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What is tutoring software, and which kind does an independent tutor need?

Tutoring software is software built for running tutoring lessons and the business around them, and it comes in two kinds that are often sold under the same name. Classroom software is where the lesson happens: live video, a whiteboard you and the student both write on, and your materials behind one link. Management software is the office around the lessons: booking, invoicing, student records and a place for families to book and pay. A tutor who teaches online needs both jobs covered. The real decision is which one you need first, and whether one tool covers both well enough or you pair a classroom with a management app.

This page is for tutors who find their own students, set their own rates and bill families directly, and for small tutoring teams. Tutoring marketplaces, the sites where families browse and hire tutors, sometimes get called tutoring software too. They're a different arrangement: the marketplace brings the student, usually takes a share of each lesson, and the relationship with the family runs through it. If you're looking for a tutor for your child, or for a tutoring job, this isn't that page. We build Koala Go, a classroom for tutors with the office basics a solo online tutor needs built in, so the page ends with where it fits and where it doesn't. Everything before that is the advice we'd give whichever software you choose.

The two kinds of tutoring software

Classroom software Management software
The job Running the lesson Running everything around the lesson
What it does Live video, a shared whiteboard, your materials on the board, websites you use together, recordings Booking from your availability, invoices and payments, student and family records, lesson packages, a portal for families
Who sees it The student, in every lesson You, and the parent when they book or pay
What it replaces A video call plus a separate whiteboard app and a screen share A booking page, invoices from a payment app, and a spreadsheet
You can skip it if You only teach in person You have a handful of students and the spreadsheet still matches reality

Plenty of products sit across the line. Some classrooms, ours included, have booking and invoicing built in for a solo tutor. Some management apps include a basic lesson space or hand the lesson over to a video app. TutorBird and Teachworks, for example, both describe themselves as tutor management software. Software directories tend to list all of these under one "tutoring software" heading, next to systems built for school districts and university tutoring centers. That's why a shortlist pulled from a directory can end up comparing a whiteboard with a billing app. Sort your shortlist into the two columns before you compare anything.

Which kind you need first

  • You teach online, on your own, and you're just starting. Classroom first. The lesson is what the family experiences every week, and a classroom with a free plan lets you teach real lessons before you pay for anything. Invoices can come from the classroom or a payment app, and your records can live in a spreadsheet for now.
  • You teach online, on your own, with a full week of regular students. This is where the office starts costing you time. Either move to a classroom that also books and invoices, or add a management app beside the classroom you have. The next section helps you choose.
  • You only teach in person. Management software only. You don't need a classroom until you add online lessons.
  • You teach both in person and online. Management software as the home for your whole schedule, plus a classroom for the online lessons. Check that an online booking carries the lesson link, so families aren't hunting for it.
  • Other tutors work for you. Management software built for teams comes first, because rosters, shared schedules, pay rates and oversight are a different job from running your own lessons. What it needs to do is on tutoring business management software.

One tool or two?

For a solo online tutor, the choice is usually between a classroom that also handles booking and invoicing, and a dedicated management app paired with a separate classroom or video app.

  • One tool gives families one login and one link, a booking that opens the lesson room, and lesson history and invoices in one place. The tradeoff: a classroom's office side is usually lighter than a dedicated management app's. Expect booking and invoicing, not accounting, payroll or a marketing website.
  • Two tools gives you a deeper office, since management apps often add things like expense tracking, tutor payroll, business reports and a website builder, and you can pick the classroom separately. The tradeoff: two logins, a lesson link that has to travel from one app to the other, and a student's history split across both.

A quick way to decide: count how often you switch between apps in a normal week, and notice where the switches happen. If most of them are between the booking, the lesson link and the invoice, one tool will save you the most time. If the pain is month-end bookkeeping, tax records or paying other tutors, a dedicated management app earns its fee, and the classroom can stay separate. For the job-by-job version of this, including the free apps most tutors start with, see what apps tutors need to run their own tutoring.

What to check before you pay for tutoring software

  1. The full monthly cost at your size. Tutoring software is priced in several ways: a flat monthly fee, a fee per tutor, a fee per active student, a charge per lesson on top of a base fee, or a percentage of each invoice you send through it. Work out what you'd pay with your real number of students and lessons, then add the card or payment fees on top. A low headline price with a cut of every invoice can cost more than a flat plan once you're busy.
  2. A free plan or a free trial. A free plan lets you keep teaching while you decide. A trial runs out, often before you've seen a full month of billing. Either way, test it with a real lesson and a real invoice, not the demo.
  3. What the family has to do. Does the student need an account or an app to join a lesson? Does the parent need one to book or pay? Every extra step turns into a message you answer five minutes before a lesson.
  4. Whether the booking opens the lesson. If booking and the classroom are separate products, check how the lesson link reaches the family, and what happens to it when a lesson moves.
  5. What the family sees. Booking pages, invoices and the classroom itself are part of how parents judge your business. Look at each one from the parent's side before you commit.
  6. Reminders. Does the software send lesson reminders to families, or will you? Plenty don't, so plan on a one-line message the day before.
  7. Getting your records out. Can you export your student list, lesson history and invoices if you move on later?
  8. Who answers when it breaks mid-lesson. Ask how support works and when it's available, and try it once during your trial.

If the classroom is the half you're choosing, our step-by-step trial is on how to choose virtual classroom software for tutoring. If it's booking, how to schedule online tutoring lessons covers what families need from it.

Where Koala Go fits

Koala Go is classroom software first: the browser-based virtual classroom we build for online tutors. It also covers the office basics a solo online tutor needs, so for many independent tutors it's the one-tool option above. Koala Free costs nothing, Koala Pro is $25.99/month ($21.99/month billed annually), and Koala Platinum is $49.99/month ($39.99/month billed annually).

Job In Koala Go Plan
The lesson Video, a shared whiteboard, a cobrowser (you and the student use the same live webpage instead of watching a screen share) and the 3D Playground. Students open your link, type their name and wait in your waiting room. No account, nothing to install, and the link stays the same every week. Every plan. Free covers up to 4 students per session with a limited cobrowser; Pro removes the cobrowser limit.
Your materials Image uploads on Free, PDF and PowerPoint on Pro. Lessons are saved as activities, so next week opens where you stopped. Free keeps up to 3 activities; Pro and Platinum keep as many as you like.
Recordings Recorded to your own computer, or cloud recordings of your classes. Pro records locally; Platinum adds cloud recordings.
Booking Our scheduling portal. You set weekly availability, send each family an invite link, they book in their own timezone, and the booked lesson opens your classroom. Pro. Platinum adds booking-policy controls and two-way Google or Outlook calendar sync.
Invoicing Create an invoice in the classroom and the parent pays online. You invoice in your own currency and the parent can pay in theirs through the payment platform; families in mainland China can pay with WeChat Pay. Unpaid invoices have a Send reminder button. Every plan. Our fee is 4.5% per invoice on Free, 3.5% on Pro and 0% on Platinum, on top of the payment platform's own fees.
Lesson packages Prepaid packages that a family's bookings draw down from. Platinum.
Parent updates Auto-generated class notes from cloud-recorded lessons: an AI-drafted lesson report you review, then download as a PDF or email to the parent. Platinum.

What Koala Go doesn't do on the office side: it isn't accounting software, so there's no expense tracking, tax reports or payroll. It isn't a CRM for following up new inquiries. There's no parent messaging inbox for independent tutors, and we don't send lesson reminders, so the day-before message is still yours. If those are the jobs hurting most, a dedicated management app is the better buy, and you can keep Koala as the room: your Koala link stays the same every week, so you can paste it once into the lesson details in whichever app sends your bookings.

On the classroom side, some honest limits. Koala works on an iPad, but it's rougher there than on a laptop. Students in mainland China run into connectivity problems we're still working on; teaching students in mainland China has the details and workarounds. There's no graphing canvas or full equation editor, so advanced STEM tutors often keep a dedicated STEM whiteboard alongside us. And if you only teach in person, you don't need a classroom at all.

If you're running a team rather than a solo practice, Koala for Business is our version for tutoring companies: a branded classroom with an admin dashboard for your tutors' lessons. How it fits the management side is on tutoring business management software.

You can try Koala Go without installing anything at classroom.teachwithkoala.com, and teach a real lesson on Koala Free before deciding whether you need more. Questions about whether it fits your subject and your students are welcome at koala@teachwithkoala.com.

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