How much do online Quran classes cost?

Quran academies advertise monthly prices, which sounds simple until you try to compare two of them. One charges more per month and gives twice the lessons. One looks cheap until you notice the lesson is twenty minutes. This guide turns the monthly figure into the number that actually compares — the price per lesson — and lists what should be included at that price.

What do online Quran classes cost per month?

These are our own plans, which we publish rather than quote on request. Every lesson is 30 minutes and one-to-one with the same teacher.

The same plans in the other currencies families here pay in:

Why do academies differ so much on price?

Four things account for nearly all of it, and only one of them is obvious from a price list.

• Lesson length. Thirty minutes is the norm for children, because that is about as long as a seven-year-old reads aloud well. Some academies quote twenty. A price per month tells you nothing until you know which.
• Whether it is really one-to-one. Some cheaper plans are small groups of three or four children sharing a teacher. That is a legitimate way to teach and it costs less — but it is a different product, and your child reads aloud for a third of the lesson instead of all of it.
• The teacher's qualification. A teacher with an Ijazah, or years of teaching children specifically, costs more than a teacher who simply recites well. Both exist in this market at similar advertised prices, which is why asking is worth more than comparing.
• What happens around the lesson. Progress reports, a parent who can join unannounced, a replacement teacher when yours is ill, the ability to change teacher at no cost. These do not appear on a price list and they are most of the difference between a good year and a wasted one.

What should be included at this price?

At roughly $5 a lesson, all of this should be standard. If something here costs extra, that is worth knowing before you compare monthly figures.

• A free trial lesson that you watch, before paying anything
• The same teacher every week, not whoever is free at your hour
• A female or male teacher by your choice, decided when you book
• Permission to join any lesson without arranging it first
• A teacher change at no cost if the match is wrong
• No registration fee and no contract

What makes a very cheap academy cheap?

Usually one of three things, and none of them is dishonest as long as it is stated. Shorter lessons. Group teaching sold as personal attention. Or a teacher who is paid very little, which shows up later as the teacher changing every few months — and a child who starts again each time a new teacher has to learn which letters they still get wrong.

Should you pay for a year up front?

Be careful. A yearly discount is real money saved, and it is also a year committed to a teacher your child has had for one lesson. A reasonable middle is to pay monthly until the match is clearly working — two months is usually enough to know — and take the yearly rate after that if it is offered. An academy that only sells a year up front is telling you something about its confidence in month three.

Is there a free way to do this?

Yes, and it should be said. If someone at home reads with Tajweed and has twenty minutes most days, that beats any paid lesson, because it is daily and it is free. There are also free Qaida videos and apps that teach the letters well. Paid lessons earn their money in two situations: nobody at home has the time to be consistent, or the corrections now need somebody who knows the rules rather than somebody who reads well. Both are common. Neither is every family.