For people who teach a language online

Everything behind your language lessons, in one place.

Schedule, notes, student portal, lesson packages, invoices, finances. The back office of teaching one-on-one online, finally connected. What you write during a lesson is already on your student page.

  • Free to begin (up to 5 students)
  • No account for your students
  • Works on your phone
  • Syncs with Google Calendar
  • Take your data out as CSV

Here is how much work goes away.

Rather than inflate a percentage, here is what changes in the work you do every week.

After a lesson

Until now

Screenshot the notes and send them, write a summary in chat, copy the words into another list

With cotobo

The moment you write it, it is on your student page. There is nothing to send.

Three chores to none

Month-end invoicing

Until now

Count the lessons in your calendar, subtract the fees, build an invoice in a spreadsheet, export a PDF, send it

With cotobo

Tick the unbilled lessons and press once. Out comes a PDF with your bank details and a QR code.

Five steps to one

What did we do last time?

Until now

Hunt for your memo, scroll back through chat, start the lesson without remembering

With cotobo

Open the student page and every earlier note and word is still there. Your student can look back too.

Searching to just opening

What is inside.

Four parts, connected inside one screen. You can start with just one of them.

Notes

One notebook the two of you write in

  • Open the same notebook at once and write together
  • Furigana, part-of-speech stamps, marks and a dictionary, inside the notebook
  • Record a pronunciation model and pin it in
  • Words you add build up in your student vocabulary list

Student portal

A page of their own for each student

  • Send one link. No app, no account
  • Notes, materials, vocabulary and a word from you
  • The next lesson and the goal they wrote sit at the top
  • Only the person you issued it to can open it

Lessons and schedule

Your usual calendar becomes the record

  • Syncs with Google Calendar every 5 minutes
  • Each event becomes a draft lesson record
  • Lesson packages count down on their own
  • Busy times flow to your booking site (iCal)

Finances and invoices

What you actually receive, after fees

  • Totals are net of italki, Preply and other fees
  • Yen and dollars arrive already tallied together
  • Tick the unbilled ones for a PDF with bank details and a QR code
  • Export a whole year as CSV

Sound familiar.

Six things we hear most often from people teaching online.

You resend your notes after every lesson

The notes are on the student page the moment you write them. The sending step disappears.

Your student forgets what you did last time

They can look back at every earlier note and word on their own page, any time.

You keep your schedule in two places

Events land here every 5 minutes and become draft lesson records.

You are not sure how many lessons are left on a package

It counts down after each lesson and shows on the student page and on today list.

You cannot tell what is left after the platform fees

Everything is totalled as what you receive, net of italki, Preply and other fees, across currencies.

Month-end invoicing eats an evening

Tick the unbilled lessons and press once for a PDF with your bank details and a QR code.

Pricing.

Begin at no cost and switch when your list grows. These are the planned plans for launch, at the same prices as the pricing page.

Free

¥0/mo

Up to 5 students

Begin with your records, for nothing.

Standard

¥1,480/mo

Up to 20 students

When your student list grows.

Pro

¥2,980/mo

No limit on students

Let go of everything that is not your craft.

What people say.

cotobo is in beta right now. As soon as we have them, and permission to share them, the words go here.

Coming soon

Words from language teachers in the beta, once they say we may

Coming soon

And from coaches and consultants using it outside language teaching

Coming soon

How it looks from the student side

Why you can rely on it.

Instead of decorating the page with numbers, only things you can check for yourself.

01

Built by a working Japanese teacher, for herself

Someone who teaches Japanese online builds it while using it in her own lessons. The order of the features is the order of the problems.

02

A student page is for the one person you gave it to

Students need no account. Only the person you handed the link to can open the page, and it is never public.

03

Your data comes out, and can be deleted

Lessons and finances export as CSV. When you leave, delete the account from settings and the data goes with it.

Frequently asked questions.

Is there a free plan?

Free covers up to 5 students at no cost, with the same features: notes, student portal, schedule and finances. Move to Standard or Pro when your list grows.

Do my students have to sign up?

No. You send one link to their own page. No app to install, no account to create.

Can I see my finances net of italki or Preply fees?

Yes. Set where each lesson comes through and the totals are net of that platform fee, with dollars and yen tallied together.

Does it work on a phone?

Notes during a lesson and today schedule work from a phone or tablet. CSV exports and detailed settings are easier on a computer.

What happens to my Google Calendar?

Connect it and events arrive every 5 minutes. Keep booking in your usual calendar; cotobo turns the events into lesson records.

If I leave, can I take my data?

Lessons and finances export as CSV. Delete the account from settings whenever you like, and the data goes too.

Not teaching a language.

If you teach one-on-one online, it works the same way. It is built for language teaching first, but the machinery does not care about the subject.

Coaching

Coaching, counselling, consulting

Share the session record with the other person, and keep packages and invoicing in the same place. The notebook is free-form, so your method is your own.

Tutoring

Tutoring, music, programming

Leave homework on the student page for them to read before next time. You can hand the link to a parent instead.

Anyone

Any one-on-one teaching

Schedule, notes, student portal, packages, finances and invoices work as they are. The language-specific parts, furigana and the dictionary, stay out of the way unless you use them.

The fee presets that ship with cotobo are the language ones, italki and Preply. Teaching somewhere else means adding one line of your own.

Begin with the free plan.

cotobo is still preparing for launch. When the doors open, you will hear it here first.

Preparing for launch

New registrations are not open yet. Launch details will be announced here.