QKIDS Vs. VIPKID: Which Is Better for Tutors? (2024)

Online teaching has opened up the opportunity to earn money from home and abroad for quite a while now. If you are ready to set your own schedule, teach one-on-one, and get paid? I’ve got you covered!

Today’s post focuses on two particularly popular online tutoring platforms — Qkids Vs Vipkid. 

Qkids Vs Vipkid – Application & Hiring Process

To air out the differences between both platforms, we’ll be comparing them on a couple of common questions thrown around the internet. If you’ve been on the sidelines not knowing which one is the better choice for you, hang out, you’ll know that in a while.

Read along to make the perfect choice for a stable work at home career.

How do you get hired?

Every online learning platform has a hiring process. It is apparent from the start that these platforms do hire anyone who isn’t willing to put some work in. Powering through the tedious process, however, is well worth the effort.

Here’s a step-by-step comparison of Qkids vs Vipkid hiring process is;

Vipkid Hiring Process

Your first step in the application process will require you to create a teacher account and fill in your basic information.

You’ll be required to put in your name, years of experience, and signify if you have attained a college degree. Then you’d be required to record a quick demo video. You’ll be asked to read a bit of info on teaching methods and take a quiz (a short one), and eventually send a little slide of yourself teaching.

The next bit is the hard bit. The Vipkid process requires that aspiring teachers practice teaching a specific lesson and then deliver this lesson to a Vipkid mock class mentor. This process has no doubt, more often than not, deflected some people to the other less stressful online teaching conventions.

Moving past this, you’d also require a TESOL Certification (teach English as a second language). This is coming off a new policy that went into effect in china recently. Now, Vipkid requires their tutors to hold a teaching license from their home country or a TESOL certificate. Fortunately, Vipkid has developed its own TESOL certificate. This little boon saves a lot of online English teachers cash. You’d need to have the certificate to begin working on the platform.

When you are done with all of the above, you’d lastly be required to sign your contract. Then you can begin opening classes.

Qkids Hiring Process

Firstly, Qkids requires applicants to submit their resumes. You’ll be required to accompany this with details of your teaching availability, working hours, and a short recording of yourself. They require the recording to be 1-2 minutes of you reading a children’s book.

Next, you’re on to a set of two demo interviews. In the first one, you’ll exhibit that you can use Qkid’s platform efficiently. Then answer a few questions on student interaction. In the course of the second demo interview, you’ll have a Q & A interview with an employee at Qkids. After this interview, you’ll be asked to teach a couple of slides of a lesson.

Lastly, before you get to take lessons, Qkids would require you to finish a trial class period. This stage is a nice way to adjust to the process of the platform. You’ll be asked to teach a couple of lessons with actual students and receive feedback even from families. An added plus is that you get paid during the trial class phase as well.

To complete the daunting tasks of the mock lessons takes a will and a bit of time. The hiring process for Qkids, as opposed to Vipkids, is more accessible and actually more straightforward.

Teacher Requirements

Though there are a lot of similarities in what both platforms require of their applicants, they have slight differences too. Here’s a quick comparison of Qkids vs Vipkid employment requirements for you;

Vipkid Requirements

• You would need a bachelor’s degree. There is no specific subject required, and it can be from an accredited university.
• Sadly, to apply, you have to be eligible to work in the United States or Canada. This is unfortunate news for those from South Africa, Australia, East Asia, the Uk, and Ireland.
• Also, you need to have at least two years of experience in teaching, tutoring, coaching or mentoring. 
• Being a virtual class, you require a few technical things to make it happen. By that, they mean a fast and stable internet connection, a device (like Desktop, Laptop, Macbook, iPad, or Microsoft Surface) with good operating system with the VIPKID app installed.

Qkids Requirements

• Akin to Vipkid’s demands, Qkids also requires a bachelor’s degree.
• Qkids look for a North American accent, just like Vipkid. They only hire people that are eligible to teach in the US or Canada.
• You also need to have prior mentoring and teaching experience as well. As a result of the new law exerted by the Chinese government, each online English teacher has to have a teaching license Or a TESOL/TEFL certificate. To acquire your accredited TESOL/TEFL certification quickly and easily, use Premier TEFL, they trail blaze in providing these things efficiently – View all their TEFL Courses right here.
• Since this is a virtual job, the technical requirements are the same for both the platforms.

The only smidge is that with Vipkid, you do not have to pay for a TESOL certification. They offer their aspiring teachers a free TESOL certification. Qkids, on the other hand, requires that you acquire your TESOL or TEFL certificate from a third party.

Teaching Hours

How many hours are you required to work?

These learning platforms always have a sort of hourly system. The currency of online knowledge is by the hour, and Qkids, as well as Vipkid, conform to this. A comparison of Qkids vs Vipkid hourly scheme is;

Qkids Hourly Scheme

Qkids requires that you have to commit to a minimum set of teaching hours every week. Teacher employees are expected to teach a minimum of six hours per week or alternatively an equivalent of 12 lessons.

Vipkid Hourly Scheme

Fortunately, Vipkid doesn’t require any minimum set of hours. You can select your class schedule based on your routine. You can take a week or weeks off without any losses at all to you.

Vipkid presents its employees with a lot of flexibility in setting their hours. This makes it a lot easier to fit into your evolving lifestyles than the rigid hour plan of Qkids.

Teacher Pay

How much do you get paid?

These online English learning platforms have a different way they pay their employees. There are those who pay high rates without many bonuses. Alternatively, much of the others pay a lower base rate with more opportunity to earn extra. A comparison of Qkids vs Vipkid payment offers is;

Vipkid

Vipkid just recently revamped its payment system. Sadly, this new payment scale isn’t like it used to be. Now, you’ll receive your base pay along with an additional incentive for every class. The classes themselves are based on a scale system. This is very different from the previous payment of $19-21 per hour.

The result of the payment reforms is a $7.50 base rate per 25 minutes class. Vipkid has put a freeze on their base pay offers. Every person teaching on the platform will be starting at $7.50 regardless of your educational background or experience.

Short notice lessons come with an extra $2. A lesson classifies as a short notice lesson if it is booked within 24 hours of the class. This could all result in a $4 per hour bonus if you have two successive short notice lessons.

The number of overall classes that you’ve done with Vipkid, along with your monthly average, affects the way you are rated. These various resulting tiers come with their incentives.

Vipkid grants its teachers bonuses. You receive $5 for each trial student that signs up for Vipkid after you teach them. You can also earn up to $100 dollars for every friend member that you refer to Vipkid and assist through the hiring process. When that applicant receives their first lesson, you’ll receive a bonus for assisting them. You can iron out any kinks or unlikelihood with Vipkid. There a lot more info about their payment process on their site.

Qkids

Qkids have an hourly base rate of $8 per class. Since classes last half an hour, you’ll be earning $16 per hour. On Qkids, you get a $4 bonus when you stand on call for standby lessons as a ready substitute.

Every student has a teacher during class. If a student doesn’t show up for a standby lesson, you’ll be allowed to take your leave after 10 minutes. You then receive $4 for each of such lessons. Unless it’s a standby lesson, you get full pay even though your student doesn’t show up.

You also receive a dollar plus incentives when you get feedback from the parents of their students. If you average 15 classes per week, you’ll also receive an extra dollar per class. You can read more about their payment schemes on their websites.

Work Schedule

With the current payment schemes functioning on both websites, it would appear that the Qkids payment system is more lucrative. The previous year, before Vipkid changed up their policies, this was not the case.

What are the teaching hours?

Time allotment for teaching hours and lesson measures differs on most online English teaching platforms. A lot of these English teaching platforms cater to Chinese students. This means that if you are interested in a job on a website like this, you’d have to be available during peak Beijing hours.

Some companies restrict teaching hours. Some offer more opportunities for earning cash around their policies. A comparison of Qkids vs Vipkid in this regard is;

You are allowed to have as many as 25 classes per day on Vikpid. You are not obligated to do that many classes, but it’s an option that is available. Everyday teaching is commenced – 8:30 am Beijing time, and it runs till 9 pm. This is the format for every other day of the week.

New policies in china have restricted students from taking classes past 9 pm Beijing time. Although the website’s classes run till 10-pm, you might not receive that many lessons beyond this time.

This platform’s teaching schedule is very different. You are restricted to 2.5 hours during weekdays and 3 extra hours on weekends. This all sum up to a rough 24 hours or so of teaching hours per week.

Comparing Students

In every online learning platform, the amount of students in a class varies mostly. So do the age range of these students.  Qkids vs Vipkid are very different in this regard.

Vipkid employees teach one student at a time. The students would range from 3 to 15 years of age. Your selection of students is random, for the most part.

On the other hand, working for Qkids, you get to teach 1 to 4 students at a time. The students range from 4 to 12 years old.

Both platforms actually host students of the same age group.  However, the number of students per class differs a lot. The teacher to student ratio on Vipkid is optimal. You get to have a direct singular relationship because there is only one student.

Class Preparation Requirements

Do you need to do prior class preparations?

There are a lot of online learning resources that demand you to create your own curriculum. Comparatively, a lot of them provide you with all the material you need right from the start.

The more experiences you gain with these things, the better. The slides and lessons are provided for you on the platform. All you have to do is review them a bit before these lessons to brush up. Learning aids and props that assist the process are not required for every lesson. It can seem daunting to individuals new on the platform, but it is not always expected.

Closer to the Vipkid model, this online learning tool has prepared all you need for your lessons. Preparing for lessons will involve you getting familiar with the slides.

Vipkid has better teaching materials and curriculum. However, Qkids makes it easier to prepare for classes. It’s a system of learning based on the gameplay and reward system already written into the platform.  It just keeps learning simple and interactive.

Booking Comparison

A huge concern in the hearts of aspiring teachers on these online platforms is ‘how to get bookings’. Not just how to acquire these bookings, but how to maintain the stream and grow it into a larger ecosystem. A comparison of Qkids vs Vipkid booking policies is;

Very important to note here that the parents make the booking on this platform. The parents are responsible for selecting the teacher. This is a popular feature of most online learning platforms. This kind of system makes it hard to get your feet under you as a new teacher. For the first few months, really.

Here, the site assigns classes to their teacher employee rather than have the parents choose. It seems to have worked a treat for those new teachers wanting to fill up their schedules.

It seems that new aspiring teachers find themselves luckier with getting classes and gigs on Qkids vs Vipkid. This is because there is more of a competitive air on Vipkid than on Qkids.

Cancellation Policies

English teaching companies may be similar to a lot of things, but cancellation policies are where they differ the most. Some of them are very considerate and humane. Whilst others are just very annoying and exploitative.

This little hiccup here is the company’s major negative rep. You are held accountable when you cancel a lesson on Vikpid . It’s a very inconsiderate policy that hasn’t given Vipkid much joy on the net. For any class cancellation that a Vipkid teacher makes a prior to 24 hours before the start of the lesson, it’ll go against you when you are trying to get a raise. If you cancel a class within 24 hours of the start time, they will be fined $10 per lesson.

There are exceptions to this, including death, birth, natural disasters, and severe illnesses.

Qkids cancellation policy is a lot more flexible and palatable for teachers. You won’t be penalized financially,but you will have to notify them some time in advance.

This needs no saying, the Vipkid cancellation is a real pain. The more flexible alternative is the accommodating Qkids cancellation policies. We can only hope for better reforms to remove this inconvenience on the Vipkid platform down the line.

Remote Work Opportunities

A lot of reasons spur us to want to teach English online. A popular one is the freedom you get when your source of income is not tied to a place. These online learning platforms provide varying opportunities to support this effect. A comparison of Qkids vs Vipkid remote working possibilities is;

A low ball of working with Qkids is that you must be in the United States or Canada. Their platform does not operate in any other country. This is a huge problem that really narrows down the scope of the platform.

Hypothetically, you can get the platform to work from other countries with the use of a VPN (a virtual private network). There are a lot of free downloadable VPN apps on the net.

On this platform, you can work from anywhere in the world. As long as wi-fi is good, you should be good to go. You also have the freedom to set your schedule. You do not need to ask anyone for permission.

Vipkid’s policy is more flexible in this regard. You have to physically be in the US or Canada to teach on the Qkids platform. You need a stable wi-fi to get the best out of Vikpid.

Vipkid vs Qkids: Final Thoughts

Hopefully, these answers and comparisons have informed you a little about these two giant English teaching platforms. Each platform is its own peculiar deal, but knowing which one is more fitting to you, can be a lot of help. You can definitely try both the companies. 

In simple, If your wish is to find a full-time job as an online teacher, then you’d be more partial to Vipkid. On the other hand, Qkids employment makes more sense as a supplementary means of income. 

That being said, you should weigh the pros and cons before you make your own decision. Ready to teach? Find out if you’re eligible…