Last Updated on September 12, 2023
Crowd-Working (or Crowd-Sourcing) websites have been online for almost a decade. A lot of companies have come and gone (or acquired by a competitor). But they have been the best ways to find work, especially for people outside the US and UK.
What are Crowd-Working/Crowd-Sourcing Websites and How Do They Work?
Crowd working websites usually provide data collection & data processing (judging, rating, annotation) services to big tech companies. They want a huge amount of online workforce for these tasks, and hence employ people from all over the world (as a contract-based worker, not a regular employee).
Working on them is quite complicated, especially in the beginning. But it is a very streamlined process:
- Sign up for them, provide all your (correct) information and fill in your profile.
- Search for the various projects available, and apply for them.
- If you get accepted, you are provided further instructions regarding the project.
Different websites have different ways they process your application.
Best and Most Trusted Crowd-Sourcing Websites
These particular websites have a great track record regarding work availability and payments. Some of them have been in the industry for over 10 years (albeit as a different website that got acquired; but continued to operate.)
TELUS International (previously Lionbridge)
They have been in the industry for a long time. Recently acquired by TELUS International, it received a much needed platform update.
The confusing thing with them is that they operate under several platforms and have different divisions. You need to sign up through a couple of these divisions to get the maximum opportunities from them.
The guide has all the different signup links I discovered, but there may be more.
They have a wide set of projects available, ranging from data collection to search engine evaluator jobs. Their pay is among the best in the industry, rivalled only by Oneforma.
Oneforma
Oneforma is a fairly new platform, but has shown consistent work availability and good pay rates so far.
They are going through a major platform update at the time of this writing, which tells me that they are in it for the long run.
They have a monthly newsletter which updates you on the latest projects available on the platform. Wonder why other crowd-working sites don’t implement something similar.
Clickworker
Clickworker is the best UHRS platform. I can confidently say this after trying out over 6-7 different contractors. Their payments are consistent and they have the maximum Hitapps.
But Clickworker also has various crowd jobs from time to time. Most of them are data collection or small surveys, but UHRS is itself a crowd job.
It has also been online for more than 10 years and is definitely a trusted platform, based in the UK.
Appen (previously Leapforce)
I don’t know how long Appen will remain in this list, but being in the game for over 10 years (although under a different name, Leapforce) does get them a spot.
They used to pay really well back when it was known as Leapforce. And even their support was top-notch.
But as they grew, they started reducing their rates, their support couldn’t keep up with the amount of members that joined their site after the pandemic.
They now offer the worst pay rates among the other crowd sites. But they still get a lot of work, and this is the only reason I would stick to it. If you are really desperate, go with Appen. They are a trusted company and never default on payments.
Up and Coming Crowd Working Platforms
These are crowd-working websites that show a lot of promise, but struggle with providing consistent jobs. They have work from time to time, and it won’t hurt to check them from time to time.
WeLocalize (Global Search Engine Evaluator Positions)
Welocalize is a global organisation that deals with translation and transcreation work. They have more than 1000 employees spread across a variety of geographies.
They help organisations in becoming global, by transcreating their message to fit different regions and cultures.
For this, they require people from all around the world that can help in transcreating content to fit the narrative of different countries.
Too confusing? Well, let me just say that they provide translation, transcreation, copywriting and a variety of other jobs for different countries and languages.
You can also find the famous Search Engine Evaluator Jobs with them. There are openings for Ads Quality, Keyword Research and Search Quality Jobs for several countries as well.
Teemwork.ai (previously iSoftStone)
Teemwork also has UHRS jobs primarily, but they keep getting annotation and search engine evaluation projects from time to time. I even saw a voice phrase collection project from them recently.
They were previously known as iSoftStone. They do not have as many openings, and it might take a while to get into a project with them. One of my earlier applications in Teemwork got a response after 8 months.
But they never default on payments, and have been in the industry fairly long enough. So I can confidently recommend them.
Neevo (TheDefinedCrowd)
Neevo works exclusively in AI and machine learning data. They have a wide variety of projects available from time to time. They are implemented beautifully, and can even be done from your mobile browser.
This makes it very simple to work on several of their tasks. But Neevo suffers from two problems:
- You need to add several languages and clear their qualifications to start getting tasks on Neevo.
- A lot of your work (especially data collection) gets rejected. There’s a reason behind this, but that means you end up getting paid less than they owe you, sometimes.
But I would still recommend them due to their super user-friendly interface. Plus, they have no minimum payout requirement. They will pay you even if you did tasks worth 1 or 2 cents!
Remotasks
Remotasks has the usual annotation and web judging jobs, but where it really shines is their LiDAR tasks. These are jobs where you train self-driving cars by annotating objects in a 3-D space.
Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, they have a mandatory step-by-step video training that you need to go through. It might take some time, but these tasks pay the best. Some people were able to earn upto 300$ every week from these tasks.
Apart from them, they have a great interface and tutorials for all the tasks they have. Their pay might not be the best, but they have a lot of work available at all times.
General tips to know when working on crowd sites:
There are some general things you should know before you start working for any of the above sites.
- Crowd sites work on a first-come first-serve basis, so it’s best to check them regularly for new projects and apply for them ASAP.
- You should wait at least a week if you contact their customer support. Do some websites reply within 48 hours, most of them are overloaded with tickets. So be patient.
- Expect to wait upto 45-60 days to get paid for the work you did today, as a general rule of thumb. While some websites pay you within a week, most websites follow a monthly payment cycle, so it can take 45-60 days for you to receive the payment into your bank account.
- Some of the projects require you to pass a qualification exam, after reading several guidelines. These are usually long-term projects that have consistent work availabilty. You should give them a good shot, as these long-term projects can supplement you with a part-time income.
Crowd jobs are the easiest to start when you have no idea where to find work online. Some of the projects are so good that they can give you a full-time income, but mostly expect nothing more than rent-money from them.
They usually do not require heavy technical skills, which is why they are the choice of the masses.
If you can do a little more technical jobs, then you should check out Crowd Testing websites. They pay much better, although you are required to follow much more instructions.
I’m really enjoying the information on this site. Thanks for the good work.
Thanks for your kind words, Israel.