12 Best Sites and Alternatives to Mturk
Making money online is easier than ever. Mturk, also known as Amazon Mechanical Turk or Amazon Mturk, is a great and flexible way to make money from home or anywhere with an internet connection. Unfortunately, it can be challenging to get high-paying HITs on Mturk, which can feel defeating.
The good news is that there are plenty of alternatives to Mturk that you can try if you want to make extra money online from home. While many of these you can’t earn a full-time income, they’re a great way to earn supplemental and passive income.
For job seekers or those searching for a side hustle and looking at other options to earn cash, these are the 12 best sites and alternatives to Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk) so you can start earning money online.
Best Sites and Alternatives to Mturk
1. RapidWorkers
RapidWorkers is an excellent platform that has more than 200,000 people working on it. It’s a crowd-sourcing platform that is free to use and costs nothing to sign up for.
When you sign up with RapidWorkers, you can perform various online tasks, including posting reviews of products or services, uploading a YouTube video, signing up for an online game, creating email accounts, and uploading photos to a website. Some people will even pay you to promote their website or platform on your social media.
Each task has a range of pay rates, similar to Amazon Mturk. How they base their pay isn’t transparent, but each task will pay a few cents here and there. What’s more, RapidWorkers estimates how long a task should take you to complete.
Once you complete a task, submit proof, and the employer verifies it, the website will credit the amount you earned. You can receive your earnings via PayPal, gift cards, or bank transfers. While it’s not a site where you can make a full-time living, it’s a great option to use instead of or in conjunction with Mturk.
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2. Upshift
If you want to earn extra cash by working shifts rather than completing tasks, Upshift might be your best site. You’ll have to leave the house for many of these shifts, but it’s still an excellent alternative to Mturk if you want flexible work.
Signing up for Upshift is straightforward. All you have to do is create an account with your details and then add your location to see what’s available in your area.
Some examples of the shifts you can work are housekeeping at hotels or Airbnb, printing material, data entry, answering phones, and data collection. More than 120,000 people are working on Upshift, attesting to the many opportunities you can check out.
One of the standout aspects of this platform is that you get a W-2, meaning you never have to worry about taking money out for your taxes as you do with other similar sites. Plus, once you earn your first paycheck, you’ll get access to health benefits, dental, and vision.
You’ll get paid weekly via bank transfer. The app is easy to navigate, so you can check for shifts and track all your earnings while on the go. Many people report that the Mturk alternative is an effective option for earning money online.
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3. Wonolo
As with Amazon Turk, Wonolo has a thriving ecosystem for people looking to earn extra cash. The creators of Wonolo wanted to make it easier than ever for people to find work without dealing with resumes, interviews, and having to go to a 9 to 5.
There are more than half a million users on Wonolo, and 1.8 million micro tasks and jobs have been posted. Some are exclusively online, while there are other flexible shifts at places local to you.
Signing up for this website is easy and free. Once you create your account, you can browse job listings and work on whatever interests you and fits your schedule. You can do grocery shopping, cleaning, grocery delivery merchandising, and more.
Wonolo will pay you through bank transfer or PayPal, much like Amazon Mturk. Something we love about this Mturk alternative is that by signing up, you get access to affordable healthcare coverage that you might not get on other sites like Mechanical Turk.
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4. Thumbtack
Thumbtack is one of the Mechanical Turk alternatives that allow you to put your skills to use to help you earn income. While you won’t be earning passive income, you can lend your knowledge to design websites, pack belongings to move house, transport stuff to a new home, hang shelves, and much more.
There’s a lot of variation here. You might even find yourself repairing their smartphones! You can sign up for free and set your hours. You only have to accept or apply to jobs that appeal to you or that you have the qualifications for.
No matter where you live in the United States, you can sign up to work with Thumbtack, as they operate in all 50 states. However, you might see different job opportunities depending on your location.
How much each task pays will vary depending on what it is and how long it’s expected to take. You’ll get the money credited to your account once you complete the task.
5. 99 Designs
Another great option when looking into Amazon Mturk alternatives is 99 Designs. This platform is better for those who enjoy creating logos and other artwork.
99 Designs has been around since 2008 and is always accepting new designers. When you work with 99 Designs, you can unleash your creativity and design the artwork you want without being told what you need to work on.
Depending on the style of artwork you’re interested in creating, 99 Designs can match you with clients who are the ideal fit for your skills and preferences. You don’t have to follow up on their suggested clients, but it’s a nice feature.
Something different about this Mturk alternative is that they regularly monitor users on the platform to determine their designer level to better match you to clients.
One of the most appealing features of this platform is that you can work independently and directly with clients or with other designers in the community to complete jobs. This site can potentially help you make good money online.
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6. Design Crowd
One of the best Mturk alternatives is Design Crowd. The platform has more than a million freelancers.
You can complete short tasks or take on more complicated projects; it’s entirely up to you. It’s similar to 99 Designs because, as the name suggests, the jobs center on designing logos and other brand artwork for companies. Business owners outsource these tasks to grow their brands more cost-effectively than bringing in an agency.
When you work on Design Crowd, you can design logos, business cards, graphic designs, clothing, and more. This site is an excellent option for freelancers looking to build up their portfolio, gain experience, and earn some extra money.
Design Crowd will deposit your earnings directly into your bank account, so you never have to worry about how you’ll get paid or when. You can filter through your search to see what design jobs are posted and create things you enjoy that align with potential clients’ goals. If you’re not particularly experienced with digital design, this alternative might not be for you, but it’s definitely one to consider.
7. Appen
Appen has similar jobs to Amazon Mechanical Turk, making it one of the most relevant alternatives. When you join the platform or their “crowd,” as they call it, you’ll be working amongst other individuals worldwide. Their crowd of online workers spans 170 countries and collectively speaks over 235 languages and dialects.
The site involves completing small tasks that you finish at your own pace. You can work whenever you want in your free time and earn a few extra bucks that you want or need.
Appen tries to ensure that its people are paid at least minimum wage for tasks, but keep in mind that the rates still vary. This platform teaches you a lot about artificial intelligence (AI), and it has plenty of resources for you to learn more about it.
Something that sets Appen apart from Mturk is the work options. You can focus on micro-jobs, longer projects that some consider part-time work, or provide feedback on their surveys. Micro jobs can be picked whenever you want, but you must apply for long-term work and might not be accepted.
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8. Helpware
If you’ve been searching for an online job like Mturk, you may have already heard of Helpware. This website is a service outsourcer that allows you to perform various customer service tasks for companies from the comfort of your home or anywhere in the world.
Besides customer support, you can support businesses with backend office tasks. You can provide services like digital filing, data entry, email organization, and other administrative tasks to help people run their businesses more efficiently.
Working on tasks from Helpware means you can work in several different industries. A few of the sectors that the website covers include gaming, entertainment, finance, social media, and healthcare.
Some clients that use Helpware (or have in the past) include Amazon, DoorDash, and Google. The pay will vary depending on the tasks you assist with.
Although they don’t disclose example rates on their website, you can always decline a task if you don’t feel like the payment is worth the time to complete it. While it’s not identical to Amazon Mturk, Helpware is an excellent alternative thanks to its ease of use, excellent reputation, and popular brands utilizing the platform for their BPO services.
9. Gig Smart
Gig Smart is a site like Mturk Amazon in the sense that you can work on your terms, whenever you want and how much you want. You can choose the jobs and avoid the ones that don’t appeal to you. The main difference is that Gig Smart has several jobs requiring you to leave your home and be in the city the poster of the job requested.
Companies constantly outsource positions to gig workers because it’s easier than hiring a new employee. It works for you if you have a schedule that doesn’t fit the mold of a traditional job.
When you join Gig Smart, you can browse part-time positions, random shifts, and local jobs, like lawn work and painting. If you’re interested in healthcare or dental benefits, you can access special rates by working gigs on Gig Smart.
Once you complete a task or job, the money will automatically appear in your Worker Wallet. The best part is that there’s no minimum payout. You can immediately transfer the funds from the wallet into your bank account.
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10. Inbox Dollars
Inbox Dollars doesn’t have jobs like Mturk, but it is a way to earn extra cash from bed, your couch, the airport, or wherever life takes you. You can join Inbox Dollars for free and start taking surveys, watching videos, playing games for money, and shopping for cashback offers to earn an income.
The surveys are reasonably varied but don’t have lucrative rewards. You can only earn a few cents to a few dollars per survey.
One frustrating aspect of taking surveys is that you might only spend a few minutes answering questions to discover that you don’t qualify. So, if you get kicked off the survey, you’ll have spent precious minutes without earning anything for your time.
The games are silly but entertaining, ranging from bubble shooting to relaxing pursuits like solitaire and other card games. If games aren’t your cup of tea – or you’d just prefer something more subdued – you can earn money just from reading emails sent by Inbox Dollars. So, if you join the platform, always open the emails they send, no matter how many, as it’s a refreshing way to earn quick and easy cash.
11. Microworkers
We can’t say Microworkers is necessarily one of Mechanical Turk’s competitors. Still, it is a crowdsourcing site that allows you to make money from anywhere with an internet connection, categorizing it under Amazon Turk alternatives.
When you join Microworkers, you can perform micro jobs or other small tasks. You get to work as much or as little as you like, whenever you want. Of course, the more you complete, the more you’ll earn.
Much like Mturk, you can browse tasks, see how long they’ll take, and what they pay before accepting one on the site. Like other Mturk alternatives, you can receive your payments via your PayPal account or opt for a bank transfer.
If you want to get paid to watch videos, you have to try this site. Microworkers lets you watch videos online for money! They’re typically short and produced by companies seeking your and other consumers’ opinions. The site easily tracks all your tasks, so you don’t have to.
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12. Clickworker
Many people wonder about ClickWorker vs. Mturk when considering alternatives to Mturk. The sheer number of people on ClickWorker sets it apart from Mturk.
Mturk doesn’t approve of everyone who applies, but Clickworker does. That’s reflected in the fact that the site has more than 4.5 million freelancers.
ClickWorker has freelancers in the United States, Asia, and Europe. You can make money by taking surveys, conducting web research, creating SEO content, conducting data mining, analyzing and entering data, and managing projects.
What’s more, ClickWorker offers tasks in more than 45 languages, making it an excellent option for those who don’t speak English or don’t speak it well – or for anyone multilingual. You don’t have to have any special qualifications to work on ClickWorker, but they recruit specific individuals in their crowd if you have skills that suit a particular project.
Depending on your proficiency and experience, the site maintains a filter system to help you find tasks you’ll succeed with. When going through the task board, you can complete assessments and quizzes to prove you have new skills to boost your options.
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