Novakid Review: What You Need to Know

What is Novakid?

Novakid is an online English school built specifically for children aged 4 to 12, using live one-on-one lessons with a real teacher rather than a self-paced app or pre-recorded videos. Founded in 2017, it now teaches more than half a million students across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Each session runs on Novakid's own browser-based platform (there's also an iOS and Android app), so a child needs only a laptop or tablet, a webcam and an internet connection — no Zoom and nothing to install.

How Novakid lessons work

The teaching method is what most parents come for. Lessons are 25 minutes long — deliberately short, to match a young child's attention span — and the whole experience is gamified, with a Game World, rewards and interactive activities that keep kids engaged. Novakid follows a full-immersion, English-only approach, and its curriculum is aligned to the CEFR framework, progressing through clear levels from Pre-K up to Flyers, with homework between lessons to reinforce each step. For a four-to-seven-year-old who can't yet read, the visual, play-based format does most of the heavy lifting.

Novakid teachers: native vs non-native

Teachers come in two tiers, and the difference matters for both price and accent. The Standard plan uses certified non-native English teachers (a bachelor's degree plus an international teaching certificate such as TEFL, TESOL or CELTA, and experience with children), while the Premium plan gives you native speakers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa. If your goal is pronunciation modelling and conversational fluency from a native accent, Premium is worth it; for solid, structured English at a lower price, Standard is perfectly capable.

How much does Novakid cost?

Novakid is a subscription billed per 25-minute lesson, and the longer the plan you buy, the cheaper each lesson gets. As a rough guide, Standard lessons land around $9-12 each and Premium (native) lessons around $17, with plans typically sold in 1, 3, 6 and 12-month blocks; there's also a lower-cost group speaking class and a sibling discount if you enrol more than one child. Prices and payment methods are localised by country, and international credit and debit cards are accepted — paying from the Gulf, Europe, Korea, Japan or Turkey is a core part of how Novakid works.

Is there a free Novakid trial?

Yes — and it's the smartest way to start, because it needs no credit card. The free trial lesson is the single best way to judge the two things that actually decide whether Novakid fits your family: does your specific child engage with the format and the teacher, and is the scheduling workable across your time zone? Twenty-five minutes with a real tutor tells you more than any review — including this one.

Novakid billing and how to cancel

Here's the honest caveat, because it's the one thing parents consistently raise: billing. Novakid is a subscription that renews automatically, and the recurring note on review sites is that the renewal goes through, the cancellation option can be hard to find, and support is slower once you've paid. The lessons themselves are well-rated; the friction is the renewal. The fix is simple and entirely in your hands — treat it like any subscription: note your renewal date and turn off auto-renew in your account settings before the cycle ends, rather than relying on support to reverse a charge afterwards. There's a 14-day money-back guarantee for new customers; after that, refunds typically cover only unused lessons as account credit rather than cash, so check the current terms for your country.

Safety, progress tracking and our verdict

On child safety, lessons are one-on-one with teachers vetted for their qualifications, sessions can be recorded for parents to review, and Novakid expects an adult to supervise younger children — but it does not publish a formal background-check or safeguarding policy, so if that matters to you, ask their support directly before enrolling. You also get a progress report after each lesson, a dashboard to track levels, and certificates along the way.

The bottom line: Novakid is a genuinely good, age-appropriate, well-reviewed live English course for four-to-twelve-year-olds (Trustpilot around 4.4 stars, Google Play 4.78 from thousands of ratings) — recommended for parents who want structured, engaging one-on-one lessons and will manage the subscription actively. Start with the free trial, choose Standard or native, and set that renewal reminder.