Private lessons, group classes and language coverage
Start with lesson type, because it shapes the price before any plan is chosen. ErsteNachhilfe runs live private lessons and lists its formats as 1to1 and group, while italki runs live private lessons and live group classes, live 1to1 and live group. A shared group class is the cheaper route to a tutor, so if you need conversation practice at a fixed hour, check whether group work is even on the table for your subject.
Language and subject coverage is the next filter. ErsteNachhilfe lists German, Arabic and Bulgarian and teaches math, english and languages, so it can cover school material as well as a language. italki lists English, Japanese and Spanish and is built around the language itself. Check the rankings for online language tutors and classes before you assume a missing language forces your choice.
Corporate details are worth a glance too. ErsteNachhilfe operates from DE as Learn & Care 24 GmbH and has been running since 2004, serving DE and AT. italki is run from HK by italki HK Limited and has been running since 2006.
Prices by billing period and plan
ErsteNachhilfe sells access on a subscription. Its plan prices run €1.99 to €4.99, with a monthly option at €4.99, a yearly option at €23.88 and an entry price of €1.99. There is no family subscription, so paying for several children means separate accounts. italki takes a different route, listing an entry price of $5 alongside a free tier.
Set those figures beside the category, not just beside each other. Entry prices in this category run €1.99 to €1,753.92, monthly plans run €3.51 to €180.32 and yearly plans run €23.88 to €991.68, with a single lifetime price recorded at €1,753.92. A yearly figure that reads well against €23.88 to €991.68 can still be poor value if you stop after a few months, so match the billing period to how long you expect to study.
Lesson length, trial lessons and the hourly reality
Lesson price is where most comparisons go wrong, because the block length differs. ErsteNachhilfe schedules blocks of 45 minutes, and the lowest lesson price listed there is €10.50 with the middle price at €22.50. italki offers blocks of 30 to 90 minutes and a lowest lesson price of $5. Lesson prices across the category run €2 to €32.67.
Convert each lesson price to an hourly figure before you decide. A shorter block at a lower headline price can cost more per hour, and that single conversion changes the ranking more often than any feature list.
Trials are the cheapest way to test a platform. ErsteNachhilfe offers a trial lesson recorded as free, and free trial periods in this category run 7 to 30 days. Both brands list a free tier, so you can look at tutor profiles and message a teacher before committing to a plan.
Vetting, guarantees and who answers when nobody replies
Tutor supply is the reliability question. ErsteNachhilfe lists 26,303 tutors and describes its vetting as screened. It does not run background checks on tutors, and it does not issue a certificate, so ask what proof of qualification you receive if a school or an employer needs one.
The money-back promise is narrow. Premium members who publish a tutor request and receive contact from a tutor keep the membership; when no contact comes, the full premium membership cost is refunded. Compare that against the money-back windows in this category, which run 14 to 84 days. A guarantee that depends on a request being answered is a promise about matching, not about teaching quality.
The ErsteNachhilfe review sets out the platform in more detail, and the italki review does the same for the marketplace model where price is set by each tutor.
Extras that shape daily practice
Practice features differ sharply. italki includes an AI conversation feature, while ErsteNachhilfe does not. ErsteNachhilfe has no speech recognition for pronunciation feedback and no offline mode, so its sessions need a live connection and a microphone. italki also has a version built for children; ErsteNachhilfe does not, which narrows its audience to school-age learners and adults.
Support is the quieter difference. ErsteNachhilfe lists email, phone and help centre, so help can arrive by email or phone as well as through the help centre. Match that against the hour you would realistically need support, since a grammar question late at night is not the same problem as a billing question at midday.
Where to read before you decide
Two brands cannot show the whole field, and the ones here sit at opposite ends: a subscription platform with school subjects against a tutor marketplace. Read the HelloTalk review and the Languatalk review for other models, plus the SpanishPod101 review and the FrenchPod101 review if your language sits outside what ErsteNachhilfe and italki list.
A workable order is hourly cost, then lesson length, then vetting and guarantee, then practice features. Open the rankings for online language tutors and classes with that order in mind, and if a brand cannot answer the first two questions, the rest of the comparison rarely matters.