I want to try something different with this one.
Instead of me explaining how to make money tutoring online in South Africa in 2026, I am going to let someone who is actually doing it explain it. Thabo is a 24-year-old BCom graduate from Pretoria who could not find a graduate job after finishing his degree. He started tutoring Maths and Accounting online eight months ago. He is not a teacher. He has no teaching qualification. What he has is strong subject knowledge, a phone, and a WhatsApp group that now has 47 parents in it.
Here is what he told me.
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| A phone, a whiteboard from Makro, and WhatsApp video. That is the full setup for most local online tutors in South Africa. The students already know the app. You just have to show up prepared. |
Q: How did you actually start? Like what was the first step?
A: Honestly I just listed myself on Superprof. It took maybe 20 minutes. You fill in your subjects, your rates, upload a photo, write a short bio. I said I was a BCom graduate offering Maths and Accounting tutoring for Grade 10 to 12. Set my rate at R180 an hour because I did not want to scare people away. Got my first enquiry four days later. First paid session was the following week.
Q: And you did not need any teaching qualification to list?
A: On Superprof — no. Their requirement is that you have an aptitude for the subject. So a Matric student with a strong pass can tutor younger grades. A university student can tutor high school. They ask you to be honest about your level. I was upfront that I am a graduate, not a qualified teacher. Parents did not care. What they care about is whether their child's marks improve. That is it.
Q: What about Teach Me 2 — is that different?
A: Teach Me 2 is stricter. They want at least 80% in the Matric subjects you want to tutor, or 75% at university level for university subjects. They vet you more carefully. But the clients they send you are more serious — parents who have already decided they are paying for quality. I use both. Superprof for volume and building my profile. Teach Me 2 for higher-value clients.
Q: What subjects are people actually looking for right now?
A: Maths is number one. Always. Physical Science is right behind it. Accounting is strong. English — both first and second language — has consistent demand. What surprised me was how much demand there is for Maths Literacy from parents whose kids struggle but do not want to drop to Lit. And recently I have had enquiries for coding and basic IT. The Grade 10 and 11 market is actually bigger than Matric because those parents want to start early. Do not only focus on Matric panic clients. The ongoing clients in Grade 10 and 11 are where the consistent income comes from.
Q: What platforms should someone starting today register on?
A: I would say start with these:
| Platform | Focus | Who Controls Rate | Typical SA Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superprof SA | All subjects, all ages | You set your rate | R150 – R350/hour |
| Teach Me 2 | School and university | Negotiated with client | R180 – R400/hour |
| Preply | Languages and academic | You set your rate | $10 – $30/hour (R180 – R550) |
| WhatsApp / direct | Local community clients | You set your rate | R150 – R300/hour |
A (continued): Preply is worth it if you want to teach English or Afrikaans to international students. The rates are in dollars. My Preply income has actually become my most consistent because I have three students in Europe learning conversational English and they book weekly. That R550 an hour feels very different to R180.
Q: What about the practicalities — what do you actually need to run a session?
A: A phone is enough to start. I use WhatsApp video for local sessions — parents know it, students know it, no one has to download anything new. For my Preply students I use Zoom because the platform requires it. Google Meet works too. I write on a whiteboard I bought for R120 from Makro and hold it up to the camera. Some tutors use apps like GoodNotes or write in real time on Google Docs and share their screen. You do not need a ring light or a professional setup. You need a quiet room, decent signal, and the ability to explain things clearly.
Q: What is the honest challenge nobody talks about?
A: Cancellations. Parents book you and then cancel on the day. Especially with local clients, the attitude is sometimes "it is just tutoring, we can reschedule." I learned to have a 24-hour cancellation policy — if you cancel within 24 hours you still pay 50% of the session. Some parents push back. Most accept it once you explain it clearly at the start. The other challenge is load shedding hitting mid-session. I do not apologise for it anymore. I have a mobile data backup on my phone and I tell students upfront that if power goes we move to data and continue. Most of the time it works fine.
Q: What would you tell someone starting from absolute zero today?
A: Pick one subject you know deeply. Not five — one. Register on Superprof today. Set your rate at R150 to R180 to get your first few clients and your first reviews. Offer the first session free for ten minutes just to let the student and parent meet you. Once you have three positive reviews your profile becomes much easier to sell. Then raise your rate. And tell everyone you know — parents in your neighbourhood, people at church, former classmates with younger siblings. Your first five clients will almost certainly come from your personal network, not from the platform. The platform is for building beyond that.
That is where Thabo and I ended the conversation. What stayed with me was the simplicity of what he described. A free profile. One subject. A WhatsApp group that grew slowly from one parent who told another. Eight months later he is earning more from tutoring than most of his BCom classmates are earning in their first graduate jobs — and he sets his own hours.
If you have a subject you passed well, a phone with decent signal, and the patience to explain things clearly — the barrier to starting this is genuinely low. The side hustle guide on this site covers the broader income landscape worth understanding alongside this. And if you are building multiple digital income streams, the free AI tools we cover can help you create study materials, generate practice questions, and run your tutoring admin faster than doing it manually.
The students are out there. The subjects are the same ones they have always struggled with. The only question is whether you put your name on a platform today.
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