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Steady Review: This Is The Best App To Find Local Or Part-Time Jobs, Case Closed
By The Money Manual
August 11, 2022
This is a sponsored review.
To help make ends meet or reach big financial goals and milestones sooner, millions of Americans have taken on a second job or flexible freelance work. The gig economy and the number of hourly wage workers is ever-growing and people are flocking to apps like Steady to help them find their next extra income source. But how useful is Steady when it comes to finding freelance work and earning extra income?
In this review, I do a deep dive into the popular job search and income tracking tool. I’ll cover everything from the types of jobs you can find on the app to the various other unique financial resources it offers to who Steady is actually best suited for, so keep reading!
Launched in 2017, Steady is a free job search and income tracking app (available for both iOS and Android) that was created to help improve the lives of the millions of Americans who are hourly wage and gig-economy workers.
It does this by helping people find jobs and other money-making opportunities to increase their income, monitor all of their earnings in one place, and offer other services that can help people achieve financial stability.
Co-founded by Adam Roseman, Michael Loeb, and Eric Aroest, the app’s origin story is rooted in a personal experience. Roseman, watching his father struggle in retirement without enough money in savings, suggested his father look for flexible part-time work to make ends meet. It was an aha moment for Roseman, as he realized just how big the need is for gig workers to be able to find flexible work easily.
Steady is home to over 1.5 million verified job opportunities, from one-time gigs and flexible side-hustles to part-time and full-time positions. Whether you’re looking to fill in gaps in your income, just want to make enough money to achieve a specific financial goal, or are looking to have multiple income sources in your back pocket, Steady can help you find the jobs that fit your schedule and income needs. Steady is over 2.5 million members strong and says its members make an average of over $5,500 a year in extra income.
Beyond job searching, Steady also provides financial assistance by way of emergency cash grants of $100 to $1,000 through a partnership with The Workers Lab and “Income Boosters,” which are recommendations for financial products that often come with sign up bonuses. Benefits like this are pretty unheard of on a job search app and make Steady really unique.
What It’s Actually Like Searching For A Job On Steady
Finding jobs on Steady is simple. As you get started in your search, there is a questionnaire you’ll be prompted to fill out that can help you get personalized recommendations for jobs and other money-making opportunities that are best suited to your interests and qualifications. It only takes a few minutes to complete and honestly, it’s worth it.
You’ll be asked questions about what modes of transportation are available to you to travel for work, your level of education, licenses and certifications you may have, details about your previous job experience, including pay rate, and more. As I mentioned, all of this information is used to match you with the best job recommendations for you.
When I filled it out, Steady came up with over 100 jobs that it believed matched my experience and industry preferences, some of which from the job titles alone had real potential for me.
Here are a few jobs that stood out to me:
BKA Content – hourly blog writer
Time etc – virtual assistant
TranscribeMe – virtual transcription
Online Verdict – juror for online case review
Fiscio – marketing assistant
Skooli – online tutor
Ranker – list curator
I’m pleased to say that after reading the descriptions for these jobs, I would have applied to quite a few of them if I had been on the hunt for an extra source of income.
If you want to do a broader search for jobs, to start, enter your desired location via zip code or city name. From there, jobs are broken up into four general categories that you can select:
Work From Home
Anytime Work
Part-Time & Full-time
Recently Added
You can also opt to see all available jobs if you haven’t narrowed down what kind of job you’re looking for or just don’t want to limit your options. You can filter jobs by distance from the location you entered (5 to a hundred miles), date posted (1 day to 1 month ago), and occupation categories (general labor, food and beverage, retail, freelance, tutoring, etc.). After you have made your filter selections, hit the “apply filters” button and browse through your presented job options. Find a job you like and hit apply and proceed with filling out the application for the position.
Steady aims to provide people with as wide a range of job opportunities as possible, so you will see everything from gig economy jobs like rideshare driving and grocery and food delivery to fast cash opportunities via market research companies to actual office jobs. Some jobs will list a wage amount upfront and others won’t.
To give you a better idea of what you can expect to find, here is a list of jobs I came across:
UberEats – food delivery
Whistle – selling old tech online for cash
Opinion Outpost – taking paid surveys
Neighbor – home storage host
Genius – remote lyrics associate
Bbot – remote technical support specialist
Amazon – warehouse associate
AMN Healthcare – remote temporary administrative support
Transperfect – remote freelance project manager
Steady’s Features
As mentioned earlier, Steady provides a few other benefits aside from job searching aimed at helping people get extra cash when they need it and to help them track their income too.
Financial Stability Plan & Income Boosters
Another questionnaire you’ll be prompted to fill out — yes or no questions — will be used by Steady to generate what it calls a financial stability plan. This is less of a plan and more of a customized list of financial product recommendations and jobs that can be useful to its users when it comes to managing their finances better and saving money in certain areas of their financial life.
Steady’s Income Boosters tie into this too. These are the recommendations Steady offers for popular financial products that oftentimes come with extra cash through sign up bonuses.
For example, Steady promoted the following to me in the app:
Aspiration – An environmentally conscious financial app with banking and investing features. If I open an account and spend $1,000 in my first three months with my cash management account debit card, I get a $100 bonus.
Truebill – An app (mostly free) that streamlines finding and canceling old and unwanted subscriptions, helps users negotiate down select monthly bills, and creates personal budgets.
Savvy – A free online tool that can help you find a cheaper car insurance policy in just 30 seconds. This comes with a $10 bonus from Steady.
Income Booster earnings that are paid directly by Steady, like the $10 Savvy bonus, are paid to users via rapid ACH cash deposits, so you need to link a bank account. When Steady receives notice from an Income Booster partner that a member has completed the task needed to qualify them for the Booster, the member gets paid immediately.
Steady has paid its users over $2.6 million in Income Boosters in the last year.
Emergency Cash Grants
To help assist its members during the COVID-19 pandemic, Steady partnered with The Workers Lab — an accelerator that invests money in innovators working in the public, private and nonprofit sectors who are trying to improve the conditions of low-wage workers — to provide emergency cash grants of $100 to $1,000 through the organization. Steady has given out over $3.2 million in emergency cash grants in the last year.
To apply for a grant, you must have a Steady account and you must link your bank account to the app. To qualify, you have to have previously been earning a minimum of $1,000 a month, suffered a minimum of a 50% decline in income due to COVID-19, and fill out a survey about your work experience.
How much you’ve made this month and in the previous months
Income trends over time so you can track your progress
A summary of all your income sources highlighting how much money comes from each
Individual income transactions
Having this information readily available to you can help you optimize your income streams, budget more efficiently and it allows Steady to provide you with better recommendations for other gigs. It’s a feature that really sets Steady apart from traditional job search sites.
Steady+
This is Steady’s premium subscription account. You’ll get everything Steady’s free account comes with, plus some other sweet perks:
The ability to compare multiple income sources to get personalized insights
In-depth earnings and paycheck data from employers
You can export your financial data from the app into an organized spreadsheet, which can be a helpful reference for financial planning and tax prep
Consider this the ultimate toolbox to help maximize your earnings as a freelancer or gig worker, and to keep all of your earnings organized.
Steady+ costs $9.99/bi-annually or $1.99/month.
Where Steady Shines
Job Variety: Steady is all about providing its users with as many money-making opportunities as possible, presenting them with a truly wide range of job opportunities. You can find short-term, available anytime and flexible freelance and contractor gigs that pay well. You can also find more traditional, but remote, office jobs that are full or part-time. You can even find activities that earn you fast-cash whenever you need it. Steady truly has it all.
Employer Earning Insights: Not all of the jobs listed on Steady list pay rates. However, with Steady+, you can tackle the job hunt armed with in-depth earnings and paycheck employer data to aid you. Narrow down jobs based on their earning potential so you can make sure you’re not wasting time applying to jobs that can’t help you meet your income needs.
Income Boosters: This feature is a great way to get recommended financial products that can significantly improve your finances. You can find fee-free mobile banking and investing accounts, comparison tools that can find you cheaper car insurance policies, affordable life insurance options, credit monitoring and boosting apps, cash back rewards programs and so much more. Plus, signing up for some of these helpful services can earn you extra money in the form of sign up bonuses. It’s a win-win.
Emergency Cash Grants: Sometimes we fall on hard times and that time is right now for a lot of people. If you’re ever in a terrible cash bind, you can apply for an emergency cash grant to help you make ends meet. I don’t know of any other job resource that offers a service like this. It just further proves Steady’s commitment to its members’ financial well-being.
Income Tracker: When you have multiple sources of income, it can be tricky keeping track of your overall earnings. Instead of guessing and hoping for the best when it comes to spending money on things like bills, unexpected expenses or a treat to yourself, Steady’s income tracking tool lays out for you exactly how much you’re bringing in, when you brought it in, and from where. On top of that, the app will identify trends or changes in your income. Knowing all of this can help you budget wisely for all your expenses and financial goals, and make adjustments to your income streams and financial plans as needed.
Signing Up & Navigating The App
Signing up for Steady is a pretty quick process.
Step 1: First, you’ll be asked to fill out your first and last name, email, and phone number and enable push notifications if you want.
Step 2: Create a password.
Step 3: You’ll be sent a confirmation code to authenticate your phone number. Enter it when you receive it.
Step 4: Securely link your bank account to Steady via Plaid — the same technology used by companies like Venmo, TransferWise, Robinhood and Acorns — and set an ideal weekly income amount you’d like to earn. Plaid’s technology ensures your bank credentials are encrypted and your information will not be saved by Steady.
Step 5: Answer a couple of basic questions Steady will use to create a financial stability plan for you.
Step 6: Start checking out new jobs and Income Boosters to earn extra cash!
That’s it.
From there, you can explore the app. On the Home tab, you will see a sneak peek of popular Income Booster offers. To see all of them, just click the arrow to the right of “Popular Income Boosters.” This will take you to the Boosters tab. Below Income Boosters, you’ll see a button that says: “Your Financial Stability Plan is ready.” Click it anytime you want to see your full plan.
Scroll a little further down to see the “Find Work” section which will show four job categories immediately — Gigs, Part-Time, Work From Home, Recently Added. Click on the arrow to the right of “Find Work” to access the full job search feature of the app. This takes you to the Work tab in the app.
At the bottom will be buttons for the app’s newest features, such as Emergency Cash. Click on either to learn more about them and access them. Clicking Emergency Cash navigates you to another page discussing the emergency cash grant program in more detail. At the bottom of the page is a button that says “Go Steady Together!” Clicking that will navigate you to the Income tab where you can apply for a grant.
Is Steady The Best Job Search Option For You?
Steady does its best to curate a comprehensive selection of money-making opportunities. If you’re looking for regular and flexible side hustles, temporary gigs, or even fast and easy one-time earning opportunities, then Steady is for you. Many of the more traditional full-time and part-time hourly wage jobs that I came across were in customer service, administration, or warehouse operations, which is something to keep in mind. I also really recommend using the filters to narrow down the job listings — that’s how I found some of the opportunities that felt like the best fit for me.
Overall, Steady is best for:
Freelancers/contractors
Recent grads still looking for full-time work
Anyone transitioning between careers
Anyone looking for side hustles to boost their income
Those who are recently unemployed and need to earn extra income
By The Money Manual 
Finding jobs on Steady is simple. As you get started in your search, there is a questionnaire you’ll be prompted to fill out that can help you get personalized recommendations for jobs and other money-making opportunities that are best suited to your interests and qualifications. It only takes a few minutes to complete and honestly, it’s worth it.
You’ll be asked questions about what modes of transportation are available to you to travel for work, your level of education, licenses and certifications you may have, details about your previous job experience, including pay rate, and more. As I mentioned, all of this information is used to match you with the best job recommendations for you.
When I filled it out, Steady came up with over 100 jobs that it believed matched my experience and industry preferences, some of which from the job titles alone had real potential for me.
Here are a few jobs that stood out to me:
As mentioned earlier, Steady provides a few other benefits aside from job searching aimed at helping people get extra cash when they need it and to help them track their income too.
Signing up for Steady is a pretty quick process.
Step 1: First, you’ll be asked to fill out your first and last name, email, and phone number and enable push notifications if you want.
Step 2: Create a password.
Step 3: You’ll be sent a confirmation code to authenticate your phone number. Enter it when you receive it.
Step 4: Securely link your bank account to Steady via Plaid — the same technology used by companies like Venmo, TransferWise, Robinhood and Acorns — and set an ideal weekly income amount you’d like to earn. Plaid’s technology ensures your bank credentials are encrypted and your information will not be saved by Steady.
Step 5: Answer a couple of basic questions Steady will use to create a financial stability plan for you.
Step 6: Start checking out new jobs and Income Boosters to earn extra cash!
That’s it.
From there, you can explore the app. On the Home tab, you will see a sneak peek of popular Income Booster offers. To see all of them, just click the arrow to the right of “Popular Income Boosters.” This will take you to the Boosters tab. Below Income Boosters, you’ll see a button that says: “Your Financial Stability Plan is ready.” Click it anytime you want to see your full plan.
Scroll a little further down to see the “Find Work” section which will show four job categories immediately — Gigs, Part-Time, Work From Home, Recently Added. Click on the arrow to the right of “Find Work” to access the full job search feature of the app. This takes you to the Work tab in the app.
At the bottom will be buttons for the app’s newest features, such as Emergency Cash. Click on either to learn more about them and access them. Clicking Emergency Cash navigates you to another page discussing the emergency cash grant program in more detail. At the bottom of the page is a button that says “Go Steady Together!” Clicking that will navigate you to the Income tab where you can apply for a grant.
