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For students & parents
The basics of finding and booking a tutor through us.
How does Tutorperch work? +
Browsing and messaging are free for both sides. Contact details (phone, email, links) are blocked in messages while you're deciding. Once you've decided to work with a tutor, pay a one-off £9.99 finder's fee. That unlocks the thread so you and the tutor can share contact details directly, and from there you arrange lessons between yourselves: frequency, cost, location, anything else.
What's the £9.99 for, exactly? +
It's a one-off finder's fee that unlocks the thread so you and that tutor can share contact details directly. Right now Tutorperch blocks contact details (phone, email, links) in messages by default; the fee turns that off between you and one tutor. We earn the fee once per introduction and never again. It's per tutor, so if you want to unlock a second tutor later, that's another £9.99. There's no per-lesson cost beyond that, and no subscription.
What if it doesn't work out after I unlock? +
If you and the tutor never agree a lesson after unlocking, email us and we'll refund the £9.99. Cases where the tutor is unresponsive or the contact details bounce both qualify. If you arranged lessons and then cancelled, or have a problem with lesson quality, that's between you and the tutor.
Are tutors here actually cheaper than commission sites? +
Often yes, sometimes the same. Commission platforms charge 20-49% on top of the tutor's rate to fund the platform; Tutorperch doesn't take a cut. Tutors who list with us as well as on a commission site frequently quote a lower rate here because they keep all of it. We can't enforce that, and individual rates depend on the tutor.
How do I pay my tutor for lessons? +
Directly between you and the tutor: bank transfer, cash, whatever you both agree on. Tutorperch never handles lesson payments and never sees the transaction.
Where is my data held? +
Primarily on UK and EU infrastructure, under UK GDPR. We collect only what's needed to run the service and never sell your data. You can export it or close your account from your settings at any time; the full breakdown is in our privacy notice.
For tutors
Listing, getting found, and what we ask in return.
How much does it cost to list? +
Listing is free, and so is messaging. The only tutor-side cost is a one-off £3.00 verification fee covering identity and safeguarding review. The £9.99 unlock fee is paid by the student and never deducted from you.
How do I get verified? +
Two steps. First, a quick identity check (about two minutes, with photo ID and a selfie) run by our identity-verification provider. Second, submit your safeguarding cert for our team to review by hand. England and Wales tutors upload an Enhanced DBS; Scotland tutors share their PVG record from Disclosure Scotland's Online Account; Northern Ireland tutors share their AccessNI Enhanced Disclosure via NIDA. Both badges sit alongside each other on your profile and in search results.
How much is the verification fee? +
£3.00, one-off. Covers identity check and a safeguarding review if you submit one. That's the only tutor-side cost on Tutorperch.
Do you handle lesson payments or take a cut? +
No. We never see lesson payments. Once a student unlocks your contact details, you and they arrange everything off-platform. We don't take commission, and we don't charge a per-lesson or booking fee.
How are tutors ranked in search results? +
Reviews from real students drive ranking. Secondary signals include Safeguarding-Verified status and profile depth, with recent activity nudging tutors up at the margins. Response time doesn't enter the formula, and nobody can pay for a higher slot.
Will I be penalised for slow response times? +
No. Tutors aren't 24/7 chat agents; you might be teaching, on holiday, or simply choosy about who you take on. None of that drops you in rankings, and we track no SLA on tutor replies.
What's the catch? +
There isn't a hidden one; the model is the model. The honest ask: we tell parents on the homepage that booking via Tutorperch is cheaper than via a commission site, which is only true if tutors actually price fairly here. If you list with us as well as on a commission site, we'd ask you to consider a slightly lower rate here, knowing your take-home is the same or higher (since we don't skim a commission). We can't enforce that, but it's the deal that makes the pitch true for everyone.
What happens to renewals and repeat students? +
They're yours, both ways. Once contact details are unlocked, the tutor-student relationship belongs to the people in it. The student doesn't pay £9.99 again to keep working with you, and we don't charge you when they book another lesson. We only earn on the introduction itself.
Trust & safety
How we vet tutors and protect students.
What does the DBS-Verified badge mean? +
It means a member of our team personally reviewed the tutor's Enhanced DBS certificate and confirmed it was clear at the point of review. The badge is valid for three years from our verification date, after which we re-verify the certificate to keep it current. We don't recheck on a schedule in between, so the badge is a strong baseline rather than a real-time check. For extra peace of mind on a specific tutor before booking, you can verify independently.
What is identity verification? +
A quick check that the tutor's government-issued photo ID matches a live selfie, run by our identity-verification provider. Every published tutor on Tutorperch is identity-verified, which confirms the person behind the profile is who they say they are. It's also the prerequisite for adding a DBS certificate.
Why are some tutors identity-verified but not Safeguarding-Verified? +
Identity verification is required for every published tutor; safeguarding verification is optional on top. A tutor who's identity-verified but not safeguarding-verified might be waiting on their cert to arrive, or might only teach adults (no safeguarding check is required for adult-only tutoring). For child tutoring, look for the Safeguarding Verified badge.
Does DBS apply to Scotland and Northern Ireland? +
No. DBS is the England and Wales scheme. Scotland uses PVG (Protecting Vulnerable Groups), run by Disclosure Scotland under the PVG (Scotland) Act 2007. Northern Ireland uses AccessNI Enhanced Disclosure under the Police Act 1997 (NI). Tutorperch supports all three: Scotland tutors share their PVG record via Disclosure Scotland's Online Account, and Northern Ireland tutors share their AccessNI certificate via NIDA. The Safeguarding-Verified filter in search surfaces tutors verified under any scheme.
What happens to my ID document? +
Our identity-verification provider runs the check and stores the document image and selfie on their side. Our team briefly views the verification selfie once, alongside the profile photo you upload, to confirm they're the same person. After the manual safeguarding review finishes, we ask the provider to purge the underlying verification data on their side too.
Do you use my verification selfie as my profile picture? +
No. You upload your own profile photo on a separate step after the identity check passes. Admin matches the photo you choose against the verification selfie once, before the profile is published. That's the only role the verification selfie plays in your profile. Your uploaded photo is what students see.
How do you keep students safe? +
Four layers. Identity verification on every published tutor: our verification provider confirms a government photo ID matches a live selfie. Optional safeguarding verification on top, with every certificate reviewed by our team by hand. Contact details (UK phone numbers, emails, URLs, and chat handles like WhatsApp or Telegram) are stripped from messages until the £9.99 unlock, so scraping the platform for contacts is a waste of time. Every profile is reviewed by our team before it goes live, including the photo and bio. If something concerns you, every profile and message has a Report link that goes straight to us.
How do I report a profile or a message? +
Every public profile has a 'Report' link in the footer area. Message threads have a 'Report this conversation' link at the bottom. Reports go directly to admin and are triaged within 24 hours.
Can I trust the reviews? +
Yes. A review can only be left by someone who actually paid to unlock that tutor, so reviews come from real customers. We ban fake and incentivised reviews, we never write reviews ourselves, and older reviews imported from First Tutors are labelled and kept out of the star rating and search ranking.
About our model
Why we work the way we do.
Why don't you take commission? +
Commission scales with usage. Every lesson you book through a commission platform earns it another cut, indefinitely. That's lucrative when it works, but it distorts incentives: the platform has reasons to lock you in, push extra messages, hide contact details, manipulate ranking. We'd rather earn once on a useful introduction and step out of the way.
Why don't you charge tutors? +
A directory that takes from both sides distorts incentives twice over. Tutorperch earns from the introduction only, once, paid by the student. After that we stay out of the lesson relationship altogether.
Is there a subscription or a premium tier? +
No. The £9.99 unlock fee is the only money on the platform, paid by the student, paid once per tutor. There are no boosted listings or paid placements of any kind.
What if Tutorperch shuts down? +
Our T&Cs commit us to 30 days' notice and an automatic data export for every user. You'd have your full account history in machine-readable form, with 30 days to act on it.