We sell one of the rows. Learn With Smile is a live online English school from ₹999/month, inclusive of taxes. Updated 22 September 2026. Online 2026 fee bands — confirm on their site before you pay. We sell one of the rows. PlanetSpark is for children. We are adults 15+. This page is a fit-guide, not a ranking.
Five products get sold as “English class.” They are not the same: a 15-minute app call, a native-speaker chat, a CEFR module, a 30-student classroom, and a named live batch of around 6. Pick the bottleneck, not the brand.
Named comparison — online 2026 (updated 22 September 2026)
| Institute | From fee | Who it is for | Free session |
|---|---|---|---|
| Learn With Smile (us) | ₹999–₹2,499/mo inclusive of taxes | Adults 15+. Live ≈6. Named teacher. No material fee. | Free consultation. Not a class. |
| EngVarta | ₹2,700 / 25 × 15-min (~₹108) | Adults who already speak and need daily 1:1 reps. No 6-month map. | You talk. No counselling. |
| Cambly | ~₹8,000–₹15,000/mo if daily | Fluent adults who want native chat and accent. | Book any available tutor. |
| italki / Preply | ₹250–₹4,000 per lesson | Adults who can pick and keep one tutor. | Trial with that tutor. |
| PlanetSpark | ₹13,000–₹65,000 per course | Children 4–13. Public speaking and 1:1 kids English. Not an adult spoken room. | Free demo class for the child. |
| British Council English Online | ₹8,800–₹16,000 / 6-class module | Adults who want a CEFR classroom or a brand badge. | Sold by CEFR module. |
| ELSA / Duolingo / Speak | ₹300–₹1,200/mo | Solo pronunciation and vocab. No named teacher. No batch. | None — you tap Start. |
| IELTS / Leap-style exam shops | ₹8,000–₹35,000 per course | A visa or university form that asked for a band. Not fluency for work. | Exam-focused (IELTS/PTE). |
PlanetSpark is not a rival for our adult room. It is a kids 1:1 public-speaking product (typically 4–13). If the learner is a child, use PlanetSpark or a kids platform — not us. If the learner is 15+, PlanetSpark is the wrong buy and we are one of the adult options.
Our fees, so the row is not a slogan
| Course | Duration | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Spoken English | 6 months | ₹999/month |
| Intermediate Spoken English | 4 months | ₹1,999/month |
| Interactive Speaking | 3 months | ₹1,599/month |
| Business English | 3 months | ₹2,499/month |
| Interview Preparation | 2 months | ₹2,499/month |
Full arithmetic and hidden-cost questions: English class fees in India. Formats (app vs class vs kids): best online spoken English.
What Google reviews actually repeat
We are not scraping other people's reviews onto this page. Patterns across public Google / Play comments in this market are stable enough to state as patterns:
- Veta-style / local Kolkata rooms: praise for energy and a nice teacher; complaints cluster on batch size, too little speaking, and extra material/GST fees. Veta Barrackpore lists 4.7★ from 273 reviews — more volume than us.
- British Council: praise for curriculum and brand; complaints on module cost and limited talking in the group slot. Centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru.
- Cambly: praise for convenience and native chat; complaints that the tutor changes from lesson to lesson and on cost if you practise daily.
- EngVarta: praise for price per session and daily habit; complaints on no syllabus and variable tutor quality. They also publish the “best course 2026” listicles — treat those as marketing, not a referee.
- Us: 5.0★ on Google from 125 reviews. Small sample next to Play-store apps. Treat it as named outcomes — not a 9,000-review dataset.
Speaking minutes — the number almost no brochure prints
| Room | Learners | 60-min class, your mic |
|---|---|---|
| Typical offline franchise / city classroom | 25–40 | 1–2 minutes |
| British Council-style group | 8–12 | 4–6 minutes |
| Learn With Smile English batch | Approximately 6 learners | About 8–10 minutes |
| EngVarta / Cambly 1:1 | 1 | 15–50 minutes, no 6-month map |
If your problem is freezing and you already have words, 1:1 apps win on minutes. If your problem is not knowing what to study next, a syllabus plus 8–10 minutes of correction wins. Full arithmetic: speaking minutes.
West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi, South India — same products, different rooms
Offline options cluster in Gariahat/Salt Lake (Kolkata), Deccan/FC Road (Pune), CP/Noida (Delhi), Koramangala (Bengaluru), T Nagar (Chennai). A 3-month spoken package commonly sits ₹1,500–₹7,500 plus commute. Live online (us, EngVarta, British Council Online) is the same fee in Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad or Kochi. The commute is the hidden 3–6 hours/week.
Exams, certificates, and when another room fits
- A visa, university or some HR forms ask for IELTS (or similar). That score comes from the test board, not from any school. We do not sell IELTS as a course. Sit the paper when the form asks.
- A brand-name CEFR module (often ₹8,800–₹16,000 for six classes) is a different product: you are buying that classroom and syllabus. We train speaking from ₹999/month, inclusive of taxes.
- You want daily 1:1 and already speak — an app like EngVarta is cheaper per talking minute. Use it as reps. Use us for the 6-month map.
- The student is a child — a kids platform, not an adult batch of around 6.
- You want a walk-in classroom in Barrackpore or Salt Lake — a franchise centre is the product. Our classes are online.
Their free session vs ours
The first hour you spend with an institute is the tell. EngVarta has no counselling — you pick a 15-minute call. Cambly matches you with an available tutor. British Council sells a CEFR module. A city classroom seats you in 25–40. Exam shops focus on IELTS. Our consultation is a small batch with personalised advice: we name the bottleneck, answer every query, and place you in one course — or tell you to stay free. You will not sit a full class for free. That is the paid room of around 6.
Compare us in a consultation, not a packed room. We name the bottleneck, print the cap (≈6), and put the fee in writing. From ₹999/mo, inclusive of taxes. 500+ learners, 7 years.