Preply Review: How It Works & My Experience Learning Italian
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*A big thanks to Preply who kindly sponsored this post. All opinions shared are my own and are based on my experience taking lessons through Preply’s platform.
If you’ve been thinking about learning a new language, you know there are many options to choose from — from DIY apps to online learning and beyond.
During my personal quest to improve my Italian skills, I was excited to learn about a platform called Preply and that their model involved matching students with one of their thousands of tutors.
Being between two countries and traveling doesn’t always help with my schedule, and the flexibility of Preply also made me give it a go.
While I could use free apps and online resources, if you’ve ever studied a foreign language, you know that reading flashcards and actually speaking and putting learning into practice are two different things.
After trying the platform, I’ve found it to be ideal for practicing my Italian skills regardless of location and at my own pace while still holding me accountable through appointments with my tutor.
In this review, I’ll explain how Preply works, its pros and cons, and my personal experience learning Italian on the platform — so you can decide if it’s right for you.
What Is Preply?
Preply is an online learning platform that connects students who want to learn languages with private tutors.
Founder Story
It was founded in 2012 by Kirill Bigai, who grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine, and knew firsthand how important learning English would be to becoming a global entrepreneur.
His search for a more personalized way to learn with tutors anywhere in the world led him and co-founder Dmytro Voloshyn to build one of the world’s largest language learning platforms.
Tutor Vetting
Every tutor goes through an application process before they can teach on Preply. Applicants submit details like a photo, certifications, education, a description, and an intro video, which the Preply team then reviews.
Tutors can be rejected for any reason, including a profile mismatch, being under 18, or low demand for their subject.
Tutors must also verify their identity with a government ID, which earns them a “verified” badge on their profile. They don’t need professional teaching training such as TEFL, but those with any certification get a professional badge too.
Preply’s Offerings
Preply offers one-to-one lessons in over 90 languages, including popular options like English, French, and Spanish. Lessons take place right on the Preply website, so you don’t need to use Zoom or Google Meet, which makes it very easy to hop into your lesson.
During the lesson, you can use the interactive whiteboard to highlight things in a text, type an answer to an exercise your tutor provides, and share your screen, among other things.
Just note that these tools are only available on the desktop version, which is the full classroom experience.
The Preply mobile app is more of an on-the-go companion — great for quick self-study, flashcard practice, and lesson reminders via push notifications.
By the way, Preply isn’t just for language learners. You can also book tutors for a wide variety of other subjects, including math, coding, music, business, finance, and more!
➡️ Click here to browse available subjects to learn on Preply.
How Preply Works
Finding A Preply Tutor
The Preply platform and app are straightforward to use. I’ll break down the process step by step here:
- Click on the button “Find your tutor”
- Select the language you want to learn
- Select your goal (i.e. you want to learn for work, a language certificate, etc.) and when you want to achieve it by
- Select the industry you work in and the career-related skills you want to improve. For example, you might want to work on your pronunciation or grammar.
- Select your level and the teaching style (i.e. structured, engaging or goal-focused) that works best for you
- Select the country you would like your tutor to be from
- Select your availability and budget to only see tutors who fit your schedule and price range
- Choose a tutor and book a trial lesson or send them a message
After answering these questions, you’ll see a list of tutors with a profile picture, their lesson rate, and experience.
💡Tip: I recommend looking at the first three profiles, as Preply matches your answers with the profiles, and the first recommendations should be good. But if you feel like they aren’t quite what you are looking for, use the filters at the top of the page to make the search more specific.
For example, add your availability, your desired rate or whether you want your tutor to speak your native language too. You can also filter by Preply’s top picks or specialities, as you can see above.
What you see on this page is just a small preview of the tutor’s profile with the essential information (rate, students, etc.); however, you can also learn more about your tutor by clicking their profile — including their formal teaching experience, the languages they speak, and reviews from other students.
You can also see if they are a Super Tutor, which means they’ve met the following requirements over the previous 90 days:
- Messaging 80%+ of students within 24 hours.
- Cancelling/rescheduling no more than 5% of trials and 20% of non-trials.
Booking A Trial Lesson
What I love most is that before you commit to learning with a tutor, you can message them to ask questions — such as what their teaching style is.
That said, in my experience, the quickest way to see if you’re a good student-tutor match is to book a trial lesson.
Trial lessons aren’t free; you pay your tutor’s fee, and they can be 25 or 50 minutes long. If you select the 25-minute trial, you will pay half of their 50-minute rate.
If you aren’t happy with your trial lesson, Preply offers a free trial lesson replacement with a different tutor.
During my trial, I told my tutor my goals and a bit of my background since I had studied Italian before, and I talked about my preferred learning style.
I highly recommend you also cover these topics with your tutor during the trial lesson, as they’ll help set the tone for future meetings.
Other questions I forgot to ask, but that would have been useful, were:
- “Will you give me any homework?”
- “What kind of materials do you recommend using after our lessons?”
➡️ Find your tutor and book a trial lesson on Preply.
My Experience Learning Italian With Preply
My Italian Language Learning Goal
Italian is my second favorite language in the world. I learned it during my 4-year Translation and Interpreting degree at the University of Malaga, Spain.
After moving to the UK to study my master’s, I got to practice often as I met quite a few Italians. However, when they left, I had fewer opportunities to speak the language.
It’s been almost eight years since I had a long conversation in Italian. Since I plan to travel to Italy next year, specifically Turin, I want to make sure I can confidently speak with the locals — which is why I chose to brush up on my skills with Preply.
Despite all this time without practicing Italian, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I remembered during the trial.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a work in progress! But I told my tutor I wanted to focus on conversational Italian so I could have richer interactions when I visit the country, and I left the lesson feeling more confident and excited to get back into it than I’d expected.
Preply’s Lesson Structure
The lessons have focused mainly on speaking, but also on some basics like prepositions and definite and indefinite articles, plus grammar tenses like the condizionale (conditional) and past tenses.
Our lessons always start with a bit of speaking, then move into a topic of my interest, and we focus on vocabulary and grammar so that by the end of the lesson I can make sentences related to it.
For instance, in my last lesson we focused on travel, so I learned a few words related to taking a flight or a train, revised the past tense and ended the lesson by talking about a past trip. This means the lessons go beyond what a typical free language app can do as you’ll truly be conversing with a fluent speaker.
While my tutor didn’t give me homework, I often asked for extra resources — like sheets summarizing past tenses such as the passato remoto (past simple in English) and imperfetto (an Italian tense to express ongoing, repeated or unfinished past actions).
Of course, you can discuss homework with your tutor, and, actually I recommend doing so. When you put things into practice in homework, you might come up with questions that you can address in the next lesson.
They can send you resources and homework in formats such as PDF and Word documents via the messages on the Preply platform.
My Progress With Preply
After a trial lesson and three regular lessons, I feel more confident and back on track with my Italian. My tutor, Barbara, has helped me identify what I need to keep working on — prepositions, which I struggle with in any language!
By the end of my first month with Preply, I’ve noticed real progress on exactly that: my use of articles and prepositions has gotten noticeably better.
I also feel more confident speaking in general and second-guess myself less and feel okay making mistakes, which makes it so much easier to practice in a low-pressure environment before using my Italian on an actual trip, where I know I’d be far more nervous without that practice first.
Preply Pricing Explained
Subscription-Based Model
Instead of one-time lessons, Preply features a subscription-based model.
Tutors set their own rates, so prices vary widely, from about $3 to $40+ per 50-minute lesson. New tutors often charge less, while experienced tutors and in-demand subjects usually cost more.
As a result, prices are flexible, making language lessons affordable for most students.
Once you choose a tutor you like, you’ll start your subscription, which runs in a 28-day cycle.
Within the subscription, you choose how many lessons you want per month and pick the dates and times that suit you best; however, you must take at least four lessons. Each 28-day cycle, you can keep the subscription as it is, change the number of lessons or the duration, or cancel.
The main goals of Preply’s subscriptions are that they help you make progress with one teacher, and they help tutors secure committed students.
Switching Tutors
That said, if you aren’t very happy with your tutor or results, you can move your lessons to a different tutor or simply cancel your subscription at least one day before your next billing date.
To switch, first book a trial lesson with the new tutor. Then select “Balance” in the top bar and choose “Switch to a new tutor.” The value of your remaining lessons is converted into Preply Credits and applied to your plan with your new tutor, so nothing is lost.
Cancellations & Refunds
If you want to cancel, go to Settings > Subscriptions on the Preply website, click the three dots next to your tutor’s name, and select “Cancel Subscription.” Note that you can only cancel through a web browser, not the app.
If you are learning different languages or subjects, you will have a separate subscription for each tutor.
Another important thing to know: you need to schedule all your lessons before the next billing date; otherwise, unscheduled lessons expire at renewal and can’t be carried over.
💡Tip: Set a recurring calendar reminder so that you don’t forget to do this.
Regarding Preply’s refund policy, it only issues refunds if you request them within 28 days of a change and in the scenario that you haven’t taken any lessons from the billing cycle. All the refund requests are individually reviewed by the Preply team.
Pros & Cons Of Language Learning On Preply
After taking Italian lessons for a full month, I definitely think that the pros of language learning on Preply outweigh the cons.
That said, here is a breakdown of the pros and cons based on my personal experience:
Pros of learning with Preply
- Trial lessons. This is one of the best things about Preply. I don’t like committing to a subscription without a trial, so it’s great that Preply lets you book a trial lesson with potential tutors. While it isn’t very long, you get a feeling for whether the tutor matches your learning style and can help you reach your goals.
- One-to-one personalized lessons. While this also depends on the tutor you pick, lessons are mostly tailored to you and your needs.
- Interactive learning tools. I love the interactive board where you and your tutor can simultaneously write, type, highlight, etc. during the lessons.
- Flexibility. You choose your schedule, and with thousands of tutors, you can find someone who fits your best times and dates.
Cons of learning with Preply
- Monthly subscription. You must commit to at least four lessons with a tutor, so if you’re just looking for a single session, this platform won’t be the best fit.
- Unscheduled lessons expire. You need to schedule all your lessons before your next billing date, or you’ll lose them. On the plus side, this helps hold you accountable so you keep up with your lessons.
Is Preply Worth it?
Yes, it’s absolutely worth it! The human interaction and one-to-one lesson approach is going to help you improve your language skills.
In the past, I’ve tried Duolingo and similar apps with very slow progress since I wasn’t actually speaking with someone. I felt like I only got better at learning vocabulary — which didn’t build my confidence at conversational speaking.
Plus, as someone with a busy and varied schedule, being able to set times individually with my tutor worked great. I chose different times and dates every week and took lessons from the comfort of my home.
If you want to learn languages and are in a similar position, I think you’ll quickly see the benefits!
➡️ Ready to start? Browse Preply tutors here.
Preply FAQ
Now that we’ve gone over how Preply works and who it works for, let me answer some frequently asked questions:
Q) How much does Preply cost per lesson?
It depends on the tutor, since each one sets their own rate. Prices typically range from $3 to $40+ per 50-minute lesson.
Q) Is Preply good for complete beginners?
Yes, Preply is good for students of all levels.
Q) Is Preply’s trial lesson free?
No. You pay the tutor’s fee; however, you can pick a shorter lesson (25 minutes) to make it cheaper.
Q) Does Preply have a mobile app?
Yes, you can download it on Google Play or the App Store. It’s handy for self-study, flashcards, and notifications, but for lessons I recommend using desktop, since that’s where you get the full classroom tools like the whiteboard and screen sharing.
Q) How long is a lesson on Preply?
Lessons are usually 50 minutes long, but you can also change the duration to 25 minutes or 1 hour 20 minutes depending on your preference.
Q) What happens if you need to reschedule your Preply lesson?
You can cancel or reschedule a lesson with no penalty as long as you do it more than 12 hours before it starts (and your tutor has an available slot). If you make changes within 12 hours of the lesson, it will still be paid to your tutor as normal, so you’ll lose that lesson.
Q) Can I switch tutors if I’m not happy with mine?
Yes, Preply lets you switch tutors. Book a trial with a new tutor, and if you like their style, go to Balance in the top bar and choose “Switch to a new tutor.” The value of your remaining lessons is converted into Preply Credits and applied to your new plan.
Q) Can I cancel my Preply subscription anytime?
You can cancel up to one day before your next billing date, and you keep your paid lessons until the billing cycle ends.
Q) Does Preply offer refunds?
Sometimes. You can request one within 28 days if you haven’t taken any lessons that billing cycle, and each request is reviewed individually.
Q) How is Preply different from Duolingo?
Preply offers one-to-one private lessons led by tutors, which can help you improve all your language skills, especially listening and speaking. Duolingo is more of a casual app to learn grammar and vocabulary.
Your Preply Language Learning Action Plan
Learning a language is building a routine. If you don’t practice, you start forgetting things, and that is what happened to me.
I’m trying to make it a habit to learn something every other day, even if that means taking 10 minutes to learn a few words or listen to or read something in Italian.
On top of that, having tutoring sessions on my weekly calendar means I’ll definitely be keeping up with my studies so I can reach my goal.
If you’re in the same boat as me, Preply has this great language-learning schedule template to help you achieve your goals.
My learning action plan consists of:
- Monday: 15 minutes learning new vocabulary
- Wednesday: 30 minutes revising grammar and doing exercises
- Friday: 15 minutes listening to or reading something in Italian
- Sunday: 50-minute lesson with my Italian tutor in which we prioritize speaking
Feel free to copy mine or fine-tune it to fit your schedule and language learning goals!
Have you tried Preply for learning a language?
