italki Reviews 14,572

The platform has some serious issues. Like it's BAD BAD.

The UI is counterintuitive, a lot of the built-in tools barely work properly and the payment window for tutors is so vague that you often don’t get paid when they say you will, which is not great when it’s your income.

The warning system is probably the worst part. It can stack multiple infractions from what is essentially a single interaction, and there’s no real room to explain or fix things once it happens. There’s basically no proper recourse.

Support doesn’t help much either. Responses can take days and when they do reply it’s mostly copy-paste guideline answers that don’t really address your situation. There doesn’t seem to be any real escalation process, so once you get that standard response, you’re pretty much stuck.

It feels like the platform is run on rigid rules and automation rather than common sense, and those rules end up protecting the platform more than the people actually using it. I wouldn’t recommend it, for both students and tutors.

EDIT: Nice corporate HR 101 reply iTalki! But we both know that's bull****.

You suspended my account for a month due to your automated moderation system. What was I moderated for, you ask? Because I wanted the best for my student, I wanted to help a new student decide if I was the best fit for their needs, cause you know, I care about them, I care that they get the best value for their money.

You don't care about your students, all you care is that they spend those juicy credits.

What did my hideous act of interest towards my student get me? For letting expire their package requests AFTER I had told them and AFTER they agreed, I was inflicted multiple warnings all at once.
It didn't matter that I had accepted the first lesson of the package, it didn't matter that I had contacted the student, it didn't matter that the student was ok with it or that he expressed gratitude for my care, nothing mattered.

All it mattered is that I had broken the sacred rule: do not let students have unspent credits, otherwise the poor multimillion company will starve!

Customer service was a joke. I have screenshots of the entire interaction that I keep for personal use in case I ever think to come back to that AI moderated, money hungry platform, so I can remember how awful it is and to steer away as many people as I can from it.

Oh and to top it all: you LOST 5 students, their tutor included. Meaning you lost the income of 6 users total, because you weren't able to pull your head out of your proverbial corporate bosom.

Good freaking job.

Love this website. Easy to use and to book lessons! Teachers are great

My experience with italki has been great, because I've been able to choose the teachers that I considered would work the best with me, for my current goals, based on their presentation video, and during the classes I discovered that everything they said was true.
Also, I can choose the date, time, and duration of my classes, which is very helpful because I can adapt them to my schedule.
So far, I have two teachers (I'm learning German), and I have nothing but good things to say about them.

Fair pricing, easy platform to use and great teachers!

It was so much fun would do again

Helps you stay with it. Good bang for the buck.

My experience with italki's withdrawal system, after 5 years of partnership, has been profoundly disappointing. The "Express Withdrawal" option requires an additional fee of $10, yet processing times take up to 48 hours. Waiting two full days after paying such a steep fee is unacceptable and completely defeats the purpose of an accelerated service. Even if it is technically faster than the standard withdrawal (which can take up to 10 business days), paying $10 just to wait 48 hours is unjustified, especially when standard bank transfers are often instantaneous and free.

This situation recently worsened due to a sudden family bereavement. Facing an emergency and urgently needing my funds on the same day, I contacted the "Customer Success" department asking them to bypass standard times. Despite the gravity of the situation and the fee already paid, I encountered zero flexibility. Support refused to expedite the process, citing strict "security and compliance procedures," and informed me that no supervisor was available for a manual authorization. A service that charges for urgency but offers no real, human support during exceptional circumstances is entirely useless. Highly unrecommended for anyone who needs quick and reliable access to their earnings.

I've had 5 conversations on iTalki with various teachers and am really enjoying it so far. I find the service easy to use and fun and it has given me many opportunities to practice my Spanish!

If you have to reschedule a lesson, click "reschedule" not cancel. If you cancel, you will lose the credit. It only happened to me once so it's okay, and I realize now how I could have avoided it.

Excellent alternative to start learning a new language. Totally Recommended

This app has been super beneficial for my language learning and I've made really good progress in such a short time!

Italki is a company based in Hong Kong and does not comply with its obligation to provide a 14-day withdrawal period for a refund on online purchases, as required by European regulations. It considers that refunds can only be issued as credits on the platform, which is contrary to both European and French regulations. Even if italki is a company outside the European Union, as soon as it sells to customers based in the European Union, it is required to comply with European regulations.

I appreciate that there is no contract and that I can try as many teachers as I want. I also really like having the meeting through the app so that I don't have to download anything else.

At present moment I'm satisfied with my tutor. As I can see, she works hardly to improve my knowledge.

I enjoy and will continue

My language teacher is great but the platform is not great. They use an online classroom which is basically an online video meeting and it's terrible. It's constantly crashing for myself or my teacher so we're frequently forced to use Google Meet. When you go off platform you lose some of the features you're paying for like lesson summaries and the practice that it would otherwise create for you to study based on the content of your lesson. If the video meeting platform was more reliable and we could have our sessions without this interruption then I would give it 4 or 5 stars.

Roberta from ITalki is one of the most wonderful teachers I have ever worked with. She is incredibly patient, knowledgable, encouraging, and clear in her explanations. Her lessons are always engaging, enjoyable and extremely effective. She creates a comfortable atmosphere that makes learning and speaking Italian feel natural and motivating. I feel very lucky to have found her on Italki and I recommend her most highly.

I love the concept that I get to be learning 1 on 1 with tutors. The system is fine but I get a little nervous that my fish will be deceased by dehydration. ;-;

I have generally had good tutors on here but this was just the last straw. I booked a Russian conversation class with Dina (based out of Vietnam so you know to avoid her). I had a bad epilepsy episode the night before and slept through the class. She knew about how this could be an issue but still wanted the class marked complete. She was offering my credits back but I disputed, asking for them and the class to be rescheduled. She refused that and support sided with her and gave her my money she OFFFERED me back. I then asked her to have the decency to pay me back through alternative means and she refused still and blocked me, saying "my attitude" was the problem! For wanting money she initially offered me back! I hope Support is aware of this situation and finds a way to get me my money back and for her to face consequences.

Italki is easy to use, payment is transparent, and the ux is conducive to quick progress in my language learning journey without the cost, inconvenience, and social anxiety of classroom learning. I would say the greatest benefit I’ve felt, however is the quality of my lessons with my tutor, Jiwon. She is the biggest reason I keep coming back.