GoGoKid vs. VIPKid ⁠— Which Should You Work For?

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With hundreds of online teaching companies to choose from, finding the best one for you can be time consuming and difficult. Fortunately, we’ve done some of the hard work for you by comparing two of the most popular online teaching companies for North American’s: GoGoKid vs VIPKid. 

In this article, you can find out everything you need to know about both companies in order to decide which company is right for you. Let’s start with a brief introduction!

What is VIPKid?

VIPKid is an online English teaching company based in China. The company connects students in China with North American teachers for one-to-one English lessons. It’s one of the OG online ESL companies and just about any search related to online teaching will bring up results for VIPKid. The company became popular thanks to its flexible schedules and fair pay, and it’s maintained its position as one of the most popular companies to work for.

What is GoGoKid?

GoGoKid is also an ESL company based in China. Despite being relatively new, it’s one of VIPKid’s main competitors. Much like VIPKid, the company hires North American teachers to work with Chinese children aged 5-18. With GoGoKid, teachers also have the freedom to set their own schedules and teach from anywhere in the world whilst earning $20 per hour or more.

So which company is the best? 

To the naked eye, the differences between the two companies are quite hard to detect, but there are a few factors you should consider as a teacher. Although VIPKid is one of the oldest and most established companies, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best. It’s well worth taking a look into newer companies like GoGoKid to see what they have to offer (like a flexible schedule). 

Keep reading to find out which company is the best in terms of pay, getting hired, using the platform and more.

GoGoKid vs. VIPKid teacher requirements

When it comes to teacher requirements, there isn’t really much differences between the two companies. In fact, their requirements are exactly the same. To become a teacher for VIPKid or GoGoKid you must: 

  • Be a native English speaker
  • Be eligible to work in the US or Canada
  • Hold a bachelor’s degree in any subject
  • Have at least one year of  teaching experience

Neither of the companies specifies that teachers need to have a TEFL certificate on their official website. However, as both companies are based in China, it’s likely that you’ll need one, as this recently became a legal requirement in China.

Winner: It’s a tie. 

Getting hired for GoGoKid and VIPKid

Ok, so the next thing to think about when applying for an online teaching job is the hiring process. Unlike many traditional teaching jobs, getting hired as an online English teacher is usually quite quick, providing that you have the right qualifications and experience. 

However, in this regard, VIPKid has a bit of a bad reputation. Some teachers have complained that the hiring process for VIPKid is too long, and it can take a month or more before teachers can actually start teaching on a full schedule. The hiring process for VIPKid is as follows: 

  • Step one – Online application
  • Step two – Short interview
  • Step three – Short Demo Class 
  • Step four – Preliminary training 
  • Step five – Two more demo classes
  • Step six –  Sign the contract and start teaching

GoGoKid, on the other hand, has a much shorter and simpler hiring process. The process looks like this: 

  • Step one – Apply online 
  • Step two – Take part in 30-minute interview/demo class (20-minute interview, 10-minute demo class)
  • Step three – Sign the contract and start teaching

Because GoGoKid’s process is much shorter, teachers can get hired and start teaching as soon as a week after making their initial application. 

Hiring Process Winner: GoGoKid

GoGoKid vs. VIPKid pay 

The pay ranges for both companies are quite similar. VIPKid advertises pay rates of up to $22 per hour, and GoGoKid offers rates of up to $25 per hour. However, this takes into account various bonuses, not just the base pay. Below are the details of each how each company calculates it’s base pay rates and bonuses. 

VIPKid base pay and bonuses explained

With VIPKid, all lessons last 25 minutes, with a 5-minute break after. Teachers receive a base pay rate of $7-$9 per 25 minute-class. Per hour, this works out as $14-$18. On top of that teachers can qualify for a $1 bonus for completing the class and another $1 bonus per class for teaching more than 45 classes per month. So, if you were offered the base pay rate of $9 per class, and you qualified for all of the bonuses, you could hope to earn as much as $22 per hour on average. 

GoGoKid base pay and bonuses explained

GoGoKid also runs 25-minute classes and the base pay per class is $7-$10. Teachers can also earn bonuses based on an internal points system. Depending on the number of points you earn, you can receive a bonus of 10-25% on your monthly earnings. Points are earned based on factors like student feedback and class completion. So, if you got paid $10 per class, and received the 25% bonus, you could earn as much as $25 per hour, which is $3 more than VIPKid. 

GoGoKid also offer a $300 bonus to new teachers that have completed more than 3 lessons in their first month

Winner: GoGoKid (though their math is a bit harder to understand at first)

GoGoKid vs. VIPKid ⁠— Which teaching platform and curriculum is the most user-friendly? 

Both the VIPKid platform and the GoGoKid platform are very similar. Each company uses their own platform to deliver engaging and slide-based lessons, hich means prep time is minimal.

With both platforms, you can use virtual webcams like Manycam to make your lessons more fun and engaging. After looking around at reviews for each company, I couldn’t find many complaints about the platforms and it seems that both are easy to use and simple for the students to use too.

However, when it comes to the curriculum, GoGoKid gets some really negative feedback from teachers. One teacher called the curriculum ‘downright horrendous’ and said that ‘It is so boring and makes no sense’. Bad lesson planning and not having the right curriculum and tools for online teaching can make it significantly harder to keep students engaged, so in this area, GoGoKid does lose some points.

Winner: VIPKid

GoGoKid vs. VIPKid reviews

Finding out what other teachers think when looking at ESL companies is hugely important. For the sake of this article, I’ve trawled the web to find out reviews about both companies.  I wanted to see which company is the favorite amongst past teachers and find out what the general pain points for current teachers are.

VIPKid Reviews – the good and the bad

With VIPKid being such a popular company to work for, it was fairly easy to find reviews of what teaching for the company was really like. Overall, most teachers were happy with their experience. 

Most reviewers mention the fact that the job is flexible, well paying and that class bookings are in abundance. One reviewer said “ The children are adorable. The hours are flexible and work really well with my time zone in the UK. It would definitely be harder from an American time zone. The company has a great, welcoming feel to it. There are lots of incentives and opportunities to advance in the company.” 

However, VIPKid does get some negative reviews, too. Quite a lot of reviewers commented on the fact that working for the platform can be unstable, competitive and that the hours are quite unsociable if you live in the US. One reviewer said “ Students choose their own teachers, so starting out as a teacher can take some time to gain clients. Hours are in Beijing Time and limited by Chinese law, so North American teachers work very early shifts”

GoGoKid reviews – the good and the bad 

As a newer company, GoGoKid had a lot fewer reviews than VIPKid, and some of them were quite negative. 

As with VIPKid, lots of teachers appreciate the fact that the pay is fair and the position allows them to work remotely. One reviewer said, “I’ve been with GoGoKid for 2 months and it’s been great!”

However, a lot of the reviews focused on the fact that class bookings with GoGoKid were hard to come by, and that the management of the company isn’t so great. One reviewer said, “I used to LOVE GoGoKid! Easy, fun job, but now…teachers are fleeing because things have been changing for the worse QUICKLY.” Some teachers also complained that the bonus system was a little unfair, and teachers are unfairly penalized for emergency absences. 

Glassdoor scores 

Overall, it seems that the VIPKid gets better reviews from teachers than GoGoKid and the scores on Glassdoor accurately reflect that. VIPKid scores 4.3 stars out of 5, whereas GoGoKid only scores 3 stars out of 5.  This could be partly due to the fact that GoGoKid has a lot fewer reviews in general, but there is also a lot of negativity about the company coming from teachers.

Winner: VIPKid

So, which teaching company should you choose?

Each company has it’s positives and negatives but if you’re looking for a company with a good reputation and lots of teacher reviews and good class bookings, then VIPKid might be the right company for you. 

Read our full VIPKid hiring guide

However, with GoGoKid you might be able to earn slightly more than you would by working for VIPKid. So if you’re willing to take your chances of earning big with their bonus scheme, then they could be a good company to go for. 

Read our full GoGoKid hiring guide

Have you worked for GoGoKid or VIPKid? Let us know which company you’d choose in the comments.  

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4 Responses

  1. I have been with VIPKID for two years. But because of some difficulties I have gone over the allotted missed classes. I am now looking into gogokid. I hope it will be a good thing. Your blog is encouraging to me. Thanks.

    I may apply in six months for VIPKID again. I do love it.

  2. the bonus pay for VIPKID has changed dramatically. No more dollar bonuses. It is a very difficult bonus structure and many teachers have left because now they have to work more classes for the same amount of monthly pay.

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