uTest's Business Model

Note: I am an active uTester.

The last few months I’ve completed a number of rounds of testing for uTest’s clients, mostly in dealing with web applications for my iPhone. In fact a majority of work I’ve done since joining has been for functional testing of mobile applications. It’s been fun because mobile testing isn’t in my area of expertise but is a nice break from my normal routine and I like learning new things.

uTest’s Business Model:

A few months ago I was talking with my boss about new options for helping me test our software. I work for a small company where I’m the only tester. Often the backlog for getting our releases out is me. My boss was talking about adding an offshore resource and I brought up the idea of uTest and their crowdsource model. He thought it was an interesting idea and so he contacted uTest to get more information.

A few weeks later we had a quote from uTest and a chat with one of the sales reps which gave me a interesting perspective into their business model. uTest prefers to sell their services in packages which generally include several rounds of testing (the time between rounds is up to you). The sales engineer’s try to get an understanding of your testing needs and then give you a flat price per round with a minimum number of rounds plus a monthly Software as a Service (SaaS) charge for access to uTest’s application – a must have for the tester’s to submit bugs, test cases, etc. I think our application was considered pretty big / complex so for 3 rounds it was just north of $7,000.

That means we’d pay uTest $7k upfront plus the SaaS access charge each month. From there we’d work with a project manager and tell them how many tester’s we need, what type of backgrounds tools they need, etc. Then the project manager builds the test process and plan with you. Essentially you are hoping you get a good project manager otherwise the money you drop and the test outcomes may not be worth it. The actual payments the tester’s receive (for test plans and bugs) comes from uTest out of that flat fee.

Makes me wonder what the average payout to tester’s are per round of testing? Probably less than $1k depending on the size. That means a majority of the money is going to pay for your project manager and to uTest’s wallet.