Or: what online lessons actually get you that a textbook doesn’t
Online English teaching isn’t really about convenience, though it does offer that: no commute, no fixed classroom, lessons that fit around a working life instead of the other way round. The actual case for it is narrower and more useful: a good online tutor can watch you use the language in real time and correct the specific thing you’re doing wrong, which no app, course, or self-study plan can do.
That matters more the further along you are. A beginner can get a lot from structured self-study; grammar rules and core vocabulary don’t need a human in the loop. Past B2, the problems get idiosyncratic: a particular collocation you always get backwards, a register you default to that’s slightly too formal or too casual for the context, a hesitation pattern that shows up specifically under pressure. Those need someone watching and listening to you specifically, which is what one-to-one teaching is actually for.
If you’re choosing a teacher, the questions worth asking are practical ones: what’s their actual qualification (CELTA or Trinity CertTESOL, not a weekend course), do they have real experience with your specific goal, exam prep, business communication, academic writing, and will a trial lesson show you their method rather than just a sales pitch. A teacher who spends the trial lesson talking about themselves rather than working with you is telling you something about what regular lessons will be like.
The other half of the equation is what you do between lessons. A weekly session moves the needle slowly if it’s the only English you touch all week. Reading, listening, and writing in English outside of lessons, even ten minutes a day, is what actually compounds. The lesson is where mistakes get caught and corrected; the time between lessons is where the correction sticks.