You’re probably here because you’ve seen the ads for TesterUp, or you’ve run into it in the App Store, and you’re wondering whether it’s a scam or legit. My initial review for TesterUp concluded that the answer was that it was indeed a scam. However, there have been some developments since that post was published. Read on for my revised conclusion.

Apple, which is already richer than God, has decided it doesn’t want to police apps in the App Store. If an app makes the company money, that is apparently good enough for Tim Cook. The well-being of Apple’s customers doesn’t seem to factor into that decision. The company relies upon its review system to identify the bad apples, even though many say that system is broken.

As a result, Apple’s app store is in some respects like the Wild West. Many apps promise that their users can make money playing them. It’s a competitive category in which apps make outrageous claims about the money that can be made using them, while the games themselves employ various “cheats” to prevent that from occurring.

In theory, a revenue sharing model for apps makes sense, but for developers, in an unregulated, un-policed industry, it’s just as easy — and apparently more lucrative — to create a scam app, and that’s what many appear to be doing.

As a result, caveat emptor is a good rule of thumb to follow for any game with the name “cash” in it.

The question now, is, is TesterUp one of those bad apples? TesterUp is a game testing app developed by Hamburg-based Aestimium GmbH. Let’s take a close look at it.

TesterUp allows users to test a plethora of app store games and get paid for their time. Sounds like a win-win for users, and an attractive app to download. That’s what many Apple users think as well. TesterUp reports to have 3,000,000 active users.

First impressions of the app are that it looks legit. Testing apps is a real thing, and developers should pay testers, I mean, you’re working for them. So the app category doesn’t set off any red flags, per se.

Yet, when examined more closely, one sees that all of the games are production games; none are in the development process. Moreover, Apple has a specific app users must use to beta test apps in the app store; it’s called TestFlight. We are forced to conclude that TesterUp isn’t really a testing app at all. At best, it’s a market research app, but no game “testing” is underway. Testing is just a gimmick TesterUp’s ad-revenue-sharing model, albeit a clever one.

Now let’s look at the payouts promised. First impression of those is that they seem high. Most games on TesterUp promise $100 and up for playing them. High promised payouts are themselves a red flag, obviously, following the maxim, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Look closer, though, and you’ll see these payouts aren’t unrealistically high; on the contrary, they are extremely low. For example, take Grand Cash Slots. It has a promised payout on TesterUp of $99.70. In order to earn that payout, the user needs to reach level 10,000 (no, that isn’t a typo).

Level-ups happen relatively quickly in the game; about a minute per level. But do the math on that. In order to reach level 10,000, one must play Grand Cash Slots for 166.67 hours, or roughly nonstop for a week. This results in an hourly rate of 60 cents per hour, or 1/17th the minimum wage in the U.S.

There are better uses of your time.

But wait, there’s more. Not only are the milestones insanely high, and the pay per milestone a slave’s wage, but TesterUp also makes you deposit your own money to hit certain milestones, $10 here, $5 there. This subtracts from your payout, and hourly rate, substantially.

This app is all rigged in the developer’s favor.

In my initial review, I noted that the app also didn’t track milestones correctly, making it appear to be just another dirty trick from a sleazy game developer. This was the primary reason for my determination that the game was a scam. In retrospect, however, that issue may have been caused by a beta version of iPadOS, so the app should be given the benefit of the doubt. Moreover, after my article was published, Aestimium gave me credit for the missing milestones. That process took too long, and was buggy, but no harm no foul.

Finally, the matter of payment was an open issue when my initial story was published. In the intervening time, I reached the payment threshold of $70. That threshold is too high (most users will quit before they reach it), but the company did pay me out when I reached it, and the money was deposited to my paypal in about a week. I deleted the app as soon as that happened.

The events that occurred after my original review of TesterUp were in its favor. My new conclusion is that yes, TesterUp is legit, it’s just a bad use of your time. If you want to make real money online, your best bet is taking surveys on Prolific.