Preply and learn Spanish from beginning, and I am happy about my tutors and progress.” -Vira Mazurkevych, Product Hunt
★★★★★
“I love Preply. I can easily find a language tutor that adapts to my time availability. I totally recommend it.” -Guillermo Suárez, Product Hunt
★☆☆☆☆
“...Preply can block your regular students without any reason. Once you have made the effort to work for free to get some regular students and to keep a small amount of your effort… this isn’t the end. Preply can ban your students without any reason. It did happen to me. 2 of my regular students where having lessons from the same campus. Preply thought a student made a double account and banned both accounts. I made a complain and Preply lied to me. « we give the chance to the student to explain himself ». By chance the student gave me a copy of Preply’s email and here is the way Preply communicate : « We want to notify that your profile is permanently blocked from the platform for violation of our referral policy of the terms. The decision is final and can’t be disputed. We reserve the right to discontinue the communication as well » Wow !...” -Gautier, Product Hunt
★☆☆☆☆
“Once you pay for subscription, even high rated tutors are becoming neglective and untrustworthy. Either they keep cancelling classes or showing up unprepared. Preply, on the other hand, only offers you to transfer your balance from one to another until you find someone who would bother to provide you an average class. And untill then you probably will spend all of your money for this possibility. You can't request any refund no matter how much you are disappointed” - Neval Sansur, Product Hunt
On Quora, people ask different questions on any topic you can imagine. Therefore, there are some questions for Preply as well. I will share one of these questions and its answer.
One user asked, “Is Preply safe?” and the question got 3 answers 2 of these answers are negative and one is positive.
One user named Emily answered saying “No!! Please look elsewhere! We purchased lessons that were cancelled by our tutor at the last minute. I assumed we would be credited those unused hours since we had taken the necessary steps to report it. Turns out those hours expire after a month and you are charged for the next month. I didn't fully realize this until we had been charged for 14 lessons and had used 4. Terrible customer service, all done through email only. It is a scam, run far away!”
Another user who is anonymous answered, “Probably not, I paid for a lesson, teacher never logged on, have not yet refunded my money, but have my payment info, suggest you do not use this site.”
Apart from these, a user named Daryna answered “Yes, it is! Actually, Preply takes their customers’ profiles security very seriously. You can confidently use Preply platform and pay safely. All payments are processed by reliable financial platforms such as PayPal and Braintree. Besides, Preply offers a 100% satisfaction guarantee, which means if you are not satisfied with your lesson, Preply gives you a free replacement with another tutor or a full refund.”
From this question and the answers, I don’t think Preply is safe because the answers saying no are more. Also, on other platforms, there are many comments on Preply’s refund policy and the unfair subscription charges. Therefore, I don’t believe it is safe even though one Quora user claims it is.
On Play Store Preply App has over 12 thousand reviews. Most of these reviews are positive but we better have a look into both positive and negative reviews. Here, positive reviews are mostly about how easy it is to book a lesson and transfer the credits. On the other hand, negative reviews are about the technical issues behind the app and the unfair charging system. Here are some reviews on Preply:
★★★★★
“I can book lessons easely although I can't find sometimes how to schedule new lesson. The lessons happens ideally with tutor is showing shared screen where to write for me at the same time i can see tutor and myself as well. Unfortunatelly I can't do the same(share the screen)or I don't know to do it. I like I receive reminder before every lesson in email. Usefully I can transfer my credit to another tutor if neccesary.” Gunita, Play Store
★★★★☆
“The app/website could be much better with small changes: ability to delete conversations, remove tutors from tutors page and to move our funds between tutors without having to contact support. A bigger change that I also think it's needed is a separed "chat" between "on class" and "off class". The conversation off class could remain as is and you could create a "notes" page where the teacher can write notes and info for the student to study while off class, so things don't get mixed.” -Catarina Gomes, Play Store
★★★☆☆
“I like the app a lot. It's just that one bug that's making the app near unusable for me. Whenever I click to change subjects, it clicks on a tutor instead and I end up stuck in the subject like in Tagalog or Computer Science. I tried to communicate with the help desk, but there's only so much they can do.” -rainbowdahlia, Play Store
★★☆☆☆
“I absolutely hate this app. I constantly have to close and reopen it due to it freezing or being unclickable. The message box doesn't open when I repeatedly tap on it, among other things. My students even reported that they can not access the app well at times. It's inconvenient for all of us, especially for me, who's running a business on Preply. A lot of work needs to be done with this app.” -Nika Walker, Play Store
★☆☆☆☆
“It's nice to find so many tutors. However, the online lesson system is full of bugs. Also, it's ridiculous that the credits expire in only a month. The system is designed in a way that you can't end your subscr. without losing creds. Technically, "you can pause" your subscr. any time, but practically it's almost impossible bc you have to use all your creds and not have any booked lesson. It's enough that you or your tutor is on leave a week that you fall behind in creds & start booking ahead.” Gökhan Solak, Play Store
On App Store Preply app has almost 2 thousand reviews. On App Store Preply users commented on the app saying it is a good app and some users criticized the app saying they don’t refund and the customer service is not very good.
★★★★★
“It’s really good. Thank you for preply.” hjbbfffhj, App Store
★☆☆☆☆
“Horrible customer service I am giving 1 star because giving 0 star is not an option! When I had a problem, 5-6 different people from customer service wrote me for 10 days but they couldnt solve my problem. What a waste of time! They only sent pre-scripted texts. If you find an alternative app, go for it! If you use Preply, dont buy too much credits, their system doesnt work properly and their customer service works horribly. P.S. If you want to experience bad customer service, let Octavio from Preply handle your issue.” -Sophisticated3434, App Store
★☆☆☆☆
“Preply is a Scam! Stay away! I had loaded $85 to my account for classes. They deactivated my account and took my money. Now I can’t log in to my account neither can I take my money back!” -hazarpanc, App Store
★☆☆☆☆
“Should be improved. They take %100 commission for the first lesson from tutor. If you give 1.000 first lesson, you earn nothing” -GHKDAH, App Store
On bestlanguagelearningapps.com there are 7 comments made on Preply. 3 of these reviews are positive while 4 are negative. Positive reviews are about its prices and customer support whereas negative reviews are about students not getting a refund, problems when canceling, and technical issues in the app and the website. Here are some of these reviews:
★★★★★
“It is an application that does not regret a quality reliable person and truly deserves these words. It is an application that is worth the money you spend and the time you spend.” -Gamze, bestlanguagelearningapps.com
★★★★☆
“It is a language learning site that I have been using actively for 3 months and that I am very pleased with. There are thousands of teacher options and you can choose the one that suits your budget and character. you transfer your money to the site's pool and it is transferred to the teacher after the lesson is over; A completely secure system that protects both sides. I think it is a very good idea to see the available times of the teacher you are taking lessons from in your own time zone. When it's time for the lesson, a video-class opens that allows all kinds of sharing. when the lesson is over, everything written/sent during the lesson stays in your messages; You can look back whenever you want. all in all I recommend it.” -Hamiye, bestlanguagelearningapps.com
★☆☆☆☆
“Preply is an application that I have been using for months, and I have repeatedly encountered course cancellations and course postponements. Yet each time somehow a way was found. This time is very different, my account was frozen while I had classes today. My scheduled lessons have now started and I can't access any of them. A big mistake made. I made the biggest mistake to my friends that I gave advice and reference, it's all nonsense.” -Yakup, bestlanguagelearningapps.com
★☆☆☆☆
“The teacher is very successful, but the subscription is a complete scam. I took my lessons to the same teacher every week at the same time, but then I started having connection problems in the lessons and I wanted to cancel my remaining lessons and requested a refund” -Halil, bestlanguagelearningapps.com
I think it is not. Of course, you can find cheap lessons and good tutors, and in the reviews, I’ve read and shared with you, students claim the customer support system is good. However, I think platforms like Preply should respect and care for their users. I don’t think Preply does because they are not experts in one language, they teach over 50 languages and they work with more than 10.000 tutors just for English. To me, this demonstrates they care for their own sake more than their students. That is why, to anyone in search of a platform to learn English online, I suggest trying a different one. You can visit our website to see our evaluations and compare the two platforms you choose. That way you can decide what is better for you and start learning English now!
