Affiliate disclosure
Right now, nothing here earns a commission. This page sets out what will change if that does, and what won't.
Current position
Links to Preply and italki on this site are affiliate links. If you sign up through one, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you — the price you pay is the same as if you'd typed the address in directly. Both applied from July 2026.
How it's marked
Affiliate links are marked with rel="sponsored" in the page source, and every article containing one carries a disclosure at the top, before the link appears.
Platforms we cover but have no commercial relationship with — including JapaTalk, Cafetalk, Coto Academy and AmazingTalker — remain unpaid links. Links to free tools, such as those in our kana study plan, are never affiliate links.
How commissions affect what we recommend
They don't decide it, and there's a concrete test you can apply rather than taking that on trust.
In our main comparison of six tutoring platforms, the platform we identify as the best value for speaking practice is JapaTalk — which has no affiliate programme and pays us nothing. It is recommended twice in that article, including in the closing paragraph, ahead of platforms that would pay us.
Similarly, in our head-to-head comparison, we conclude that italki is the better choice for most readers — a conclusion reached before any commercial relationship existed with either platform.
If a recommendation on this site ever tracks commission rather than merit, it will be visible in exactly this way — so it's worth checking.
What we don't do
- We don't accept payment for positive reviews or preferential placement.
- We don't publish sponsored posts presented as editorial.
- We don't exclude a platform from a comparison because it lacks an affiliate programme, or include one because it has a generous one.
- We don't claim personal experience we don't have in order to make a recommendation more persuasive.
Pricing accuracy
Prices quoted on this site are checked against the platform's own published rates at the time of writing and carry the month they were checked. Platforms change pricing without notice, and on marketplace platforms individual tutors set their own rates. Always confirm the current price on the platform before booking. We are not responsible for pricing changes made after publication, though we do re-check periodically and welcome corrections.
Regulatory note
This page is maintained in line with the US Federal Trade Commission's guidance on endorsements and testimonials, and with comparable expectations in the UK, Australia and Canada. Any material connection between this site and a platform it links to will be disclosed above and again at the top of every article containing such a link.
Questions
If anything here is unclear, or you want to know whether a specific link earns us money, ask via the contact page and you'll get a straight answer.