Best Online Tutoring Platforms UK (2026), Compared Honestly
The best online tutoring platforms in the UK in 2026, in one paragraph. StudyGuru (my platform) is the only one of the four that automatically sends parents a progress report after every lesson, saying what was covered and where your child struggled. Tutors cost from £24 an hour with no A-Level premium, every tutor is Enhanced DBS checked, and new families can try four sessions from £15 each. MyTutor (from £26/hr at GCSE) has the largest tutor pool. Tutorful (from about £20/hr) requires two years of teaching experience and DBS-checks every tutor. Superprof charges a monthly pass of about £39, tutors set their own rates and DBS isn't required. Most UK online tutoring costs £20 to £40 an hour. By Ciaran Collins, founder of StudyGuru · Prices re-checked 10 October 2026.
Quick Comparison
| StudyGuru | MyTutor | Tutorful | Superprof | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical price | From £24/hr; six experience bands to £74; no A-Level premium | From £26/hr at GCSE; most £26-£40 | From ~£20/hr, rising with experience | Tutor-set rates + ~£39/month Student Pass |
| First 4 lessons | From £60 (Starter Pack, 4 x £15) | From £104 (4 x £26) | From ~£80 (4 x ~£20) | £39 pass + 4 tutor-set lessons |
| Trial / intro offer | Free 15-min intro call + 4 sessions from £15 each | No trial discount, no commitment | Replacement lesson paid if first disappoints | Free first lesson common (tutor's choice) |
| Tutor vetting | 7-step process incl. live teaching assessment; about 3% of applicants end up teaching | Recorded video interview; uni students/graduates; B+ at A-Level in each subject taught | 2+ years teaching experience required | No interviews; credentials self-declared |
| Enhanced DBS required | Yes, every tutor | Vetting incl. DBS for tutors | Yes, every tutor | No, ask the individual tutor |
| After-lesson parent updates | Automatic AI progress report every session | Recordings; optional tutor reports | Lesson recordings | Arranged with tutor directly |
| Best for | A progress report after every lesson; trying tutoring cheaply (GCSE & A-Level core) | Widest choice of tutors and subjects | Qualified-teacher CVs | Lowest rates for confident DIY vetters |
| Prices checked | 10 October 2026 (own pricing page) | 10 October 2026 (mytutor.co.uk/pricing) | 3 September 2026 (tutorful.co.uk) | 10 October 2026 (superprof.co.uk) |
Which platform suits which family
The short answer, one line per platform: You want to know what happened in every lesson: StudyGuru. It's the only one of the four that sends parents a progress report after every session automatically, and its Starter Pack (four lessons from £60 in total) is the cheapest way to try tutoring over more than one lesson. You want the widest choice of tutors and subjects: MyTutor. A qualified, experienced teacher is non-negotiable: Tutorful. You want the lowest hourly rate and will vet the tutor yourself: Superprof. Two pieces of advice that apply on every platform. First, ask about DBS checks explicitly: on some platforms every tutor has one, on others none do, and the industry is unregulated, so nobody is checking on your behalf. Second, book earlier than feels necessary. September demand in UK tutoring is brutal, and the good tutors on every platform fill their evening slots by the first week of term.
Full disclosure first
I'm Ciaran Collins, the founder of StudyGuru, one of the four platforms on this list. I'm not going to pretend to be neutral, so this page does two things instead: every number was checked against each platform's published pricing (dates in the table), and every competitor entry names what they do better than us. I spend a lot of time watching what this market charges, and most comparison articles you'll find get the details wrong or were written three years ago. I've also tutored on MyTutor myself, and its section says what that was like. If any platform below changes its pricing, tell me and I'll correct it. I've also written a longer, more personal version of this comparison on Medium.
How we compared the platforms
Five criteria, in the order parents usually ask about them: the real hourly cost including any subscription or pass fees; how tutors are vetted (interviews, acceptance rates, and whether an Enhanced DBS check is required to list); how cheaply you can properly try the platform before committing; what you hear back after each lesson; and the size of the tutor pool. Every figure comes from the platform's own pricing page or FAQ, linked in its section, and the table shows the date each one was checked. Where I quote a platform, the words are theirs. Where a platform doesn't publish a number, I say so rather than guess.
1. StudyGuru: best for knowing what happened in every lesson (from £24/hr, 4 trial sessions from £15 each)
StudyGuru is my platform, so weigh this section accordingly. The platform is built around what happens after the lesson: parents get a progress report after every session, generated by AI from the lesson itself. It says what was covered, where your child struggled and what's planned next, so the next lesson can pick up where the last one stopped. As far as I know, no other platform on this page sends parents anything after a lesson unless the individual tutor chooses to write it. Tutors charge from £24 an hour and move up a six-band ladder to £74 as they gain experience. The level doesn't change the price: a tutor charges the same for GCSE Foundation maths as for A-Level chemistry. New families start with the Starter Pack: four one-hour sessions from £15 each (from £60 total), after a with any tutor. Every tutor holds an Enhanced DBS check and has passed a live teaching assessment, and roughly 3% of applicants end up teaching on StudyGuru. Subject coverage centres on GCSE maths tutoring, GCSE science, GCSE English and A-Level maths and sciences. Where the others beat us: we're small and deliberately curated, so the tutor pool is a fraction of MyTutor's, we're online only, and if you need an obscure subject outside the GCSE/A-Level core, one of the platforms below will serve you better.
2. MyTutor: best for the widest tutor choice (from £26/hr at GCSE)
MyTutor is the biggest name in UK online tutoring. Tutors are students and graduates from UK universities, interviewed before they can teach. Prices start from £26 an hour at GCSE, with most listed rates between £26 and £40, paid per session with no contract. Its pricing page sorts tutors into tiers, from “£25+” for “emerging tutors” up to “£65+” for the most experienced. What you're paying for is size: thousands of tutors means you'll find someone for almost any subject and any time slot. The downside of that size is that your tutor is one of thousands, and if the match isn't right you're back in a very large pool trying again, with no automatic per-session feedback to parents beyond lesson recordings and optional tutor-written reports. I've tutored on MyTutor myself, so I've seen that size from the other side. There were so many tutors competing for students that getting regular work was hard. MyTutor's tutor sign-up page tells applicants “You don't need any qualifications to join!”, though its help centre does require “at least a B grade at A-Level (or equivalent) in that subject”. Either way, the bar is a B, not an A*, so if a top grade matters to you, ask each tutor for their own grade in the exact subject and level you need. Where MyTutor beats StudyGuru: tutor pool size, breadth of subjects (including humanities and languages), and the longest track record in the UK market. If budget isn't tight and maximum choice matters most, it's the obvious pick.
3. Tutorful: best if a qualified-teacher CV is non-negotiable (from ~£20/hr)
Tutorful is selective: two or more years of teaching experience are required, and every tutor is Enhanced DBS checked. Lessons happen on their platform and are recorded. Prices start around £20 an hour and rise with tutor experience. Instead of a free trial they offer a guarantee: if you're not happy with your first lesson, they pay for your next one with a different tutor. They're also a partner of The Tutors' Association, which means something in an industry with no regulator. One thing to connect from their own published numbers: the £20 starting rate rises with experience, so the experienced qualified teachers you'd choose Tutorful for typically cost a fair bit more than £20. Where Tutorful beats StudyGuru: depth of formally qualified, experienced teachers, and the bad-first-lesson guarantee takes some of the risk out of a first lesson.
4. Superprof: lowest hourly rates, if you do your own vetting (~£39/month pass)
Superprof works differently from the other three, and the difference catches parents out. It's a marketplace: tutors advertise themselves, and you pay around £39 a month (at time of writing) for a Student Pass that lets you contact them. Lessons are then arranged and paid directly with the tutor, and Superprof takes no commission on them. The upside is price. Tutor rates are often the cheapest anywhere because there's no platform cut, and many tutors offer a free first lesson to win your business. But know what you're not getting: Superprof doesn't interview tutors or require a DBS check as a condition of listing. Some tutors hold one, but credentials are largely self-declared, and once you're paying the tutor directly there's no platform sitting between you if something goes wrong. The checking is your job. I wouldn't recommend it as a first stop for a parent new to tutoring. Where Superprof beats StudyGuru: the raw hourly floor is lower, free first lessons are common, and it covers in-person tutoring, which we don't offer.
Trust & Safety
Enhanced DBS Checks
Fresh Enhanced DBS arranged via uCheck for every tutor
7-Step Vetting
Identity, qualifications, DBS, live teaching assessment, and safeguarding approval
Pay After Lessons
Payment captured 24 hours after each session via Stripe
Secure Platform
All sessions on our platform with moderated messaging
Frequently Asked Questions
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