f done right, outsourced testing can be a great way to quickly get more releases out the door. You have landed here, so chance are, you’ve been in one (or more) of these situations before:

• You work at a startup without an in-house testing team and don’t feel confident launching new products and features.
• You work at an enterprise organization, and you need to ship new functionality ASAP. Except the testing team you usually use is preoccupied. And without their help, there’s no way you’ll get it over the finish line.
• You work at a mid-sized organization with a staff testing team, and you feel pretty good about their testing. But you need a fresh set of eyes to uncover the bugs and enhancements that they may unintentionally gloss over.

** Spoiler alert **
These problems don’t magically get better — unless you bring in outsourced testers.

But how do you find good testing talent? What should you know ahead of bringing external folks on board?

Keep reading to learn more about what outsourced testing is, the types of outsourced testing partners available, how they charge for their services, and whether any of them are a good option for you.

What is outsourced testing?

With outsourced testing, you trust another person or team to test your software for you.

They might:

• Use test cases you’ve already outlined
• Investigate your product on their own, potentially in a time-boxed fashion
• Handle regression testing
• Specifically try to identify security vulnerabilities
• Validate adherence to critical industry regulations or standards

The question you may be asking here is: why delegate tasks that are so important?

You might outsource testing if:

You need to scale your testing capacity — quickly.

These days, software companies don’t just have one or two competitors; they have hundreds. To stay relevant and stand out from the crowd, they need to be building and releasing features on a consistent basis. And those features need to be tested.

If not, companies might counteract the benefits of being fast to market, instead putting their customers’ satisfaction (and their reputation) at risk.

The problem is that most companies only have a core set of testers, and they can’t be spread too thin, or issues will fall through the cracks. Hiring more testers can help, but recruiting and interviewing take time. Plus, it may not be as cost-effective to add full-time team members as it is to add freelancers or deploy an outside testing team.

Great outsourced testers, particularly those who work in an opposite time zone, can help you meet tight deadlines without sacrificing testing quality.

You need specialist skills.

Modern applications demand specific experience and sophisticated types of testing. For example, you might need testers with:

• Domain-specific knowledge. Gaming, for instance, has rigorous performance standards that need to be tested thoroughly.
• Compliance and security expertise if your product serves fintech or healthcare industries, which have strict rules and requirements.
• Emerging technology experience. Say your product is AI-heavy. Testers might need to know how to test for hallucinations.

Instead of trying to upskill your existing team super fast (as discussed, most companies have really tight deadlines), you can outsource to talent that already has those skill sets and can apply them immediately.

You want different perspectives.

In-house testing teams — especially those who work at startups and wear many hats — can be so closely involved in the development process that they accidentally overlook bugs or minor impacts on the user experience.

External testers, on the other hand, approach your product with fresh, unbiased perspectives, mimicking end-user behavior. They’re not influenced by internal dynamics or deadlines, either, which can lead to more objective (and sometimes even more comprehensive) testing.

What kinds of outsourced testing are available?

You can outsource your testing in any way you see fit. But, most commonly, testing is outsourced to one of three parties:

1) Individual freelancers

Independent professionals offer software testing services without being tied to a specific company or organization. Freelancers are ideal when you need one or two more helping hands right away.

Pros

• Flexibility. Freelancers can be hired on a per-project, hourly, or as-needed basis and are often ready to start new projects as soon as you need them.
• Direct communication. You don’t have to log a ticket or wait for your next weekly meeting to fix a problem. You can Slack, call, or email a freelancer directly. Clear and fast communication leads to quicker iterations. As Redditor jrwolf08 says, “Days can be lost trading comments back and forth which would have taken 10 mins with everyone online together.”
• Specialized expertise. The best freelancers develop niche skills in-house before bringing their talent to the public. The ones who are in demand are the real deal: they market themselves as experts and actually do have a wealth and depth of experience.

Cons

• You have to trust what they say. There isn’t another party watching over a freelancer or vetting their expertise, so you may not know their capacity and abilities with 100% certainty. A thorough interview process can help, but keep in mind that you’ll need adequate time to conduct it.
• Single point of failure. You’re putting your faith into one person or set of people — and they can get sick or have personal issues that may significantly impact your testing timelines if you don’t have backup.
• No support. Freelancers may lack the resources or bandwidth to handle more complex, large-scale testing projects. They are likely also doing behind-the-scenes admin work on their own (like time-tracking and invoicing), which could be inconsistent and/or lead to approval delays and budgeting problems.

Cost

Every freelancer is different, and that means the way they charge for their work and what they charge will be different, too. For some companies, that might be a downside. They like to know what they’re going to get for the money they have to spend. For others, it might be an opportunity to negotiate or even get first-rate talent for a lower price.

2. Professional testing companies

These firms provide dedicated testing services to find bugs, improve the user experience, and verify that the software works as your product and engineering team intended it to. Like other services companies, the benefit to working with a firm is that you tell them what you want, and they figure out a way to get it done, no matter what.

Pros

• Expertise. These firms know their reputation and ability to land new clients is heavily determined by their performance. Because of that, they tend to hire testers who are highly experienced and actually have expertise in the tools, industries, and methodologies they say they do.
• Scalability. Generally, these firms have tens or hundreds of testers on their bench, so can add more resources or pull back according to your needs.
• Streamlined processes. The best professional firms adhere to best practices, making the onboarding and testing process much quicker (and potentially making the results more solid and trustworthy).

Cons

• Higher costs. Hiring a professional firm is almost always more expensive than working with freelancers or building an in-house team.
• Less control. Working with a well-known firm often means relinquishing some control over testing processes and prioritization — and that can lead to misaligned expectations.
• Their process can be too generic. Some firms might apply standardized processes that may not fully align with your specific product, industry, or unique requirements. To avoid this, look for firms that have the kinds of testers you want on your roster and that have participated in testing projects like yours before.

Cost

If you’re going with a more well-known, established testing firm, be ready to pay a premium, especially for testers with a certain skill set, like security or performance testing.

3. Talent sourcing platforms

Sites like Upwork, Lemon.io, Toptal, and Braintrust give you access to large pools of testing talent, and their built-in filtering helps you whittle down your options — based on experience, type of tester, and other characteristics you may be looking for.

If you don’t have time to wade through a bunch of profiles, many of these platforms come with paid managed services that can match you up with top-notch testing talent per your unique criteria.

Pros

• Diverse skillsets. These platforms attract testers from around the world who may have different expertise than the testers in your neck of the woods. They may also have more competitive rates than testers in your region, helping you get the most value from the budget you have to spend.
• Transparent pricing. Each tester’s profile has their going rate on it, so you at least have a sense of what they charge (amount) and how they charge (by hour or by project).
• Fast hiring. The talent on this platform is used to quick hiring cycles and is, most likely, available when you need them. These sites also make it relatively easy to find excellent talent. Most sites request that hiring companies rate the work of each freelancer post-project, and some sites, like Lemon.io, pre-vet their talent, increasing the chances you’ll get a tester who is up to your standards.

Cons

• Communication barriers. Access to global talent can be fantastic, but it can also come with cultural nuances, time zone differences, and language barriers. Try to anticipate and mitigate these obstacles going into the testing process.
• You don’t know what else they’re working on. It’s not uncommon for freelance testers to juggle multiple projects at once, and that can lead to inconsistent performance, missed deadlines, or a more general lack of interest. To get ahead of these potential issues, pay close attention to the reviews on their profile. You might even consider sending them a note over LinkedIn to get a more realistic take on how their project went.
• Fees. Some platforms charge you to use their platform. Others deduct a percentage of the freelancer’s pay to cover the expenses of managing the site, causing some testers to charge a higher hourly rate. Unfortunately, these fees can offset some of the savings you might’ve expected from outsourcing.

Cost

Typically, testers on talent sourcing sites charge by the hour. But not all are time-based, opting for fixed-price projects or even bug bounties. The good thing, though — as we’ve pointed out — is that you know their cost model upfront.

What are some of the challenges with outsourced testing?

We’ve gone on for a while now about the benefits of outsourced testing and the kinds of outsourced testing you could employ.

But, as with anything, outsourced testing has its tradeoffs. Here are a few things to be aware of before you make the leap to outsourced testing:

You might not get what you pay for.

The worst thing that can happen is that you hire outsourced testers and they don’t deliver. You’re out the money you paid them and the time you spent training them.

Our advice? Interview multiple firms and talk to some of their previous clients. Those conversations will give you more accurate benchmarks and ensure you get the best possible testers for the best possible price.

You might also want to put special stipulations in your contracts, like SLAs, forms of testing, and guidelines for communication, to avoid a worst-case scenario. Per a top 1% commenter on r/gamedev, MeaningfulChoices:

“Testimonials are very important, as are contractual guarantees. Make sure you smoke test builds first and make sure it can be run by whomever on whatever devices you tell them to test on. The last thing you want is to pay for a night of testing, and no one can get the build to run since you're paying either way.”

You may also want to think about culture fit, particularly if (1) your outsourced testers are going to be working with your internal talent, and (2) if they’re going to be working with your team for several months. Balázs Keszthelyi, Founder of TechnoLynx, warns:

“Looking back, I would have placed a greater emphasis on cultural alignment between our in-house team and the outsourced testers. Establishing a shared understanding of company values and work ethics can significantly enhance collaboration and productivity.”

He advises setting up a feedback loop early on. That way you can address concerns that arise during the initial stages of the partnership before they cause bigger problems down the line.

You have to get outsourced testers up to speed.

External testers — no matter how experienced — need at least some time to familiarize themselves with your systems and the specific requirements of your project. Producing documentation, hosting training sessions, and answering tester questions can take up valuable internal resource time.

Not only can that create delays, it can create friction between internal and external teams. Look for freelancers and testing firms that are accustomed and amenable to a thorough onboarding period.

Redditor CrossWired notes:

“Turnover is a major problem for lots of outsourcing companies, thus one of the main questions to ask when picking one is retention, both at the company and on projects. Putting in the work to get those folks up to speed on your project is an investment just as much as the dollar amount.”

You need to monitor security and confidentiality risks.

Sharing sensitive project details with anyone increases the chances of IP theft and data breaches. Make sure you have conversations with your InfoSec and legal teams to ensure all contractors sign NDAs and that their behavior is continuously monitored in accordance with compliance stipulations.

Have the right tooling in place

You’ve made the decision to outsource. You’ve got the right kind of testers in place. You’ve scrutinized their abilities and services. And you’ve onboarded them to your product.

Now, you just need them to execute.

While tracking testing in spreadsheets might cut it for smaller outsourced testing projects, they may not be robust enough to deliver the kind of efficiency and reporting your testing project demands.

That said, there are plenty of other tools on the market designed to support test management. You just need to make sure you find the right tool for your situation.

Though we’re biased, we think Testpad could be a good fit — it, keeps your testing strategy simple, transparent, and comprehensive with:

• Intuitive checklists
• Reusable templates
• Tags and filters to organize tests left to be done
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Collaboration features
• Real-time reporting

…and more.

Wondering if Testpad can support your outsourced team? Want to try it out before an external firm starts working with you?

Sign up for our free 30-day trial today.

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