Online tutoring services provide one of the most effective ways to learn a new language. They allow you to practice having real conversations and receive instant feedback on your grammar, pronunciation and any other areas that may need improvement. We’ve tried out the most popular online French tutoring providers available, and in this guide we’ll show you which services stand out as the absolute best.
How to Pick an Online French Tutoring Service
The best online French tutoring service for you will depend on your specific needs. To determine which providers are a good match, you should consider why you want to learn French in the first place (travel, work, school, etc.).
Learning a new language for travel
Are you learning French so that you can travel to another country? If so, we recommend that you find a tutor who is from that country. This will help you learn more about the culture of where you’re traveling to in addition to the language. We recommend using a provider that allows you to choose from hundreds of different instructors, such as AmazingTalker or Italki, to ensure that you can find what you need.
Learning French for work
Some providers assign homework and quizzes that will need to be completed outside of class, while others are based solely on the live sessions with your tutor. If you already have a busy schedule due to work, you should look for a solution that doesn’t require you to deal with any extra assignments. For example, we believe that full-time workers should avoid Live Lingua due to their take-home assignments.
Help with studying French for school
If you’re learning French for travel or work, you’ll probably need to take at least intermediate-level classes to reach your language goals. But such classes may be too advanced if you’re still in school. In that case, you should look for a service that provides beginner lessons. We’ve found that Babbel offers some of the best classes for newcomers.
How We Picked the Best Online French Tutoring Services
To create this guide, we started with a list of dozens of the most popular online French tutoring services. Then, we narrowed down our options by eliminating any providers that didn’t have excellent recommendations and reviews. We further refined this list into our top 10 choices by only selecting providers that had something unique to offer, such as specialized classes or particularly low prices.
The 10 Best Online French Tutors
No matter why you’re interested in learning French, you should be able to find at least one or two options that are a perfect fit for your needs below.
French Faster
After filling out a contact form that goes over your availability and learning objectives, French Faster will assign you a tutor who matches your needs. Unfortunately, unlike other providers such as Berlitz and Lingoda, they don’t offer a learning portal for scheduling lessons or keeping track of your progress.
While this platform does have some limitations, it also offers a strong selection of course specializations. In addition to general classes such as French for Beginners and French for Adults, they provide more niche options like French for Fashion Students and French for Immigration to Quebec. They offer prep courses for exams such as the DELF-DALF and TEF as well.
| Price | Beginner: $23 to $30 per hour
Intermediate: $26 to $32 per hour Advanced: $29 to $35 per hour |
| Free trial | One free trial class |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Skype |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to advanced |
Learn more about French Faster.
Learn French at Home
Learn French at Home was one of the first French tutoring services to conduct classes over video chat, as they started doing so back in 2004. But one thing we don’t like about this provider is that new students need to pay for the cost of learning materials (a series of five ebooks) on top of the cost of their lessons.
They offer one-on-one tutoring, courses for two people and group classes. Learn French at Home also publishes their own magazine, French Accent, that you can use to learn even more about the language.
Overall, former students report having a positive experience with Learn French at Home. “I’ve used them and found them to be quite good,” wrote one commenter on the r/LearnFrench subreddit. “[My tutor] really cared whether I was learning and made it fun.”
| Price | 4-pack of lessons: $48 per lesson
10-pack of lessons: $46 per lesson 22-pack of lessons: $44 per lesson 35-pack of lessons: $43 per lesson 55-pack of lessons: $42 per lesson |
| Free trial | Free 30-minute evaluation |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Skype, Zoom, Google Meet |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to advanced |
Learn more about Learn French at Home.
French-tutor.net
French-tutor.net is similar to French Faster — the first step to using this service is filling out a contact form, classes are conducted over third-party teleconferencing software and they lack advanced features such as progress tracking and interactive scheduling tools.
This is an excellent option for anyone who is interested in French but not quite sure they want to invest all the time and money it takes to learn a new language, as French-tutor.net offers hundreds of free tutorials that you can use to pick up the basics of this language without committing to paid lessons. If you decide that you’d like to move on and become fluent, this site offers over 30 tutors who can teach you French through one-on-one tutoring sessions.
| Price | Short review session: $12 per 20 minutes
Regular practice session: $25 per 45 minutes Bulk purchase of five sessions: $22 per 45 minutes Bulk purchase of 10 sessions: $18 per 45 minutes |
| Free trial | One free session |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts, Webex |
| Certificate of completion | As of publication, French-tutor.net has not responded to our inquiry as to whether they provide certificates of completion. |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to expert |
Learn more about French-tutor.net.
French a La Carte
French a La Carte is another provider that doesn’t offer a learning portal for students. You’ll need to fill out a contact form to get started, and classes are held over Zoom or Skype.
This Paris-based provider is particularly flexible. They’ll do their best to accommodate your schedule, and you can save time by focusing your lessons exclusively on the skills that you want to develop (speaking, reading, studying for specific French language exams, etc.). If you plan to visit France at some point, you can even drop by their office for some face-to-face lessons with your tutor. It should be noted that this provider is relatively expensive compared to more affordable options such as Lingoda and Italki, though.
If their in-person lessons in Paris are a viable option for you, the Yelp reviews indicate that this service is well worth the money. “We took a week trip to Paris and decided to use this as an opportunity to have our children learn French,” wrote one user. They added, “Our teacher, Nindra, was excellent! She was very accommodating by coming to our hotel every morning to teach our kids before our daily sightseeing. Each morning she asked our children what they had planned on seeing that day and incorporated that into her lessons to make it more personal.”
| Price | 54 € to 58 € per live online session |
| Free trial | Introductory meeting is free |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Zoom, Skype |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Basic to Very Advanced |
Learn more about French a la Carte.
Babbel
There are live French lessons available on Babbel for the fluency levels of A1 (Newcomer), A2 (Beginner), B1 (Intermediate), B2 (Upper Intermediate) and C1 (Advanced). At a light pace of one class per week, Babbel estimates that it will take you 12 months to complete each level. If you up the pace to four classes per week, each level should only take you about three months.
This is the only provider featured in our guide that offers their own custom mobile app. We found that this app makes it especially easy to learn some French while you’re away from home.
| Price | One month: $13.95
Three months: $29.85 Six months: $50.70 12 months: $83.40 Lifetime: $249 |
| Free trial | Free lesson available |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Custom app |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to advanced |
AmazingTalker
AmazingTalker is a marketplace of freelance language tutors that allows you to choose your own instructor. You can search for tutors based on factors such as cost, level of experience and nationality in order to find the option that best suits your preferences.
If the prices of more expensive providers like Berlitz are too much for your budget, then you should certainly check out this option — AmazingTalker offers rates as low as $5 per hour.
| Price | Average rate of $20 per hour |
| Free trial | Free trial lesson available |
| Device | Desktop |
| Format | Zoom |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to advanced |
Learn more about AmazingTalker.
Berlitz
Berlitz has really set themselves apart with their custom student portal, especially compared to platforms like French Faster and French-tutor.net that don’t offer any sort of online dashboard. This app has a calendar tool that makes scheduling lessons quite easy. You’ll also meet with your instructor over video chat within the app, and their digital whiteboard tool allows instructors to take a highly visual approach to teaching French.
This is a great option if you are interested in a hybrid learning model, as Berlitz allows you to mix online classes with in-person instruction at their physical locations. They also offer corporate training — indeed, Berlitz has been used to teach foreign languages at prominent organizations such as Google and IBM.
One drawback to this provider is that they don’t have the best reputation. On Trustpilot, their average rating is 3.7 out of 5. But some students have had good experiences, with one user writing that “Berlitz works with you to help you find a teacher you love, the course material is effective, and I’ve jumped from A1 to B1 over the course of French 2 (with some supplementary work on dictation and reading).”
| Price | Six months: $699
12 months: $849 |
| Free trial | Free trial class |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Custom app |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to professional |
Live Lingua
We were impressed by Live Lingua’s reputation among former and current students, as they’ve maintained a near-perfect average rating of 4.8 out of 5 on Trustpilot.
In addition to live discussions with your tutor, you’ll also be assigned homework and quizzes to help you learn French. While this extra work can be an effective way to learn the language faster, it might be too much of a time commitment if you’re trying to fit lessons around a busy work schedule or other obligations.
| Price | $29.99 to $35 per hour |
| Free trial | 30-minute free trial |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Skype, Zoom |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to advanced |
Lingoda
After creating an account on this platform and purchasing one of their tutoring plans, you’ll be able to view class availability and book your lessons directly through their website.
On top of all the traditional topics, Lingoda will teach you about the abbreviations, expressions and common slang words that you should know if you plan to interact with native French speakers. But it’s worth noting that Lingoda only teaches French up to the B2 level, so you’ll need to find another provider if you want a more advanced understanding of the French language.
| Price | 4 classes a month: Starts at $59
12 classes a month: Starts at $149 20 classes a month: Starts at $219 40 classes a month: Starts at $409 |
| Free trial | Free seven-day trial |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Zoom |
| Certificate of completion | Yes |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to intermediate |
Italki
Similar to AmazingTalker, Italki maintains a large marketplace of freelance tutors for you to choose from. Each instructor profile includes information such as the tutor’s rates, availability and customer reviews.
If you want to learn French fast, this is likely going to be your best option. It takes the average Italki user only 19 hours to learn the same amount of material that you would in a standard 48-hour college semester. They also offer specialized lessons for topics such as DELF test prep and French for business.
Italki’s reputation is strong, with a 4.7 out of 5 average rating on Trustpilot and positive reviews elsewhere on the internet as well. “I’ve been using Italki and it’s great,” wrote one user on r/French. “Plus it’s catered just to you at your level and interests.”
| Price | $4 to $80 per lesson |
| Free trial | 30-minute free trial |
| Device | Desktop, mobile device |
| Format | Skype, Facetime, Zoom, WeChat |
| Certificate of completion | No |
| Knowledge level | Beginner to advanced |
Other French Tutoring Services to Consider
The top 10 picks listed above are all services that only offer language tutoring. But there are some other options that you may want to consider as well — for example, Varsity Tutors can connect you with certified French instructors for both group classes and one-on-one tutoring (We’ve found that this is an especially good choice if you need to practice for a particular French test, such as AP or IB exams, as they offer a lot of tutors who specialize in this area).
What to Expect When Using An Online French Tutoring Service
Each provider has their own way of connecting users with tutors and conducting their sessions. When you sign up for an online French tutoring service, you may be asked a series of questions that will allow the provider to match you with a tutor who suits your specific needs. Other providers allow you to browse through all the tutors who are available on their platform and choose whoever you would like to use. Most providers offer one-on-one classes, and some offer group classes as well.
Despite these differences, every online French class generally follows the same format — you’ll meet with your tutor virtually over video chat, and they’ll provide you with instruction as well as real-time feedback on your performance.
What you need to learn French with an online tutor
In terms of equipment, it doesn’t take much to succeed in an online French class. As long as you have a reliable computer with a high-speed internet connection, you should be good to go. Depending on the provider, you may also need to download a specific teleconferencing software program, such as Skype or Zoom.
Free vs. Paid Online French Tutors: What’s the Difference?
There are free resources available for learning French online, but they’re almost always centered on pre-recorded lessons, written guides and other on-demand study materials. This is a good way to learn vocabulary, but it’s not an effective method for learning all the nuances that are involved with truly understanding a new language. To become fluent, you’ll likely need live instruction from a tutor, and this is a service that you’ll usually need to pay for.
Interested in a degree instead?
Learn more about online degrees, their start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.