How much do online schools pay to non-native language teachers - reviews of 40 companies

Traditional language schools compete with online formats not only for clients, but also for teachers. There are obvious benefits of online teaching: there is not everyday commuting, classes can be held anywhere with a stable internet connection, lessons are shorter than offline classes, payment is fixedin dollars. That’s why there is also intense competition for teaching talent with disappearing geographic boundaries.

PushtoLearn prepared a list of 40 online language schools and services from different countries and their rates for non-native language teachers. We hope it will help you to retain your valuable employees and provide useful market insights. This is a list of ESL jobs for non native English teachers

- Nicekid teaches Chinese children and teenagers from kindergarten to grade 12 via video class. They prefer native English speaking teachers (including South Africans) with an ESL certificate but they will consider non-native teachers as well. Peak time is 6:50pm – 9:10pm Beijing time. They pay up to $28 USD per hour with bonuses with Paypal. 

- KK Talkee is another Chinese company that teaches Chinese children. They give 1 to 1 lessons and the classes are either 25 minutes or 50 minutes long. Students try out teachers during a demo class and then they can decide whether or not to book regularly with them. They want teachers who are available between 6-9pm Beijing time.

- Waijiaoyi is looking for native and non-native English speaking teachers to teach groups of 8-30 students of 5-16 year olds. They want teachers with experience and a university degree or an ESL certificate. They provide all teaching materials. Classes are 25 or 50 minutes long and classes take place between 1pm-6pm (Beijing time) weekdays and 8am-6pm weekends. They pay $18-20$ USD per hour once a month and they offer incentives. After a teacher has taught 500 hours they get a $1 an hour increase. 

- DaDa ABC hires mostly native speakers but they will consider you if you are a non-native speaker who speaks at a C2 level. They only teach Chinese children one to one. They want teachers willing to work part-time and who have a bachelors degree. They provide all the material and most teachers average 15 hours per week. They have classes from 6-9pm (Shanghai time) every day. DadaABC pays around $20 USD per hour but you can earn up to $25 or as little as $16. 

- EtalkABC is a brand new company and they don’t have their website up and running yet. They teach Chinese kids aged 4 -16 in classes 1 to 1 or 1 to 2. They are looking for near-native speaking teachers (non-natives are welcome to apply) with an ESL certificate and experience is preferred but not necessary. They pay $15 -$25 USD per hour with bonuses depending on performance and attendance.

- Vivaling is based in Singapore and they teach English, Mandarin, Spanish, French and German to children around the world. They want both native and non-native English speaking teachers with 2 years experience working with children and a certificate or degree in teaching languages. The pay system is a bit strange, apparently you can earn up to $38 per hour, but you start at a much lower rate and after hundreds of classes and paying for more training you increase your pay.

- First Future hires both native and non-native English speakers. I believe they teach adults and children. A degree is preferred but not necessary. They want teachers who have one year of experience and/or a TEFL certificate. Non-natives must have pass the IELTS or TOEFL exam. They pay non-natives less per hour but it could be as much as $12 USD and native English speakers could earn $15 – $25 with bonuses.

- Panda ABC / Teach Future a new company that looks like it could be a recruitment company. The do hire non-native English teachers though. They teach 25 minute classes to groups of 4 students and require teachers to work at least 7.5 hours per week during peak time in Beijing. They want teachers with a bachelors degree, a TEFL/TESL certificate and one year of teaching experience. They pay $20-25 USD per hour.

- Oteacher is based in Iran and they teach many languages (English, German, Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, Russian, Kurdish, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, etc.) to Iranians. Students can see teachers schedules and choose when they want to have classes. The pay is set by the company based on teachers qualifications. Non-native speaking teachers are welcome to apply and a language teaching degree or certificate is preferred but not necessary. Oteacher uses Zoom (not Skype) to give classes and they pay with Paypal. 

- Kukuspeak pays $12-15 USD per hour to start and they offer bonuses.

- 321-English is based in South Africa and they hire non-native English speakers. They do want teachers with a TEFL certificate and experience. Most of their students are from China and they don’t usually teach business English. They pay $12 USD per hour.

- Ginseng English is based in Boston. Masters degrees are looked on favourably. They teach both general and business English.

- Topica is based in Vietnam. Their classes are 45 minutes long and the students are university students and professionals who want to learn conversational English. They provide all the materials and curriculum. They pay at least $8.50 USD per hour and up to $16 per hour. 

- Tutor Supply is focused on teaching Chinese students. Payment from £20 – 30per hour with a £5 bonus for every extra student in your class.

- Tutoring 360 is a new company that has Korean students. They pay between $4-14 per hour. 

- Acadsoc teaches mostly Chinese students and it looks like most of their teachers are from the Philippines. They would like teachers with a BA and a TESL/CELTA certificate.

- HiTutor is based in Taiwan and they are looking for teachers with at least one year of teaching experience and a bachelors degree. A TEFL/TESL/CELTA certificate is also preferred. They also teach French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Polish, Chinese, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Bahasa Indonesian.

- TutorABC (iTutorGroup) is based in Taiwan. They offer individual and group classes. They have a rating system and a teacher can be penalized for having a bad rating. You must teach 15 sessions per week of 45 minutes or more. The pay usually starts at around $8 -$9 per 45 minutes. 

- ABC360 is a new company that is currently hiring. They want full-time teachers to work sometime between 4 -10 am Eastern Standard Time, Monday – Sunday. ABC360 pays about $14 an hour initially and $16 an hour after 6 months. 

- Best Teacher (Areyoubt) has an interesting method. They pay you for replying to student messages, editing conversations and doing voice recordings.

- USAsishu teach Chinese primary school children and pay $15 per hour.

- NiceTalk is an app that allows Chinese students to reach English speakers. The NiceTalk salary is $10 an hour with $10 bonus for signing up.

- QuQuABC is based in Hong Kong and pays $14 USD an hour.

- Pearson / GlobalEnglish is based in San Francisco. They specialize in business English and have both group and individual classes. They pay around $14 for individuals and $17 for group classes.

- Eigox is a company from Japan. They want part-time native speaking teachers from the USA, UK, Canada, Australia or New Zealand. They teach both conversational and textbook English. They currently pay about $5.50 for every 25 minute class.

- Learnlight (formerly called Ispeakuspeak or ISUS) is based in Barcelona. They not only teach English, but 15 other languages including Spanish, French, German and Italian. Their online platform is new and sleek. They mostly teach business English to employees of multi-national companies based in Europe. The pay is competitive at €10 for individuals and €12 for group classes. 

- Blazaar is a new company from Barcelona with their own platform. They are looking not only for English teachers, but also German, French, Italian, Russian, Arabic and Spanish. The pay varies but it roughly starts at $12 USD per 45 minute class and there is no minimum amount of hours required.

- Skyeng is an ESL teaching company from Russia that wants teachers with university degree and a TEFL/CELTA certificate. Skyeng pays $4-5 USD per hour. 

- 51Talk is another company from China they teach kids and adults and the material is provided. According to their website, 51talk’s salary is a maximum of $35,000 PHP per month which is about $750 USD

- Talk915 (ZTE) a new company that only wants native speakers with a TESL/TEFL/TESOL certificate. Talk915 salary: They pay £3 per 25 minute class or £6 for a 50 minute class.

- EigoBiz focuses on teaching business English to Japanese students. They prefer native English speaking teachers with TESL certificates. Teachers set their own schedule between the hours of 5am – 11pm (Japanese time). They pay 1600 YEN per 50 minute lesson (about $14.50 USD). They provide the material.

- Hello Kid is a Chinese company and it apparently has a lot of students. They employ natives and non natives and they are paid the same $15 base rate per hour.  They typically teach 30 minute classes Monday – Friday from 6-9pm (Beijing Time) and 3-9pm on weekends.

- EnglishDom offers all types of ESL classes. EnglishDom pays teachers $4 USD per hour.

- Hugo English teaches English to children in China. They pay between 14$ to 20$ per hour.

- Rype is based in the US and is designed for students on the go. Students get to choose their teacher, but it is unclear how much money teachers make

- 1to1Progress  is based in France and they teach mostly business English to students in France. They are looking for bilingual teachers although it is not necessary to be bilingual. 1to1Progress pays up to €15 per hour. 

- FluentBe is based in Poland. FluentBe salary is around $10 USD per hour

- English Everywhere is a company that allows their students to pick their teachers. The still require you to apply though.

- eHailuo (eHello, eHailo) is based in the Nanjing province. They teach 1 to 1 classes to children and they pay  $10 – $15 per hour.

- WonderKids is a new company with about 40 teachers so far. They are looking for teachers with at least 1 year of teaching experience. All of the students are Chinese and between the ages of 5 and 15. They pay $15 USD per hour for individual classes and $20 for group classes.

- Learntalk is based in Manila. They provide language training to individuals, corporations, institutions and other language schools around the world. They are currently focused on students in Latin America. They have 3 different teacher categories: Language Tutors, Experienced Instructors, and Professional Teachers. Language tutors get paid $4-5 USD per hour (C1 level needed), Experienced tutors will make $8-10 USD per hour (C2 level needed and two years of teaching experience), and Professional Teachers can make $15 USD per hour (with a CELTA/TESL certificate, C2 level and 4 years experience).  

You can read more in our blog about advantages that offline language school have to win competition against online courses.