When thinking about earning money online from home, most people think of blogging or getting paid for surveys. However, tech people are likely to flock to software assessment sites, like Test.io.
That being said, there are a number of fraudulent work-from-home opportunities out there as well.
So, is Test.io just another scam, or is it legit?
Test.io is a quality assessment service where testers help find and report bugs in apps, games, or sites. Testers get paid $5-$50 per bug they find depending on its severity, and payments are made on a monthly basis. It’s not a scam, but there are a lot of negative reviews about it.
Let’s take a closer look at what it’s all about, how much you can make, whether or not it’s worth it, and more!
What’s Test.io About?
Test.io offers quality assessment services that help companies find software bugs in their apps, sites, and games by paying people to test them.
There are multiple different types of tests that a client or company can request to be done, such as:
- Regression
- User Acceptance
- Usability
- Sanity Check
- Custom Checks
And as a tester, you’d be looking for software issues that don’t work as they’re supposed to, called bugs, within those testing areas.
There are a few main types of bugs you’d be looking for:
- Functional bug
- Content bug
- Visual bug
- Usability suggestion
With this company, you get to work from home and pick your own hours as a freelancer.
It’s worth noting that if you did work with them, you wouldn’t be an employee, you’d be an independent contractor, meaning you’re still required to pay for your own expenses and take care of your own taxes.
How Does Test.io Work?
If you want to sign up for Test.io, you need to meet a few basic requirements, such as:
- Being 18 years or older
- Having access to at least a desktop computer
If you’re eligible, then all you need to do to start earning with them is follow these basic steps:
- Register
- Complete your first test
- Receive your payout
- Get more invites
1. Register
Once you’ve deemed that you’re eligible, getting signed up is easy and can take less than five minutes.
You just need to create an account with your full name, email address, and a password. Then, you just need to click the link in your confirmation email, and you’re all signed up!
But before you can actually start doing tests, you need to fill out a little more info, like:
- Your native language
- Experience in QA testing
- Education
- What devices you have that you can test on (the more the better)
- Contact information
Once that’s all done, then you’ll be able to start testing by accepting your first invitation.
2. Complete your first test
In order to complete a test, you first have to be invited (which will happen via email) and accept it. You can reject invitations at any time, and you won’t get penalized for it.
Each test on their platform will have an overview page that you can look at before the test even starts. It will tell you information like:
- The scope of the test
- Features
- Instructions
- Known bugs
- Payout of bug reports
It’s also important to note that they measure your activity in tests, so it’s important to put a lot of effort into it.
If you’ve found any bugs, you can fill out the form to let them know. These will be reviewed by both the team leader and the customer before they get accepted (or rejected).
3. Receive your payout
Test.io pays out once per month using a variety of payment methods, such as:
- PayPal
- Payoneer
- Skrill
- Bank transfer
It’s important to note that certain methods may not be available depending on which country you’re in.
On the 11th of each month (or the following business day), your earnings from the prior month get added up.
But in order to actually get paid, you have to request your payout, which you can do between the 11th and 19th of each month. Then you should receive your money by the end of the month.
A PDF invoice, which you can download, will be generated at the time you request payment.
4. Get more invites
Test.io has a distribution algorithm that determines which testers get invites for which tests. The factors that go into this are your:
- Information
- Devices
- Individual performance level
You can join as many tests as you want at once, just make sure you factor in the amount of time it will reasonably take to finish them.
How Much Can You Make?
With Test.io, you get paid not by the amount of time you spend testing or how many tests you complete, but rather by the number and severity of bugs you find.
You can earn anywhere from $5-$50 for each issue you find, depending on the severity level. The lowest level (called low severity) pays as little as $5 per bug, while critical issues (the highest level of severity) can pay $50 per bug.
Things that count as critical issues would be bugs that crash the website or otherwise prevent the core function of the website.
And if you complete a test without being able to find any bugs, Test.io states that you can still be paid for rating the app or completing scripted test cases.
Test.io also states that the top testers earn around 1,000 Euros – or $1,092 – per month.
That’s a lot more than some other online money-making options out there – like MyPoints or PrizeRebel – and it’s about equal to sites like Rev.com.
However, it’s worth noting here that you can only get paid once the bugs have been reviewed and accepted by both your team leader and the customer.
Because of this, you can technically find legitimate bugs that end up being rejected and, thus, not get paid for them. And in fact, that happens to be the case for some people – but more on that later.
Who’s Behind Test.io?
Test.io has three co-founders: Thomas Gruderich, Jan Schwenzein, and Jörg.
The company, formerly known as Testcloud, was recently acquired in May 2019 by a large, publicly traded software engineering company called EPAM systems.
EPAM systems, founded by Arkadiy Dobkin, brings in an astounding $1.84 billion per year and had over 30,000 employees as of 2019.
Is Test.io Worth It?
So far, Test.io has seemed like a good company to work with, but in reality, only reviews from people who have worked there as testers before can give an accurate depiction of whether or not it’s as great as it seems on the surface.
Unfortunately – and to my surprise – the overwhelming majority of reviews are negative.
The one major complaint across most of them was that testers would spend minutes or even hours finding legitimate bugs, only to have them be rejected by either the team leader or customer and not get paid at all for all their hard work.
Test.io claims that about one out of every five bugs get rejected, or 20%.
Honestly, that’s a high percentage in and of itself, but even that doesn’t seem to be the theme among reviewers.
One claims that out of 200 bugs they found, only about 20 were accepted. That means that – at least in that person’s experience – only 10% of the bugs they found were paid for.
Whether that number is accurately representative of everyone’s experience is doubtful, but a lot of people’s complaints are similar.
What I Like
- Signing up is easy and you don’t need prior experience
- You don’t need the latest devices, they can be a little older
- You can work from home and on your own schedule
What I Don’t Like
- According to reviewers, most bugs get rejected
- Payouts aren’t made automatically, you have to request them
- The vast majority of reviews are negative
Conclusion
In the end, Test.io is a legitimate, established software testing company that’s easy to sign up for and doesn’t seem to hard to do.
However, the negative reviews cast a different light on the company than the one it portrays, which is an understandable red flag for many people.
Whether or not you join them is a personal choice, and hopefully this review helps you make an informed decision!
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