Textbroker vs. iWriter: The Showdown

Running a reputable blog or website takes time and energy. Most of this energy would be channeled into writing posts or articles about the niche your site focuses on. Unfortunately, not all site owners have the luxury of time on their side. In this article, we’ll compare Textbroker with iWriter by looking at the order process, their costs, and their completion to determine which one is better.

Textbroker

A well-designed site with a simple user interface, Textbroker allows you to order articles with ease, as well as offering the option of order templates can be saved to speed up future orders. The site also allows you to create a simultaneous order for multiple articles, be it on a single common topic or a number of different ones. And lastly, the site also allows access to an advanced API which allows orders to be placed, managed and accepted with even greater ease and efficiency.

The Ordering Process

Textbrokers offers clients a choice of either submitting an article to a pool of registered writers and wait for applications, or request the services of a specific writer or a team of writers. The latter two options are enabled through the site’s “Direct Order” and “Team Order” options. On top of that, there is a premium option which Textbroker dubbed “Expert Order”. When selecting this option, only writers hand-picked by Textbroker staff will be notified of the order, and the content is always thoroughly reviewed by the staff before being submitted to the client. This option, while it is the most expensive one, is the prime choice when quality is prioritized over affordability. After selecting the content type and niche, as well as specifying optional SEO requirements, the order is placed and can be easily managed through the aforementioned API.

A very useful feature when it comes to ordering from Textbroker is the ability to specify a required quality level. All writers on the site are rated through a star rating system ranging from 2 to 5, as shown in the image below. These ratings are initially assigned by Textbroker staff based on a sample article that is required to be submitted by every writer who wishes to work through Textbroker. After this, all further ratings are submitted exclusively by clients. This system is efficient at helping you get an impression of a writer’s abilities, as well as other important factors such as punctuality and reliability.

When it comes to turnaround times, you’re allowed to specify how quickly you want the article completed, even if it is as quickly as an hour. It’s important to keep in mind, however, that it takes an hour to write a quality 500-word article on average, not including the time needed for research, editing and proofreading. Therefore, if you’re asking for too much to be delivered in too short of an amount of time, you can only get content which is either cheap in every possible way or you may get nothing, as writers would be unlikely to risk receiving a bad rating due to irrationally high demands by the client.

Ultimately, to ensure that the writers picking up your project have a clear understanding of your goal and requirements, you can directly communicate with the writers you’re working with at any given time. After all, miscommunication does nothing but waste both your and the writer’s time.

The cost

The prices vary according to the aforementioned rating system, as shown below. Additionally, the prices for Direct Orders and Team Orders are not fixed, and are instead negotiated with your selected writer or team of writers. As you can see, there is a huge price gap between 4-star and 5-star writers. As always, you get what you pay for so weigh your priorities – quality or affordability.

Completion

Each order is allowed revision requests before finally being accepted and rated, giving both the client and the writer a fair chance to correct any mistakes that may have stemmed from miscommunication. Should you still feel the work is not up to your standards, the article can always be rejected. This is something that should be exercised in reservation and only in extreme cases, since your rejection rate is always visible to other writers. Thus, a high rejection rate will discourage writers from applying to work with you in the future.

iWriter

While the interface of the iWriter site may not be as well-designed as that of Textbroker’s, it’s easy to get accustomed to it. Ordering articles still remains a simple task, with dropdown menus and text boxes guiding you every step of the way. The site also allows you to use an advanced API to place, manage and accept orders, although two of the order modes – eBook and Kindle book – are currently not supported by the API. Another thing that sets iWriter apart from Textbroker is a tipping feature built into the ordering process, allowing customers to tip the writers they work with, should they choose to do so. You can read our full review of iWriter.

The Ordering Process

As mentioned above, ordering an article through iWriter is as easy as navigating a drop-down menu. First, the customer selects the project type, specifying it either an article, a re-write, an eBook or a Kindle Book. Afterwards, you specify  a title and a category or niche that you require, allowing writers to more easily find projects in a  niche that they specialize in. In the following  fields, you are required to select the minimum word count and the language the article will be written in, with the options being US English, UK English, French, German, Spanish or other. Ultimately, you can pick a writing style, specify keywords that you wish included in your order or any additional instructions you may have.

As in the case of Textbroker, you also get to select a quality level that you require, although the selection is narrower by one option. The options here are Basic, Premium and Elite. Basic makes your article accessible to all writers, while with Premium and Elite, it will only be accessible to writers with a minimum rating of 4.1 and 4.6 respectively.

The cost

Both freshly written and rewritten articles come with the same price. This also goes for eBooks and Kindle Books as well. Although an Elite Plus option is not specified, writers who have written over 40 articles and maintained a rating higher than 4.86 get awarded this rating. Hiring these writers is also significantly more expensive. Below is a breakdown of the different pricing structure for articles and eBooks.

Completion

Like Textbroker orders can be revised before being accepted. If you feel that the work is not of a sufficient quality, you once again have the option of rejecting the article. And as before, your rejection rate (along with tips) is visible to all writers, so this option should not be abused.

So, which one is better?

A word of warning – both Textbroker and iWriter have an upsell towards writers promising them a higher rating by submitting a number of articles to be rated directly by company staff, something that the writer has to pay for. Although the staff at both companies are very professional and knowledgeable, a lack of bias cannot be guaranteed. Textbroker, on top of this, requires their writers to pass an entire course prior to applying to any jobs.

Overall, Textbroker has established a reputation of stricter quality control at all quality levels, something that cannot be said for iWriter, which is known for delivering very poor content on lower quality tiers and occasionally, even content that is spun with software. Combine that with Textbroker’s lower prices, as well as a sleeker and easier to use interface, and it is clear why Textbroker can be considered the superior service of the two.