Trusted TEFL Reviews (TTR) was founded to do one thing: publish verified TEFL reviews, meaning reviews only from people who can vouch for their participation in the online TEFL/TESOL course they are reviewing. We check, and then we publish.
Most providers listed on TTR never question their reviews. Some reply publicly, others don’t, and both are fine. But a small number have reacted very differently, and the pattern is now clear enough that we want to set it all out in one place: what happened, what we can show, and what it tells students about the review ecosystem.
Verified TEFL Reviews – How TTR verifies reviews
We request proof of course participation or course completion.
This can be a copy of your course certificate or official correspondence from the program you attended showing that you were a student or have graduated.
We don’t have a specific time-frame within which a reviewer must provide this proof, but the review will not be published until the proof has been provided. Typically, if someone has taken the time to write a review, they have no issue sending a screenshot in a follow-up email as proof of their participation or completion.
If verification fails, the review will not be published.
We do not remove reviews because a provider dislikes them. We decline or remove a review only when verification fails or it breaks our published guidelines.
1. Henry Harvin
Henry Harvin threatened us by email, stating that they would pursue legal action unless we deleted the review from their listing. At the time, there was only one review, and it was negative. We did not delete it.
No legal action followed, but what did follow was a sudden influx of five-star reviews for Henry Harvin, none of which could be verified.
Henry Harvin Verified TEFL Reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/henry-harvin-education/
2. ITTT
ITTT has very mixed verified TEFL reviews on TTR.
ITTT’s Affiliate and Marketing Manager, Linda Dunsmore, works full-time for the company and occasionally publishes pieces online that aim to undermine TTR’s credibility.
Like the affiliate marketers mentioned later in this article who work for The TEFL Academy, Linda Dunsmore often exaggerates the results of taking a TEFL course through the ITTT program.
Readers should bear in mind that these claims come from a salaried employee of a company reviewed on TTR.
ITTT Verified TEFL Reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/ittt
3. ESLinsider
ESLinsider presents itself as a TEFL whistleblower website, but it also promotes and sells its own TEFL program.
After verified TEFL reviews of that program were published on TTR, its owner, Ian Patrick Leahy, began publishing misinformation about TTR on that site and elsewhere.
He has been banned from Facebook since 2017 and is essentially the “Alex Jones of TEFL.”
Ian spreads misinformation about many TEFL-related companies; by doing so, his website appears in online searches for his business competitors.
In our view, a program that markets itself as an independent watchdog while selling a competing product has a commercial stake in how other providers are rated.
ESLinsider Verified TEFL Reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/eslinsider-tefl
4. The TEFL Academy
Until early 2021, we had no issues with The TEFL Academy (TTA). After the company changed owners, the new team emailed us to introduce themselves and asked whether their graduates could post reviews on TTR. We said yes, as we do with every provider.
The removal requests
Over roughly three years, The TEFL Academy has repeatedly asked us to delete content, in correspondence from the company and its solicitors. The list identifies about 70 URLs: student reviews, articles and other material based on publicly available information. It includes critical reviews, and it also includes reviews in which students describe positive experiences with the company.
We have told TTA many times that if it can show us verifiable evidence that a specific statement on this site is false, we will review it and, where appropriate, correct or remove it. That offer doesn’t depend on TTA agreeing with a reviewer’s opinion or rating.
Accreditation: the clearest example
TTA’s website lists three organizations as its “Accreditation Partners”:
- Qualifi, an awarding body
- DEAC, which accredits institutions
- AQC, DEAC’s curriculum-approval program
What we found
When we checked on October 6, 2026, The TEFL Academy was not listed in DEAC’s directory of accredited institutions. You can search the directory yourself.
AQC is a separate matter. It lists TTA as an approved provider, but approval is not accreditation. Likewise, Ofqual regulates the qualification, which is not the same as accrediting the provider.
Our offer
We have asked TTA to provide proof of accreditation, and if it does, we will edit every related article. It is a simple step, and TTA has not taken it.
Where to read more
We published the list of challenged content so readers can see for themselves what has been questioned. The full list and our position are in The TEFL Academy Requests Removal of Trusted TEFL Reviews Content. Our evidence on TTA’s accreditation claims is in our fact-check, and for how we assess accreditation generally, see our TEFL Accreditation Guide.
The flood of reviews
Then the reviews arrived. On a single day we received around ten five-star reviews, and many more followed over the next few weeks. We asked each reviewer to confirm they had taken the course. We could verify only one or two, and almost none replied. Reviews we cannot verify are not published.
The Brand Ambassadors
In February 2021, about a month after TTA changed hands, Caitriona McTiernan began promoting The TEFL Academy online. She was a TTA Brand Ambassador and affiliate marketer, and for a time she seemed to be everywhere: YouTube, Facebook groups, forums, blogs, etc.
Some of her claims were, in our view, unrealistic. For example, she said that teachers can earn $100 US an hour teaching English online. Most online English teachers report earning far less. We are not saying TTA wrote that claim, only that it was made by a person promoting TTA who earns commission when people enroll.
We have noticed that TTA’s more recent Brand Ambassadors maintain a much lower public profile. We can’t say why. We can say that Brand Ambassador pages that were live in 2021 and remained available through 2024 appear to no longer be available, as of October 6, 2026.
The affiliate review
Caitriona McTiernan, a Brand Ambassador and affiliate marketer for TTA, then submitted a review herself.
It read like copy from a marketing department’s shelf, so we declined it.
She has since spread misinformation about TTR online, as has another TTA Brand Ambassador and affiliate marketer, Megan Broccoli.
We documented this in our warning post about Ms McTiernan. Both are shown below in their official Brand Ambassador images. Everything is documented in our TEFL Academy category.
The threat
On May 17, 2022, a comment was submitted to TTR using Ms McTiernan’s email address and a WordPress.com account displaying her photo. It read:
“I’m warning you to delete this immediately. If you don’t there will be consequences. We know where you live in Vienna, Mia.”
A later follow-up read:
“Sorry, I’m stressed out today. Please delete my message. I’m sorry for my outburst, Mia.”
We regard a message that tells a site editor where she lives, attached to a demand to delete content, as a threat. We have kept both messages. Full context is in our original post.
Their argument, and why it fails
TTA and its affiliates point to large numbers of five-star reviews on other platforms, set them against TTR’s mixed results, and conclude that TTR must be biased.
A reader of this site put it well in a comment, which we published anonymously at their request.
After examining TTA’s Trustpilot profile, they described what looked like review dumping and astroturfing on a large scale, and noted that Trustpilot says it does not fact-check reviews.
We checked the profile ourselves on 6 October 2026. Trustpilot listed 2,371 reviews in total, 91% of them five-star, with 506 posted in the previous 12 months.
Trustpilot says it may label a review “Verified” when it can confirm a business interaction took place, and that it does not verify the claims reviewers make.
We tested what that means in practice.
We created a Trustpilot account, confirmed our email address, and wrote a review of a business we had never used.
The next day the review appeared with the “Verified” label. [We have since deleted it.] This was one test, but it shows that the label can be obtained without ever having been a customer.
What the Trustpilot page looked like
On 6 October 2026 we saved a capture of TTA’s Trustpilot reviews (sorted by “Most recent”, page 2 of the company’s review pages: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.theteflacademy.com). We have split it into eight images so every review is readable.
Six reviews were posted on September 21 or 22, 2026, after a one-star review was published.
Five were five-star reviews, and one was a four-star review.
All six are tagged “Verified,” and four of the six come from accounts with a single review. TTA replied to every one of them on September 22 or 23.
It is sometimes said that groups manipulating reviews mix in the occasional four-star rating with a minor criticism, because a profile made up entirely of five-star reviews looks less believable.
We are not suggesting that any individual review shown above was written for that reason. We mention it because it is one more reason why a high average, on its own, tells a reader little.
Below these, in the same capture, is a detailed one-star review from Matthew Nelson, dated 18 September and tagged “Unprompted review”.
He describes being charged the full rate on an installment plan despite a discount code, and says TTA’s emails blamed a “glitch”.
TTA’s reply refers to “this error”. On 23 September the company apologized and offered either a $10 refund or a PayPal invoice with the discount applied. We include the reply because it is part of the record.
What we can say is what the page shows: a detailed complaint sits beneath a run of short, mostly five-star reviews posted within two days of each other, mostly from first-time reviewers and all labelled “Verified”, while the complaint carries a different label.
We cannot see who generated those reviews or why. Readers should look at the pattern and judge for themselves, and should check Trustpilot’s own explanation of what “Verified” and “Unprompted” mean.
What this means for Trustpilot ratings
A “Verified” label on Trustpilot does not tell you whether the reviewer took, or finished, the course, as our own test showed. A five-star average on a platform that does not check attendance therefore cannot be compared with a rating on one that does.
We believe the volume and clustering of five-star reviews for TTA is consistent with organized review generation, and we invite readers to look at the data themselves.
The TEFL Academy Verified TEFL Reviews:
https://trustedteflreviews.com/category/the-tefl-academy
5. r/TEFL
The r/TEFL subreddit has warned its readers about TTR, even though all we do is publish verified reviews. Niche subreddits acting as fronts for commercial activity are not unusual, and we believe something is off at r/TEFL and has been for years.
Here is what we observed. An email sent to us by mistake from the subreddit’s administration contained an IP address that we traced to China.
More recently we have been flooded with spoofed emails, and we traced one to the same IP address.
We cannot say who sits behind that address, since IP addresses can be shared or masked. We can say that the subreddit’s administrators have never disclosed who they are or whether they have commercial ties to any provider, and readers should weigh its warnings accordingly.
TEFL Online Pro, TTR’s 2026 Teachers’ Choice Award winner, has published a Transparency Report that discusses TTA’s affiliate marketing.
TEFL Online Pro has won the award eight years in a row, is ranked first in our 5 Best list, and receives complimentary promotional exposure on TTR as award winner. It is not a paid arrangement, and TTR earns no commission from it
Readers who want to know more can read the report there, in their transparency report.
Our Verified TEFL Reviews vs Providers: What Students Should Know conclusion
A few providers and their affiliates have fought the existence of verified TEFL reviews on TTR.
They can publish many five-star reviews on sites with looser verification, then point to the difference as proof that TTR is biased. It is the other way round: the difference shows what verification does.
We are not changing course. We publish verified TEFL reviews, positive or negative, and we do not delete them under pressure. If you are choosing a TEFL course, check how each review site verifies its reviews before you trust a star rating.
Right of reply: anyone named here may send a response, and we will publish it unedited alongside this article, provided it is accurate and civil.
Is Trusted TEFL Reviews legit?
TTR publishes only reviews from people who can show they took the course they are reviewing.
We do not accept paid advertising, take part in affiliate marketing, or earn commission from any provider, and we do not accept payment to alter or remove reviews. We publish positive and negative reviews alike.
One provider receives promotional exposure on TTR because of an award, not a payment.
Each year we ask language schools, universities, current English teachers and recent TEFL/TESOL graduates to vote for their favorite online program, and the winner receives complimentary promotional exposure on TTR for the year.
The 2026 winner is TEFL Online Pro, the 2026 Teachers’ Choice Award winner.
It has won the award eight years in a row and is also ranked first in our 5 Best list.
The same opportunity is open to next year’s winner.
Join thousands of graduates teaching English online and abroad since 2019.
How does TTR choose its 5 Best list?
Our 5 Best Online TEFL/TESOL Courses list is based on consistently positive verified customer feedback, business practices, and whether the certificate is recognized internationally by employers and visa agencies.
Placement cannot be bought.
We publish the list so students can see the top-rated programs at a glance, and so providers have a reason to improve the service they give their customers.
Every listed program is ranked in our TEFL Course Directory.
Why are TTR’s ratings lower than on other sites?
Ratings from sites that check course attendance and ratings from sites that do not are not measuring the same thing.
A site that does not fact-check reviews can show a very high average for any provider that encourages large numbers of customers, or “customers” to post.
TTR’s ratings reflect only reviewers whose participation we could confirm.
Can a provider have a verified TEFL review removed from TTR?
Not because they disagree with it. We remove or decline a review only if verification fails or it breaks our Review Guidelines. Providers can reply publicly to any review.
If a provider can show that a specific factual statement on our site is wrong, we will review the evidence and edit the article where appropriate. For example, if The TEFL Academy provides proof of accreditation, we will update every related article. We have asked for it, and TTA’s removal requests have so far not come with that proof.
What should I look for when comparing TEFL review sites?
Check whether the site verifies that reviewers took the course, whether providers or affiliates can ask for reviews to be removed, whether reviews appear in sudden clusters, and whether the site discloses how it earns money.
I’m named in this article. Can I respond?
Yes. Send us your response through our CONTACT page and we will publish it unedited alongside this article, provided it is accurate and civil.
Thank you for reading this Trusted TEFL Reviews article, Verified TEFL Reviews vs Providers: What Students Should Know.
— Trusted TEFL Reviews
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