Speak Greek vs italki: Tutors vs a Structured Course
italki lets you book Greek tutors and language partners as you go. Speak Greek gives you a structured course. Here is how they differ and how to combine them.
italki is where a lot of serious language learners end up for speaking practice, and for good reason. It’s a big marketplace of tutors, no subscription, and you pay only for the lessons you book. For Greek you’ll find both qualified teachers and cheaper community tutors. What it doesn’t give you is a course. That distinction is the whole comparison.
Here’s an honest look from people who send their own learners to italki for conversation, and built a course for everything that comes before it.
The short version
Choose italki when you’re ready to talk and want flexible, affordable time with a Greek speaker, with no commitment beyond the lesson you book.
Choose Speak Greek when you want a structured foundation first: the alphabet, grammar, vocabulary, and reading, learned in a sensible order at your own pace.
The two work well together, and we’ll explain how below.
How italki works
You browse Greek tutors, watch their intro videos, and book lessons over video call. There are two kinds:
- Professional teachers, typically $10 to $40 a lesson, who tend to bring more structure and formal training.
- Community tutors, often $4 to $20 a lesson, who are native or fluent speakers offering conversation practice rather than formal teaching.
There’s no monthly fee. You buy lesson credit and spend it when you like. Many tutors offer a cheap trial lesson, so finding someone you click with doesn’t cost much.
For getting real speaking time with a native, at a price that undercuts most local tutors, italki is hard to fault.
What italki doesn’t do
The gaps are the same ones any marketplace has, and they matter most for beginners.
No curriculum. italki connects you to a person, not a syllabus. A good professional teacher may bring their own plan; a community tutor usually won’t. If you arrive as a complete beginner with no structure, lessons can wander.
You need something to work with. Conversation practice pays off when you already have words and grammar to use. Spend a paid lesson having a tutor walk you through the alphabet, and you’re paying premium rates for something a course does better and cheaper.
Variable experience. Tutors set their own style and quality. That’s the cost of choice, and it means a bit of trial and error up front.
How Speak Greek compares
We’re the structure italki deliberately leaves out.
- A clear path. From the Greek alphabet to conversation, in order. See the syllabus.
- All four skills. Reading, writing, listening, and speaking, with AI feedback on the Greek you produce.
- Flat pricing, learn any time. No booking, no time zones, no per-lesson budgeting. Two tiers: the full course, or the full course plus AI feedback on your writing and speaking.
| italki | Speak Greek | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Pay-as-you-go tutoring | Self-paced structured course |
| Pricing | ~$4–40 per lesson | Two course tiers |
| Structure | None built in | Full curriculum |
| Reading and writing | Up to the tutor | Taught from day one |
| Feedback | Live, human | AI feedback, instant |
| Best for | Speaking practice | Building the foundation |
The combination that works
Here’s the order we’d actually recommend. Build your foundation with Speak Greek until you can form your own simple sentences. Then book community tutors on italki for conversation, where every cheap hour now does real work because you’ve got something to say. Keep the professional teachers in reserve for when you want focused correction on something specific.
That way you’re not paying tutor rates to learn the alphabet, and you’re not trying to grind grammar out of a chat that was meant to be practice.
If you’d prefer a tutor platform with built-in lesson packages, Preply works a little differently and is worth comparing. You can also see all the ways to learn Greek together.
Start with the foundation. Units 1 and 2 are free, with no sign-up.