Same job, different marketplace

How iTalki Works for Tutors

iTalki lists two kinds of teachers: professional teachers with formal credentials, and community tutors who offer informal conversation practice. Either way, you set your own hourly rate, build a public profile with a video intro, and wait for students to browse and book you. Your ranking depends heavily on your star rating, number of reviews, and how competitively you've priced yourself against hundreds of other tutors teaching the same language.

iTalki takes roughly a 15% commission from community tutors, with a comparable structure for professional teachers, and pays out on a schedule you request.

How ImChatty Works for Tutors

ImChatty runs a smaller, certification-gated marketplace instead of an open listing. You don't upload a video pitch or compete on star ratings — you complete an AI-scored certification, and once you pass, your profile goes live with a certified badge attached. Learners find you through the same practice flow they already use for free conversation, so your first exposure to a learner often happens before they've even decided to pay for anything.

The Certification Difference

iTalki has no certification requirement for community tutors — anyone can list a profile with no verification beyond an identity check. Professional teachers can upload credentials, but nothing stops a highly skilled but uncredentialed speaker from ranking below someone with a diploma and less actual fluency.

ImChatty replaces that with two objective gates instead of a diploma: a CEFR placement test at C2, then one AI-scored certification scenario, also at C2, evaluated on vocabulary, grammar, and natural flow. Clear both and your profile moves into review automatically — the ImChatty team gives it a quick final check before your certified badge goes live. There's no formal interview and no diploma requirement; the certification itself is the credential.

The Payout Difference

iTalki community tutors keep roughly 85% of each session fee (a 15% platform fee). ImChatty certified partners keep 80% (a 20% fee). iTalki's cut is smaller, but the tradeoff is what you're competing on: on iTalki you're one of potentially hundreds of profiles for your language, differentiated mostly by price and star count. On ImChatty, certification does some of that competing for you before a learner ever compares two profiles side by side.

The Discovery Difference

On iTalki, a learner searches, filters by price and rating, and scrolls through a list. On ImChatty, learners already practicing for free — in open chat, mood-matched conversation, or AI-guided sessions — see certified partners surfaced directly inside that same flow, with a "Book a session" button attached. You're not just listed; you're introduced to someone who's already shown up to practice.

Which One Should You Choose

They're not mutually exclusive. Tutors who want maximum flexibility on pricing and don't mind competing on reviews do well on iTalki. Tutors who'd rather prove their level once and let a badge do the differentiating — especially in languages where trust is hard to establish from a video alone — tend to prefer ImChatty's model. Several certified partners list on both.