How to Choose an Online Tutor in the UK (2026)
Check four things before you book a GCSE or A-Level tutor: an Enhanced DBS certificate and when it was issued; that they teach your child's exact exam board and tier; how they will find out what your child does not know; and what you get after each lesson. Then run a trial of three or four sessions, not one. Tutoring in the UK is unregulated, so these checks are yours or the platform's. By Ciaran Collins, founder of StudyGuru. Platform claims checked 22 September 2026.
Quick Comparison
| Platform | Enhanced DBS | Watches the tutor teach? | Published acceptance rate | Lessons and messages on-platform? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| StudyGuru | Required of every tutor, issued within the last year | Yes: 20-minute live demo with a platform assessor | Roughly 1 in 14 applicants | Yes: monitored messaging, camera on, parent confirms under-18 bookings |
| Tutorful | Required of every tutor | Not published; requires 2+ years' teaching experience | Around 1 in 8 | Yes: platform lessons and messaging |
| MyTutor | Vetting stated to include DBS checks | Interview; live demo not published | Not published | Yes: platform lessons and messaging |
| Superprof | Not required; ask the individual tutor | No; credentials self-declared | Not published | Contact via the platform; lessons arranged with the tutor directly |
Full disclosure first
I'm Ciaran Collins, the founder of StudyGuru, so I run one of the platforms this page compares. Everything below applies whether you book through us, through a competitor, or with an independent tutor found through a friend. Where a competitor does something better than we do, the vetting table says so.
The short answer
Check four things, in this order. One: the tutor holds an Enhanced DBS certificate, and you have seen when it was issued. Two: they teach your child's exact exam board and tier, because AQA, Edexcel and OCR set different papers and a Foundation paper is not a Higher paper with easier questions. Three: they can explain how they will find out what your child does not know, since diagnosis is the part a worksheet cannot do. Four: you get a written note after each lesson saying what was covered and what to do before the next one. Then run a trial of three or four sessions, not one, and keep the tutor your child will actually talk to. Tutoring in the UK is unregulated: nobody licenses tutors, so the checks are yours to make or the platform's to make for you.
What an Enhanced DBS check actually proves
A DBS certificate is a snapshot of the police record on the day it was issued. A Basic check shows unspent convictions only. An Enhanced check shows spent and unspent convictions, cautions, and any relevant information the police choose to add, and an Enhanced check with barred-list information also confirms the person is not barred from working with children. That last one is the check that matters for a tutor. Two practical points follow. First, an individual cannot apply for their own Enhanced check; it has to come through a registered body, which is why platforms arrange them. Second, a certificate from 2019 is a record of 2019. Ask when it was issued, and ask whether the tutor is on the DBS Update Service, which lets you confirm online, with their consent, that nothing has changed since. On StudyGuru every tutor's Enhanced DBS must have been issued within the last year; some platforms require a DBS of every tutor, some leave it to the individual, and the table below says which. Scotland uses the PVG scheme and Northern Ireland uses AccessNI, so a tutor based there will show you one of those instead.
Match the exam board and tier before anything else
The most common mismatch is not ability, it is specification. A tutor who has taught AQA GCSE Chemistry for years will still have to look up the Edexcel required practicals, and a Higher-tier maths tutor may not know which topics simply do not appear on the Foundation paper. Before you talk about price, tell the tutor the exam board, the tier if it is GCSE maths or science, and the target grade, and ask what they would do in the first lesson. A good answer names the specification and starts with a diagnostic, usually a recent mock or a set of past-paper questions, rather than promising to "go through the topics". For A-Level, ask whether they have taught the current specification, not just studied the subject: A-Level Chemistry changed in 2015 and the questions have changed with it.
University student or qualified teacher?
Both work, for different jobs. A strong undergraduate who sat the same GCSEs three or four years ago is often the better explainer for a student who has switched off, because the gap between them is small and the memory of finding it hard is recent. A qualified teacher who has marked the papers is the safer choice for A-Level, for a specific grade boundary, or for a child with additional needs. The price gap is real: on UK platforms entry rates for student tutors start around £20 to £26 an hour, and experienced teachers commonly charge £45 and up. I have written the numbers up separately in how much a tutor costs in the UK. Whichever you pick, the deciding test is the same: after one lesson, can your child explain one thing back to you that they could not explain before?
Run a trial that tells you something
A single free trial lesson rarely settles anything, because the first session mostly goes on getting to know each other and finding the level. Three or four sessions with the same tutor is the smallest sample that shows whether the explanations land and whether your child will turn up willingly. Before the first lesson, send the tutor a recent mock or test, the exam board, and the one topic your child dreads. After the third lesson, ask your child two questions: can you explain what you did today, and would you rather have this tutor or none? If the answer to the second is "none", change tutor, not the plan. On StudyGuru that trial is the Starter Pack, four one-hour sessions from £15 each after a free 15-minute intro call with the tutor.
Six questions to ask before you book
1. When was your Enhanced DBS issued, and can I see it? 2. Which exam board and tier do you teach for this subject, and when did you last teach that specification? 3. What will you do in the first lesson to find out where my child is? 4. What do I get after each lesson: a message, a summary, homework, nothing? 5. What happens if my child does not click with you after three sessions? 6. Where do lessons and messages happen, and can I see them? A tutor who is good at the job will have ready answers to all six. A tutor who is offended by the first one is telling you something.
Red flags that should end the conversation
Will not show a DBS certificate, or shows one issued years ago and is not on the Update Service. Wants to move to WhatsApp, personal email or cash after the first contact, which removes the record of what was said and makes any later concern impossible to investigate. Cannot name the exam board or tier without prompting. Promises a grade. Pushes a block of ten or twenty lessons before a trial. Charges far below the market rate with no DBS and no platform behind them, because the cheapest tutor on a marketplace is not the one you will most likely book and is sometimes not the one you should. None of these prove a tutor is unsafe; each one means you carry the risk instead of the platform.
What 'vetted' means on each platform
Every platform says its tutors are vetted. The table above records what each one actually publishes about that process, taken from the platform's own pages and checked on 22 September 2026. The honest summary: Tutorful and StudyGuru require an Enhanced DBS of every tutor; MyTutor interviews its tutors and states that its vetting includes DBS checks; Superprof lists tutors without requiring one, so on Superprof the checks in this article are entirely yours to make. StudyGuru is the only one of the four where a platform assessor watches every applicant teach a live 20-minute demo before they are listed, and roughly 1 in 14 applicants are accepted. Tutorful publishes a tougher-sounding experience bar, two or more years of teaching, and accepts around 1 in 8. If any of these has changed, tell me and I'll correct it.
Once you have chosen
Give the tutor three things before lesson one: the exam board and tier, a recent marked test or mock, and the target grade. Agree a regular slot, because in UK tutoring the good evening slots fill in the first week of September and again in January. Ask for a two-line note after every session and read it, since the note is how you will know whether the plan is still the right one. On StudyGuru that note is generated automatically from the lesson itself and sent to the parent after every session; on other platforms it is whatever you agree with the tutor, so agree it up front. Review after the first month: if the mock score has not moved and your child cannot say what they have learned, change something, and the first thing to change is usually the tutor rather than the subject.
Trust & Safety
Enhanced DBS Checks
Fresh Enhanced DBS arranged via uCheck for every tutor
7-Step Vetting
Identity, qualifications, DBS, live teaching assessment, and safeguarding approval
Pay After Lessons
Payment captured 24 hours after each session via Stripe
Secure Platform
All sessions on our platform with moderated messaging
Frequently Asked Questions
Do online tutors need a DBS check in the UK?
Is a university student a good GCSE tutor?
How many sessions before I know if a tutor is working?
What questions should I ask a tutor before booking?
Is online tutoring safe for a teenager?
What are the red flags when choosing a tutor?
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