Navigating the world of remote gig work can feel overwhelming, especially when you’re looking for legitimate companies that treat independent contractors fairly and offer genuine flexibility. While LiveOps often comes to mind first, there are plenty of other outfits out there matching—or even exceeding—the kinds of opportunities you might expect. Below, you’ll find a handful of names you can explore, each with its own approach to remote, contract-based work.
When you’re after customer-support roles that allow you to set your own hours, Working Solutions frequently surfaces in conversations. They partner with big-name brands across various industries—retail, tech, healthcare, and more. Once you’re onboarded, you clock in via their platform and take inbound calls or chat requests. You’re paid based on “productive minutes,” which simply means the moments you spend actually helping customers. No sales quotas, no wacky upsells—just solving people’s problems from your home office.
If you’re more comfortable with outbound calls—maybe you enjoy guiding prospects or checking in on customer satisfaction—NexRep might pique your interest. Rather than lumping everyone into the same bucket, they offer specialized programs tailored to different clients. You’ll need a quiet workspace and a reliable internet connection, but in return you get to build your own schedule. Some projects focus on tech support, others on insurance verification, or even simple lead qualification. It’s not a flat hourly wage; your rate depends on the program you choose, so it helps to browse their current openings and see which ones align with your skills.
Not all contract-based work revolves around phone calls, though. If you’d rather flex your moderation or social-media savvy, ModSquad has built a reputation on that front. Their “Mods” work with brands to monitor online communities, weed out spam, and keep conversations civil. Sometimes you’ll answer customer questions directly, and other times you’ll be deployed to patch together feedback reports for clients. It’s project-driven rather than ongoing shifts, which means you could juggle multiple small assignments—everything from gaming forums to e-commerce storefronts.
Stepping away from general customer support, Pleio focuses specifically on healthcare outreach. In practice, that might look like making reminder calls to patients who need prescription renewals or post-visit check-ins. Because these calls aren’t sales pitches, they tend to attract contractors who want a quiet, no-pressure phone gig. Of course, you’ll need to be HIPAA-compliant and able to follow scripted protocols, but many people find it rewarding to know they’re directly helping someone stay on top of their medications.
Sometimes, political advocacy and large-scale polling projects land under the radar when we talk about remote contracting—yet that’s exactly NextWave Advocacy’s domain. They recruit “intercept agents” (aka independent contractors) to conduct telephone surveys, coordinate mail campaigns, or carry out get-out-the-vote efforts. You could spend a couple of hours checking in on households or verifying voter registration data. Payment typically comes per call or per project, so you’ll want to familiarize yourself with each campaign’s payout structure before signing up.
If you’re aiming to represent major brands while maintaining full control over your calendar, Arise Virtual Solutions might be a good fit. They operate like a marketplace: you browse a list of “Virtual Call Center” clients—big companies such as telecommunications providers or financial-services firms—then purchase a “seat” for the client you want to serve. Once you pass that client’s certification process, you’re free to schedule shifts when you like. Because you’re responsible for covering your own benefits, taxes, and equipment costs, the headline rates can look higher than a W-2 role, but make sure to weigh those against any overhead.
For anyone who prefers bite-sized tasks over full call shifts, Lionbridge and Appen are often mentioned in the same breath. Both companies contract out micro-projects, such as search-engine evaluation, data annotation, or language transcription—work that helps refine machine-learning algorithms. You might spend one hour tagging images so an AI can better recognize street signs, or you could be asked to evaluate how relevant certain search results are for specific queries. They’re not glamorous gigs, sure, but they let you jump from project to project, choosing whichever ones fit your schedule and interests.
Under the same umbrella as Lionbridge, you’ll sometimes hear about Lionbridge Crowdsourcing (formerly CrowdFlower). In practice, this is the division that handles massive datasets—picture hundreds of thousands of images or audio clips needing categorization. Pay is systematically tied to the volume and complexity of tasks, so if you’re detail-oriented and can punch out work quickly, it’s a straightforward way to stack up earnings in small increments.
Last but not least, if you happen to be fluent in multiple languages or you have a knack for catching subtle errors, Appen—though already mentioned—deserves a closer look. Their projects can range from translating short phrases for voice assistants to reviewing voice samples for accent clarity. Because big tech companies frequently overhaul their natural language-processing engines, there’s always a fresh batch of tasks to apply for. Just remember: pay rates vary by geography, project type, and turnaround time, so do your own homework before committing.
None of these options will feel like a perfect fit overnight. Each platform has its own application process, technical requirements, and pay structure. Some pay by the minute you handle a live interaction; others pay per completed task or per audio file transcribed. Before diving in, take a moment to compare:
- Required equipment: Most phone-based gigs insist on a noise-cancelling headset and a wired internet connection. Some moderation or data labeling roles only require a basic laptop.
- Payment cadence: Working Solutions, for example, pays biweekly based on “productive minutes,” whereas Lionbridge projects often pay upon completion of a defined batch of tasks.
- Skill alignment: If you’re naturally empathetic on the phone, a customer support role at Arise or NexRep could be a good fit for you. If you’re detail-oriented and prefer screen work, data annotation at Appen or Lionbridge might be a better match.
- Onboarding time: Expect anywhere from a few days (for simple tasks on Lionbridge Crowdsourcing) to a couple of weeks (for full certification programs at Arise or Working Solutions).
The beauty of all these outfits is that they genuinely let you choose: do you want a handful of quick, on-demand tasks, or a more structured schedule with a guaranteed hourly/call rate? Do you relish chatting with people and solving their problems in real time, or would you rather sit quietly in front of your screen, sharpening an AI’s understanding of the world? Once you’ve pinpointed which style suits you best, take the plunge: apply to two or three companies, get a feel for their onboarding processes, and see which one feels the most transparent, both in terms of expectations and pay.
In the evolving landscape of remote work, independent contracting isn’t just about grabbing whatever gig pays the bills. It’s also about finding a rhythm that fits your life—whether that means clocking in calls late at night, annotating data during your kids’ nap time, or toggling between brand-new AI tasks one day and phone support the next. Keep an open mind, trust your best judgment, and remember that the “right” fit might not be the first offer you land. Once you discover the company—or combination of companies—that aligns with your skills and schedule, you’ll have unlocked a flexible way to earn without ever leaving home.