This website is said to pay you for testing software as a freelancer and giving feedback about your experiences. But can you really make money with UTest?

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I found UTest while reading through an editorial talking about ways to make extra money online. This site fits more into the ‘user testing’ category than any other category, though I will say that it certainly seemed different upon my first visitation to the home page (found at utest.com).
First of all, most user testing sites are advertised as sites that pay you for trying client websites. There are also sites that pay you for testing apps.
But this site specifically said this about itself right on the landing page.
“Get Paid To Shape The Digital Landscape. UTest by Applause is the #1 destination for freelance software testing and feedback.”
As of yet, I was not sure what ‘software’ meant, exactly. Maybe this did mean websites and apps, or maybe it actually meant software programs.
But either way, I was curious about it, and decided to look into it further. Here is what I found.
Making Money With UTest
The first step is to take a look at UTest itself and what the service has to offer.
My first impression of this site was not too bad. I did feel like the layout of the landing page was a little bit strange though.
I felt like the header was a bit too wide, and that the graphic on the landing page itself was set a bit too low for my laptop monitor. But, with that being said, I did like the lettering and graphics that were presented.
I felt like this site looked professional, though maybe a bit ‘quirky’ compared to some other sites that I have reviewed. There was a small menu-type bar located at the top-left hand corner of the site (which is kind of weird for a website, as these are usually at the right side), and when I clicked on it, a number of different options were presented.
Here, I could find links to these different sections of the site…
- Articles
- Courses
- Forums
- Tools
- Projects
- Sign In / Sign Up
- Help
Scrolling down from this, I was presented with a ‘Featured’ section of what seemed to be different projects. This was laid out quite interestingly, but once again, the huge width of the header prevented me from seeing a lot of the list at once. Here is what I mean.
So yeah, the projects looked pretty cool, but I will admit that I didn’t really understand what a lot of them were actually saying. There seemed to be some techie stuff going on here that was a bit out of the realm of what I usually get into—but still, it all looked kind of impressive.
I was becoming aware of the fact that this page seemed like less of a typical ‘user testing’ page, and ended up being more of a ‘freelancer’ page that specifically catered to companies and users who were interested in user tests.
If I scrolled down just a little bit more, I found a section that was called ‘Trending Content,’ and realized that this site regularly publishes articles—which is pretty awesome.
I decided to read through one of them, just to see what kind of quality this site publishes as far as content goes (as someone who enjoys writing reviews, I often get interested in the quality of the content that different sites publish. It is kind of a hobby of mine), and was not disappointed.
The article I went through was one outlining two recent updates to the site, and I have two things to say about it. First of all, I thought that it was well done.
And secondly, I want to commend UTest for publishing new content. This article had literally only been published less than a month before this review was written—which means that they keep their blog updated pretty regularly.
I always feel better about websites that regularly update their content, so kudos to UTest for that.
But now, I was ready to learn more about how the site actually operates. So I did some looking around, and found a ‘How To Make Money,’ page. This page seemed mainly dedicated to helping new users to get started, so that is what I decided to look at next.
How To Make Money On UTest
This page was laid out pretty simply, and gave several steps for getting started and establishing a name on the site. Here is a summary of what those steps are.
Step 1:
First, you have to complete a UTest profile. The site will then use your profile to match you, as a tester, to specific customers and projects. You should also keep your profile up-to-date, as this increases the likelihood of getting invited to paid projects.
Step 2:
In this step, testers can be invited to audition. This is called the ‘UTest Sandbox,’ and helps testers see how projects work, helps them to better understand the platform, and basically serves as a ‘practice arena’ for testers who want to use their skills to earn some real cash on the website.
I was actually very impressed with this feature. I feel like this is a very good thing for UTest to offer, mostly because their site is different from a lot of user sites. This site seems to require a bit more of the average user-tester than most sites do, which is why the term ‘freelancer’ is used.
But this is not a bad thing. In fact, I have a feeling that giving testers this ‘freedom’ to pursue their own destiny on the site comes with a range of benefits.
Step 3:
You can also further sharpen your skills by using UTest. Apparently, they offer free courses that will help you to be more successful on paid projects. I also really liked this about the site, that they are offering resources to users to help make the experience ‘better’ for everyone.
And that was it. That was all that this part of the site had included in it. There were links that you could click on that would give you more information about how to go about fulfilling each one of these steps, but essentially, this was the gig.
I know that you can also earn badges on the site as well, so I decided to look into that as well.
Earning Badges On UTest
You can earn badges on UTest to help boost the visibility of your profile, and to earn a currency called uPoints. Here is a screen shot of the page that describes the badges, and gives a few examples of them.
The way I see it, badges are UTest’s way of getting people to interact with each other more. This would help the community to be more ‘alive,’ and would foster more togetherness—which I am definitely all about.
They give out badges for things like using @mentions in statuses, following testers, making friends, gaining followers, getting responses, etc. Most things that you can do on this site can be rewarded with badges, and then you can be rewarded again when you do more.
For example, you get one badge after getting one response, but you get another badge and even more points after getting five responses, etc.
I liked this about the site. It seemed like a good way to bring everything together and to foster a greater sense of community among users.
But at this point, I felt like I had figured out what my official opinion of the site was. So here is what I came up with.
My Personal Opinion About UTest.com
So far, I felt like this website was pretty awesome. There are a lot of new projects being posted pretty regularly, and obviously, the pay fluctuates with the project—so I am sure that your earnings potential would only increase with time and experience.
I also really like how this site was designed, laid out, and managed. I think that UTest is doing a pretty good job of fostering a thriving community here, and I think that this is going to take the site in even better directions in the future.
I really love the idea of having a freelancing site that brings testers and those who need testers together. This is becoming a bigger and bigger thing as software and websites become more essential to the modern world… and I feel that UTest is doing a great job with it.
As for making money… yes, this site can absolutely be a side-hustle, but you will need to stick with it, learn the ropes, and establish yourself. It is not ‘quick, easy cash,’ but it can most certainly be profitable if you can provide real value to clients through the platform.
Our Final Thoughts About The UTest Website
Should you sign up and use it to make some extra money?
There are a lot of ways to make money online. Some are good, some not, but ALL of them are still just trading hours for dollars.
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Nathaniell
What's up ladies and dudes! Great to finally meet you, and I hope you enjoyed this post. My name is Nathaniell and I'm the owner of One More Cup of Coffee. I started my first online business in 2010 promoting computer software and now I help newbies start their own businesses. Sign up for my #1 recommended training course and learn how to start your business for FREE!
Abe
I’m curious how it is that this article is dated yesterday, 1/8/2020, bu the comments are dated fro February, March and April 2019? You yourself commented about noting the presence of current content on a site, so I’m wondering if this article was recently updated, or is there a trick to making the date always new?
Nathaniell
The article was recently updated.
Michael Solomon
I have made about $60,000 with uTest since 2014 and I have absolutely no formal eating experience. I can’t say one negative thing about this site.
Stepan Kurakh
How much do you usually spend on uTest?
Jeff
That is quite a bit of income from user testing. Care to share some of your tips in how you did it?
I’m no slouch when it comes to making money with user testing myself. I’d say I’ve made about $15,000 since 2014 myself but none with Utest. Just never figured out how to move forward with that company.
Nathaniell
Some of these comments could be just trying to advertise to get referrals. I removed the “add website” feature to my blog comments, so their URLs are removed. Take the positive comments with a grain of salt.