Best Online Chinese Classes

Verbling’s massive site has something for everyone. It’s a great place to begin a search for a tutor, because you can filter for your specific time zone, desired dialect, price range, and a tutor who vibes with your learning style.

Verbling can connect you with a private online tutor to help you learn Mandarin or Cantonese. Its lessons take place via its integrated platform, where you can schedule your lessons and meet with your teacher, and the platform works on desktop computers with apps for both iOS and Android mobile devices.

Verbling also includes learning materials and language tools such as vocabulary review and collaborative text pads. You can either go through an existing course, or your tutor can customize the course for your needs.

There’s an extensive list of tutors and you can search by availability, background, experience, and price. Besides reading about each tutor, you can also watch a short video where they introduce themselves and talk about their experience. With most tutors, you can book a free trial lesson.

The average cost is $30 per hour, but you can find tutors for as low as $15 per hour or as high as $60 per hour. There are no package deals or specials incentivizing you to buy in bulk, so unless the tutor is offering their own discount code on their bio (which many do), the cost remains at the tutor’s rate regardless of how many lessons you buy.

With more than 800 Chinese tutors charging $10 or less per class, Preply is our most budget-friendly option.

At Preply, there's something for everyone who is on a budget. While the company offers tutoring in 24 different languages, there are over 2,200 tutors available if you're looking to work on your Chinese language skills.

You can search the long list of tutors and filter them based on their background, price per hour, availability, and specialties. You can also opt to only look at the profiles of native Chinese speakers and read other reviews from previous students.

Preply has its own online platform called Preply Classroom, which includes video calling, text messaging, and the ability to download study materials. Apps are available for iOS and Android.

If you’re looking for a tutoring service with a lot of options, as well as discounts when buying classes in bulk, Preply is a solid choice.

The tutoring price per 50-minute session ranges between roughly $3 and $40, and tutors offer a free trial lesson. Many of Preply's Chinese tutors charge less than $20 an hour.

Italki is the only site that allows tutors to offer dialects other than Mandarin or Cantonese. So if you’re looking for a less common option, like Shanghainese or Hokkien, or you want to dabble in a variety of different Chinese dialects, you should definitely start here.

Italki offers tutors speaking six Chinese dialects: Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Shanghainese, and Taiwanese. The platform currently lists more than 1,100 available Chinese tutors in total. 

The instructors provide one-on-one lessons via video chat, and can customize them based on the learner’s goals and interests. Since italki has so many tutors around the world, you can probably find one who is available at a convenient time.

You can pay per tutoring session, so there is no need to sign up for a package or subscription. Since there are so many tutors, there is also a wide range of prices. Some tutors have hourly rates as low as roughly $4 per hour, while others can charge up to around $80, but most Chinese tutors clock in at around $10 to $25 an hour.

You can search the list of tutors based on their background, experience, availability, price, and more. Plus, most tutors offer a discounted half-hour trial lesson, and you'll get a $10 credit if you refer a friend to italki.

Rather than lessons created by tutors, ChineseHour offers its own curriculum, which stays consistent regardless of who your tutor is. The selection runs the gamut: classes for kids of different ages, and for specialties like business Chinese, Chinese Culture, tourist Chinese, and more.

With a wide range of online tutoring services for all kinds of learners and purposes, ChineseHour has one-on-one tutoring and courses such as spoken Chinese, business Chinese, kids' Chinese, Chinese culture, teenage Chinese, tourist Chinese, and more.

With ChineseHour, you select a tutor and continue with that same personal tutor throughout your learning experience. The service believes this leads to faster learning.

There are many tutors listed on its website, and you can select yours based on their qualifications, signature courses, and teaching styles. There are several different packages and memberships you can purchase which include roughly 40 and 60 sessions. In addition, ChineseHour offers a free testing system and a periodic learning report.

For adults, there are three packages with slightly different price points: The standard course has an upfront payment of $1,080 for 60 classes ($18 per 50-minute class) and looks to be the best deal on the site.

Test prep classes for the SAT, Advanced Placement, and HSK (an official Chinese proficiency test) are slightly more: $1,200 for 60 classes, which is $20 per 50-minute class. The premium course is $995 for 40 classes and includes five immersion outings where you go out with your teacher to explore real-life situations in China ($25 per 50-minute class).

Children's classes are sold in 60-lesson blocks but they are 25 minutes long, so it’s $779 for 60 classes ($13 per 25-minute class). Before you sign up, you can take a free trial lesson.

Dinolingo’s mix of Chinese songs, videos, stories, games, and classes make it a great place for kids to gain exposure to Chinese and take lessons on their own without a tutor.

Dinolingo is a treasure trove of games, stories, flashcards, and other educational materials geared towards children (particularly those who like dinosaurs). It's a great one-stop shop for your child’s Chinese language learning materials. 

The site lets your child explore what they want when they want by clicking across whatever music videos, worksheets, or flashcards appeal to them. 

There isn’t much in the way of standardized progress, homework, or testing, but the bright colors and fun format make this a good choice for introducing your child to Chinese.

The flat rate monthly fee is $15. There are no discounts, contracts, or commitments, and there's a seven-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied. An app for iOS or Android is available to pair with the web-based subscription.

PandaTree is the only Chinese tutoring site we reviewed that caters exclusively to children and even has its own age-specific, kid-focused curricula. 

PandaTree is an online language school that offers one-on-one lessons for children ages 2 to 17 in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese. It has four different types of Mandarin Chinese courses: Chinese for Preschoolers (for ages 2 to 6), Beginner Chinese (for ages 6 to 12), Intermediate Chinese (for ages 8 to 15), and Advanced Placement (for ages 15 to 17).

Since the lessons are one on one, the curriculum can be personalized to each student. The tutors all have native fluency and experience working with children. You can read through the tutors’ profiles in order to select the best fit for your child. In addition to tutoring, PandaTree also offers a Kid Hub where students can access learning games, videos, stories, and vocabulary practice.

After each session, parents will receive an email with an update from the tutor in order to keep track of their child’s progress. And you can watch a video recording of your child’s lesson. For children under 10, the service recommends 25-minute lessons, while older kids can take 50-minute sessions.

Purchase one lesson at a time or buy a package of three, five, 10, or 20 sessions (as part of the monthly subscription with five lessons a week). The price for a 25-minute session runs from $20 to $25, and it's $40 to $50 for a 50-minute session, depending on the package you buy. 

The monthly subscription and weekly camp rates definitely give you the most bang for your buck, but you must be willing to commit to a frequent class schedule, instead of scheduling your classes as you go. Finally, if you’re not satisfied with the session, PandaTree will provide you with a refund if you request it within seven days.

Mandarin Tutor is a great place to find specialized lessons, as there is no pre-set curriculum, and the tab system for tutor bios makes it easy to pick out tutors specializing in particular lesson areas.

Mandarin Tutor, as the name implies, is a service that primarily focuses on teaching only Mandarin Chinese, but some of its tutors do teach Cantonese. It offers one-on-one, 50-minute lessons via Skype or Zoom for both adults and children.

When you look at the tutors’ profiles, some will indicate that they specialize in working with children and teenagers. All the instructors are native speakers of Chinese, and they can customize the lessons based on your needs. For example, they can focus on business vocabulary or on helping you prepare for travel or for an exam. You can look through the list of tutors and select one based on their availability.

Prices are set by tutors and seem to be very affordable. You can save even more by purchasing packages, and the credit system makes it easy to change tutors if need be. If you want to try it out, Mandarin Tutor offers a 25-minute discounted trial.

TutorABC’s classes use a “full-language immersion” teaching method, with a tiered curriculum that corresponds to different Chinese proficiency test levels. Combining immersion with a progressive set of classes makes progress easy to track.

TutorABC provides one-on-one, 45-minute adult lessons hosted on Skype or in its own mobile app for learners of Chinese at any level of proficiency. The company calls its tutors "certified Chinese consultants" who offer immersion-style classes.

The company uses an algorithm called Dynamic Course Generation System (DCGS) to customize lessons and tutors based on your abilities, interests, and background. 

Single classes are available, but most sign-ups are for subscription packages of three, six, 12, or 18 months. The price per lesson varies depending on what package you purchase and whether you pay in installments or in a lump sum.

Depending on the subscription, your lessons can each cost roughly $20 to $45 per session. TutorABC also offers lessons for children. Kids’ lessons have similar costs per minute, but they are only 25 minutes long. Also, you can try a class for free before you commit.

Rosetta Stone was one of the original trendsetters in computer-based language learning, back when buying a language course involved a physical box of software and several hundred dollars of investment. Today, its downloadable, app-based program remains one of the industry’s heavy hitters. 

Photo-based classes make the program accessible to native speakers of any language, and there are lots of additional resources outside the standard curriculum units: storytimes, recipes, and classes on the written character system are all included in the price.

Top it off with a solid speech-recognition function that will actually give you feedback on your tones and pronunciation, and you have our top choice for anyone looking to learn Chinese exclusively via an independent computer class. Give it a whirl with a three-day free trial. 

Three- and 12-month plans run $12 per month, or you can pay $299 for a lifetime subscription to all lessons in all languages on offer at Rosetta Stone.