What is “Appen”?

Appen provide and manufacturer machine learning applications and software with the goal of making machine learning act more “human”.

They have reviews, awards and accolades from some of the biggest names in the world including Technology 500 and FlexJobs making working with Appen look very appealing.
 

So what is the job?

Appen offer various different jobs that you can do working from home including:

1) Raters – rate and assess different services provided by different companies.
2) Translation – provide translation, linguistic and transcription services.
3) Micro Tasks – complete simple tasks from home. Each task takes up to an hour.

All jobs are designed to help different clients they work with. Appen work with some big-name clients such as Google, Instagram and Facebook.
 

Job complexity…

From what we can tell you will never have the opportunity to decide what job you want to do or what clients you want to work with. You will have to apply to work at Appen and once your application is accepted you will be told what you have to do.

Our application to work at Appen still has not been accepted. We applied over a month ago. We have also read a lot of people saying it’s almost impossible to get a job with Appen.
There is also a relatively complex exam to pass.

 

Does it cost anything? What is the pay?

Working with Appen does not cost anything. We have found no evidence of any cost required from anyone who has or currently works with Appen.

The pay at Appen is a bit of a mystery according to current and former employees. It used to be quite good, with certain projects paying around $15 an hour. Suddenly they changed tactics and reduced all pay rates by 50%. Understandably, people working with Appen were not happy.

From what we can tell average pay ranges from $3/hour to $15/hour depending on numerous factors. However candidates are only told what the pay rate is once they are invited to a qualification exam for a particular project. This exam must be passed before you can work on the project. Therefore we have no fixed information about what you will be paid working with Appen.

Finally, all pay is distributed by a payment service called Payoneer. In our opinion, this is another hurdle in getting paid from Appen.
 

Sounds complicated, but is Appen a SCAM?

Working online isn’t meant to be easy – otherwise everyone would be doing it. It does NOT make Appen a SCAM. So yes, sometimes you have to provide some real value to a company such as Appen in order to get paid. However, we still feel there are easier ways to make money online than the complicated process that Appen requires you to go through.

We have read feedback from hundreds of people who have worked, and most importantly got paid, from Appen. Generally the feedback is the same. Good company, fair pay but a tightly controlled and complicated process.

Also, we have read a lot of feedback from people who have randomly been suspended or not paid for their work. That sort of feedback worries us. Imagine if you had been working for a service like Appen for 6 months and was relying on it to feed your family – then suddenly your account is suspended and your pay withheld. How would you cope? It also seems any decision made by Appen is final meaning the pay is lost and the job is gone.

 

Our Rating

80%
Quality Of The Company and Job
The company is clearly an established and professional company. The clients they have ensure the job is legitimate. However questions about the treatment of staff makes us worry.

 

100%
Price
Totally free so we have to give a top rating here.

 

25%
Availability
So many people saying it can take months to get an application accepted. Our application hasn’t been accepted after a month. Don’t expect to be working for Appen any time soon.

 

25%
Support
No response to our email questioning the status of our application. Lots of feedback online about lack of support means we have to give another low rating.

 

Overall, we would SUGGEST trying working with Appen – but we CANNOT RECOMMEND it.

This recommendation is based on us reading hundreds of reviews and testimonials from people who have either applied, worked or are currently working with Appen.