CamblyReviews of cambly.com

It is difficult to find a suitable instructor and the instructors are definitely not professional. Some of them do not pay attention to the hours, they come to the lessons late and there is no make-up. My money was wasted, I regret signing up to Cambly, I wish I hadn't bought it.

I’ve worked as a teacher on Cambly for a few years, and I can confidently say that this platform is deeply exploitative. Cambly takes advantage of the desperation of many educated tutors and teachers, who are often in difficult financial situations. These tutors, desperate for any form of income, end up accepting wages that are far below the legal minimum in many countries. In my experience, Cambly pays its tutors a pittance — as low as $0.17 per minute or $6 per class. This is barely enough to cover the cost of a cup of coffee, let alone pay bills or live decently. And it’s not just about the low pay. There’s no holiday pay, no sick pay, and no insurance. You’re classified as an independent contractor, so Cambly avoids any responsibility for benefits or labor protections. This is their justification for paying below minimum wage, but the reality is that many tutors have no choice but to accept these conditions because they rely on this income. Despite these challenges, I had the pleasure of working with some fantastic students — many of whom were truly a highlight of my time with Cambly. But it’s difficult to reconcile the rewarding moments with the harsh realities of being paid so little. Tutors are often at the mercy of technical glitches, no-shows, and last-minute cancellations, all of which further reduce our earnings. If a student cancels the day before, the tutor doesn’t get paid. If a student shows up just to apologize for not attending, the tutor is only paid $1, even though they were ready to work. After years of struggling on this platform, I’m finally leaving Cambly for a new job that pays almost three times what I was earning there. It’s a huge relief. I wish I could take back the years I spent working on Cambly, particularly during my 20s when I could have been building a more secure and fulfilling career. To students: Please be aware that the tutors you love are being paid far below what they deserve, and they are likely working under stress, struggling with the platform’s many flaws. Cambly, like many other similar platforms, preys on those who are financially vulnerable and willing to accept exploitative terms. I hope that one day, these companies are held accountable for the harm they do to their workers.

As a tutor with less than 4.9 rating there is no access to priority hours, even after working with Cambly for several years. The rate that students are charged vs what tutors are paid is laughable. Students and tutors alike could do better, other platforms exist.

Really low pay. Has not increased ever. One time I worked an hour for $2.15

I was a tutor on Cambly for 2 years and I do not recommend the platform to students nor tutors. Cambly advertising tells tutors that they can make money simply by chatting with people as long as they're a native speaker, while they tell students that they hire world-class vetted tutors that can help with English proficiency exams like IELTS. It's quite frankly dishonest and causes students with high expectations to be disappointed with untrained tutors. Despite the subscription prices rising to both account for inflation and pay employees more, the hourly pay for tutors has been stuck at $10.20 for years. That is absolutely not liveable for most people, especially because no-show and late cancellation pay are not in full! There are constant changes to the website that cause lagging and glitches, the unfair ratings system seems to be run by AI, and the surplus of tutors has significantly decreased the amount of students they get. Even as a casual part-time job, Cambly is not worth it. Please avoid!

Cambly advertises that all tutors have to do is listen to people speak English. Cambly advertises to prospective students that they can become fluent in English on Cambly. These are only two of the biggest lies that this sorry excuse for a company tells. Pathetic pay, poor website with lots of bugs, non-existent customer service, unprofessional and incompetent management, and disrespectful students -- all of that just scratches the surface. Only work here if you're desperate.

Cambly's pay rate is incredibly low. They justify this because the platform is supposed to be for conversation practice, not English tuition. So they aren't paying tutors to teach, just to have a conversation. The problem is that when they advertise to students, they talk about having world class, native language teachers to teach them. So then some students come to the platform with high expectations. They then give low ratings because they expect world class English teaching but receive conversation practice. This then gets tutors in trouble with the way the rating system will make it harder for tutors to meet new students when they have a lower rating.

Where to start? I was a tutor with Cambly for years and it almost destroyed my mental health- and I’m a pretty tough guy. I’m a retired teacher and I thought it would be fun to try and supplement my pension by tutoring online. Choosing Cambly was a huge mistake. Aside from the extreme low pay at .17 cents a minute for talk time only- and 1.70 if a student doesn’t show up, whether the class was 15,30 or 60 minutes and 2.00 for a late cancellation.. the platform has many issues. The company makes constant changes - almost weekly! The changes cause “glitches” like pages not loading, chat box not working, screen-share not working. These are not minor issues because they cause students to give low ratings for the class. A big problem is trying to get into the classroom because the page just hangs.. it causes tutors to be late for class and tutors are punished for being late. I’ve had my internet checked with a fine tooth comb, so have countless other tutors- it’s not the tutors fault! However if a tutor writes into Cambly support for assistance it’s ALWAYS the tutors fault! They tell you “something” is causing a slowdown!! Darn right! It’s the bloated Cambly servers and update plastered upon update that cause so many problems! It got worse and worse. Then they added AI which scans everything- all conversations, chat box- it’s awful because some students would call to discuss personal problems in English because they had no one else to talk to. I had to caution students about this. They raised prices substantially telling students it was to “increase employee salary” leading most students to believe that tutors got a bit of a raise! Which was a lie because tutors are not actually employees- and students don’t realize that. Tutors are independent contractors. It’s a sham business. If you wanna make a few bucks here and there and don’t care about anything else then I guess Cambly or “shambly” as it’s often called- is your game. But if you are a conscientious person and don’t have time to waste STAY AWAY FROM CAMBLY! They do not care about you as a tutor. There is a facebook group for tutors that is constantly being censored! As soon as someone speaks truth the post is deleted. You can find real information about Cambly on Reddit as well. Cambly cares about Cambly- that’s it. It’s a moneymaker for the company owners. They are vampires sucking tutors and students of their “blood”. And a note to students- most tutors have absolutely no teaching skills- they aren’t even teachers. Cambly hires anyone so you are paying a lot of money for someone who isn’t even a teacher. I just happen to have been a teacher. My students were fortunate.