How Syllavo compares
Against the four things tutors actually use: a spreadsheet, a marketplace, a generic scheduler, or agency software. Checked against published pricing in June 2026 — including what Syllavo doesn't do.
Your spreadsheet
The honest starting point: most solo tutors run on a spreadsheet, and it's genuinely good at what it does — free, familiar, and shaped exactly how you think. That's why Syllavo's lessons view is deliberately spreadsheet-shaped: dates, fees and payment status in dense rows you can filter and total.
The difference: a spreadsheet can't do anything by itself.
- Parents book from your live availability — rows appear without you typing them
- Payment status updates itself when a parent pays a Stripe invoice link
- Reminder emails go out before each lesson, automatically
- Lesson notes live with the student record, ready to share with parents
Your spreadsheet, but it fills itself in — and the Free plan costs the same as the spreadsheet: nothing.
Tutoring marketplaces
Marketplaces find you students — that's real value, and Syllavo doesn't do it. What they charge for it is the part worth seeing in one place*:
| Wyzant (US) | 25% commission from the tutor, plus a 9% service fee added to the student's bill |
| Preply | 18–33% commission depending on hours taught — plus 100% of every new student's trial lesson |
| MyTutor (UK) | around 40% + VAT of the lesson price, per independent analyses of its published rates |
| Tutorful (UK) | 0% from the tutor, but a 35% service fee is added on top of the student's bill |
| Syllavo | 0% — a flat subscription from £0/month. Card payments carry only Stripe's standard processing fee, paid straight to your bank |
Illustrative maths: one weekly £35 lesson on a 25%-commission marketplace costs about £455 a year in commission. Syllavo Pro is £168 a year — and your students stay yours, on your own booking page, with no off-platform contact rules.
Generic schedulers
Calendly (Standard from around $10–12/month) and Acuity (from around $16–20/month) are excellent at booking meetings. The gap: they know about meetings, not students.
| Spreadsheet | Generic scheduler | Syllavo | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parents book real free slots | |||
| Student records & lesson history | |||
| Lesson notes shared with parents | |||
| Invoicing & payment tracking | |||
| Automatic lesson reminders | |||
| Knows what a GCSE student is |
By the time you add an invoicing tool to a scheduler, you're paying more than Syllavo Pro (£14/$16 a month) for two tools that don't talk to each other.
Tutor-management software
TutorBird ($16.95/month, plus $4.95 per extra tutor), Teachworks (from $16.49/month plus $0.32 per lesson) and TutorCruncher (from around $30/month) are capable tools — several bundle features Syllavo doesn't have. They're built with agencies and multi-tutor businesses in mind, and priced that way.
Where Syllavo differs, deliberately:
- Built for one tutor — no payroll modules, branch settings or per-tutor seat fees to ignore
- One flat price with no per-lesson metering: £7 or £14 a month ($9/$16), and that's it
- The only one of these with a permanent free tier — free up to 3 active students, no trial clock
What Syllavo doesn't do (yet)
A comparison page that only lists wins isn't a comparison. As of June 2026, Syllavo does not have:
- SMS / text-message reminders (email reminders only, for now)
- A website builder — Syllavo gives you a booking page, not a full site
- Parent or student login portals — parents get email updates and shared notes, no account needed
- Multi-tutor teams, payroll or agency features — Syllavo is deliberately solo-first
- Group classes and class-based billing
If you need those today, TutorBird or Teachworks may fit you better. If you're one tutor who wants bookings, notes and payments handled without agency software — that's exactly who Syllavo is built for.
Free up to 3 students · No card required
*Competitor prices, commissions and fees are taken from each provider's published pricing and help pages (MyTutor's from independent analyses of its published rates), checked 10 June 2026. Providers change their terms — always confirm current pricing with them directly. Illustrative figures assume one weekly lesson over a year.