Crowdtesting is where you send tests – including localization, functional, and other kinds of software test – to freelance software testers around the world. But from the translation monitoring tools in your TMS, through to data and complaint-based processes, to dogfooding your product from your local offices, there's a lot of ways to look at how well your product is working around the world.
So why choose crowdtesting when you take your product global? Here's my attempt to answer – whether you're a product professional, localization leader, or you work in the commercial half of the business, here's ten reasons you should include crowdtesting in your mix:
1. Get a holistic test. Don’t just test for translation accuracy, or functionality, or context fit– put it all together
Localization is more than just language.
Different tools, techniques, and services to assess how well your product is working in a given location have different strengths. Crowdtesting as we do it is an all–rounder. Although our testers aren't trained linguists (and for fine translation you should use that as well); they look at a localized product in its local context, and can span translation validation, design checks, functional checks, local context checks, and we can validate you’ve met legal requirements too in some contexts.
This is great not only as a one-stop-shop but because lots and lots of issues sit at the intersection of these categories: does a text string go overline in the translated design context? Has the translation moved the text around so that there’s lots of empty space? Does the currency work as expected? Is the translation consistent across call-to-actions?
2. Your whitelisted internal test accounts are not testing differentiated user contexts
Many companies rely on internal testing accounts, but these don’t reflect the diversity of real users. A tester logging in with a whitelisted corporate email on a company-owned device doesn’t experience the same friction as a real customer signing up for the first time. Many products have conditional front-ends dependent on user profiles. Many products treat users with unknown credentials very differently to return logins.
That's one fast-track to bugs and blockers, which are likely to pool in areas you don't test. So any "blind spot" your test account might have will result in bugs there. In order to avoid structural narrowness in the way your product is reviewed, you should
3. It’s really hard to manage remote freelancers. Give yourself the gift of time
Some companies try to build their own distributed testing networks, but scaling this effectively is incredibly complex and a real headache. From UX to functionality, testers, coordinating test cycles, maintaining quality control, and handling payments across multiple geographies is a logistical nightmare. We’d handle this for you, delivering results without the operational burden.4. You shouldn’t use your colleagues cards, but you need to test local payment instruments
Payment systems vary drastically across markets. The methods that work in one country—credit cards, digital wallets, cash-based systems—may not work in another. Testing transactions using internal company cards doesn’t reflect real-world conditions. Crowdtesting ensures your payment flows work with local banks, currencies, and regulations.
Crowdtesting is a really great way to test forms and payments because of the diversity of the names, legal documents, real IDs, and payment instruments on file. You’re testing your form with a real unique new user with their own card.
5. Local context is just as important as a localized product when you're testing
It’s not just about the version of the product you’re using; it’s about the context in which it’s used. We'd recommend local testing even for products which are completely standardized across every market.
Local network speeds, device preferences, cultural expectations can change how users interact with your product. The context matters too – in our recent blog about a discussion we had at a recent roundtable, we talked about how businesses should pay for pinxtos – and how the flow of payment and food in this very specific local context would completely recalibrate the workflow appropriate for the product; i.e. in some markets, your product will no longer fit, and having a fine sense of why is key to future planning about localization you may do. In some instances, the findings are surprising – at one recent event, a world media distributor talked about how the local price of data was a key heuristic to help them establish what version of their product would be most successful.
Crowdtesting allows you to see how your product performs in real environments – to help you identify what the local context is you can’t see.
6. To get it right, you should be iterating extremely quickly, which you can’t do alone
Localization isn’t a one-time task—it’s an ongoing process. The most successful companies don’t wait for big release cycles; they iterate fast, responding to real user feedback in near real-time. Crowdtesting enables rapid cycles of feedback and improvement, helping businesses fine-tune their products before issues become costly.
Our most sophisticated clients when it comes to global international growth are looking at a product/market fit iteration process. That means constant testing from the design stage, to a wide variety of people, with differentiated products per market. We're expecting the price of code to go down with LLMs, so we'd expect more adaptability and more fragmented front-ends as this resource becomes less scarce.
7. You’ll have peaks and troughs in your demand for test resource. You can scale crowdtesting and our contracts are flexible
Your global go-to-market will have fits and starts by nature. Some weeks, you’ll need hundreds of testers; other times, just a handful. Building an in-house testing function to handle this variability is inefficient and expensive.
Crowdtesting gives you access to a flexible workforce that can scale up or down as needed. For example, you can run hundreds of tests concurrently; test overnight or on weekend; get a test to a new part of the world back in 48 hours without the hassle of hiring. Or you can take down your cadence when it’s not required – we build flexible contracts around our customers with your needs in mind.
8. It’s very difficult to avoid biased and unrepresentative samples in-house
Your employees or a handful of engaged testers are not a true reflection of the wider user base. Crowdtesting ensures you have a representative sample of real users across demographics, locations, and device types—minimizing blind spots.
This is really the USP! Devices, environments, user demographics, network speeds, locations, OS versions, payment instruments, currencies, accessibility needs – all of these represent distinct areas of vulnerability to issues and errors, and the scaled resource is essential to help find
9. It’s difficult to book learn culture. Better to talk to real people directly
Sometimes, I’ve heard localization professionals talk about frameworks for describing different kinds of culture and their preferences. A "High-context" and "low–context" culture – an idea by the anthropologist Edward T Hall – is probably the best of these, and does seem to capture a shorthand for genuine differences in user preference around product design.
However, we all know the pitfalls of trying to describe large groups of people in shorthand, and there’s too much to know about global culture to be effective. What people know about their own culture is often hard to describe, and it would be difficult to know without really being there. For example, one of our pieces of research recently was looking at password reset sms links in Indonesia, where I families sometimes share phones. But will that be the case there in five years? Or ten years?
That's a piece of context which is unlikely to exist in frameworks or books, and would be difficult even for an expert to know. The product iteration cycle remains the best way to capture the complexity of multiple products, and the facts on the ground as real people are experiencing.
10. We Can Help You Succeed
Expanding into new markets is high-stakes. The difference between success and failure often comes down to user experience—how well your product feels native to its new audience. At Global App Testing, we help businesses launch confidently by providing real-world testing at scale. With our crowd of testers worldwide, we ensure your product is functional, accessible, and intuitive for every market you enter.