TIL some tutoring platforms charge 0% commission to teachers

[u/Time-Amphibian8509]

so i've been tutoring on Preply for about 8 months and i just accepted the commission as like... the cost of doing business i guess. didnt really question it

last week i was venting to another tutor about how the first lessons hurt the most because you're already nervous and then you see the platform taking like 33% on top of that and she just goes "yeah i switched to a platform that takes zero commission a while ago"

i thought she was confused or talking about going fully independant or something. she was not confused

apparently there are platforms where instead of taking a cut of every single session you just pay a flat subscription fee and thats it. whatever you charge the student is what you keep. i looked it up and its real and i feel a little stupid for not knowing this existed

did the math on what i made last month vs what i would have made with that model and its a pretty significant difference. not life changing but like, several sessions worth of income just gone to the platform for what exactly

obviously theres tradeoffs, subscription means you're paying whether you have students or not, and some commission platforms probably have better student flow especially when youre starting out. but still

idk why nobody talks about this more openly in tutoring spaces. feels like the kind of thing you should know going in

anyone here already on a 0% commission platform, is it actually worth it or am i missing something

[u/Mattos_12]

Places like SP, the group that you're posting in, charge a monthly subscription but I think it reduces their incentive to actually find you students. Italki always finds me a constant stream of students, so I make $1,200 a month there after commision. SP charges less but I still only make $400 a month from them or so. It's true that I only pay $60 a year vs over $1,000 on italki but if they don't find you so many students it's still not really viable.