Searching for the best online tutoring services in the USA produces lists written by the services themselves or by sites paid per click, in which every option is "top rated". This page is written by one of the services, and says so, and tries to be more useful than that: it says what each kind of service actually is, what it costs in 2026, who the tutors are, and who it suits. The right answer depends on the job, and the jobs are different.
Download the online tutoring services price comparison chart (PDF) (twelve services with what they are, 2026 prices and who they suit, the which-kind-for-which-job table, the five checks and a side-by-side box for two services you are considering; two pages, free).
First, what kind of help do you want?
| The job | What suits it |
|---|---|
| Tonight's homework | A free or on-demand service (library Tutor.com, Khan Academy, a school programme) |
| A one-off session with a specialist (an AP exam next week) | A marketplace where you pick the tutor (Wyzant, Preply) |
| A structured programme with routine, for a child who likes routine | A centre's online programme (Mathnasium, Kumon, Sylvan) |
| Enrichment and interest classes | Small-group platforms (Outschool) |
| Regular 1-on-1 teaching by a qualified teacher, for months, on the school's own curriculum | A specialist teacher locally (expensive) or a qualified teacher online from abroad (ours) |
The research on tutoring says the last row is the one that moves results: one tutor with one child, a trained tutor, the school's curriculum, regular sessions over months. Everything else on the list is useful for something, and the table below says what.
The services, compared
| Service | What it is | Typical price (2026) | Who the tutors are | Best for | Check before paying |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyzant | The largest US marketplace of individual tutors; you read profiles and reviews and choose | $20 to $120 an hour; most academic tutors $35 to $70; pay per hour, no package | Anyone who lists: students, teachers, retired professionals | Choosing a specific person; one-off and short-term help | The tutor's qualification for your child's exact course; whether they will commit to a weekly slot |
| Varsity Tutors | A platform that matches you with a tutor from its own pool; also live classes | Commonly $70 to $100 an hour, often sold as a package of hours | Vetted but not always teachers; the tutor can change | Parents who want the matching done for them | The refund terms on the package; whether the same tutor stays |
| Preply | A marketplace, strongest in languages, with a growing academic side | $15 to $50 an hour; trial lesson | Mostly individual teachers and students worldwide | Languages; budget 1-on-1 with a chosen tutor | Curriculum knowledge for US school subjects |
| Tutor.com | On-demand 24/7 help, by the minute, on a shared whiteboard | Often free through public libraries, the US military and some schools; otherwise subscription | Vetted tutors; a different one each time | Homework help at 9 pm | No continuity; not for closing a gap over months |
| Chegg | Homework and textbook solutions, with some live help | Subscription, about $15 to $20 a month | Answer-writers rather than teachers | Checking an answer | It is not tutoring, and schools treat some uses as cheating |
| Mathnasium (and Mathnasium@home) | A maths programme in small groups, on a membership | Usually $200 to $400 a month for two or three sessions a week | Trained instructors on the Mathnasium method | A child who needs routine and practice in maths | Group size; whether it follows the school's order; the contract |
| Kumon | Daily worksheet practice with weekly centre or online check-ins | About $150 to $200 a month per subject | Centre instructors mark; little teaching | Building arithmetic fluency through repetition | It is practice, not teaching; a child with a conceptual gap stays stuck |
| Sylvan | Assessment-led programmes, in centre and online | Commonly $50 to $80 an hour, in packages | Trained instructors | A diagnostic and a structured plan | The upfront assessment fee and the package |
| Outschool | Live small-group classes on thousands of topics | $15 to $40 a class; some 1-on-1 | Independent teachers, vetted by the platform | Enrichment, interests, a child who likes classes | Group size; not curriculum-aligned |
| Khan Academy | Free self-paced lessons and practice, no tutor | Free | None; videos and exercises | Practice; a confident student; checking a topic | Nobody sees the child's working or finds the gap |
| Learn To Be | Free 1-on-1 online tutoring from volunteers, for families who qualify | Free | Volunteer tutors, often college students | Families who cannot pay | Volunteer availability and continuity |
| Qualified teachers online from India (Science with Shobha, and others) | 1-on-1 live classes with teachers who hold master's degrees, on the US curriculum, with recording | $10 to $13 an hour with us; $15 to $40 at agencies; $5 to $25 for individual tutors on marketplaces, usually students | Ours: a named team of women educators with master's degrees, the same tutor every week. Elsewhere: varies from teachers to students | Regular 1-on-1 teaching for months at a price that allows it | That the tutor teaches the US curriculum in its own order and can name your child's course and next unit; the recording; the same tutor; monthly billing |
Prices are the ranges published by the services or by tutors on them in 2026, and vary by city and subject. The last row is us, so read it with that in mind; the checks in the final column are the ones we would want a parent to apply to anyone, including us.
Free online math tutors: what is genuinely free, and what it is good for
"Free math tutors online" is searched by families who cannot pay and by families who want to try before they do. What exists, honestly:
| Free service | What it is | Good for | The limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Khan Academy | Lessons and graded practice, every grade to calculus | Practice; a confident student; a topic to check | Nobody sees the working or finds the gap |
| Schoolhouse.world | Free live small-group tutoring by vetted volunteers (started by Khan Academy's founder), mostly SAT and high school math | A motivated teenager; SAT practice | Group format; volunteer schedules |
| UPchieve | Free on-demand 1-on-1 chat tutoring for US students from low-income families, math and science | Homework help tonight, for families who qualify | Text-based; a different tutor each time |
| Learn To Be | Free 1-on-1 online tutoring for US families who qualify | Regular help for a child who cannot otherwise get it | Volunteer availability and continuity |
| Tutor.com through a public library | On-demand help, free with a library card in many US library systems | The 9 pm homework question | No continuity |
| Paul's Online Notes, MIT OpenCourseWare | Written notes and full courses with solutions, high school to university | A self-learner from Algebra 2 upward | No teacher at all |
| A free first class with a paid tutor (ours and others) | A real 30-minute lesson and a diagnosis | Finding out what the gap is, whether or not you continue | It is one class |
The free options are better than their reputation for practice and for a one-off question; what none of them does is follow one child for months, which is the form of tutoring the research says changes results. For a child who needs that, the cheapest sustainable route is the $10 to $25 band above with a qualified teacher.
Affordable online tutoring: what "affordable" means at each price
"Affordable online tutoring" is searched more than any single service name, and it means different things at different prices, so here is what each band buys in 2026:
| Price | What it buys | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Khan Academy practice; library access to Tutor.com; Learn To Be for families who qualify; school programmes | Nobody follows one child for months; availability and continuity |
| $10 to $25 an hour | Student tutors on marketplaces; qualified teachers online from India and other countries (ours is $10 to $13) | On marketplaces, check the qualification; from abroad, check the tutor teaches the US curriculum in the US order |
| $25 to $50 an hour | Most academic tutors on Wyzant and Preply; Sylvan's lower band | The same tutor every week is not guaranteed; ask for it in writing |
| $50 to $100 an hour | Varsity Tutors; experienced teachers on marketplaces; specialists | Usually sold as packages; the refund terms matter |
| $150 to $400 a month | Kumon, Mathnasium and other programmes | Small-group, their own sequence, memberships |
The affordable option that the research supports is the $10 to $25 band with a qualified teacher: it is the only band where regular 1-on-1 teaching for months, by a trained teacher, costs what a family can sustain. The five checks at the end of this page are how to tell a qualified teacher at that price from a student with a webcam.
Math tutoring websites, and how to tell the best maths tutor online
Most "math tutoring websites" searches land on one of three kinds of site: a marketplace (Wyzant, Preply) where the website is a directory of individual tutors; a platform (Varsity Tutors, Tutor.com) where the website supplies its own tutors; or a programme (Mathnasium@home, Kumon Connect) where the website is the front of a method. A tutoring service online of the fourth kind, a small team of named teachers, is what we are.
The best maths tutor online for your child, on any of them, passes a two-minute test in the first class: name the child's exact course and the unit the class is on this week, without looking; solve the child's own homework problem on the shared whiteboard while explaining each step; and say what they would do next week. One-on-one online tutoring that passes that test, from a teacher with a degree in the subject, the same person every week, with the recording sent to you, is the form the research supports; a group class, a video library or a rotating pool is a different product, whatever the website calls it. The Algebra 1 page and how much does a math tutor cost have the detail by grade.
What each kind is good at, honestly
Marketplaces are the best way to find a particular person: a retired AP Chemistry teacher, a tutor who knows your state's test. They are the worst at consistency, because the platform checks identity, not teaching, and a tutor who is good this month may be unavailable next. If you use one, read the reviews for what they say about teaching, not charm, and ask the twelve questions in how to choose an online tutor.
Programmes (Mathnasium, Kumon, Sylvan) are good for children who need routine and practice and whose gap is fluency rather than understanding. They are small-group by design, which the research says is less effective per hour than 1-on-1, and they follow their own sequence rather than the school's. They are also sold on memberships, which is where most complaints about them come from.
Free options are better than their reputation. Khan Academy is the best free practice resource in the world, and a confident student can go a long way on it. Library access to Tutor.com solves the 9 pm homework crisis. What none of them does is find the specific gap and follow one child for months, which is the thing that changes a struggling student's year.
Qualified teachers from abroad are the cheapest way to get the form of tutoring the research supports, and the caveat is real: the tutor must teach the American curriculum in the American order, not an Indian one. Ask what course your child is in and what comes next. A teacher who knows answers in a sentence. Why the price is what it is, and what it buys, is in is online tutoring worth it; what a maths tutor costs by grade and city is in how much does a math tutor cost per hour.
Five checks for any service on this list
- The tutor's qualification, shown, for your child's subject.
- Your child's exact course and next unit, named by the tutor without looking.
- The same tutor every week, in writing.
- Every class recorded, with the recording yours.
- Monthly payment, no package before you have seen a class.
Any service that passes all five is a reasonable choice. For a child of 6 to 11, the formats that fail and the seven things to check in a free class are in best online tutoring for elementary students. Most of the complaints on review sites about the services above come from a failure of number three or number five.
Download the online tutoring services price comparison chart (PDF) (twelve services with what they are, 2026 prices and who they suit, the which-kind-for-which-job table, the five checks and a side-by-side box for two services you are considering; two pages, free).
Where to get help
A free 30-minute 1-on-1 class with a tutor who holds a master's in the subject, on the American curriculum, at 7 am before school, after 4 pm or on a weekend morning in your time zone. The five checks above answered before the class, the recording after it, and a plan with the price, which is US$10 to $13 an hour, billed monthly. The page on online tutors from India to USA says how it works.
Questions parents ask
1What is the best online tutoring service in the USA?
2What are the best online tutoring websites?
3How much does online tutoring cost in the USA?
4Is Wyzant or Varsity Tutors better?
5Is there free online tutoring?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.