If you’ve wondered if Appen is a worthwhile side gig you should pursue, keep reading! In this Appen review, we’ll discuss company details, expected earnings, types of work, and real-life user reviews.
Short task jobs are one of the easiest ways to earn money while staying home. If you’re looking for a way to make money without having to stick to a set schedule, you may want to consider Appen. They have been around since 1996 and pay home-based workers to complete simple tasks and collect data online.
Over the years, Appen has slightly shifted its services and how it employs independent contractors. In this Appen review, you’ll learn more about the company’s remote opportunities and how to get started.
Company Overview
Known for being the world’s largest AI community, Appen is a global company specializing in artificial intelligence, data annotation, machine learning, and more. They serve clients in more than 170 countries and have worked with over 1 million skilled contractors across 265 languages. Some industries they serve include technology, automotive, financial services, and retail.
Appen’s services include organizing, assessing, and presenting different types of data (using human interaction) to help their clients’ AI systems act more “human-like.” They typically hire contractors for short-term data collection tasks, whether it’s assessing information and data for images, video, audio, text, and online content.
Online Job Details
If you’re looking to make extra money with Appen, the company’s crowdsourcing platform, Appen Connect, offers several different opportunities.
1. Quick Tasks
Appen hires independent contractors as Contributors to complete small tasks. These gigs may include content moderation, transcription, translation, completing surveys, evaluating videos and images, text categorization, and mystery shopping, and they can be completed in one sitting! With this type of remote work, you are usually paid per task, and you can set your own hours and work according to your availability. These short-term gigs are perfect for people who need a flexible way to make extra money from home.
It’s easy to get started as a freelancer on Appen. Just create an Appen account and either apply to open projects on the platform or wait for them to email you with gigs that fit your skill set. You’ll always get clear instructions and expectations for the job before you accept it.
Once approved, you can start working. Once the job is completed and submitted, you’ll be paid via a Payoneer account (PayPal is not an option).
2. Short and Long Term Projects
Appen also offers short- and long-term assignments and part-time jobs under its projects. These may include research projects, data entry, fact-checking, or testing out a new program, app, or service.
The long-term projects are also where you will find Appen rater roles, where you will perform either social media, map, or search engine evaluation. As a rater, you will be responsible for evaluating search results, social media posts, maps, or ads for their relevance to search terms. For example, social media evaluators browse sites like Facebook and help them fine-tune their news feeds for users.
There is a wide range of projects, meaning you are likely to find something that interests you and aligns with your skillset. For some long-term projects, you’ll need to take and pass a qualification exam to prove your proficiency. Appen provides study guides so you know what you’ll be tested on.
One example of a long-term project at the time of writing this Appen review was a speech recognition and evaluation study. With this project, you rate the machine’s pronunciation of a word. Once you rate 100 words, you’ll earn $60 in extra cash.
If you have expertise in STEM, healthcare, law, programming, linguistics, or another area of expertise, you may be eligible to leverage this expertise for a wide variety of AI projects. These projects fall under Appen’s Domain Experts, where your expertise will improve the accuracy of generative AI services and products. For these roles, you will typically need a bachelor’s degree or higher and some roles require a background in linguistics or speech science for these jobs.
3. Data Collection Work
With this option, you can earn money fast by completing short tasks on your smartphone. To complete these tasks, you’ll need to download the Appen app to your smartphone device. For these tasks, you may need to record video or audio clips or take photos of certain objects to train AI tools. For data collection gigs, you’ll generally need to pass a quality-checking exam to ensure that you’re capable of doing the work.
4. Corporate Jobs
Appen does offer full-time employment opportunities in the US, Canada, the UK, Spain, Australia, China, and the Philippines. Positions are in engineering, marketing, sales, finance, HR, and others. These full-time professional roles are a mixture of in-person, remote, and hybrid work opportunities that require prior work experience and often a bachelor’s degree. However, this Appen review is more focused on their Contributor opportunities.
How Much Does Appen Pay?
As a Contributor for Appen, you can work on quick tasks, projects, and data collection tasks on your smartphone. Depending on the gig, Appen may pay per task, per project, or per hour. Each gig in the portal has an assigned rate of pay. Some gigs only pay pennies per task, but it only takes a few seconds to complete each task, so the faster you work, the more money you can make.
How much you can earn with Appen depends on the type of project, the number of hours you work, and how quickly you can complete a task. To give you an example of what’s possible, according to Glassdoor, a search engine evaluator with Appen can earn an average of $16-$26 per hour.
Contributors are paid at the end of each month once you provide an invoice for all the hours you worked. Appen processes payouts via Payoneer within 30 days of receiving them.
What Do You Need to Work for Appen?
The requirements to start working for Appen are minimal. You’ll need to be at least 18 years old, have a computer running Google Chrome, and have a high-speed internet connection. If you don’t have a computer, some data collection tasks only require you to use the Appen app on your smartphone. The app is available for both iPhone and Android devices.
For some projects, such as transcription or video annotation, you may want additional equipment, like headphones or a microphone.
Outside of that, Appen’s qualification process is easy! Simply sign up and start working on projects.
Is Appen a Scam?
Appen is a legitimate company that offers both full-time and freelancing opportunities. However, you should always apply for these positions directly on their website. There are scammers out there who try to use Appen’s name to promote their fraudulent opportunities. These are known as recruitment scams or imposter scams. You can read more about it here.
Wondering what real-life people are saying about working from home for Appen?
Appen has a 3.5 out of 5-star rating on Glassdoor. Many workers say they like the flexibility and freedom to set their own schedules. Others commented that the task guidelines are stringent, so you’ll need to follow directions carefully.
On Indeed, Appen gets a 3.5-star rating. One Appen employee said, “The pros are the flexibility and pretty simple work depending on the task. Great for retirees, college students, and stay-home-parents. Cons are depending on the task; the pay is low. However, I’d rather have some pay than no pay.”
Reddit also has a thread with users discussing their experiences. One Reddit user said, “I love the flexibility and decent pay.” However, another reader said, “I started on Appen recently, and, at least for me personally, I don’t think it’s worth it. The pay isn’t much, and there aren’t a lot of tasks.”
On Trustpilot, Appen gets low ratings, only receiving 1.3 stars out of 5. Many users complained of a lack of customer support and accounts being terminated for no reason.
If you average the ratings from the major review sites, Appen’s overall rating is 2.7 stars out of 5.
Pros and Cons of Working for Appen
Pros:
- You’ll make money by completing short and easy tasks.
- There are no fees, and it’s easy to sign up.
- No experience is needed for simple microtasks.
- Easy application process.
- Flexible work hours (set your own schedule).
- A variety of different projects to work on.
- Available in 170 countries.
- Some tasks can be completed on a smartphone (no computer needed).
Cons:
- Low pay for some tasks.
- You only get paid only once a month.
- Only one payment method (Payoneer).
- There may not always be work available.
- You need to qualify for longer-term and part-time projects.
- As a Contributor, you work as an independent contractor, so you are responsible for your own taxes.
- Average to low user satisfaction.
How to Apply With Appen
To be part of their Contributor community, go here and click on the red “get started” button. Then, fill out your name and email address and create a password to register. You’ll also need to verify your email address before getting started. After this, you can browse the different projects and gigs and apply to the tasks that interest you most. Some projects may require a qualification exam before you’re able to work, but the terms of each assignment are clearly displayed on each job listing.
Alternatives to Appen
Since Appen may not always have remote jobs available, you can sign up with other crowdsourcing platforms. The types of jobs are similar in nature, are also independent contracting roles, and allow flexible scheduling. Again, these work from home opportunities don’t pay a ton, but they are a viable way to make extra money on the side.
Companies to explore include:
Appen Review Summary
If you’re looking for an easy way to earn extra money from home, Appen is a legitimate company to partner with. Little to no experience is required to join, and you’ll make money doing things you might already do online for free. Appen offers a wide variety of interesting tasks that you can easily fit into your schedule.
You just need to keep realistic expectations and know that this isn’t going to earn you a full-time income. However, it can be a decent, part-time side hustle where you can set your own schedule.
Check out this post for more part-time side gigs!
Originally published April 20, 2022. Content updated April 2024.