The solution is to crowdtest your new software – have the various aspects of the program examined in detail by a group of people who will, hopefully, notice any flaws or errors so that they can be corrected. So, keep reading to learn more about the 6 best crowdsourced testing companies!

The importance of crowdtesting

It can sometimes be challenging to spot bugs and errors until a certain level of usage of a piece of software has been reached. This usually equates to usage that covers every aspect of the program. Carrying out comprehensive and extensive testing in-house would be a lengthy and costly process. By outsourcing to crowd testing services, that process can be carried out quickly, allowing developers to fix issues before the product reaches end-users. 

Pros of crowdtesting

• Human diversity: Employing a diverse group of testers brings a diverse set of perspectives to the process – different levels of expertise, demographic groups, locations, languages, and life experiences can give you a good overview of your product. You can also tailor the group to reflect your target audience.
• Speed: Timescales can be critical. Crowdtesting means you can carry out several test cycles simultaneously, leading to quicker results and, potentially, a faster time getting the product to market.
• Cost-effectiveness: It’s rare to hire a tester full-time. With such a large global pool (across several disciplines) of testers available, crowdtesting can represent a significant saving. This can be crucial when you consider the variety of devices and operating systems now available.

Cons of crowdtesting

• Glitches in tests: You may get a higher error rate with ‘casual’ crowdtesters as opposed to an in-house team. And because they lack familiarity with the product, they may not spot all the bugs. If you change testers over cycles, they may also repeat these mistakes.
• Overlooked quality: When you only outsource your testing, there may be scenarios where more complex bugs are missed, affecting quality. To avoid this, you should consider a hybrid model with a combination of in-house and external testers.
• Confidentiality: If your software has revolutionary new features, then there’s always some concern that external testers could represent a threat to those. Unless you’re working with a trusted group or company, it may be best to keep any sensitive features in-house. 

Our favorite crowdsourced testing companies

Of course, we are a bit biased, so we put ourselves first:

1. Global App Testing

Global App Testing is a comprehensive crowdtesting solution that enables businesses to grow their products globally through top-tier functional and UX testing. Trusted by leading software companies, Global App Testing integrates functional tests into your workflow, leveraging a combination of exploratory tests and test cases with advanced targeting controls. This approach helps streamline processes, improve quality, and expedite feature delivery, making it an essential resource for enhancing software products.

Key features

1. Extending QA teams

Global App Testing extends QA teams with a 24/7 service that returns test results within six hours, even during overnight launches. This rapid turnaround provides an invaluable surge resource for businesses, ensuring continuous quality improvement, especially for high-stakes clients, by utilizing a refined pool of more than 90,000 testers.

2. Expansive coverage and Compatibility testing

Testing services span across 190 countries, accommodating any device or operating system (over 60K different devices). This wide-ranging compatibility is complemented by location-specific tests, helping businesses understand and optimize their global performance. Companies can gather feedback from real users worldwide through comprehensive usability and UX testing, enhancing their products’ accessibility and performance in diverse environments.

3. Localization and Internationalization Testing

In addition to functional testing, Global App Testing provides robust localization and internationalization (l10n and i18n) testing services. These services help safeguard the quality of localized content and ensure that technical readiness is maintained for localization efforts. Strategic global tests allow businesses to identify key factors driving global product growth and verify compliance with international standards, providing confidence that products meet all necessary regulations.

4. Integrated testing platform

Global App Testing offers a powerful, integrated platform for managing and launching tests, providing video evidence, multiple tester confirmations, and seamless integration with tools like Jira and TestRail. The platform supports testing from design to production stages, ensuring a thorough evaluation of products.

5. Comprehensive testing capabilities

Global App Testing provides a full suite of testing capabilities to further support growing enterprises, including tests for functional bugs, usability issues, and look-and-feel consistency. Professional services are available as add-ons to relieve the weight on internal teams, allowing businesses to focus on other strategic activities.

6. Commitment to best practices

Finally, Global App Testing is committed to driving best practices through extensive research, producing guides, webinars, and reports. This commitment to knowledge-sharing helps customers implement effective testing strategies and stay ahead in the competitive global market. 

2. Cobalt

Cobalt aims to modernize the traditional pen testing process, which can often be slow and inflexible, by offering an on-demand platform that integrates directly into the development lifecycle. This approach enables organizations to conduct continuous security testing, swiftly addressing vulnerabilities as they are discovered and maintaining robust security measures.. Cobalt leverages a global network of certified ethical hackers to identify and remediate security vulnerabilities in real time.

Key features

1. On-demand pen testing

Cobalt offers pen testing services that can be initiated anytime, providing flexibility and immediate access to a network of skilled, ethical hackers. This service is particularly useful for Agile development environments where rapid iterations require ongoing security assessments.

2. Cobalt Core

The platform is powered by Cobalt Core, a community of vetted security experts who conduct the pentests. These experts bring diverse perspectives and expertise, ensuring thorough and effective vulnerability identification.

3. Integration and automation

Cobalt integrates seamlessly with popular development tools and platforms such as Jira, GitHub, and Jenkins. This allows for automated testing workflows and continuous integration, ensuring security is embedded into the development pipeline.

4. Detailed reporting and analytics

Cobalt provides comprehensive reports that detail the vulnerabilities discovered, their severity, and recommended remediation steps. These reports are accompanied by metrics and analytics that help organizations track their security improvement over time.

6. Specialized testing services

Cobalt also offers specialized testing for different environments, including web applications, mobile applications, and cloud infrastructures. This ensures that all aspects of an organization's digital presence are secure.

3. Bugwolf

Bugwolf is a platform that provides on-demand quality assurance (QA) testing services, designed to help businesses scale their QA efforts quickly and efficiently. The platform offers flexible contracts, allowing companies to expand their QA teams at short notice, making handling large and small software development projects easier. Bugwolf focuses on enhancing digital quality through a range of testing services and expert QA analysts who work under client direction.

Key features

1. Expert QA analysts

Access to experienced QA analysts who can create test cases and plans, prepare and maintain test data, execute testing, identify and log issues, and coordinate defect resolution with developers.

2. Comprehensive testing services

Bugwolf offers a range of testing services, including user acceptance testing, integration testing, regression testing, and production verification testing.

3. Real-time reporting and management

The platform enables real-time reporting and management of testing activities. This includes managing testing schedules, coordinating defect resolution, and generating detailed reports, helping clients stay informed about their project status.

4. Global reach and local testing

Bugwolf’s services are available globally, with the ability to conduct testing in various regions to ensure localized performance and usability. This is particularly beneficial for companies with international user bases.

5. Device Lab

Bugwolf maintains a managed device lab, expanding test coverage across various mobile and desktop devices. This reduces clients' need to manage their own device inventories and ensures comprehensive testing across different environments.   

4. Userfeel

Userfeel offers a comprehensive platform for usability testing that focuses on capturing qualitative feedback through recorded user sessions. Researchers can create tasks and scenarios for participants, who then complete them while recording their screen and audio interactions. Participants are encouraged to think aloud, providing real-time feedback on their experience.

The platform boasts a global panel of pre-recruited participants who can be selected based on specific demographics, ensuring that researchers can effectively target their desired user groups. With testers speaking 40 languages, Userfeel may be a good choice if your website or app needs to be multilingual.

Key features

1. No subscription fees

Unlike some other platforms, Userfeel does not require a subscription or monthly fees. Users pay per test, making it a cost-effective option for many businesses.

2. Ready-made templates

The platform includes templates with common tasks, questions, and rating scales, which help quickly set up both moderated and unmoderated studies.

3. Annotations and highlights

Users can create annotations during the review of sessions, which can be compiled into highlight videos for easier presentation of key findings.

4. Multilingual testing

Userfeel supports usability testing in multiple languages, which is essential for global products and services.

5. Data export and reporting

The platform allows easy export of data and creation of comprehensive reports, which can be shared with stakeholders to drive informed decision-making.

5. Betafamily

Beta Family is a crowdtesting platform that focuses on beta testing for iOS and Android applications. It connects app developers with a network of over 965,000 testers from around the world, allowing developers to get real user feedback on their apps. The platform supports testing across various devices and operating systems, providing insights into app performance, usability, and functionality.

Key features

1. Extensive tester community

• Access to a large pool of testers (over 965,000) from 251 nationalities.
• Ability to filter testers by demographics such as age, gender, nationality, device, and OS.

2. Customizable testing

• Developers can set up tests with specific tasks and questions to guide testers.
• Ready-made templates and a powerful survey engine help streamline the test creation process.

3. Flexible testing options

• Support for both unmoderated and moderated tests.
• Options to use the platform’s testers or invite your own community to participate.

4. Device and OS diversity

• Testing can be conducted across a wide range of devices (over 5,710 different devices) and operating systems.
• Ensures thorough compatibility and performance checks across multiple environments.

5. Cost efficiency

• Pay-as-you-go pricing model without the need for a subscription, making it accessible for businesses of all sizes.
• Competitive pricing allows for cost-effective scaling of QA efforts.

6. Stardust

Stardust offers a range of different testing options, including functional, operational, and regression testing. They also cover multilingual testing, making them a good choice for organizations launching programs globally. Their services support various digital platforms, including mobile apps, websites, smart devices, and software.

StarDust operates through a combination of manual and automated testing, utilizing its extensive network of testers and two dedicated laboratories.

Key features

1. Test execution methods

• Manual Testing: Conducted by experienced testers to identify bugs through exploratory and scenario-based methods.
• Automated Testing: Uses scripts to automate repetitive tasks, increasing efficiency and coverage.
• Crowdsourced Testing: Leverages a global community of testers to provide diverse feedback.

2. BugTrapp Tool

Proprietary tool for managing and tracking bugs, providing detailed reports and facilitating effective communication between testers and developers.

3. Consulting services

Provides expert advice on QA strategy and implementation to optimize the quality and performance of digital products.

4. App Benchmarking

Compares the app against industry standards and competitors to identify areas for improvement.

5. Functional Bug Bounty

Engages a community of testers to find and report bugs, incentivized by rewards.

Conclusion 

Choosing the best crowdsourced testing company that offers focused and varied testing processes can be challenging. However, making the right choice ensures that bugs and errors are identified and fixed promptly. With tight schedules to meet, a wise choice prevents an endless cycle of testing and retesting, giving you the confidence to meet any planned release date.

Global App Testing: Your premier crowdtesting partner

Unlock the full potential of your app with Global App Testing. Our extensive network of over 90,000 testers in 190+ countries ensures that no bug goes undetected on real devices. Trusted by industry giants like Meta, Google, and Booking.com, we deliver reliable testing solutions with lightning-fast turnaround times of 6-48 hours:

• Usability Testing: Optimize user experience across devices and platforms.
• Accessibility Testing: Ensure inclusivity with WCAG-compliant testing.
• Functional Testing: Identify and resolve critical issues efficiently.
• Generative AI Testing: Speed up product launches with AI-enhanced testing.
• Regression Testing: Maintain app integrity across updates.
• Exploratory Testing: Quick issue resolution with detailed logs and videos.
• Performance Testing: Measure system response and resource usage.
• Payment Testing: Ensure flawless transactions with real identity documents.
• Compatibility Testing: Guarantee smooth performance across all devices, browsers, and platforms.

Sign up now and schedule a call to see how Global App Testing can help elevate your app’s quality!

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