We Tested the 10 Best Crowdsourcing Platforms on The Market

Whether you’re looking for a solution to a problem, an idea for an innovative product, a large workforce or customer feedback, crowdsourcing allows you to find it. Crowdsourcing, or leveraging the crowd as a source of information, ideas, or solutions, is a great way to solve problems and drive innovation to your company.

With crowdsourcing platforms spanning tools for collecting and managing ideas, outsourcing tasks, and brainstorming, you can find a willing crowd that you can leverage. 

This guide provides an overview of the best crowdsourcing tools on the market, highlighting what we like about and what we think you should be aware of. 

The 10 Best Crowdsourcing Platforms: a Comparative Table

	✅ Pros	❌ Cons
Ideanote Idea collection, management, and collaboration platform	- Manage and collaborate on ideas - Customizable & automated workflows - Integrations with other tools - Build your own community	- No immediate community accessible. - May not be suitable for small teams
Wazoku Crowd (InnoCentive) Crowdsourcing platform for innovation challenges	- Access to diverse expertise - Engage a global crowd for creative problem-solving - Contest-based approach	- Limited to existing solvers - No option to build your own community. - Can be costly
99designs Contest-based crowdsourcing platform for collecting winning design ideas	- Access to a wide range of design skill sets - High-quality design submissions - Option to select more than on winning design from multiple entries	- Limited customization options for designs - No way of collaborating on submitted designs
Amazon Mechanical Turk  Crowdsourcing platform for outsourcing small tasks to a large workforce	- Cost-effective way to get micro-tasks done quickly - Access to a large pool of workers available 24/7	- Quality and consistency of work can vary - Limited control over worker selection - Not a long-term solution
Quora Knowledge-sharing, Q&A platform for collecting answers from a large public	- Diverse perspectives and knowledge from a global community - Extensive range of topics covered - Great source of target audience feedback - Great for building brand awareness	- No way of sorting answers or managing ideas - Potential for misinformation or biased responses - Risk of exposing sensitive information publicly if you’re not careful
UserVoice Crowdsourcing too for collecting customer feedback in a structured way	- Organized feedback collection and management - Structured process for prioritizing and addressing customer feedback	- Limited only to collecting feedback from customers - No way to collect internal feedback - Limited customization options for feedback collection
Google Forms Free data collection tool based on form creation	- Easy-to-use and accessible to anyone for free - Customizable form creation - Easy way to gather customer feedback, ideas, and opinions	- Basic design options  - No structured way of managing responses
Microsoft Teams Collaboration platform with crowdsourcing capabilities to collect employee ideas	- Team collaboration and idea sharing via video conferences - Seamless integration with other Microsoft tools - Integration with Ideanote	- No structured way of collecting and managing ideas from brainstorming sessions  - Limited to video conferencing and chat capabilities - Disappearing threads
uTest Crowdsourcing platform for software testing tasks	- Access to a large community of testers with various devices and configurations - Comprehensive testing coverage and feedback	- Limited control over tester selection - Need to pay separately for each testing experiment - Not a permanent solution
Miro Digital collaboration and brainstorming platform	- Visual collaboration for ideation and brainstorming sessions - Easy, in-platform interaction with ideas - Convenient brainstorming tool for very small teams	- No structured way to collect and manage ideas  - Unmanageable with teams larger than 10 people

Choose the Crowdsourcing Tool Your Business Needs

Before you start your search for the right crowdsourcing tool, think about what you’re looking to achieve with crowdsourcing. Once you've figured out your goals, take a look at this list of the best crowdsourcing platforms.

Crowdsource Ideas with Ideanote

Innovation starts with Ideanote. It’s a collaborative idea management platform that turns collecting ideas into a streamlined and structured process created for companies that aim for continuous innovation.  

With Ideanote, you can collect, manage, evaluate & collaborate on ideas in one place. From there, you can easily determine which ideas to act on and track the impact they’ll have on your business.

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.7/5

Capterra: 4.9/5

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Free plan available (limited to 10 members)
• Business plan starts at $49/month for 15 members and $289 for 100 members
• Free trial available for the business plan (no credit card required)

🏆 Best for

Companies that aim for continuous innovation and need a tool to set up their own branded crowdsourcing system. 

➡️ Crowdsource and manage ideas with Ideanote

Ideanote allows you to effectively manage and organize collected ideas, creating a streamlined system that lets you cluster, score, rate, and shortlist them. This process allows you to easily move the best ideas to the idea implementation phase. 

With its incredibly user-friendly and efficient interface, mainly thanks to its AI-powered automation features, Ideanote turns idea collection into an interactive experience. 

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

Most crowdsourcing platforms offer you access to their existing community, so you can leverage the “wisdom of the crowd” to “source” your ideas. Ideanote allows you to create your own community. 

So, think of Ideanote as a long-term solution that can provide you with a steady flow of ideas, ongoing engagement from users and employees, and a reputation for innovation. 

It's not a quick fix but rather a powerful tool that can boost your idea pipeline and serve as a valuable marketing asset.

Crowdsource solutions with Wazoku Crowd, previously InnoCentive 

If two heads are better than one, imagine what an entire community of “heads” can do for you. This is precisely the idea behind Wazoku Crowd, previously InnoCentive. 

This crowdsourcing platform relies on the crowd contest method. With Wazoku Crowd, companies can post their problem as a challenge and offer cash prizes for the best ideas submitted by the platform’s community of “solvers” - a network of skilled and innovative engineers, inventors, scientists, and experts in other fields. 

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.4/5

Capterra: 4.6/5

💲 Pricing

• Customized proposals

🏆 Best for

Companies that need new minds to solve a problem.

✅ What we like about it 

Wazoku Crowd, previously Innocentive, has been around for a long time. The idea for Innocentive was born in 1998, and the company was launched in 2001. Over time, it acquired a network of clients, spanning start-ups, non-profit organizations, and Fortune 2000 companies, that it connected to a community of over 500,000 solvers. 

Wazoku Crowd is pretty big, and the idea behind it is truly innovative. Innocentive pioneered the concept of crowdsourcing for R&D and has even collaborated with NASA. 

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

Wazoku Crowd allows you to leverage its existing community of solvers, but it doesn’t let you create your own. 

It's a convenient way to crowdsource solutions, but you miss out on the opportunity to engage and build brand awareness with your own audience.

Crowdsource design ideas with 99designs

99designs is a design crowdsourcing platform where designers can participate in real projects, showcase their talents, and compete for cash prizes. 

This unique crowdsourcing platform offers a great way to collect design ideas. All you have to do is start a contest, evaluate the designs, choose the best ones, and pay for them. 

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4/5

Capterra: 4.5/5

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Fixed price packages start at €289

🏆 Best for

Companies who want to crowdsource design ideas.

✅ What we like about it 

99design has a network of talented designers from all around the world and lets you gather ideas for different types of designs - from logos and business cards to book covers and even website design. 

In addition, the winning design will be entirely as it comes with full copyright ownership. 

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

99design is rather a one-way street. The platform only lets you collect ideas, but it doesn’t let you post your own to gather feedback. It limits you to what the community has to offer. 

Sure, you can choose multiple winning designs if you wish, but you can only develop those ideas further outside the platform. 

Crowdsource workforce with Amazon Mechanical Turk

Your team likely spends too many hours in their workday performing menial, repetitive micro-tasks like data entry or sorting that require no expertise. 

With Amazon Mechanical Turk, you can outsource small tasks to a large pool of workers. It’s a workforce crowdsourcing platform that connects businesses with people who are willing to complete these tasks on a pay-per-task basis. 

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4/5

Capterra: not available

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• 20% fee on the reward and bonus amount (if any) you pay Workers

🏆 Best for

Companies that need to crowdsource workforce for routine micro-tasks.

✅ What we like about it 

Amazon Mechanical Turk has a large network of workers from all around the world that are willing to perform micro-tasks for a low fee. Since it spans all time zones, you’ll be able to find someone available to work 24/7. 

It's a quick and affordable way to crowdsource for routine micro-tasks and free your employees’ time to focus on higher-value tasks. The platform also offers specialized templates to help you build tasks quickly and easily.

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

Amazon Mechanical Turk is more of an emergency solution than a long-term one. The workers aren’t familiar with your business. They’ll perform micro-tasks, but you can’t rely on them for any tasks that require ideation. 

What’s more, using this platform rise ethical concerns due to low payment rates. 

Crowdsource answers with Quora 

The popular Q&A platform Quora was created by two former Facebook employees, Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever. Their idea behind the platform was to connect those who have questions with those who hold the answers to these questions. 

Since 2010 when a TechCrunch article mentioned Quora for story ideas, creating a buzz on the internet, the platform started to pick up. Now it receives over 1 billion monthly visits.

💲 Pricing

• Free
• Quora+ available for $6.99/month
• Free trial available

🏆 Best for

‍Businesses that want to collect ideas, solutions, and answers from a larger and more diverse public without getting too much into detail.  

✅ What we like about it 

Quora is the most popular Q&A platform on the internet. Quora’s users are eager to answer questions on any topic under the sun, and it’s open to anyone. 

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

You must remember that everything you post on Quora is public - so it’s not very secure when it comes to data privacy. 

You can’t share a detailed internal problem or describe your innovative ideas in depth. It would just put you at risk of having your ideas stolen or damaging your brand reputation. 

What’s more, there’s no way for you to track and cluster the ideas and solutions you receive. 

Crowdsource Customer Feedback with UserVoice

You can’t build a successful product that people will want to buy without gathering feedback from your customers. UserVoice is a crowdsourcing platform that allows you to do that in a structured and organized way. 

With UserVoice, you can create feedback forums where customers can share their ideas, report issues, or give general feedback. It's a great tool that streamlines feedback management and helps you create better products. 

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.5/5

Capterra: 4.2/5

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Plans start at $699/months with an annual agreement
• Free trial available

🏆 Best for

Businesses that want feedback on their products and ideas to improve them. 

✅ What we like about it 

With UserVoice, you can keep your customer’s ideas and opinions in one place, cluster them as you see fit, and manage them easily. 

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

UserVoice is great at what it does, but it doesn’t go beyond that. If you require more advanced features like detailed analytics or extensive customization options, you’ll need to look for another platform. 

Crowdsource for free with Google Forms

Google Forms is a helpful tool for crowdsourcing, and it’s entirely free. 

It allows anyone to collect people's ideas, opinions, and feedback by creating and sharing customized, easy-to-fill-out forms. What’s more, Google Forms automatically collects and organizes the responses. 

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: not available

Capterra: 4.7/5

💲 Pricing

• Included in the Google Worspace business packages
• Free plan and trial available

🏆 Best for

Small businesses that don’t need to or can’t invest in a specialized idea collection or crowdsourcing tool.

✅ What we like about it 

We’ve all used Google Forms. It’s free, easy to use, and accessible. It doesn't require any complex technical skills to create or use forms. It makes it easy for anyone to collect ideas for free. 

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

Google Forms automatically collects and sorts answers as respondents fill out the form, but to get responses, you have to send the form to the right people or share it on social media yourself. 

And once the answers start to come through, you’ll have to sort ideas manually. 

Crowdsource employee ideas and feedback with Microsoft Teams

Although it's not specifically made for crowdsourcing, you can use Microsoft Teams to make crowdsourcing easier within your organization. 

With Teams, you can create special channels or groups where your team can collaborate, share ideas, and work on projects together. You can crowdsource ideas, gather feedback, and get input from different team members. 

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.3

Capterra: 4.4  

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Free plan available
• Paid business plan starts at USD$4.00 user/month (annual subscription)
• Free trial available for every plan

🏆 Best for

Companies that want to gather employee insights without setting up a process.

✅ What we like about it 

Microsoft Teams turns idea generation into a frictionless process that can be done anytime during the workday. 

It provides a convenient environment for ideation and collaboration within your team during online ideation sessions or team meetings.

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

With MS Teams, you can only collect ideas in threads where they disappear over time. It’s an excellent tool for engaging your entire team in the ideation process, but it lacks the capabilities to manage those ideas. 

Crowdsource software testing with uTest

Whether you build video games, mobile apps, SaaS platforms, eCommerce stores, or websites, software and usability testing is inevitable. 

With uTest, a crowdsourcing platform for software testing, you can test your products before release in a cost-effective way. It connects businesses with a global community of skilled testers who can test your software applications using different devices and systems.   

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 3.3

Capterra: not available

💲 Pricing

• Not available

🏆 Best for

Businesses that need a one-off solution to test a product.

✅ What we like about it 

Testing your product is crucial for validating your ideas, and having a resource that grants you easy access to a community of willing testers is invaluable.

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

uTest operates on a pay-per-use basis, meaning you must pay for each testing session separately. It's a one-off solution rather than a permanent one.

Crowdsource ideas with Miro 

Miro is a visual collaboration platform, but it’s also an excellent tool for crowdsourcing ideas through collaborative brainstorming with a small team. With Miro, you can create visual boards, mindmaps, charts, and wireframes to make brainstorming easier. 

💬 Customer Reviews

G2: 4.8/5

Capterra: 4.7/5

💲 Pricing

• Pricing page
• Free plan available
• Paid plan starts at $8 per member/month billed annually

🏆 Best for

Small teams who are able to follow up on ideas without a process.

✅ What we like about it 

Miro provides an easy way to come up with ideas during a brainstorming session with a small team that doesn’t require a specific process for idea collection and management.

⚠️ What you should be aware of 

Miro is great for ideating online in meetings with 2-10 people. It offers a collaborative platform where ideas can flow freely. However, when the crowd becomes larger, the ideation process becomes unmanageable.

‍Recommended reading:
Goodbye Suggestion Boxes, Hello Digitalization & AI
Keys for Enabling Blue Sky Thinking in Your Business
Idea Evaluation Process & Criteria to Select the Right Business Ideas
Idea Meritocracy: The Way to Collective Decision-Making
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