Built a free toolkit comparing what you actually net on italki / Preply / Cambly vs. private — plus marking, lesson plans, contracts. No signup.
Independent ESL tutor here — got tired of three things and built a fix:
Not knowing what platforms actually pay you net. Every "italki vs Preply" thread has different numbers and nobody breaks down the take-rate, the FX hit, or the per-hour ceiling once you're booked-out. Stitching seven free templates together for what should be one workflow — rate cards, contracts, lesson plans, marking, CEFR placement. Generic ChatGPT prompts that don't know what country my student is in or what B1 actually looks like in the wild. The result is Slatework — free, no signup, runs in your browser. Made by me, so yes, this is self-owned content — being upfront.
The bit most relevant for this sub — the platform comparison inside the rate calculator:
Pick your country, your language pair (en-en, en-es, etc.), and experience years. Returns suggested low/median/high private rates. Then shows you side-by-side what you'd actually net on:
italki (after 15% community-tutor cut or 30% professional cut) Preply (sliding 18–33% based on hours taught with the same student) Cambly (fixed $0.17/min ≈ ~$10.20/hour) Verbling (15% cut) Private direct Plus the FX hit if you're paid in USD but live somewhere else (UK/CA/AU/NZ/IE calibrated; more on the way). Most of the platform numbers come from each platform's own pay docs cross-checked against tutor reports — please tell me where any of them are wrong.
The other tools, briefly:
Marking accelerator — paste student writing (or a photo of handwritten work via vision OCR). Returns categorised errors (Grammar / Vocab / Structure / Mechanics) plus three feedback variants (warm / direct / rubric-mapped). Calibrated to CEFR. Lesson plan generator — time-blocked, includes warm-up / production / wrap-up / exit ticket / differentiation. Calibrates to Cambridge / IELTS / TOEFL / GCSE if you say which. Worksheet + answer-key generator — gap-fill / multi-choice / short-answer / reading comp. CEFR mapper — rule-based Can-Do statements (no AI, runs locally) or AI mode with writing sample. Parent-tutor contract builder — fills name/rate/policy/duration, prints to PDF, fully client-side (nothing leaves your browser). Privacy posture: AI tools call Anthropic, no storage or logging on my end. Contract builder is browser-only. Privacy page lays it out specifically: https://slatework.tools/privacy
What I'd love feedback on from this sub specifically:
Platform numbers — italki / Preply / Cambly / Verbling rates. Are any of them stale, wrong, or missing the right caveats (peak hours, tier-up windows, payout fees)? What you net at scale — the calculator doesn't currently model "you book 20 hours/week so the FX fees compound." Would that be useful? Other platforms worth comparing — italki, Preply, Cambly, Verbling, and Lingoda are in there; anyone want me to add engoo, LatinHire, NativeCamp, others? I'm a tutor who codes, not a platform person — if the platform numbers don't match your actual payouts, that's the bug. Tell me and I'll fix it the same day.