Wyzant vs Preply vs Classentra: 2026 Head-to-Head
Honest head-to-head of Wyzant, Preply, and Classentra in 2026 — commission math on real lesson prices, student-ownership tradeoffs, feature comparison, and a decision tree on which to use when.
Por Classentra Editorial
Esta traducción está en curso.
Three platforms, three completely different bets. Wyzant and Preply sell you leads in exchange for a big slice of your revenue. Classentra sells you the workspace and keeps you off the lead-rent treadmill — you bring the students. This post is the working comparison most tutors do in a spreadsheet at month four; we built the spreadsheet for you.
Who each platform is for
Wyzant is a US-leaning tutor marketplace. They send qualified leads in exchange for a 25% commission on every lesson you deliver. The strongest play: brand-new tutors with zero leads who want to fill capacity fast and can stomach the long climb up their internal reputation system.
Preply is the global tutor marketplace. Bigger surface area, especially for languages. Commission is roughly 33% plus a one-off introduction fee. Off-platform contact with students is forbidden — leave Preply and you leave with no list. The strongest play: language tutors targeting international students with no existing audience.
Classentra is the teaching workspace, not a marketplace. We do not send you leads. We give you native live video, scheduling, assignments, parent visibility, and direct Stripe payouts, and we take 0% of your lesson revenue on Pro. The strongest play: tutors who already have 3+ students and want to keep their margin.
The commission math (real numbers)
Tutors underestimate how much marketplace commission costs them over time. Here's the take-home on three common lesson prices, before any payment processing.
| Lesson price | Wyzant (25%) | Preply (~33%) | Classentra (0% on Pro) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $50 | $37.50 | $33.50 | $50.00 |
| $75 | $56.25 | $50.25 | $75.00 |
| $100 | $75.00 | $67.00 | $100.00 |
Now run the same comparison over a year. A tutor with 10 weekly recurring students at $60/hr (520 sessions a year):
| Platform | Annual gross | Commission | Take-home |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wyzant | $31,200 | $7,800 | $23,400 |
| Preply | $31,200 | $10,296 | $20,904 |
| Classentra Pro | $31,200 | $0 (Classentra) + ~$960 (Stripe ~2.9% + 30¢) | $30,240 |
The Pro subscription is $59/mo or $708/yr. Net of the subscription, Classentra still leaves the tutor with about $29,530 take-home — roughly $6,000–$8,500 more per year than the marketplace alternatives at the same gross.
This is the silent argument for moving direct: at any meaningful volume, the marketplace fee dwarfs the cost of running your own workspace.
The student-ownership tradeoff
Marketplaces send you traffic; they keep the relationship.
- Wyzant allows direct messaging but mediates payment. Many tutors keep students on-platform because the dispute mechanism is convenient.
- Preply explicitly forbids off-platform contact. If you violate it, you can be removed. If a student stops booking, you have no way to reach them.
- Classentra is yours. Students email you. They book on your calendar. You own the list. If you leave Classentra, you leave with your students.
The tradeoff is real, not theoretical: a marketplace's value to a tutor caps at their lead-volume contribution. Once you can find your own students, the commission is a tax with no offsetting benefit.
Feature matrix
| Capability | Classentra | Wyzant | Preply |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commission per lesson | 0% on Pro (set your own price) | 25% (US) | ~33% + intro fee |
| Own the student relationship | Yes | Mediated messaging | Off-platform contact forbidden |
| Recurring sessions + calendar | Built-in | Limited | Limited |
| Native live video | Yes (Daily.co) | Third-party (Zoom round-trip) | Built-in |
| Assignments + grading | Yes | No | No |
| Parent visibility | Yes (notes + grades shareable) | No | Limited |
| Direct payouts | Stripe Connect, daily | Weekly via platform | Weekly via platform |
| Marketplace traffic | No (you bring students) | Yes | Yes |
Numbers source: published platform fee schedules, verified 2026-05-21.
Decision tree
A blunt rule that works for most tutors:
- You have zero students and no audience. Start on Wyzant or Preply. Pay the lead-rent for 3–6 months while you fill your calendar.
- You have 1–2 marketplace students and they're sticky. Keep them on the marketplace; you're still net-positive on lead value. Open a Classentra Free account on the side for the next student who comes via referral.
- You have 3+ recurring students. Switch to Classentra Pro. At this point, marketplace commission is costing you more per month than the Pro subscription, and you have enough relationships to keep the lead flow without paying for it.
- You teach languages targeting non-Anglophone international students. Preply is genuinely hard to replace as an acquisition channel. Hybrid: stay on Preply for new leads, migrate retained students to Classentra after the first 3 months.
The pivot point is usually 3 recurring students. Past that, the math runs decisively against the marketplaces.
Migration playbook
There is no automated export from Wyzant or Preply. Plan for two weeks of manual migration when you switch:
- Open a Classentra Free account, set up your workspace, recurring calendar, and Stripe Connect.
- Tell your sticky students you're moving sessions to your own platform from a specific date. Frame the move as "I'm giving you a parent-visible workspace with assignments and recordings" — that's a real upgrade for them, not just a save for you.
- For the first month, keep the marketplace listing open at a higher price (you don't need cheap leads anymore — only premium ones who are willing to follow). For everyone else, drop the listing.
We have a migration shape guide for tutors leaving Skool that maps to the Wyzant/Preply move; the data is different but the relationship-preservation playbook is the same.
What this means
If you have students already, the marketplaces are taxing your margin. If you don't, they are paying for themselves. The job is to recognize which of those two phases you are in and pick the platform that fits — not stay on the marketplace by inertia after the math has flipped.
Try Classentra free — solo tutors get the full live-video, scheduling, assignments, parent visibility, and Stripe Connect stack on a free tier up to 25 students. Upgrade to Pro ($59/mo) when monthly bookings cross $500.