CANTONESE HEAD TO HEAD
Choose between Preply Cantonese tutors and Canto School by the practice you want, the price you actually pay, and what you need alongside it.
Published by Canto School, the maker of one of the apps compared here. Our picks are editorial recommendations. See sources and method.
For an English-speaking beginner who wants a practical daily phone course, our pick is Canto School. Choose Preply Cantonese tutors when its specific strengths below matter more to you.
Documented features are separated from what we could not verify. A lower price is not evidence that an app supplies the same service as a tutor, a dictionary or a larger content library.
| What matters | Canto School | Preply Cantonese tutors |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free browser course; optional US$7.99 / month native Full Course | Tutor-specific; observed US$22–45 per 50 minutes |
| Billing | No subscription for the browser course or public audio library. The optional native Full Course is a monthly subscription: three monthly payments total US$23.97; twelve total US$95.88. Those are sums of monthly payments, not annual-plan offers. Stores show local prices and renewal terms. | Those were examples, not a guaranteed range. Plans renew every 28 days with a minimum four 50-minute lessons; the trial is charged separately. |
| Try before paying | The full browser course and published Cantonese audio library are free. The native app is a separate offer: free download and starting lesson, plus free Build with available exact recordings. Native Full Course adds all course stages, full Vocabulary, flashcards, Review and Theory. | Paid trial; its price depends on the tutor. |
| Main practice | A free browser Cantonese course with recorded listening, meaning checks, replies and sentence-building practice. The native app adds its phone lesson path, Build, vocabulary, flashcards and review. | A tutor marketplace built around recurring personal lessons and teacher-specific study plans. |
| Pronunciation notation | Traditional Chinese, Jyutping with tone numbers and English support. | Tutor-dependent. Request English explanations and Jyutping if you need them. |
| Offline study | The browser course and web audio need an internet connection. Native app lessons and available recordings are included for offline study. Purchases, restores and subscription checks can need internet; this is not a promise of indefinite offline subscription access. | Live lessons require internet. |
| Speaking and feedback | Exercise answer feedback and record-and-compare speaking practice. Supported iPhones can check recognized words; Android does not. Neither is a pronunciation or tone grade. | Individual live instruction and correction, depending on the selected tutor. |
Preply is worth considering when you want someone to listen, correct and adapt instruction. Choose the tutor carefully: the platform lists different teachers, prices and lesson styles. Cantonese ability, a teaching method you enjoy and the ability to explain through English matter more than the platform name alone.
Canto School is our recommendation for daily independent practice. It gives you something concrete to do between sessions and costs US$7.99 monthly in the US App Store. It is not an equivalent replacement for a live teacher, and we do not present the lower app price as buying the same service.
The checked Cantonese page showed examples at US$22, US$32, US$35, US$38, US$40 and US$45 per 50-minute lesson. The marketplace changes, so these are dated examples rather than a promised minimum or maximum. Preply’s help says subscriptions renew every 28 days and start at four lessons per cycle; trials are a separate charge.
At an illustrative US$25 for each of four lessons, a cycle would be US$100 before other conditions. That illustration is not a current tutor offer or a calendar-month quote. Use the budget planner with your actual teacher’s rate, and include only the tutoring frequency you can sustain.
Try a free Canto School browser lesson and an appropriate sample or lesson from Preply Cantonese tutors. Compare whether you understand the instructions, can follow the sound support and know what to do next. Choose the routine you can repeat. For personal pronunciation correction, seek a suitable Cantonese teacher rather than treating an exercise score as a tone assessment.
Check the full cost guide and study-budget planner, or read our suggested learning approach.
Our competitor price research uses official product pages, pricing pages, help centres and app-store listings checked on 22 October 2026. Canto School’s free browser-course access was updated on 2 November 2026; the Duolingo course-audience answer carries its own check date. The comparison considers Cantonese availability, fit for English-speaking learners, practice format, pronunciation notation, offline access, feedback and the actual billing commitment. We have not independently tested every resource or measured learning outcomes. External links are source links, not affiliate links.
Prices are snapshots, not checkout quotes. Currency, tax, storefront, promotions and platform can change the amount. A prepaid yearly or two-year plan is labelled as such. We do not treat a monthly equivalent as a cancel-any-month price. A missing verified price is marked rather than guessed.
This page compares advertised access and study formats; we have not bought every plan or independently evaluated every recording. Current price and availability are controlled by the relevant provider.
Our overall recommendation favours a practical daily Cantonese course that combines guided practice and review. Different goals lead to different choices. We publish Canto School, so this is a disclosed product comparison, not an independent award or a scored laboratory review. Report a correction through Support.
