Lingoda Review: A School, Not a Marketplace
Editorial score: 4.0 / 5. Lingoda sells structure. You buy a bundle of 60-minute live classes, taught around the clock by certified teachers to groups Lingoda describes as three to five students, following a CEFR-aligned curriculum with downloadable materials and a certificate at the end of each level. Plans renew every four weeks. Languages covered are German, English, Business English, French, Spanish and Italian.
The rule to understand before you subscribe is what happens to unused classes. Credits roll over while the subscription is active, and Lingoda states that they cannot be accessed once your last payment cycle ends, returning only if you renew. Add the trial that converts automatically on day seven, and the two things that cost people money here are both calendar problems rather than teaching problems. Terms verified July 23, 2026.
What Lingoda actually is
An online language school rather than a tutor marketplace, and the difference decides whether it suits you. You do not choose a teacher and negotiate; you book classes from a schedule that runs 24 hours a day across time zones, and whoever teaches that slot follows the same curriculum. Lingoda's own description of its teachers is that they are "certified, qualified and have a history of teaching excellence" and native-level in the language they teach. That is the company's claim rather than an independent audit, but the structural promise is real: consistency is the product.
Classes run 60 minutes. Groups are small, described by the company as three to five students, with the FAQ also putting it as two to four fellow students alongside you. Materials download free and stay yours, each class is followed by a quiz, and Lingoda issues a certificate for each CEFR level you complete, which it says is accepted by many institutions.
Level coverage differs by language and it matters if you are advanced. English and German run A1 to C1. French, Spanish and Business English run A1 to B2. Italian, at the time we checked, offered only A1 and A2. If you are heading for C1 in a language other than English or German, the ceiling arrives before you do.
What it costs, and why we are not printing a per-class figure
Plans are bundles of classes that renew every four weeks: four, eight, sixteen or thirty-two classes, with the larger bundles costing less per class. On the pricing page we read on July 23, 2026, plan totals ran from €44.99 to €290.99 depending on the bundle size and whether the classes are group or private.
Why there is no neat price table here. Two independent readings of Lingoda's pricing page returned per-class figures that we could not reconcile: the private-class column came out cheaper than the group column, which is not how one-to-one tuition is priced anywhere. Rather than guess which column was which, we are publishing the plan totals, which both readings agreed on, and telling you to read the per-class figures on the page yourself. The site also defaults to euros with a currency switcher, so the number you see may not be the number we saw. A price we cannot stand behind is worth less than an explanation of why we are not printing one.
The credit rule that catches leavers
This is the single most useful thing to know about Lingoda and it is not on the buying page.
Classes you do not take are not lost month to month: unused credits roll over while your subscription is active, which is exactly what you want during a busy few weeks. What happens at the end is the part to plan for. Lingoda states that unused credits stay viewable on your account but that you will not be able to access them after your last payment cycle ends, and that they will be there for you if you decide to renew.
So credits are not a savings account. If you have been banking classes and you are thinking of stopping, spend them down before your final cycle ends, or accept that you are paying for a re-subscription to reach them. This is the mechanic that turns "I will catch up later" into a loss, and it is the reason we would size a plan to what you will realistically attend rather than to the best per-class discount.
Cancellation, in three separate rules
Lingoda documents cancelling a class in more than one place, and the rules are easy to mistake for a contradiction. They are not: they cover different situations, and here they are together.
| Situation | Notice | What happens to the credit |
|---|---|---|
| Standard rule | Seven days before the class | Credit returned |
| Monthly plan, as stated on the pricing page | Three days before the class | Credit returned |
| You just booked it | Within 30 minutes of booking | Credit returned immediately, even if the class is sooner than the notice period |
Cancelling the subscription itself is simpler: a monthly plan can be cancelled at any time from your account and will not renew for the next cycle. On refunds, Lingoda states that cancelling within 14 days of subscribing gets your money back minus any classes already taken. After that window, you are cancelling future renewals rather than recovering what you paid.
The trial converts on its own
Lingoda offers seven free days, covering three group classes or one private class. Two details decide whether that is a gift or a bill. The seven days begin the moment you create the account, not when you take your first class, and a one-time payment for your chosen plan is processed automatically once the trial ends. Lingoda says so plainly and tells you to cancel before the end of the trial to avoid being charged.
Use the trial properly: book classes into the first few days rather than the last, so you actually learn something about the teaching before the decision point, and put a reminder in your phone for day six.
About the cashback programme
Lingoda also runs a marathon-style programme where completing a demanding attendance schedule earns money back. We are not going to sell that as a way to learn a language for free, because that is not what it is. It is a course with a refund attached to strict conditions: you attend on the schedule, you meet the rules exactly, and you get some or all of the money back. People who would have attended anyway enjoy it. People who sign up because it sounds free tend to miss a class, lose the refund and resent the whole thing.
If you are considering it, read the specific rules document for the round you are joining rather than a summary, and note the 14-day limit on getting a down payment back.
Lingoda against the other two shapes
| Lingoda | italki | Mondly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shape | School with a fixed curriculum | Marketplace of individual teachers | Self-study app |
| Who decides the lesson | The curriculum, CEFR aligned | You and your chosen teacher | The app |
| Commitment | Renews every four weeks | None, lesson by lesson | None on the free tier |
| Money mechanic | Credits die with the subscription; 14-day refund minus classes taken | Credits non-refundable, expire after 12 months inactive | Billed by the app store if you subscribe there |
| Certificate | One per CEFR level completed | None | None |
| Best for | People who need the calendar to do the work | People who need flexibility and a specific teacher | Vocabulary and daily habit |
Pros
- Classes run 24 hours a day, so shift workers and awkward time zones are genuinely served
- Small groups, described by the company as three to five students
- A CEFR-aligned curriculum rather than whatever an individual teacher prefers
- Materials download free and stay yours, with a quiz after each class
- A certificate for each CEFR level completed
- Unused classes roll over while the subscription is active
- Three cancellation routes, including an immediate 30-minute undo after booking
Cons
- Unused credits stop being usable once your last payment cycle ends
- The seven-day trial converts to a payment automatically
- Plans renew every four weeks until you cancel
- Refunds are limited to 14 days from subscribing, minus classes taken
- Level ceilings vary: A1 to C1 in English and German, A1 to B2 in French, Spanish and Business English, A1 to A2 in Italian
- You cannot pick your teacher, which is the trade for consistency
- Prices display in euros by default and vary by currency and region
- The cashback programme is easy to misread as free learning and its conditions are strict
Who should use it
Use it if: you have quit before because you never got round to booking, you want a syllabus and a certificate rather than conversation, you are learning English or German and want a route to C1, or your availability is unusual and 24-hour scheduling solves it. Look elsewhere if: you want to choose and keep one teacher, you need to pause for a month without losing what you paid for, or you are at the very beginning and would rather build vocabulary cheaply first. Our language learning hub compares all three shapes, our italki review covers the marketplace alternative in detail, and Lingoda vs Babbel weighs its live classes against the biggest self-study app.
If you subscribe, do these three things
- Diary day six of the trial. The charge is automatic and the clock starts at signup, not at your first class.
- Size the plan to your real week, not to the biggest discount. Credits roll over while you are subscribed and stop working when you are not.
- Learn the cancellation notice for your plan before you book a month of classes, and remember the 30-minute undo on a fresh booking.
See Lingoda class plans and schedules
Frequently asked questions
How much does Lingoda cost?
Plans are sold as bundles of 60-minute classes and renew every four weeks. On the pricing page we read, plan totals ran from 44.99 to 290.99 euros depending on how many classes the bundle contains and whether the classes are group or private, with larger bundles costing less per class. Prices are shown in euros by default with a currency switcher on the site, so check the figure in your own currency before subscribing. Verified July 23, 2026.
What happens to unused Lingoda credits?
They roll over while your subscription is active, and they stop being usable when it ends. Lingoda states that unused credits remain viewable on your account but cannot be accessed after your last payment cycle ends, and that they become available again if you renew. In practice that means credits are not a bank balance: banking classes for a quiet month is fine, but cancelling with a stack of unused credits loses their use rather than refunding them.
How do you cancel a Lingoda class?
There are three routes and which one applies depends on your plan and timing. The standard rule is that a class can be cancelled without losing the credit seven days in advance. On the monthly plan, Lingoda states a class can be cancelled three days in advance with the credit returned. Separately, a booking can be cancelled within 30 minutes of making it and the credit comes straight back, even if the class is sooner than the notice period.
Is the Lingoda free trial really free?
It is free for seven days and it converts automatically. Lingoda states that the seven free days begin the moment you create your account, that the trial covers three group classes or one private class, and that a one-time payment for your chosen plan is processed automatically once the trial ends, so you must cancel before it finishes to avoid the charge. Set a reminder for day six rather than relying on remembering.
Are Lingoda teachers qualified?
Lingoda describes its teachers as certified, qualified, native-level instructors with a history of teaching excellence, and classes follow a CEFR-aligned curriculum rather than a teacher's own plan. That is the company's own description rather than an independent audit, but the structural point stands: unlike a marketplace, you are buying a school's standard and curriculum rather than choosing an individual, and a certificate is issued for each CEFR level you complete.
How we reach these verdicts, and the sources behind them, is on our methodology page. Class structure, group size, languages, CEFR ranges, teacher description, materials, certificates, trial terms, credit behaviour and every cancellation rule above were read from Lingoda's own pricing page and FAQ and verified July 23, 2026. Plan totals are quoted in euros as published, because the site defaults to euros and offers a currency switcher; we do not publish per-class figures for group and private classes because two readings of the page did not agree. We earn a commission if you subscribe through our link, which is why the credit expiry and the automatic trial conversion are stated here rather than left for you to discover.