How to Build a Website like Preply?

Learning a new language has never been easier with a new wave of language learning platforms! From boring grammar classes to AI learning, language learning has come a long way!

And platforms like Preply, Duolingo, and Memrise, are leading this new transformation! Now, interactive whiteboards, streaks, leaderboards, are the new teaching aids. AI and gamification have made language learning more interesting! 

Let’s etch a roadmap on how to build a website like Preply, market and scale your business. 

So, let’s get started!

Why Build a Website Like Preply?

Benefits to build online tutoring platform like Preply include:

• Market Demand for Language Learning

The online language learning market is expected to reach $16.14 billion by 2032.  This makes it a viable market to earn revenue.

• Broaden Your Global Reach

With a Preply-like website, you can serve a global audience. You can reach out to learners in geographically dispersed areas. Students can also connect with peers and experts across the globe.

• Diversify Your Monetization Streams

As a language learning platform, you can earn through tutor commissions and subscriptions. Other revenue streams include partnerships with educational institutions and corporate training solutions.

• Brand Authority & Ownership

Building your language learning website helps to establish authority and retain learners. Build your own empire with personalized learning and user experience,

How to Build a Website like Preply: Step-by-Step Guide

Preply leads the language learning domain with a $2.4 billion revenue. The Ukraine-based platform has over 50,000 tutors for more than 50 languages.

Step 1: Discover a Profitable Niche for Your Preply-Like Website

The first step to building a website like Preply is a profitable niche selection. Following Preply’s success, several language learning platforms have been vying for the market. 

So, specialization is the only way to differentiate from the sea of platforms. Your niche must solve an actual market problem. Creating deeply-rooted buyer personas helps to sail through customer pain points.

Key Strategies for Niche Selection:

Assess Market Demand: Gauge your niche’s demand. Are people looking out for your niche online? For example, English, Spanish, and French are the high demand languages. And mobile-learning, AR, VR and AI tutors are monetizable trends.

Perform Competitor Analysis: Research your competitor’s platform features, branding, pricing & marketing strategies.

Assess Industry Gaps: Identify your competitor’s service gaps. This could be a potential business opportunity. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, use AI-driven learning paths. This includes pronunciation & conversation fluency feedback.

Niche Example: Start a language learning platform for students, professionals, beginners or advanced learners.

Step 2: Choose the Right Monetization Strategy 

A well-crafted business plan lays a strong foundation. That said, your platform revenue decides your long-term business success. Think of short-term revenue streams for long-term scalability.

Service-based platforms like Preply grow best with the commission model. How does Preply earn money? It charges around 18% – 33% commission based on the total completed hours. And the trial lessons provide a 100% commission.

Monetization Strategies:

• Commissions: Charge commissions on tutor earnings based on the lessons completed. Factors for deciding the commission rate are business goals, competitors, and value proposition.
• Subscriptions: Preply also earns revenue from subscription plans — for long-term students.
• Corporate Training Solutions: Offer 1-on-1 or group language tutoring sessions for corporate employees.
• Feature-based Listing: You can earn from tutor listings promoting profiles exclusively.

Step 3: Decide the Key Features

Start with an MVP with essential features for running your language learning business. As your platform grows, you can integrate the advanced ones.

Here are the essential features for building a website like Preply:

• Login: Ensure a secure tutor and user login to create accounts, access controls and features.
• Customize Profile: Learners can customize accounts with basic information, and preferences. Tutors can add their information, skills, price and availability.
• Search & Discovery Feature: Browse profiles and book tutor based on their availability. Further, learners filter based on prices, subjects, and timings.
• Book a Session: Learners can book a session with a tutor based on their availability.
• Payment Integration: Integrate reliable payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal for secure payments. Offer different payment methods like digital wallets, debit cards, credit cards, etc.
• Video-Conferencing System: Offer real-time one-to-one tutoring lessons using Zoom or LessonSpace.
• Communication Tools: In-session chats, notifications, and discussion forums offer channels for student-tutor communication.
• Progress Tracking: Add quizzes, assessments, and progress reports help to track learner progress
• Ratings & Reviews: Students can choose the right tutor based on their reviews. Good ratings increase the credibility of tutors and give that extra edge!
• Dashboard & Analytics: Track the revenue, commissions, number of users from a single dashboard.

Step 4: Pick a Solution to Build Your Preply-Like Website

Choosing the right platform to build a website like Preply is a crucial step. 

Whether building a gamified platform or a language exchange platform, choose the right approach!

Different ways for building your Preply-like website are:

• Website builders like Hostinger, Wix, Squarespace
• Build using WordPress + LMS plugin (Tutor LMS, Joomla, Drupal)
• Readymade clone scripts like Pinlearn
• Custom Development

Ask questions like:

• Why are you creating your language learning platform?
• Who will be your target audience?
• What kind of third-party integrations are you planning?
• What monetization strategies does your platform support?
• Does the platform support security & privacy features?
• Does the platform offer engagement features (e.g., quizzes, assessments, speech recognition)?

If you value a hassle-free, efficient user experience, Pinlearn is all you need. It is an affordable, reliable, and feature-rich clone script to get started with. Be it a corporate language learning tool, micro lessons for adults, or the next path-breaking idea, let’s make it happen!

Step 5: Onboard Tutors to Your Marketplace

The success of your online tutoring platform depends on the quality of tutors. And to hire high-quality tutors, you need a streamlined onboarding process.

Steps for a smooth & easy onboarding process:

• Defining Tutor Requirements: List the experience, skills, and qualifications. This includes the basic degree, subject expertise, experience, or any professional certifications.

• Registration & Profile Creation: Next, candidates register and create their account on your platform. They add basic information, bio, degrees, experience and submit for approval. Some platforms expect a brief intro or demo lesson video.

• Screening & Review: You can have a manual or automated review process. A typical review includes different levels of screening. Test their tutoring skills, subject expertise and complete background check.

• Onboarding Materials: Post-selection, offer onboarding resources to make tutors familiar with the platform. Start with a welcome mail, walk-through of the platform and terms or services policy.

• Ongoing Engagement: Re-skilling and training your tutors is an ongoing process. Provide workshops, webinars, micro-certifications as ongoing training & support.

Step 6: Launch Your Marketplace

Now, it’s time to head for a grand launch!

Launch Checklist:

• Test all the features and functionalities, identify and fix bugs and errors
• Evaluate if your platform design is user-friendly and navigable
• Onboard the initial set of sellers and test your platform
• Check if the platform policy, guidelines, and terms and policy are in place
• Configure platform settings for video streaming, payment gateway, email notifications, authentication
• Ensure your platform complies with privacy and security standards
• Re-check the CTAs of your website, landing page, and pricing package

Well, that’s all you need to know on how to build a website like Preply!

How to Promote & Scale Your Preply-like Website?

The last piece of the puzzle is to market and scale your platform.  

Lessons from Preply:

Preply began as a regional platform focused on Ukraine. With the rise of AI-powered education tools and after securing $120 million in Series C funding, the company expanded into global markets including the U.S., Western Europe, and Latin America. 

The funding enabled Preply to invest heavily in product development, AI-based tutor matching, and digital marketing. All of which contributed to a strong global presence and better user acquisition.

Key Marketing Strategies from Animalz’s recent case study:

• Analyze Audience Profiles – Preply collected data from surveys and workshops. Next, it created detailed target personas. The key points for personas were: reason for learning, relation with larger-life scenario,  expected prices, etc.
• Persona-Focused Content – It created topic clusters based on the audience’s pain points.
• Optimize Revenue-Generating Articles – Improve the traffic-generating articles with relevant content. 

Preply subtly promotes its programs in its persona focused blogs 

Besides that, Preply attracts high-value learners through social media, value-based Google Ads, and partnerships.

Cross-channel marketing, collecting social proof(testimonials) are other ways to build online presence.

Grow & Scale Your Business

After hitting the initial milestones, you could face the customary slag. The best way to get through is to diversify your revenue streams and markets.

Tactics to Scale Your Business: 

• Broaden your reach – Explore learners across different countries and regions.
• Diversify offerings – Offer group tutoring, courses, subscription plans, or corporate training solutions. 
• Community support– Cohort-based learning communities help to share and exchange ideas. Include contests, check-ins, and peer reviews in the groups.
• Leverage technology – Use technologies like gamification, VR, and AI-based learning.

Conclusion

Building a language tutoring marketplace like Preply is a scalable business. But with the revenue potential comes the challenges of setting up your marketplace. 

Most importantly, identifying your platform’s USP and user acquisition is a constant struggle. For long-term success, focus on user-friendly and tutor-centric features. 

Cost is a crucial factor in building your marketplace. If you have a limited budget and are looking for a quick launch, pre-built scripts are a cost-effective solution. Pinlearn is a self-hosted tutoring marketplace software to scale your language learning business.

From live tutoring software to calendar booking feature, you can build your Preply-like website. No coding hassles, or extensive customizations; build within your planned budget!

So, why wait? Reach out to us to build the next revolutionary language-learning marketplace!   

FAQs for How to Build a Website like Preply

1. How much does it cost to build a website like Preply?

Building a website like Preply costs around $50,000- $70,000. The cost depends on features, customizations, hourly rates, and location.

2. What are the important features for building an online tutoring platform like Preply?

The key features to build online tutoring platform like Preply are:

• Easy User Interface
• In-built payment gateway
• One-to-one tutoring sessions
• Appointment booking system
• Tutor profile customization
• Login & Registration
• Reviews & Rating System

3. Is building a website like Preply profitable?

Yes, it is indeed rewarding. Plus, earn from different revenue streams, such as commissions, subscriptions, business tutoring, etc.

The average tutor price on Preply ranges from $15-$25 per hour. Moreover, there is significant demand in the language learning industry.

4. How long does it take to build a website like Preply?

To build a Preply-like website from scratch, it takes around 6-8 months. The development time depends on your project complexity, feature-set, and customization.