Platforms
How each platform works and how they compare
General14 guides
- micro1 vs Mercor: screening, pay dates and what each promisesmicro1 screens with a 20 to 40 minute AI interview and pays twice a month. Mercor uses a 20 minute AI interview and pays weekly. Side by side, with live pay.
- Outlier vs Mercor: per-task pay or a posted hourly rateOutlier pays per task track with no platform-wide rate and no guaranteed hours. Mercor posts roles with a stated hourly rate and pays this site a referral fee.
- micro1 vs Outlier: posted roles or task tracksmicro1 posts roles with a stated hourly rate and one AI interview. Outlier prices work per track with no platform-wide rate. Pay, screening and staying in.
- Outlier vs DataAnnotation: pay, screening and staying inOutlier prices work per track with no site-wide range; DataAnnotation lists a starting rate per track. Pay, screening and deactivation compared, sourced.
- Alignerr vs Outlier: listings, tracks and staying inAlignerr runs a public board of roles with a stated range each; Outlier prices work per track. Pay, screening and payment compared from their own pages.
- DataAnnotation alternatives that publish their payPlatforms that post AI training work with pay stated on the listing, for readers looking past DataAnnotation's one-time assessment and its silence.
- DataAnnotation vs Mercor: a rate card or a posted roleDataAnnotation lists a starting rate per track and screens with one assessment. Mercor posts roles with a stated hourly rate. Pay, screening and hours compared.
- DataAnnotation vs Alignerr: pay, screening and countriesDataAnnotation lists a starting rate per track and pays by PayPal. Alignerr posts a rate per listing and pays weekly. Compared from their own pages.
- Alignerr vs Mercor: pay, screening and eligibilityA side-by-side look at Alignerr and Mercor: what each pays, how screening works, which one lists open roles here, and which pays this site a referral fee.
- Mercor vs Turing: how each screens, pays and posts its rolesMercor screens with one AI interview and pays weekly; Turing uses proctored tests and interviews, and its pay dates disagree. Live role counts and pay.
- Mercor vs SME Careers: screening, pay and how pay arrivesMercor posts a stated hourly rate and screens with one AI interview; SME Careers posts maximum rates, often per country. How each screens, pays and keeps you working.
- Mercor vs AfterQuery: an AI interview or an unpaid assessmentMercor screens with a 20 minute AI interview and pays on Wednesdays. AfterQuery uses one unpaid assessment per pool and pays on Fridays. How they compare.
- Mercor vs Terac: ongoing contracts or one-off paid sessionsMercor hires contractors for ongoing AI projects and pays weekly. Terac pays per approved session or project, with a 3 minute screener. How they compare.
- micro1 vs SME Careers: two AI interviews, two pay schedulesmicro1 interviews for 20 to 40 minutes and pays twice a month. SME Careers interviews for about 15 and pays weekly, with rates set per country. Side by side.
micro14 guides
- The micro1 hiring process, step by stepmicro1 has published its own hiring process: four steps, the timings it states for each, what certification gets you, and how payment works through Deel.
- How to pass micro1's Zara AI interviewVideo, 1:28 What Zara asks, how she builds questions from your introduction, where to take a free practice interview, and what each result status means.
- Every micro1 application status, explainedAll ten statuses micro1 shows on its talent dashboard, in micro1's own words, plus the difference between did not qualify and not selected and what to do about each.
- What micro1 certification and skill ratings meanmicro1 says being certified does not mean you are hired. What certification gets you, how vetted skills are rated, and what micro1 advises about a low rating.
Mercor7 guides
- How Mercor works: from application to weekly payThe steps that decide whether you get Mercor work and get paid: the application, the AI interview, contracts and the pay week, with links to each guide.
- How a Mercor application is actually assembledMercor's application steps are held on your account, not on each application, so finishing one advances the rest. The retake limit, what ready to submit really means, and why offers arrive for roles you never applied to.
- Mercor onboarding: from accepted offer to first paid taskThe steps between accepting a Mercor offer and starting work split into two piles: the ones you can finish today, and the ones you can only wait on. Here is which is which.
- Mercor's pay week runs on Indian timeMercor counts hours from Saturday 00:00 IST to Friday 23:59 IST, which closes the week on Friday morning in California. That one boundary, plus a timezone difference between Insightful and the Earnings page, explains most missing-hours confusion. Plus the payout rail and the four payment statuses.
- Which Mercor hours get paid, and what happens when some are questionedMercor pays legitimate tracked time by default and names only three reasons hours can be withheld. Weak work is not one of them. How the review, the email and the one dispute reply work.
- The four ways Mercor work stops, and what each one meansPaused, project ended, performance offboarding and policy violation are four different events on Mercor, and only two of them say anything about you. What each one is, what happens to your pay, and why the next contract comes from applying again.
- How to prepare for Mercor's AI interviewMercor builds its 20-minute AI interview from your resume. Retakes and what they cost, the setup checks, freezes, and what Mercor never tells you.
Outlier2 guides
- Is Outlier AI legit, and what does it pay?Outlier AI runs under Scale AI's Smart Ecosystem affiliate, not a scam. It publishes no single pay rate, only a figure per track, and pays weekly on Tuesdays.
- Outlier alternatives that publish their payPlatforms with posted roles and stated pay for people leaving Outlier, grouped by background: generalist, coding, languages, and STEM and research.
DataAnnotation1 guide
Alignerr2 guides
- Is Alignerr legit, and what does it pay?Alignerr is a real Labelbox contractor network with a public board of 5,624 roles. What its own pages say about pay and screening, and what applicants report.
- Alignerr alternatives that post a rate on every rolePlatforms that state pay on every AI training role, grouped by background: domain experts, software and data, languages, and no specialism.