TEACH ENGLISH ONLINE WITH THESE 25 ESL COMPANIES
When Covid hit the globe, it spread quicker than an STD at a hippie music festival. We were left quarantined with nothing to do but watch Tiger King on Netflix and teach English online. The market exploded and with that, an endless supply of places to teach English for online never stopped coming.
Many teachers are still unable to apply for visas along with being smacked with loads of travel restrictions, so I compiled another list of 25 ESL companies to teach for online. We need to stay updated on the opportunities so I hope this list has a few you haven’t come across yet.
Online teaching opportunities are only growing alongside this pandemic. Many of them have tedious hiring processes and have been getting greedy since seeing a big movement of teachers transitioning from in-class to online teaching but there are still plenty of openings for us all.
According to the British Council, there are 1.5 billion English learners worldwide and the number is only expected to rise. This is a goldmine for teachers to work from home and make money online. Teaching ESL online will only continue to grow so you might as well jump onboard now if you haven’t already.
Getting a TEFL certification will be a big help for many of the online ESL teaching opportunities. Also, having reliable/good internet will go a long way.
Whether you’re teaching children or adults, here are some of the best companies to teach ESL online for.
(Some of these companies only take native-speakers and some are open to everybody)
Teach English Online
ESL lessons online are highly in demand and only skyrocketing each month. There’s no shortage of companies hiring online English teachers so check out 25 companies that are hiring English teachers. Most have pretty decent pay also.
(The ESL teaching list is in no particular order)
About the company
GoGoKid is a platform where you can teach Chinese kids. They will require you to have a degree and pass a demo class after your application and interview. This company will bag you anywhere from $14-$25 an hour. All of your classes will be one-on-one. Give it a try and see what happens.
About the company
Go Fluent is another opportunity for teaching English online. After researching this one, I noticed many people complained about the low pay but mentioned its great as a part-time gig if you have some extra time after your main job. You can make up to $1,300 a month if you work as a trainer for 6 hours a days, 5 days per week.
They don’t require a degree for most people but your English abilities must be fluent.
About the company
Global Mate New York is only for residents in America that are native speakers. They don’t always require a degree but they highly prefer that you have one. The average pay hovers around $15 per hour. They mostly match you with language learners in Korea. However, they seem to be expanding into China as well.
Each contract is for six months.
About the company
Englishunt is a company from Seoul, South Korea that allow you to teach English online for $14 per hour. It’s mostly conversational English for people to simply practice for 10, 15, or 20 minute classes. They seem to fill up quickly each semester so maybe it’s a pretty solid platform.
About the company
EF is one of those enormous players in the game of international education. They have damn near 50,000 people employed and teachers working on over 100 different countries. Big ballers, I guess.
You can teach kids or adults and they pay between $12 – $19 per hour.
About the company
DaDa is another company coming from China. Most of your students will be children. On a good note though, they say that they accept Online English teachers from all over the world. Sadly, they do mention that native-speakers are preferred. Don’t let that stop you from trying though!
They have decent pay compared to some of the other up-and-coming Chinese Online English teaching companies. It can range from $15 – $25 per hour. They do require a BA degree and prefer that you have had some previous teaching experience.
- Continuum Education Services
About the company
Continuum Education Services (CES) are more like an online teacher recruiting agency. They pair you with online teaching jobs. For this, you must have a BA degree and be a native-speaker. They also require a TEFL certificate.
I checked the teacher reviews for this one and the pay ranges from $285 -$715 per month. This all depends on the schedule that you choose. Maybe not ideal for a full-time job but it could be nice for some extra cash.
About the company
Cafe Talk offers lessons around the clock. Although most of the students come from Asia, many are living abroad and are available anytime. The pay ranges from $14-$36 per hour. The more you teach, the higher percentage of money you get from the class.
They take teachers from
- Canada
- USA
- UK
- Ireland
- South Africa
- Australia
- New Zealand
You will need a BA degree. A TEFL is preferred but not required.
About the company
Cambly allows you to teach English online at almost anytime. They also have language learners spreading all across the globe. You will teach adults mostly but if you prefer teaching kids, you can swing by Cambly Kids and give that a try.
This one has pretty low pay. It’s right at $10.20 per hour. 🙁
About the company
Berlitz seems to operate in a highly professional manner. Although their pay isn’t as professional as their expectations. It’s about $15 per hour. They take mostly Native-speakers (South Africa as well).
Their online classroom has many cool/helpful functions and features making your class all the more interesting for the students.
- iTutorGroup
About the company
iTutorGroup is another one of those online English teaching platforms that allows you to have an incredibly flexible schedule. 24/7 classes going around the clock with over 20,000 teachers employed. They are a major player in the ESL game.
This company looks like it used to be really good but according to the teachers reviews as of recently, they revamped their program and got incredibly greedy like most other companies and cut the pay and incentives. Kind of a shitty move. But you can check them out and see for yourself if you are up for it.
About the company
iTalki seems flexible in all aspects. They allow you to make your own prices for the classes but just like any business, they want their piece of the pie. They take a rather large cut, in my opinion. 15%. However, they have over 10,000 teachers currently so I guess it isn’t too bad for some. Also, you make your own hours and can just go with the flow.
About the company
Lingoda Seems to only be hiring native speakers as of now and they offer quite a low pay. $8 – $13 per hour. According to the teacher reviews, the company provides all the lesson plans and makes it quite easy to pump through your classes but they don’t offer many incentives or room to move up in pay.
They seem pretty darn greedy because they will put you with up to five kids in a single class which means five kids are paying them per hour and they are only paying you less than one of the kids pay per hour while keeping the other 4 kids payments to themselves. Greedy companies are smashing the markets. Be careful folks.
About the company
Mango Languages is a pretty legit company that hires teachers for students all around the world. It was really difficult to find out what they pay per hour on their website but they mentioned a decent salary with benefits for their language coaches. If you find out more, feel free to let me know in the comments and I can update this.
About the company
Pearson has always been notorious as a strong arm in the publishing world but with the rise of success in the world of ESL teaching online, they wanted to jump in on the profits. You can now teach English for Pearson online
They pay around $20 per hour but require you to have a BA degree and be from a native-speaking country.
You can learn more at their careers page here.
About the company
Qkids is yet another Chinese company offering lessons to young learners with funny characters and stories. The pay seems to hover around $17 per hour and it had decent reviews from most teachers.
They seem to only be offering jobs to Americans and Canadians as of now and require you to hold a BA degree or be in the process of attaining one now.
About the company
I remember when Rosetta Stone was just audio learning books sold at Starbucks. But as the world of technology progresses and the age of opportunity to work online continues, everybody wants to jump in and take their share of the profits.
They require a BA degree and a few years of teaching experience for the teachers. The pay is between $13-$16 per hour.
About the company
Rype has pretty low pay. It’s around $9-$12 per hour but if you work full-time hours, it can get you about $2000 per month. They have a network with over 100,000 students and allow you to teach more than just basic English. You can tutor in math, reading, phonics, and writing as well.
- Samespeak
About the company
Samespeak offers $10 for thirty-minute classes. It seems they are only taking native speakers as of now. They provide all lessons and materials for the teachers. However, their website seems to crash a lot. That’s why I didn’t link this one. A quick google search should get you there though.
About the company
SayABC is a Beijing based company that will pay up to $17 for 40 minute classes. They prefer teachers to have a BA degree but they recently started accepting AA degrees as well. The students will be children but they will provide most of the material for your classes. This is for the bubbly teachers 😉
About the company
Teach Away is a jobs marketplace where ESL teachers can make a profile, upload their materials, and apply for jobs. Hiring companies can also seek you out on Teachlingo if they think you’d be a good fit for an opening.
If you’re on the hunt for an ESL teaching job, creating a free profile with Teachlingo could get you one step closer to getting hired
About the company
TwoSigmas recently changed their name to Tes. They are a UK-based ESL language learning company. Students will be between 3 – 12 years old. The pay seems to be pretty decent. You can make $20+ per hour.
They don’t mention anything about wanting a degree but they certainly want the English teacher to have a TEFL certificate.
About the company
Verbal Planet allows teachers to set their own pay. Most teachers average around $22 per hour. On the teacher reviews, I found quite a lot of teachers who seemed to really enjoy working for this company and said that they haven’t become greedy yet and treat their ESL teachers with great respect.
It might be worth a try before it possibly goes down the same shitty rabbit hole as Palfish.
About the company
51Talk comes from China. They have their own special curriculum but allow teachers to adjust it to their specific preference. I believe they pay in PHP and you can get up to $10 an hour.
However, there are loads of bad reviews from teachers plastered all over the internet and Facebook pages so maybe be careful with this one.
About the company
Voxy pays about $17 an hour. They provide English lessons to more than four million people across 150 countries. It provides 24/7 support to its teachers, as well as planned lessons and authentic materials.
English Teaching Job List for South Africans HERE
English Teaching JOB LIST for 2022 Click HERE
If this article was helpful, please subscribe or leave your feedback in the comments. I’d love to hear what I can add or improve. Also, I’d love to hear your experiences with these companies or your stories
If you want to find specific online jobs for non-native speakers, check out my other two articles that cover that here, and here.
If you want to get your TEFL, try here. They are incredibly dope with helping you in job placement after you complete the course.
Also, if you want to read some crazy adventures from teachers traveling abroad try some of our travel stories, like too much LSD on top of a skyscraper in China.
Thanks a lot 🙏🙏🙏
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for this information. SayAbc is still running? I heard that they had closed their doors.
Good call! I just double-checked and you are right. They definitely went out of business.
Thanks Your info was very useful
Thank you so much!
Thank you so much for the information, this is great!
I’m always happy to help! If you have any suggestions for future articles, let me know. I’ll be happy to research it and write it out. Also, if you have any wild travel stories that you want to be featured on the page, please feel free to send them. I love to hear crazy travel stories from others. 🙂
I’m just starting out on my TESOL journey with a course booked for September. Blogs like yours are really useful. They offer a shortcut for people like myself to making it in the industry. That’s priceless, so thanks.
Have to admit, I thought italki taking only 15% was pretty good – certainly compared to the 33% plus Trial Lesson of Preply had them on the plus side compared to the dark side – so its good to know there are even better offerings.
One thing I’d really like to know is how you can go directly to students, cut out the middle companies and cream the profits. How can I advertise directly in country? Is it legal and how do you do it
Hey Andrew! Thanks so much for reaching out. That’s awesome that you’re on your way to the wonderful world of ESL. It’s crazy online now and super competitive for students. However, I do also have an article about that. https://eslwild.org/2021/08/06/how-to-get-your-own-esl-students/#more-1053
Many people search on Upwork and Fiverr. Also, in that article that I linked above, there is a great Youtube video that gives you the step by step for acquiring your own ESL students online.
Honestly, you should finish the TESOL program and try teaching abroad. You can make more money and have a way cooler experience. I taught in China and am currently teaching in Tahiti. It’s so much more exciting than online lessons.
Hello! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading your blog posts. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics? Thank you!
Thanks a lot! I would also suggest jimmyesl and the moving teacher. You can google both names and the sites will come up easily.
Another great list of opportunities. Thank you for this one. I see many pages on google but most of the jobs are shut down or whatever. Its good that there is a website that constantly updates the jobs. Kudos
Try TUTOROO. It is a marketplace connecting students with qualified tutors. They are looking for more part-time language tutors who can teach online or in person. Just register your profile on their site at https://www.tutoroo.co/signup-as-a-private-language-tutor and they will help you find your students. You can choose your hours and set your hourly rate depending on your qualifications and experience. Visit their site to learn more. Hope this helps!