TidyCal for tutors and language teachers
Your student is in Tokyo. You are in Madrid. Nobody does the math.
A setup for an online language tutor: a paid trial lesson, single lessons, a 10-lesson pack and a weekly slot. Students see your hours in their own time zone and pay when they book.
Free plan with no time limit. No card needed.
TidyCal is the best scheduling app for tutors and language teachers who charge for their time. Clients pay when they book, with packages and subscriptions on the Free plan, and Individual Lifetime is $29 once. Pick Acuity Scheduling if you sell gift certificates or run a waitlist, and Calendly if you run inbound sales on Salesforce or HubSpot.
Four lesson types
Here is how an online Spanish tutor might set it up. Lucía is made up. The numbers are normal for online tutoring; use your own.
| Booking type | Length | Price | Type | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trial lesson | 30 min | $15 | Paid | Cheap enough to try, paid enough to show up. |
| 60-minute lesson | 60 min | $35 | Paid | Pay as you go. |
| 10-lesson pack | 60 min | $31 per session | Package | 10 × $31 = $310. Saves the student $40. |
| Weekly lesson (8 weeks) | 60 min | $35 | Recurring | Same time every week for a term. |
Example prices. Charge what you charge.
The 4 best scheduling apps for tutors and language teachers
I make TidyCal, so it's listed first. Each tool below says what it does better than us.
| # | Tool | Best for | Starts at |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | TidyCal Best value | Solo pros who charge for their time | $29 once |
| 2 | Acuity Scheduling | Appointment businesses with intake forms | $20/mo |
| 3 | Calendly | Sales teams on Salesforce or HubSpot | $10/seat/mo |
| 4 | Cal.com | Developers who want open source | Free, Teams $12/user/mo |
01
Best value
Best for: solo pros who charge for their time
- Price
- Free plan. Individual Lifetime is $29 once. Pro is $12 a month or $99 a year.
Free plan with paid bookings, packages and subscriptions. $29 once if you want more.
02
Best for: appointment businesses with intake forms
- Price
- No free plan, a 7-day trial. Starter is $20 a month ($16 billed yearly).
Strong intake forms, gift certificates and a waitlist. No free plan, from $20 a month.
03
Best for: sales teams on Salesforce or HubSpot
- Price
- $10 per seat a month on Standard, billed yearly ($12 monthly). The free plan is one event type.
Familiar to clients. The free plan is one event type and payments need Standard at $10 per seat a month.
04
Best for: developers who want open source
- Price
- Free for one user. Teams is $12 per user a month, billed yearly.
Open source with a generous free plan. Team features are $12 per user a month, billed yearly.
Charge for the trial lesson, even $15. A free trial fills your calendar with people shopping five tutors at once. A paid one gets you students.
A term, start to finish
- Sunday evening
- Block the hours you do not want to teach. Your week is set.
- Monday
- A student in Tokyo books a trial for "Tuesday 9pm" on their screen. On your calendar it is Tuesday 2pm.
- Tuesday
- Trial lesson. You already know their level from the booking form.
- After the trial
- You send the 10-lesson pack link. They pick ten dates and pay $310 once.
- Every lesson
- Reminder emails go out 24 hours and 1 hour before. Nobody asks "is it today?"
What to ask on the trial
Two questions, both on the trial lesson only. Returning students skip the form.
- Your level (Total beginner / I can order food / I can hold a conversation / Advanced) On: Trial lesson
- Why are you learning Spanish? On: Trial lesson
The "why" answer is gold. "Moving to Valencia in March" and "my in-laws only speak Spanish" need very different first lessons.
Built for teaching across time zones
Automatic time zones
Students see your open times converted to their own time zone. Your Google Calendar shows yours.
Free planBooking page in 30+ languages
The booking page and emails can show in the student's language: 30+ to pick from.
Free planGroup bookings
Run a Saturday conversation club with 6 seats on the Lifetime and Pro plans.
Lifetime and Pro plansPaid bookings with Stripe or PayPal
Stripe or PayPal. Students pay in their card's currency; you get paid before the lesson.
Free planMistakes tutors make with scheduling
Opening every hour of the day. If you teach best from 2pm to 8pm, open 2pm to 8pm. Students in other time zones will still find a slot, and you will not end up teaching at 6am because someone in Seoul grabbed it.
Selling single lessons only. A student paying per lesson is always deciding whether to book the next one. A pack or a weekly slot takes that decision off the table for a few months.
Skipping the buffer. Back-to-back Zooms with no gap means every lesson starts two minutes late by 5pm.
Settings for tutors
| Setting | What to set | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Buffer | 10 minutes | Water, bathroom, next Zoom. |
| Minimum notice | 12 hours | Enough to prep. Not so much you lose the late bookers. |
| Booking window | 60 days (default) | Long enough for a term. |
| Rescheduling | Allowed until 24 hours before (limit it on Lifetime and Pro) | Students reschedule themselves instead of emailing you. |
What TidyCal costs
Free, $0
Most of the setup above. Group classes, approvals, cancellation fees, booking limits and automatic video links need a paid plan. Not a trial.
Individual Lifetime, $29 once
Pay one time through AppSumo. Adds group bookings, custom reminders, automatic Zoom and Google Meet links, and 10 calendars.
Pro, $12/mo or $99/yr
All of it, with no TidyCal branding, unlimited calendars and team scheduling with no seat fees.
Stripe and PayPal charge their usual processing fees on paid bookings. On the Free plan, Stripe bookings also carry a 1% TidyCal platform fee. See payment fee details. Compare every plan.
How we checked
Every competitor price comes from that company's own pricing page, read on September 30, 2026, at the billing period shown next to it. Tools with no published price we could verify carry no dollar figure. The ranking is for tutors and language teachers who take bookings and charge for some of them. Nobody paid to be on this list. TidyCal's prices come straight from the plans we sell, so they match what you will pay, and the 1% platform fee on Stripe bookings is the live rate.
Questions tutors and language teachers ask us
Can students book in their own time zone?
Yes. The booking page shows times in each visitor's time zone, and the booking lands on your calendar in yours.
Can I sell lesson packs?
Yes. Create a package booking type with the number of lessons and the price per lesson. The student picks the dates and pays the total once. Packages are on every plan, including Free.
Can I teach a group class?
Yes, on the Lifetime and Pro plans. Group bookings let several students book the same slot, up to the number of seats you set.
Is the booking page available in other languages?
Yes. The booking page and booking emails can be shown in 30+ languages, so students see dates and buttons in a language they read.
Can students cancel or reschedule themselves?
Yes. Every confirmation has links to reschedule or cancel. On the Lifetime and Pro plans you can limit that to a set time before the lesson and charge a late-cancel fee.
Keep reading
Copy this setup in about 10 minutes
Make the booking types above, paste your questions in, share the link. Free to start.
Create your free booking pageNo credit card. Upgrade only if you need to.