Teachworks vs TutorCruncher (2026): Which Fits Your Center?
A referee's comparison of Teachworks and TutorCruncher: verified 2026 pricing, lesson-meter vs revenue-meter math at two sizes, payouts, and integrations.
Teachworks and TutorCruncher are the two platforms tutoring centers graduate into, both founded in 2014, both offering unlimited tutors on every tier. They meter your bill differently: Teachworks charges a base fee plus a fixed rate per student lesson, while TutorCruncher charges a base fee plus a percentage of your revenue, and that difference decides most of this comparison. Gigpie, which publishes this page, competes with both; the facts below come from each vendor's own pricing, help-center, and terms pages, checked in August 2026, and our own note waits until the end.
Two Meters, Priced at Two Sizes
Teachworks' tiers as of August 2026: Starter at $16.49 a month plus $0.32 per student lesson, Growth at $47.99 plus $0.189, and Premium at $187.99 plus $0.065, with five branch accounts included on Premium and $35 a month for each additional one. All tiers include unlimited students, teachers, and user accounts; API access starts at Growth. The trial runs 21 days.
TutorCruncher's US tiers in the same month: Pay As You Go at $30 plus a revenue fee of roughly 1% and card fees of 3.85%, Startup at $80 plus roughly 0.65% and card fees of 3.5%, and Enterprise at $240 with negotiated rates, API access, and unlimited technical support. UK pricing runs £25, £60, and £200. Add-ons include extra branches at $50 a month, a custom domain at $100, and automated payouts at 0.2% per invoice. The trial is two weeks, and TutorCruncher's terms state billing is non-refundable.
The meters, worked. A six-tutor center delivering 400 student lessons for $20,000 a month pays Teachworks $123.59 on Growth ($47.99 + 400 × $0.189) and TutorCruncher about $210 on Startup ($80 + 0.65% of $20,000). A larger operation delivering 1,500 lessons for $75,000 pays Teachworks $285.49 on Premium ($187.99 + 1,500 × $0.065) and TutorCruncher about $568 on Startup. The gap narrows when lessons are cheap: at $29 per student lesson, Teachworks' Growth rate and TutorCruncher's 0.65% take the same bite per lesson, and below that price point TutorCruncher's meter is the lighter one per lesson, though its higher base fee usually keeps Teachworks ahead overall.
The pattern to take away: Teachworks meters activity, TutorCruncher meters revenue. The higher your average lesson price, the better Teachworks' fixed per-lesson rate looks against a percentage. What TutorCruncher's larger bill buys is a specific automation Teachworks doesn't document: it moves tutor pay, where Teachworks stops at calculating it.
Side by Side
| Feature | Teachworks | TutorCruncher |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Base fee + per-lesson rate | Base fee + % of revenue |
| Published entry tier | $16.49/mo + $0.32 per lesson | $30/mo + ~1% of revenue |
| Top published tier | $187.99/mo + $0.065 per lesson | $240/mo, negotiated rates |
| Free trial | 21 days | 2 weeks |
| Google Calendar sync | Two-way (paid add-on) | One-way iCal feed |
| Payment processors | Stripe | Stripe + GoCardless |
| Direct Debit collection | Not documented | Yes |
| Automated tutor payouts | Not documented | Yes |
| Payroll calculation | Wage tiers from the calendar | Split at point of payment |
| Accounting integrations | QuickBooks Online | Xero, QuickBooks, Sage |
| API access | Growth tier ($47.99/mo) and up | Enterprise tier ($240/mo) |
| Multi-branch accounts | Premium: 5 included, +$35/mo | $50/mo each (US) |
| Custom branding / white-label | Not documented | Yes |
| Support | Live chat + 24/7 AI agent | Phone (London and Chicago) |
| Native mobile app | No | No |
Neither column is our product. Every cell reflects the vendor's own public pages in August 2026; "Not documented" means those pages don't confirm the detail either way.
Where Teachworks Pulls Ahead
Price, at almost any realistic mix of lesson volume and lesson price, per the worked math above. Cheaper API access too: Teachworks includes its API from the $47.99 Growth tier, where TutorCruncher gates its (genuinely well-documented) API behind the $240 Enterprise tier, a five-fold difference for an integration-minded center. Teachworks' calendar story is also stronger for tutors who live in Google Calendar: its two-way Google sync is a paid add-on, but it exists, while TutorCruncher's calendar integration is a one-way iCal feed that external edits never flow back from. And Teachworks publishes spreadsheet import templates covering student, family, and employee lists, which matters on the way in.
The caveat that comes with all of it: Teachworks assembles its feature set from add-ons. Two-way sync, website booking, client cancellation, invoice autopilot, and results tracking each arrive as a separate add-on rather than a bundled default, so the effective price depends on which ones your center turns on.
Where TutorCruncher Pulls Ahead
The money side of running an agency. Split payments divide a paid invoice between agency commission and tutor pay automatically, with the tutor's portion headed to the tutor's Stripe payouts account; Teachworks calculates wages from the calendar with Wage Tiers but documents no payout automation. GoCardless brings Direct Debit collection, the default way UK families pay for recurring services, next to Stripe. Accounting exports cover Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage, where Teachworks integrates QuickBooks Online. White-labeling runs deeper: custom CSS and JavaScript, custom email templates, and a custom-domain add-on. And on the way out, TutorCruncher's help center shows a CSV export for each major record type (students, tutors, jobs, lessons, invoices), a more complete published exit path than Teachworks' report downloads.
Support is a style choice rather than a win: Teachworks runs on chat, with an AI agent available around the clock and human hours Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern, and publishes no phone number; TutorCruncher staffs phones in London and Chicago and gives paid plans chat support with a dedicated account manager after onboarding.
Which One, by Operation Shape
A center optimizing the software line at normal lesson prices. Teachworks. At $50 average lessons, its Growth meter takes $0.189 per lesson where TutorCruncher's Startup takes about $0.33, and the base fees compound the gap. Budget the add-ons you'll actually enable before calling the final number.
An agency that wants tutors paid without a monthly transfer run. TutorCruncher. Automated payouts at the moment a client pays is the one capability in this matchup Teachworks doesn't document, and for 20-tutor rosters it's usually the entire justification for the price difference.
A UK agency, or one that lives in its accounting stack. TutorCruncher, on GoCardless Direct Debit, £-denominated pricing, and Xero and Sage support. If instead you're integration-minded but budget-bound, Teachworks' $47.99 API tier is the counter-argument.
Where Gigpie Fits in This Comparison
Set both of these next to a percentage-of-collections model and the shape changes again. Gigpie takes a flat 2% of what you collect, no base fee, nothing due before revenue moves, and bundles in family-level billing and a CRM that neither Teachworks nor TutorCruncher documents. See Gigpie vs Teachworks and Gigpie vs TutorCruncher if those gaps are what brought you here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Teachworks or TutorCruncher cheaper?
Teachworks, in most cases we can compute from published prices. As of August 2026, a six-tutor center collecting $20,000 a month across 400 lessons pays Teachworks about $124 on Growth and TutorCruncher about $210 on Startup. The gap narrows when average lesson prices drop below roughly $29, where TutorCruncher's percentage takes less per lesson than Teachworks' fixed rate.
What's the real difference between their pricing models?
The meter. Teachworks bills a base fee plus a fixed rate per student lesson ($0.32 down to $0.065 by tier), so cost tracks activity. TutorCruncher bills a base fee plus a percentage of revenue (roughly 1% down to 0.65% on published tiers), so cost tracks collections. Expensive lessons favor Teachworks' meter; cheap, high-volume lessons narrow the difference.
Which one pays my tutors automatically?
TutorCruncher. Its split payments divide each paid invoice between agency commission and tutor pay, and the tutor's portion lands in the tutor's Stripe payouts account, with an automated-payouts add-on priced at 0.2% per invoice on the US page. Teachworks calculates wages from calendar hours using Wage Tiers but documents no payout automation, as of August 2026.
How do lessons reach my personal calendar on each platform?
Teachworks offers real two-way Google Calendar sync as a paid add-on, plus one-way feeds for Outlook, Apple Calendar, and others. TutorCruncher provides a subscribe-only iCal address for your calendar app; edits made in Google or Outlook never return to TutorCruncher. Neither includes bundled two-way sync in a base plan.
Which has better API access?
Both have real APIs; the difference is the paywall. Teachworks includes API access from its $47.99 Growth tier. TutorCruncher's API, which is publicly documented on GitHub, requires the $240 Enterprise tier. For a mid-sized center that wants integrations without enterprise pricing, that's a five-fold difference, as of August 2026.
How do they handle multiple branches or locations?
Teachworks includes five branch accounts in its $187.99 Premium tier, then charges $35 a month per additional branch. TutorCruncher sells branches as an add-on at $50 a month each on its US pricing page. Both models work; the arithmetic depends on how many branches you run and which tier you'd otherwise need.
What support does each vendor offer?
Teachworks: chat support with an always-available AI agent, plus human help Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Eastern, and no phone number published. TutorCruncher: phone lines in London and Chicago, plus chat, video, and email support during a three-month onboarding, then a dedicated account manager reachable by chat, as of August 2026.
Can I get my data out if I switch later?
TutorCruncher documents CSV exports for students, tutors, jobs, lessons, and invoices, plus accounting exports. Teachworks documents report downloads to Excel and CSV, and spreadsheet imports on the way in, but no full-account export. In both cases, confirm the exact export scope with support before signing.
Which fits a UK tutoring agency better?
TutorCruncher, for most. It publishes UK pricing (£25, £60, £200 a month as of August 2026), collects Direct Debit through GoCardless, and runs a London office with phone support. Teachworks processes payments through Stripe, and its published bank-payment support is US ACH.
Do either of them charge per tutor?
No. Both include unlimited tutors, staff, and users on every published tier, which sets them apart from per-seat products. Your bill grows with lessons delivered on Teachworks and with revenue collected on TutorCruncher, not with headcount on either.
Percentage of collections is a third meter
Gigpie charges a flat 2% of collections, bundles household billing with payroll runs and a CRM, and costs nothing until revenue moves. Run your own numbers against both platforms above.
Get startedRelated Resources
- Gigpie vs Teachworks - The head-to-head against the per-lesson meter, with break-even points.
- Gigpie vs TutorCruncher - Two revenue-metered platforms compared directly, payouts included.
- Best Tutoring Software 2026 - The full field, shortlisted by team size and pricing model.