Success Tutoring vs Varsity Tutors: Tutoring Franchise or Online Marketplace?

Varsity Tutors is one of the largest online tutoring marketplaces in the United States, and it is not a franchise. You cannot buy a Varsity Tutors territory, open a Varsity Tutors centre or own a piece of its brand. Success Tutoring is the opposite proposition: a K-12 tutoring franchise where a partner owns and operates a physical, membership-based learning centre under a shared brand and system. People researching how to build a tutoring business often compare the two, so this guide does exactly that. It looks at what each model is, what students receive, what the operator or tutor receives, how the money works, and which path suits which person.

At a glance

• What it is: Varsity Tutors is a direct-to-consumer online learning platform owned by Nerdy Inc., a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker NRDY. Success Tutoring is a tutoring franchise founded in Sydney in 2017, franchising since around 2020, with centres run by franchise partners.
• Founding: Varsity Tutors was founded in 2007 in St. Louis by Chuck Cohn while he was a student at Washington University, initially connecting families with in-home tutors and test prep, according to St. Louis Magazine and KSDK. Nerdy went public in 2021 through a business combination with the SPAC TPG Pace Tech Opportunities.
• Delivery: Varsity Tutors is online. Success Tutoring is delivered face to face in retail-style learning centres.
• Ownership: With Varsity Tutors, independent tutors contract to deliver sessions on the platform. With Success Tutoring, a franchise partner owns the local business, the members and the team.
• Scale: Nerdy's FY2025 annual report records 33.2 thousand Active Members at 31 December 2025. Success Tutoring has reported 35 Australian centres in 2023 with 80 more scheduled (Franchise Executives) and has announced launches in New Zealand, the US, Singapore, Canada, the UK and India.

How each tutoring franchise or marketplace model works

Nerdy describes Varsity Tutors as a curated gig-economy and direct-to-consumer platform for live online instruction. Its FY2025 10-K lists the formats it sells: one-on-one tutoring, small-group and large-format classes, tutor chat, essay review, adaptive assessments and self-study tools, packaged mainly as subscription Learning Memberships. The company also sells to schools and districts through an Institutional segment. In 2025, Nerdy reported that Learning Membership revenue grew 2% year on year while total revenue fell, mainly because Institutional revenue declined and a state-funded programme did not recur.

For a would-be business builder, the key point is that the platform owns the customer relationship, the pricing and the brand. A tutor on the platform is a contractor delivering sessions. There is no territory, no local brand equity and no asset to sell later.

Success Tutoring is a franchise. A partner signs a franchise agreement for a territory, opens a centre with support on site selection and leasing and fit-out, recruits and trains tutors through the franchise system, and enrols families as members. The partner owns the local entity, carries the costs, keeps the margin after franchise fees, and can grow into a second or third centre. The brand, curriculum, systems and marketing come from head office; the business belongs to the partner.

What students get

Varsity Tutors students get flexibility and breadth. The company's UK membership pages advertise instruction in more than 3,000 subjects, and sessions happen online at times the family chooses. Memberships bundle a set number of live tutoring hours with classes and self-study tools. Varsity's own membership page has shown plans at approximately $299 per month and $269 per month, each including four tutoring hours a month, plus a custom option, with the lower price tied to a longer commitment. Reviewers such as PrepMaven note that not all pricing is published and some plans require a sales call.

Success Tutoring students get in-person support in English and Mathematics from kindergarten to Year 12, delivered in a dedicated learning centre by tutors who have been recruited and trained through the franchise's tutor training platform. The membership model means a student is assessed, placed and then supported week after week with the same team, in a space built for learning rather than a bedroom webcam. For many families, particularly with younger children, the physical centre is the product: a routine, a place and people the child knows.

Both models solve a real problem. The marketplace suits a motivated senior student who needs a specialist for one subject at odd hours. The centre suits a family that wants a consistent, local, face-to-face programme across the core subjects.

What franchise partners get versus what platform tutors get

A tutor on Varsity Tutors gets access to demand without doing their own marketing, scheduling tools, and the ability to work from anywhere. They do not set the retail price, choose their students in the way a centre owner does, or build equity. Nerdy's own description of a curated gig economy is accurate: it is flexible work on someone else's platform.

A Success Tutoring franchise partner gets a business system designed to be run by a non-teacher:

• Launch and pre-marketing support, with centres reported to have opened with 45 to 70 or more members signed before opening day.
• Tutor recruitment and an online training platform so the partner does not need to be an educator. Partners come from corporate, engineering, finance and small-business backgrounds, as our franchise stories show.
• Learning resources and curriculum for K-12 English and Maths.
• Ongoing marketing support and a national and global brand.
• A flat franchising model where partners deal directly with head office leadership.

The trade-off is commitment. A franchise partner signs a multi-year agreement, invests capital and takes on a lease and a team. A platform tutor can stop next week.

Investment and fees

Varsity Tutors has no franchise fee because there is nothing to buy. The cost to a tutor is time; the platform earns the difference between what families pay and what tutors receive. If your plan is to build an independent online tutoring business rather than work on a marketplace, you take on the marketing, technology and payment infrastructure yourself and compete for attention with a publicly listed platform. That is a different and often underestimated cost.

Success Tutoring publishes its investment detail directly to prospective partners rather than in articles. The components, including the initial investment, fit-out, launch marketing and ongoing fees, are set out on our investment schedule, and the modelling we use for centre performance is on potential earnings. Compare those numbers against the realistic revenue of a solo online tutor, who is limited by the number of hours they can personally teach, and against the capital a self-built online brand would need.

Markets and footprint

Varsity Tutors is a US company serving a national online market, with membership pages for other English-speaking countries including the UK. Nerdy's reported Active Members (33.2 thousand at the end of 2025, with average revenue per member of $364 in its 10-K) show the scale of a national digital platform and also its exposure: digital demand rose and fell sharply through and after the pandemic, and IBISWorld estimates US online tutoring revenue has declined at a 3.2% compound rate since its lockdown-era peak.

Success Tutoring grows territory by territory. Reported Australian milestones include 35 centres in 2023 and territories sold in more than 100 locations. Internationally it has announced New Zealand (25 sites over four years), a Texas launch targeting 80 units in five years, a 2026 Canadian launch with a goal of 120 units by 2029, plus Singapore, the UK and India. Available territories are listed on available locations.

Who each option suits

Varsity Tutors (as a tutor or as a model to study) may suit you if:

• You want flexible, location-independent teaching work with no capital at risk.
• You are a subject specialist who prefers to teach rather than manage.
• You are testing whether tutoring is for you before committing to a business.

A Success Tutoring franchise may suit you if:

• You want to own a local business with a physical presence, a team and a member base you can grow and eventually sell.
• You want a proven system, brand and launch process rather than building marketing and technology from scratch.
• You are comfortable with a multi-year commitment and a capital investment, and you want recurring membership revenue rather than hourly income.

If you are weighing a franchise against building independently, our guide to tutoring franchise vs starting from scratch goes deeper on that decision.

Frequently asked questions

Can I buy a Varsity Tutors franchise?

No. Varsity Tutors is a platform owned by Nerdy Inc., a listed company. Tutors contract to teach on it and families subscribe to it, but there are no franchises or territories for sale.

Is an online marketplace cheaper than a tutoring franchise?

For an individual tutor, yes: there is no fee to join. For someone building a business, the comparison is less simple. Building your own online brand means funding marketing, technology and payments yourself while competing with national platforms. A franchise charges fees but supplies the brand, system and launch support. Review our investment schedule and model both paths honestly.

Does Success Tutoring offer online tutoring?

Success Tutoring's model is centre-based. Our focus is face-to-face membership tutoring in English and Maths delivered in retail-style learning centres, which is where we believe the strongest outcomes and the most defensible local business are found.

Do I need to be a teacher to own a Success Tutoring centre?

No. Franchise partners manage the business; tutors are recruited and trained through the franchise system. Many partners come from corporate, finance, engineering and small-business careers.

How did Varsity Tutors perform in 2025?

Nerdy's FY2025 annual report says Learning Membership revenue rose 2% while total revenue fell, mainly because Institutional revenue declined and a state-funded programme did not repeat. It ended the year with 33.2 thousand Active Members. Check the latest filings for current figures.

Next steps

If you want to teach on your own terms, a marketplace is a reasonable place to start. If you want to build a business with a brand, a team and a centre the community recognises, a tutoring franchise is the more direct route. Start with why us and then read what the process looks like to see how a Success Tutoring partnership moves from enquiry to opening day.

All third-party trademarks belong to their respective owners. Figures about other franchises are taken from their public websites, disclosure documents or reputable franchise directories at the time of writing and may have changed; verify them directly before making any decision. This article is general information, not financial or legal advice.