Round-up of Wyzant reviews: is tutoring for Wyzant worth it?

Wyzant is a behemoth in online tutoring. They have over $20 million in funding, and dominate pretty much all the search results for tutoring. But, it’s worth asking: is tutoring for Wyzant worth it?

In my short and sweet opinion as a professional tutor, the answer is no. Wyzant takes between 20-40% of your billed hours, which is a lot. If you’re a tutor like me, making $8000/month, Wyzant can take up to $3200 of your hard earned dollars. That’s ridiculous! It’s worse than taxes.

It’s far better to learn how to market yourself as a tutor online, then keep all the money you bill. Don’t give all that money to Wyzant.

But, that’s just my opinion. Let’s look at the review roundup!

Glassdoor Wyzant Reviews: 2.9/5 stars

Selected Wyzant quote: “Company with Goal of Money, Money, Money. Tutors: DO NOT work here!”

Before I begin, just a note: I filtered for “part-time” as I didn’t want to accidentally include reviews for people who work for Wyzant corporate.

Anyhow, people on Glassdoor are generally unhappy.

The pros they list are:

1. Flexible hours (which comes with tutoring, of course)
2. Set your own pay (again, comes with tutoring)
3. Easy to sign up and use
4. Good students
5. Billing/payment system works well
6. Provides a background check

The cons they list are

1. Hard to tell if your application has been received by the student
2. The 40% fee
3. Spam
4. Sudden account shutdowns with payments left in the lurch (yikes!)
5. “Big-brother” like monitoring of communication wtih clients
6. Frequent updating of policies
7. Very hard for new tutors to start

Indeed Wyzant Reviews: 4.3/5 work-life balance, 3.3/5 pay and benefits, 3.3/5 job security

Selected Indeed Quote: “It’s good once you get your name out there. However, they take a very large portion of your earnings and it’s also very difficult to find people to tutor once you begin.”

Once again, I filtered just for tutors, so as to avoid full-time employees.

There are some people on Indeed who are happy, and some who are very unhappy.

The pros they list are

1. They are good at finding clients once you’re settled.
2. You can make your own schedule.
3. It’s convenient to use their website.
4. It’s transparent.
5. It’s nice to see students learn and improve.

The cons they list are

1. There’s a lot of administrative work involved in writing up lesson plans.
2. Ratings below 5 stars can sink your account, so it’s easiest just to refund those lessons (ouch your wallet!).
3. There aren’t enough clients for all the tutors.
4. Hard to balance schedules (which is unfortunately part of being a tutor)
5. It’s not steady employment.

HighYa Wyzant Reviews: 2.4/5 Stars

Selected HighYa Quote: “Terrible execution for a much needed service”

HighYa fits the same model as Indeed. There are some people who are happy, and some people who are very unhappy.

The pros they list are

1. A fair number of students contacting them.
2. Control of their fee and how much they tutor.
3. It’s legitimate.
4. Wyzant is overall honest.
5. They have good technical support.

The cons they list are

1. It’s unethical to categorize their tutors as independent contractors.
2. Profiles are deleted without warning.
3. The qualification exams seem arbitrary and unnecessary.
4. They reject tutors from the platform without any clear reason as to why.
5. Students can be irresponsible and annoying when they ask you to lower your rates.