Crossware is proud to be a winner of the Top Performer award from SourceForge, the world’s largest software reviews and comparison website.
12th January, 2022 – Crossware, today announced that it has been awarded a Winter 2022 Top Performer Award by SourceForge, the world’s largest software review and comparison website. This award recognizes exceptional companies and products with a significant amount of recent favorable user reviews that puts them in the top tenth percentile of highly reviewed products on SourceForge.
“I’m very excited to announce the Winter 2022 Top Performers on SourceForge” Said Logan Abbot, President at SourceForge, “Crossware has been recognized as a Top Performer this Winter in the Email Signature and Email Management categories, and their outstanding user reviews are proof of the high-quality solution they provide to their customers. Congratulations and keep up the amazing work!”
To win the Winter 2022 Top Performer award, each winner had to receive enough high-rated user reviews to place the winning product in the top 10% of favorably reviewed products on SourceForge, which demonstrates the utmost quality that Crossware delivers to customers.
About Crossware The Crossware story began in 1992 in Denmark where founder, Per Andersen led a team creating software solutions for IBM Lotus (now HCL). In 1999, a love of New Zealand brought Crossware Down Under. Settling in Auckland, Crossware quickly grew to become the largest and most experienced HCL Lotus Software organisation in the country.This growth occurred due to the key insight that in a time of cluttered inboxes and email fatigue, sending data-driven personalised and relevant emails matters more than ever.Crossware’s powerful tools allow its clients to personalise company emails with intelligently applied ad banners, email signatures, disclaimers and more.In 2013 as Microsoft business solutions grew, Crossware was the first to introduce an Email Signature Solution for Microsoft Office 365. Today, Crossware Mail Signature has over a million users across 80 countries.
About SourceForge SourceForge.net is the world’s largest software comparison directory, serving nearly 30 million users every month and featuring user reviews, product comparisons, software guides, and more. SourceForge’s mission is to help businesses find the best software to fit their needs and their budget. There are a variety of software tools available to businesses, and there are tools in almost every category and niche, each serving a slightly different purpose. SourceForge also powers the Slashdot.org/software/ business software and services directory.
WriterAccess is a freelance platform that brings clients and freelance writers together in a safe space. The site prides itself on vetting freelancers, so clients trust that they are getting access to the best of the best. WriterAccess uses its own system of star ratings to review freelancers.
Before you decide that this Boston-based content mill is the right fit for your content marketing strategy, check out our review.
Looking for more information about another hiring website?
For hiring developers, check out Toptal, Lemon.io, and Codementor.
For hiring designers, check out DesignBro, DesignHill, and 99Designs.
For all hiring needs, including overseas outsourcing, check out OnlineJobs, Fiverr, and Upwork.
You can check out a list of website hiring reviews here.
How WriterAccess works
WriterAccess began in 2005, getting in on the ground floor of freelance websites. They launched their specialized platform five years later. The platform specializes in content writing. More than 15,000 writers find jobs from well-known brands like Microsoft and AAA.
WriterAccess offers a search tool that lets clients quickly find qualified freelancers. Clients are called customers. They can try the platform for 14 days before committing to one of their payment tiers. Customers search for freelancers through the star rating, as each project and freelancer is rated somewhere between two and six stars.
Freelancers can get started by completing an application. WriterAccess reviews each application to determine if the freelancer will be a good fit. They offer testing and screening to find out exactly what freelancers can do.
Once WriterAccess approves an application, they assign the freelancer a star rating and pay range. Interestingly, WriterAccess calls freelancers rising stars if they do well. They also have falling stars, which are freelancers who are not delivering quality content or completing projects on time. Freelancers are paid per word, and they get 70% of the per-word rate they are assigned.
Star levels can go up and down based on the website’s algorithm. The increases and decreases depend on client reviews, completed orders, and blind editor ratings. WriterAccess awards six stars to their experienced writers, who often write highly technical pieces and complete deadlines on time.
Writers with two stars have a basic grasp of grammar and mechanics. They are often new to the site. New writers have passed the WriterAccess screening procedures but have not yet proven that they can write complex pieces.
Before a writer begins on WriterAccess, they have to prove their identity. WriterAccess asks for ID. The site also monitors the IP addresses of their writers to be sure they really are native speakers.
Writers like that they can access a forum with questions and support. They also like that they always know where they stand on the platform. Writers do not have to devise a payment system, as WriterAccess gives them a pricing range based on their star rating.
WriterAccess praise and pros
Customers appreciate how WriterAccess vets writers and ranks them according to their ability and skills in freelance writing. The star rating gives clients an immediate idea of what freelancers can do.
WriterAccess only hires native English speakers from countries like the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and Ireland. Customers can choose freelancers based on their home countries. They can also narrow freelancers by their states.
WriterAccess gives customers a money-back guarantee on all order content. The site offers customers two options if they are unhappy with the work they receive. Clients can request a refund, or they can have a different copywriter redo the work.
WriterAccess also runs a Copyscape report on all of their work. This ensures that it is original content that will help your site’s SEO.
Customers also appreciate the robust help desk offered on the platform. If customers have problems, customer service professionals will help them with any issue. Customer service experts will also help customers find the perfect expert to complete their writing job.
WriterAccess also offers two royalty-free images with each post. If customers want more images with their projects, they can pay for Getty or Shutterstock images. They can also pay for more royalty-free images.
Another favorite feature for customers is their ability to work with their favorite writers. Being able to do this gives customers a consistent writing style on their websites. Customers who want to find new writers can use the site’s robust search feature that relies on AI to match writers to projects.
Another benefit of WriterAccess is its cost compared to the other popular freelancing sites. Their competitive review includes costs per month and all of the benefits offered on each site. Customers can immediately decide which big platform can best meet their needs and their budgets.
WriterAccess complaints and cons
WriterAccess has been in business for over a decade, proving it is a site that customers like to use. However, the site is not perfect. Having so many freelancers can make it difficult for some clients to find the right person. WriterAccess will find freelancers for clients, but only if they pay for premium services.
Clients do not like that they have to pay by the word and for the platform use fee. Some clients do not like to pay by the word count. Instead, they would rather pay a fixed amount so they can better prepare their budgets.
WriterAccess has an AI bot to help freelancers and customers with any questions they have. While this might seem like a benefit, it is actually problematic because the bot never goes away. The little bot becomes a nuisance as it takes up precious space on the screen.
WriterAccess offers several pricing options for clients. After a 14-day free trial, customers who want to continue using WriterAccess have to pay for the services. The Basic program allows one user to access the site, hire writers, and use their tools for $39 per month. Remember that customers also have to pay the per-word cost for each project.
The next level of service is Pro, which costs $79 per month. This level allows up to 10 users to access the freelancers and tools. Pro users can access freelancers like illustrators, photographers, and writers. They have access to tools like BuzzSumo, language graders, and SERP tracking.
WriterAccess pricing includes the Premium tier which costs $99 per month for an unlimited number of users. At the Premium level, customers have access to content managers and strategists, copy editors, and translators. They can use tools like analytics reports, persona builders, white-label solutions, and multi-client publishing.
WriterAccess clients can also use managed services. With managed services, WriterAccess will find freelancers, structure the orders, and minimize workflow for clients. When clients use the managed services, they can work on their business rather than manage freelancers and their projects.
The managed services start at $349 for the Essential package, including order setup, talent management, topic ideation, and more. For the $749 Advanced package, WriterAccess will do everything in the Essential package as well as blog and social media publishing, image research, and more.
WriterAccess also offers a custom package option for businesses that want some managed services, but not all of them. Businesses that choose managed services must also have a Basic, Pro, or Premium package. WriterAccess allows clients to pay by the month so that clients can start and cancel at any time.
The payment structure is simple for freelancers. They are paid on a per-word basis. WriterAccess pays 70% of the project to the freelancer. Pay is sent to Paypal on the 4th and 19th of the month. The simple pay rates and regular payment delivery gives freelancers a clear picture of their earnings.
Bitcoin Sign upMercado Bitcoin is one of the Brazilian centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. On the date of last updating this review (10 September 2021), the exchange stated on its website that it had over 2.8 million customers.
Mercado Bitcoin Mobile Support
If you want to do your cryptocurrency business while on your phone, will that be possible at this trading platform? The answer is yes, it will. Mercado Bitcoin can be used through a mobile application that you can also download for free.
US-investors
US-investors may not trade on this exchange. So if you are a US-investor and want to trade at Mercado Bitcoin, you’ll have to reconsider your choice of trading venue and choose one of the other top crypto exchanges. Don’t be too sad though, there are many other venues that offer the type of trading this exchange does. Use our Exchange Finder to find out which alternatives you have.
Mercado Bitcoin Trading View
Different exchanges have different trading views. And there is no “this overview is the best”-view. You should yourself determine which trading view that suits you the best. What the views normally have in common is that they all show the order book or at least part of the order book, a price chart of the chosen cryptocurrency and order history. They normally also have buy and sell-boxes. Before you choose an exchange, try to have a look at the trading view so that you can ascertain that it feels right to you. The below is a picture of the place at Mercado Bitcoin where you can follow the price movements and latest trades at Mercado Bitcoin. The purchase interface is at another place on the website:
Mercado Bitcoin Fees
Mercado Bitcoin Trading fees
The trading fees for takers at this Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange are 0,70%. This fee is substantially above the industry average. The industry average is arguably around 0.25%, so Mercado Bitcoin’s trading fees are almost three times higher than the industry average. In fairness, it should be noted that this exchange’s trading fees for makers is around 0.30%. This is closer to industry average but still above. One should consider whether Mercado Bitcoin has a strong offering to investors in other respects that outweighs the disadvantage of these higher trading fees.
Mercado Bitcoin Withdrawal fees
Withdrawal fees are usually fixed and vary from crypto-to-crypto. If you withdraw BTC, you pay a small amount of BTC for the withdrawal. If you withdraw ETH, you pay ETH. The last time we did an empirical study of the BTC-withdrawal fees in the crypto exchange market, we found that the average BTC-withdrawal fee was approx. 0.0006 BTC per BTC-withdrawal. Mercado Bitcoin charges 0.0005 BTC per BTC-withdrawal, which is slightly below the global industry average. Accordingly, their withdrawals fees are definitely competitive enough.
Deposit Methods
This particular trading platform offers wire transfer as a deposit method, but you can’t deposit via credit card. This of course negative news to you if you would prefer to use your credit card for any reason. However, as the exchange accepts deposit of fiat currencies at all, it distinguishes itself from many exchanges that only allows deposits in cryptocurrencies.
We needed IdentityForce to use personally, so we checked out its plans below. Additionally, IdentityForce offers plans for businesses, although the process isn’t quite so straightforward.
Personal
Features
Category
UltraSecure plan (individual)
UltraSecure + Credit plan (individual)
Advanced fraud
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Change of address
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Court records
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Dark web
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Mobile attack control
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Payday loans
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Sex offender
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Social media
Identity Monitoring
Yes
Yes
Credit scores and reports from 3 bureaus
Identity Monitoring
No
Yes
Credit score tracker and simulator
Identity Monitoring
No
Yes
Medical ID fraud protection
Control
Yes
Yes
Online PC protection tools
Control
Yes
Yes
Two-factor authentication
Control
Yes
Yes
Lost wallet assistance
Control
Yes
Yes
Mobile app
Control
Yes
Yes
Bank account and credit card activity
Alerts
Yes
Yes
Investment accounts
Alerts
Yes
Yes
Social Security Number monitoring
Alerts
Yes
Yes
Junk mail opt-out
Alerts
Yes
Yes
Identity threat
Alerts
Yes
Yes
Fraud
Alerts
Yes
Yes
Identity theft insurance up to $1 million
Recovery
Yes
Yes
Full managed restoration
Recovery
Yes
Yes
Toll-free customer service
Recovery
Yes
Yes
Monthly price
Price
$17.95
$23.95
Yearly price
Price
$179.50
$239.50
Yearly savings
Price
$35.90
$47.90
Sign up for a year for savings of up to $47.89. View plans.
Choosing a subscription was pretty easy; the two options, the UltraSecure and the UltraSecure + Credit plans, are nearly exactly the same, but as you can imagine, the latter is the one with credit score and report monitoring, which is why we chose it. Even though we could technically access our credit scores and reports from the three major credit-reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, for free, it was convenient for IdentityForce to do it for us.
Pricing-wise, IdentityForce is middle-of-the-road when compared to competitors, and it’s even cheaper if you sign up for a year. However, for our purposes, we went with the slightly more costly monthly option.
Got kids? We don’t, but for those parents among us, IdentityForce can protect them, too. Simply pay for another account through ChildWatch, which will provide them with the exact same monitoring, identity theft insurance, and restoration services.
IMPORTANT TIP: Although you’ll have to pay for the yearly plan all at once, if you break it down monthly, it’s cheaper than the monthly option.
Business
Businesses need identity monitoring services, too! But with IdentityForce, the process isn’t as clearly defined as their plans for personal use. Rather than simply buying plans for all your employees, contact the company directly to qualify for a trial.2 If you like what you get, you can make a customized option that fits your business.
Want to know even more about your pricing options? Check out our primary IdentityForce pricing page for all of the nitty-gritty details.
IdentityForce Features
Okay, we’ve laid out the pricing, but what’s actually included in a subscription from IdentityForce? Let’s break it down.
Monitoring
Here are the basic things that IdentityForce tracked for us:
Advanced fraud: If lenders request copies of our credit reports, we’d be notified. This was relevant when we opened a new checking account, but we’d be notified when car dealerships, government agencies, and mortgage lenders requested copies as well. This ensures that if anyone is trying to buy something using our (impressive) credit score, we’ll get alerted so our score remains pristine.
Change of address: If anyone, including us, makes a change of address request through USPS, we’ll be aware of it to make sure our mail is going to the right place— our garbage can (just kidding…sort of).
Court records: There are literally millions of court records and criminal records out there, and if our identity was part of any of them, IdentityForce is on it.
Dark web: If you don’t know what the dark web is, consider yourself lucky. It’s a part of the Internet that’s only accessible through special software, and since all of its users are anonymous, as you can imagine, it’s a source of thousands of stolen credentials. Fortunately for us, IdentityForce scanned the entire dark web for our data to make sure it wasn’t being sold.
Mobile attack control: Let’s be honest: our phones are our babies, which is why we were thrilled that when we downloaded the IdentityForce app on our phones, it actually scanned our devices for any threats. That meant it protected our phones from unsecure websites, spyware, and even fake networks. This isn’t a feature included in most identity monitoring services, so we like that IdentityForce threw in even more digital security as well.
Payday loans: If someone stole our Social Security number and tried to get money fast through a quick cash or payday loan, we’d get alerted.
Sex offender: One of the last places we want to end up is on a sex offender registry, for obvious reasons. If our information was found on one, IdentityForce alerted us and kept track of how many sex offenders lived near us. Sure, we could’ve looked this up on Megan’s List, but it was nice to have IdentityForce do it for us.
Social media: If any discrimination, profanity, violence, or cyberbullying happened on our Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook accounts, IdentityForce was on it.
Credit scores and reports: Only available with the top-tier plan, our credit scores and reports were monitored from the three major credit bureaus.
Credit score tracker and simulator: IdentityForce even made a graph so we could see how our credit score changed over the months. Our general trend? Up and to the right! And if we wanted to make a change, such as opening a new credit card to buy furniture, IdentityForce showed us how that might affect our credit score, which was really convenient.
Control
There were even more features available, like digital security for our phones and mobile devices:
Medical ID fraud protection: Paying for our own medical insurance is bad enough, so the idea of someone else using it for their needs is a total nightmare. But if anyone else was using our benefits, we’d know about it ASAP.
Online PC protection tools: Sure, we’re obsessed with our phones, but our laptops are a close second (aside from friends and family, of course). IdentityForce goes above and beyond when it comes to digital security, with anti-keylogging, malware, and phishing software to make sure we haven’t inadvertently told a cybercriminal our credentials. Believe us, phishing has gotten incredibly sophisticated to the point where 75 percent of cybersecurity professionals are concerned about bot traffic, so we were glad that IdentityForce didn’t forget about our PCs in their quests to make our lives more secure.1
Two-factor authentication: As we mentioned before, to set up our account, we had to enter a passcode sent to our phones. This ensured that even if someone had our credentials, they wouldn’t be able to access anything unless they had our phones as well. And since our phones are within a foot of us at all times, that pretty much ensured that only we’d be accessing our accounts.
Lost wallet assistance: Recently, after losing our credit cards at a high school reunion, we noticed a bunch of Lyft charges for rides that we hadn’t taken. IdentityForce helped us cancel and replace the cards.
Mobile app: We’ll touch on this more later, but both plans include the IdentityForce app for access on the go.
Alerts
And with the IdentityForce app on our phones, we got different kinds of alerts, such as:
Bank and credit card activity: After setting up a minimum dollar amount, IdentityForce alerted us when we exceeded that amount. It helped us notice our fraudulent charges sooner than checking our account statement manually, which we appreciated.
Investment accounts: We have multiple 401(K) accounts, so it was nice whenever IdentityForce alerted us of transfers, withdrawals, deposits, or duplicate transactions. This applied to brokerages and other financial accounts, as well, making it extremely comprehensive.
Social Security number tracking: If anyone used our name, address, or alias is used with our Social Security numbers, we’d be alerted.
Junk mail opt-out: Okay, this feature had us seriously excited. Even though we’re millennials who consider snail mail to be the lowest form of communication, we tend to get a lot of it, specifically from credit card companies, food subscription services, and the occasional Chinese restaurant. Now, our mailbox is pretty low-tech compared to most, a simple slot that doesn’t exactly meet our high security standards. But that’s okay, because not only did IdentityForce get rid of 90 percent of our trash mail by contacting marketing companies for us, but it also stopped all the credit card offers completely. This saved not only paper, but our patience as well.
Identity threat: Today, data breaches are as common as oat milk lattes in Brooklyn (read: very). In the past year alone, we’ve seen breaches from companies like Ring, Wyze, and NordVPN, all of which we use on a daily basis. But rather than frantically reading the news, looking for security breaches that were relevant to us, IdentityForce told us when we should change our passwords. This saved us a lot of time scrolling through endless Google alerts!
Fraud: If god forbid, our identities were ever at risk, IdentityForce would prevent people from opening credit lines in our names by placing fraud alerts accordingly. Wow, it has really thought of everything!
Recovery
Of course, like any other identity monitoring service, IdentityForce can’t prevent our identities from being stolen, just detect possible clues that they might be at risk. So in the worst-case scenario that our identities were compromised or stolen, IdentityForce provides a few helpful features:
ID theft insurance: If our identities were stolen, we could’ve gotten up to a million dollars in reimbursements, which was pretty sweet.
Fully managed restoration: We’d be paired with a Certified Protection Expert, who we could speak to day or night to help us restore our identities. While we didn’t have to use this feature, we think having an extra set of eyes and hands would be incredibly helpful to us in this situation. We know we’d be too stressed to deal with it ourselves. You know what they say, teamwork makes the dream work, especially when it’s available 24/7!
Customer service: Finally, we also had a support team to call if we had any technical questions, but we’ll describe that more in a minute.
That’s all for what we got with IdentityForce, but let’s make sure the company is as trustworthy as it seems.
IdentityForce Security and Privacy
IdentityForce is based in Framingham, Massachusetts, which means that it’s under the jurisdiction of Five Eyes, Nine Eyes, and 14 Eyes. It’s extremely unlikely, but these international surveillance alliances can force companies to hand over their customers’ data to the federal government. This happens, most often, during cyber-criminal investigations.
So just in case, we checked out IdentityForce’s privacy policy to see exactly what information it keeps from its customers. Here’s what we got:
Name
Address
Email
Phone number
Bank and financial account information
Credit card information
This is actually pretty bare-bones compared to other companies we’ve looked at; plus, IdentityForce stores all the information using AES-256, the current industry standard that even the U.S military uses to protect its data. So although the U.S may not be the best place to headquarter an identity monitoring service, we felt pretty confident that IdentityForce had our best interests at heart.
The IdentityForce App
IdentityForce App Monitoring
For identity monitoring on the go, we turned to the IdentityForce app, available for iPhones like ours as well as Androids for the green-texters among us.
IdentityForce App
As far as our experience testing out the IdentityForce iOS app, we ran into a few small issues. Things took a while to load, the contact number for support wasn’t actually clickable, and we also had some trouble logging in.
But overall, the app is usable; we just had to close and open it a few times to get it to work. The app’s Google Play rating, at 2.7 stars, reflects our experience. Fingers crossed IdentityForce fixes these bugs soon!
