How to Create a Website Like Preply?

TL;DR

• To create a website like Preply, start by identifying a focused tutoring opportunity, validating learner & tutor demand, and selecting a suitable revenue model.
• Build the platform around tutor discovery, matching, booking, live classes, subscriptions, payments, tutor verification, and marketplace management.
• Create an AI-powered tutoring marketplace like Preply with AI tutor matching, personalized learning paths, conversation practice, pronunciation & grammar feedback, lesson summaries, and progress insights.
• Budget $1,000 – $10,000 for a Preply clone script or $15,000 – $250,000+ for custom development, with additional costs for AI, video, payments, hosting, and ongoing maintenance.
• Xpertz.io, a leading E-learning app development company, offers Preply clone scripts and custom development with tailored features, AI capabilities, and complete source-code ownership.

Preply has grown from a language tutoring platform into a global online learning business, raising $150M in Series D funding in January 2026 at a $1.2B valuation. 

The platform now connects more than 100,000 tutors with learners across 180 countries, while adding AI tools to make tutoring more personalized and help tutors track learner progress. 

Its 2025 study with LeanLab Education also reported that learners progressed up to 3x faster than standard benchmarks, showing the potential of combining human instruction with AI support.

Numbers like that explain why so many founders want to build a website like Preply rather than compete with it. The real question is what it takes, in features, AI depth, & budget, to build a tutoring marketplace that tutors trust and learners stick with.

What Should You Understand Before Investing in a Website Like Preply?

Before investing in a website like Preply, it is important to understand how the business actually makes money, what keeps learners returning, and where AI fits into the tutoring experience. Key considerations include:

• Understand the Revenue Model – Preply uses a recurring subscription model, with learners paying for a set number of lessons every 28 days. A similar online tutoring platform like preply can consider subscriptions, commissions, lesson packages, or a combination of these models.
• Plan for Tutor Acquisition – A tutoring marketplace depends on maintaining a strong supply of qualified tutors. Preply allows tutors to set their own rates and charges commission on completed lessons, with rates varying according to teaching hours.
• Prioritize Tutor Discovery & Matching –  Search filters, tutor profiles, reviews, availability, pricing, and subject specializations directly influence how learners choose tutors. These should be considered core requirements when you build a website like preply.
• Define the Role of AI –  If you want to make an AI-powered tutoring marketplace like Preply, consider AI for personalized practice, progress tracking, recommendations, feedback, and tutor assistance instead of limiting it to a chatbot.
• Account for Ongoing Costs – Your budget should cover payment processing, video services, AI APIs, hosting, maintenance, moderation, customer support, security, and future product updates alongside development.

How to Create a Website Like Preply?

A tutoring marketplace like Preply brings together learners, tutors, bookings, payments, live instruction, and personalized learning in one product. To build a similar platform, these 8 steps take you through the core product, technology, and business decisions that shape the final website.  

1. Define Your Tutoring Marketplace’s Niche and Business Model

Preply built its proposition around 1-to-1 language tutoring, giving learners the ability to choose tutors based on language, price, availability, expertise, and learning goals. That focus helped shape how the marketplace attracts tutors, matches learners, and generates revenue.

If you want to create a website like Preply, define your initial market around a clear learner need. A focused offering is easier to position, market, and validate than a platform trying to serve every learner at once. You could target:

• AI-Assisted Language Coaching –  Combine live tutors with AI practice, instant feedback, pronunciation support, and personalized exercises between sessions.
• Career-Focused Tutoring – Connect professionals with tutors for workplace communication, interviews, presentations, or industry-specific language skills.
• Outcome-Based Learning – Build programs around measurable goals such as passing an exam, relocating abroad, or becoming conversational within a defined period.
• Music & Creative Skills Marketplace – Vocal coaching, instruments, songwriting, music production, digital art, and content creation. 

Your revenue model should support that positioning. Options include commissions on completed lessons, recurring subscriptions, prepaid lesson packages, or a hybrid approach. Preply uses a subscription model where learners pay for a selected number of lessons every 28 days.

2. Research the Market and Validate Your Preply-Like Website Idea

Before you build a website like Preply, validate whether learners and tutors have a reason to choose your platform. Focus on demand, competitive gaps, monetization, and the problems your product will solve.

• Study Learner Demand –  Identify your target learners, their tutoring needs, preferred lesson formats, and willingness to pay. Preply lets learners compare tutors by price, availability, specialization, and other preferences.
• Compare Competitors –  Review tutoring marketplaces and language-learning apps for pricing, commissions, subscriptions, trial lessons, tutor acquisition, and retention. Focus on gaps you can address rather than copying features.
• Interview Both Sides –  Speak with tutors about commissions, student acquisition, scheduling, and cancellations. Ask learners about tutor discovery, pricing, lesson quality, and reasons for switching platforms.
• Test Your AI Concept – If you plan to make an AI-powered tutoring marketplace like Preply, validate specific uses such as personalized practice, lesson summaries, pronunciation feedback, and progress tracking. 
• Run a Small Pilot – Launch with a limited tutor pool and learner group, then measure paid conversion, repeat bookings, tutor retention, cancellations, and acquisition cost.

3. Plan the Core Features to Build a Website Like Preply

To build a website like Preply, plan features around the three key users of the marketplace. Each side needs the right tools to support discovery, teaching, bookings, payments, and day-to-day platform management. 

AI Features for an AI-Powered Tutoring Marketplace Like Preply 

To make an AI-powered tutoring marketplace like Preply, add AI where it can improve personalization and reduce repetitive tutor work. 

Useful features include AI tutor matching, personalized learning paths, conversation practice, pronunciation and grammar feedback, automated lesson summaries, progress insights, and AI-assisted lesson planning. 

These capabilities can use learner goals, lesson history, proficiency levels, and tutor preferences to deliver more relevant recommendations and learning support.

4. Choose the Right Development Approach

The development approach you choose will affect your Preply-like website’s customization, launch timeline, scalability, and overall cost. The right option depends on how much control you need over tutor workflows, matching, payments, subscriptions, and AI-powered learning features.

• Website Builders – Platforms such as Wix, Squarespace, and Hostinger can work for testing a basic tutoring concept. They are suitable for simpler websites but may become restrictive when you need advanced tutor matching, booking workflows, subscriptions, or custom AI features.
• WordPress with LMS – WordPress with LMS plugins such as Tutor LMS can support courses, quizzes, learner accounts, and instructor management. It can suit an education website, although a marketplace with complex tutor discovery and real-time scheduling may require additional customization.
• Ready-Made Clone Script –  A Preply clone script gives you pre-built marketplace functionality such as tutor profiles, search, bookings, payments, and user dashboards. This can reduce development time and let you focus resources on customization and market launch.
• Custom Development –  Custom development is suitable when you need unique tutor matching, specialized learning workflows, proprietary AI capabilities, or a business model that existing scripts cannot accommodate.

Whichever route you take, assess the development partner’s track record, education expertise, integration capabilities, support model, and ownership terms. These factors can make a meaningful difference while choosing an education software development company.

Xpertz.io is a leading E-learning app development company offering both a Preply clone script and custom solutions, with complete source-code ownership. Businesses can choose the ready-made clone for faster deployment or build a tailored platform with unique features, workflows, and AI capabilities.

5. Build Tutor Discovery, Matching, Booking and Live Learning

For a website like Preply, the learner journey should move smoothly from finding the right tutor to booking a lesson and attending it.

Build Tutor Profiles, Discovery and Matching

For a website like Preply, tutor discovery should help learners quickly identify teachers who match their goals, budget, schedule, proficiency level, and preferred teaching style. 

Create detailed tutor profiles with photos, introduction videos, qualifications, certifications, languages spoken, specializations, teaching experience, hourly rates, availability, ratings, and reviews. 

Advanced search should allow learners to filter tutors by language or subject, specialization, price, availability, native language, and qualifications. You can also use learner goals, proficiency level, preferred schedule, budget, and learning preferences to recommend relevant tutors. 

As learners interact with the platform, booking history, completed lessons, reviews, and updated preferences can help improve future tutor recommendations. 

Develop Booking, Scheduling and Live Learning

Once a learner selects a tutor, booking and attending lessons should require minimal friction. Support trial lessons, individual sessions, and recurring bookings, with real-time availability and automatic time-zone conversion so learners see accurate slots in their local time. 

Calendar synchronization can help tutors manage lessons alongside their existing commitments, while automated email, push, or in-platform reminders can reduce missed sessions. 

The platform should also provide clear rescheduling and cancellation workflows, including applicable credits, refunds, and notifications. For live learning, provide browser-based video classes with audio and video controls, screen sharing, chat, file sharing, and lesson tools such as notes, homework, and shared learning materials. 

Tutor and learner dashboards should maintain upcoming and completed lessons, booking history, payment status, and lesson records for easy ongoing management.

6. Recruit, Verify and Onboard Expert Tutors

A Preply-like website depends on the quality and reliability of its tutors. Build a structured tutor onboarding system that verifies credentials, maintains quality standards, and gives learners enough information to choose tutors confidently. 

When you build a website like Preply, include:

• Tutor Application –  Collect teaching experience, subjects or languages taught, qualifications, certifications, introduction videos, rates, and availability.
• Identity Verification –  Verify government-issued identification before enabling tutor payouts.
• Qualification Verification –  Review teaching certificates and academic credentials before awarding verified badges.
• Application Review – Let admins approve, reject, or request additional information through the admin dashboard.
• Tutor Onboarding – Guide approved tutors through profile setup, pricing, scheduling, lesson delivery, policies, and learner communication.
• Quality Monitoring – Track ratings, attendance, cancellations, response times, completed lessons, and learner feedback.
• Verified Tutor Badges – Display badges for verified identity, approved qualifications, or strong performance to help learners assess tutor credibility.

7. Set Up Payments, Subscriptions and Tutor Payouts 

Payments are a core part of any platform built around lessons, subscriptions, and tutor earnings. When you create a website like Preply, the payment system should support secure learner payments, recurring billing, tutor commissions, refunds, and withdrawals across different markets.

The payment module should handle:

• Multiple Payment Methods – Support cards, digital wallets, and locally relevant payment options.
• Subscriptions & Commissions – Allow learners to purchase recurring lesson plans rather than paying manually for every class. Preply currently bills learners every 28 days for their selected number of lessons..
• Tutor Payouts – Define how much of each lesson payment the platform retains and how much goes to the tutor. Preply uses a commission-based model, with the applicable rate depending on the tutor’s completed teaching hours.
• Refunds and Cancellations – Manage trial lessons, missed classes, cancellations, rescheduling, refunds, and subscription changes.
• Multi-Currency Payments – Display prices in preferred currencies while maintaining accurate tutor earnings and platform accounting.
• Secure Payment Processing – Use established payment processors and tokenized payment handling rather than storing sensitive card details directly on your platform.
• Transaction Dashboards – Let learners view subscriptions, invoices, payments, and refunds, while tutors track earnings, completed lessons, pending payouts, and withdrawals.

8. Test, Launch & Scale Your Language Learning App Like Preply

Before launching a language learning app like Preply, test tutor discovery, matching, trial bookings, subscriptions, time-zone conversion, rescheduling, refunds, payouts, and live classes. Also validate AI recommendations, learning assessments, and personalized practice with real user scenarios.

Start with a focused group of tutors, languages, and learners. Track booking conversion, trial-to-paid conversion, lesson completion, repeat bookings, subscription renewals, tutor retention, and cancellations. Use these insights to improve the product before expanding into new languages, markets, tutor categories, and AI-powered learning features.

How Much Does It Cost to Create a Website Like Preply?

The cost to create a website like Preply depends on the development approach, feature scope, customization, and AI capabilities. 

A Preply clone script can cost between $1,000 – $10,000, while custom development can range from $15,000 to $250,000+ for a more tailored platform with advanced tutor matching, live classes, subscriptions, payments, and personalized learning features. 

 You should also factor in recurring expenses for hosting, video services, payment processing, AI APIs, maintenance, and ongoing support. 

Final Thoughts

A Preply-like platform needs to serve both learners and tutors without making either side work harder than necessary. Tutor discovery, scheduling, payments, communication, and learning support all contribute to that experience, while AI can add value through personalized practice, matching, and progress tracking. The right development approach depends on how much of the platform you want to customize. Xpertz.io is an E-learning app development company that builds solutions across multiple education models, including Preply-like tutoring marketplaces, with both ready-made and custom development options.

FAQs About How to Create a Website like Preply

1. How can a tutoring marketplace handle different tutor pricing?

Let tutors define their rates within platform guidelines while giving learners clear pricing before booking. The system should calculate commissions, discounts, taxes, refunds, and tutor earnings consistently across different lesson types. 

2. How can AI assist tutors without replacing human teaching?

AI can handle repetitive tasks such as lesson summaries, practice generation, progress analysis, and activity suggestions, allowing tutors to spend more time on instruction, personalized guidance, and meaningful learner interaction.

3. How can a tutoring marketplace attract its first learners?

Start with a clearly defined audience and combine targeted content, paid campaigns, referral incentives, partnerships, and introductory offers. Early tutor testimonials and learner outcomes can also provide useful proof for new visitors