Let’s kick off this Cambly review by looking at a little more about the company and how it operates. Cambly provides students with a simple, flexible way to learn to speak English. Students learn by practicing English with a native English speaker during a video call.
Since its founding in 2012, the company has had a good reputation and is now a reliable and affordable option for students. Tutors also find flexible scheduling and weekly payments extremely useful.
If you want to determine whether Cambly is the correct choice for you, read our Cambly review to learn more about studying with the company’s teachers or working with it as a tutor.
Pros & Cons
Pricing Plans
Minutes per Day
Days per Week
Price
15 minutes
2 days
3 days
5 days
$52/mo
$68/mo
$105/mo
30 minutes
2 days
3 days
5 days
$85/mo
$120/mo
$186/mo
60 minutes
2 days
3 days
5 days
$156/mo
$216/mo
$336/mo
Features, Courses, and Materials
Information for Students
Who Should Choose the App?
Students who battle to stick to set schedules will appreciate the simple scheduling process. You can schedule a lesson in advance or when you have 15 minutes to spare. Then, as long as a tutor is online, you’re all set.
Cambly tutoring is excellent for practicing your English language skills in a casual setting.
Who Should Avoid Using the App?
The app is not for people who prefer a more formal learning environment. Tutors come from all walks of life and so may not be qualified teachers. The company vets tutors before signing them up, but the standard of teaching may vary.
In fact, Cambly reviews show that this may not be for you if you tend to procrastinate indefinitely. When you choose your program, you must also select the days you’ll use the app. The company assigns daily minutes that expire at 3:00 AM every day. Unfortunately, these minutes don’t roll over, and there are no refunds.
How It Works
- Long in either via the app or website
- See available tutors
- Filter them by course, lesson level, accent, personality, or availability
- Alternatively, click on the profiles of tutors who are available immediately
- Hit the “Call” button (You don’t even need a Cambly phone number)
- Speak to a tutor about what you wish to achieve
Course Materials
Courses are also video chats, but they focus on improving your proficiency in specific areas. For example, you might take a business English course and discuss topics like marketing and ethics.
Freestyle Sessions
Do you want to tell someone how great your cat is? Chat about subjects that interest you and practice your language skills at the same time.
Want to Become a Cambly Tutor?
The company is fairly easy to join. There are no exclusions based on location or qualifications. You must:
- Be a native English speaker
- Use a computer with a webcam and have access to a reliable internet connection that passes the connection test on the website
Naturally, if you have any qualifications that may be pertinent, it’s useful to list them. Also, mention them in the interview as it may sway recruiters.
What Is the Interview Process for Cambly?
There is none. You should upload a profile video as a part of your Cambly application process.
You have to take three steps:
- Create an account
- Record a video introduction to tell potential students more about yourself
- Complete the connection test to ensure your laptop meets the basic standards
Then, it’s time to wait for the team to approve your profile. This may take anywhere from a day or two to a few months, depending on the demand for tutors. The primary reasons for Cambly rejection are:
- It’s clear you’re not a native speaker
- Your computer doesn’t meet the technical specs
- There is no current need for new tutors
The team will ask you to upload a new video or update your profile if they feel that yours is inappropriate.
What Makes for a Professional Profile Video?
A professional video should be clear and with good lighting. Film facing a light source like a window or lamp, making sure you film in a relatively quiet area. Wear conservative, smart casual attire or business wear and be neat and presentable.
How Much Do Cambly Tutors Earn?
The company is unique as it pays per minute rather than per lesson or hour. This allows a tutor to benefit from a student cutting a call early. It also allows for a more flexible schedule as there are no preset call lengths. For example, some clients may talk for 15 minutes, while others may need an hour or more.
You’ll earn $0.17 per minute for standard calls and $0.20 per minute for Cambly Kids calls. You also have to accumulate $20 in your account to receive a payout. If you meet that condition, you’ll receive your money on Monday through PayPal. It’s lower than the industry standard, but the Cambly tutor requirements are relatively simple.
Is the Platform Easy to Use?
The platform is easy to use, and you don’t have to mark your availability in advance. Instead, you simply log into the system when it suits you and wait to receive calls. In addition, the app operates 24/7, so you can choose your working hours.
That said, you’ll be added to the list of available tutors. Students choose their preferred tutors, so they may not select your profile. How high your profile is on the list also depends on your experience and how reliable you are.
It’s best to choose working hours when there is more demand and fewer teachers online. Our Cambly tutor review team reached out to a few other teachers to ask for their advice. The consensus was that you should try during peak times in:
- Asia
- The Middle East
- South America
They also said that holidays were often an excellent time to pick up work.
Will You Earn a Full-Time Living?
It’s difficult to say whether you can earn a full-time living as it depends on where you live. We’d say that you should look at it as a source of additional income, especially initially. As a new teacher, you might not get as many calls as you’d like.
What Are Priority Hours?
Priority hours are one of those things that confuse most teachers reading Cambly tutor reviews. To cut through the confusion, priority hours are those times when Cambly actively incentivizes teachers. These are high-demand times, and you can sign up for these hours ahead of time. By doing so, you commit to being available at that time, which boosts your profile.
From time to time, the company agrees to pay 15 minutes for every hour of availability, no matter if you have students. You may cancel your availability if you give at least 12 hours’ notice.
When creating our Cambly tutor job review, we found out that there was a penalty for not providing sufficient notice of canceling a session. From what we understood, this was a drop in your profile’s position in the queue and an increase in the difficulty of booking priority hours.
Can Students Reserve a Particular Teacher?
If you prefer, you may make reservation slots, allowing students to book sessions with you ahead of time. Most teachers build a relationship with students to improve their engagement and encourage them to come back.
Ease of Use
The platform is fairly easy to use once you create your account. Where our team’s reviews of Cambly marked them down is on how difficult it is to find information beforehand. The company provides a fairly comprehensive knowledge base, but it’s neither intuitive nor well-designed.
However, once you gather the information, it’s smooth sailing. Tutors simply log in and mark that they’re available for work. On the other hand, students can enroll in courses or choose a tutor. Where teachers allow for it, students may also make reservations.
Our Cambly review team went through both processes without any problems.
Plans & Pricing
The plans are very straightforward. Cambly offers the following:
- Courses: these structured sessions help you work through different topics with your tutor.
- Practice your English: These are freestyle sessions where you and your tutor simply converse.
- Cambly Kids: These half-hour lessons contain structured activities and games to maintain your child’s interest.
The free trial is complicated, but that’s to be expected when you consider Cambly salaries. In fact, you receive free minutes when you refer new students. The person you refer gets 10 minutes free, and if they use the trial, you get 5 minutes free. If they sign up for a plan, you earn 60 minutes free.
With Cambly Kids, you may take a sample lesson before committing to a year-long schedule.
Teachers should be aware that the conditions for this plan are stricter. Cambly reviews highlight that you must stick to the provided teaching plan and engage with your student.
Paid plans start at $52 a month for two 15-minute classes per week, and you must commit to at least one month of lessons. You may save 10% by signing up for the quarterly plan and 25% by signing up for the annual plan.
Our cambly.com reviews team felt that this was fairly reasonable for live lessons. Compared to a service like Lingoda, it’s very affordable.
You pay upfront for all plans, and they automatically renew until you cancel them. In fact, the company currently accepts only credit and debit card payments. Moreover, it uses a secure payment gateway to process your information.
If you need a short break, you may snooze your plan for up to 7 or 14 days in a month. After that, you’re allowed one snooze per calendar month.
Cambly also allows you to break up the payments for your 12-month subscription over four equal monthly installments. However, you cannot pause these installments. In addition, we couldn’t find any reviews about Cambly in terms of how well this program works.
Refund Policy
The company doesn’t offer guarantees that students will learn to speak perfect English over a set period. In fact, they don’t provide cash refunds at all.
Should a teacher not be available for a prescheduled session, they’ll credit those minutes back to your account within 10 minutes of starting. However, they will not roll them over to the next day.
Our Cambly student review team feels that the company needs to reconsider its policy here. While we understand they must pay the tutor for their time, there should be more wiggle room for rescheduling minutes.
Online Ratings
The online ratings for this company are primarily from tutors rather than students. Glassdoor Cambly reviews 2021 are primarily positive, although most tutors look at this as a part-time gig. In fact, Glassdoor rates the company 3.6 out of 5 stars.
For our research, we wanted more information, so we also turned to Reddit and asked for opinions. In general, the people that answered were all teachers. Some disliked the platform, but most said it works well once you build up a loyal student base.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Affordable for students
- Offers live, unstructured sessions
- Relatively easy to use
- Cambly reviews are mainly positive
- The app incorporates a foreign language translator for beginners who can’t speak English
- Flexible scheduling allowed
- Legitimate opportunity to make extra money
Cons
- A pay rate lower than the industry standard
- Call minutes don’t roll over if not used daily
Value for Money — Final Verdict
In short, Cambly provides students with a simple and affordable way to learn English. Starting at $52 per month, the program doesn’t require a significant capital outlay. As a result, it’s perfect for students who like to schedule sessions at the last minute or cannot necessarily commit to set hours.
Tutors receive the opportunity to make money and may work as they choose. However, our Cambly review team felt that the pay rate was lower than the standard. That said, the simple entry standards make it possible for a broader range of people to earn money.
Is this site going to teach you the Queen’s English in three months? Will it make you a fortune as a teacher? Unfortunately no, but it provides a valuable service to both students and teachers. So, if you want to practice speaking English or are up for the challenge of teaching, why not check it out yourself?