Large BPOs
Big teams, many languages, enterprise processes. Usually built for large contracts and longer ramp ups.
Content moderation companies and how to compare them
There is no honest ranking of moderation providers, because the right one depends on your volume, languages, content and risk. This guide gives you the questions that separate them.
Four kinds of content moderation companies
AI API vendors
Models priced per item. Fast and cheap on clear cases, with no people for context, appeals or escalations.
Moderation software vendors
Queues, policy tools and compliance features for your own team. You still hire and run the moderators.
Hybrid providers
Policy, AI, people and software from one provider under one SLA. This is the model we run at Moderators.
Questions to ask every provider
- Who writes and owns the policy, and how are changes rolled out to every shift
- Which share of decisions is automatic, and who checks the automatic ones
- Is the SLA for user reports in the contract, and how is it reported
- How are appeals handled, and by whom
- Which languages are staffed natively on every shift, not only during the day
- What does the escalation matrix look like for threats to life and child safety
- Where is data stored, who can access it, and is there a data processing agreement
- What wellbeing commitments protect the moderators on graphic queues
- Can you see the audit log and export it
- How is the price calculated, and what happens when volume changes
Warning signs when choosing a provider
- No written escalation paths before launch
- Accuracy numbers without a QA method behind them
- Price per item with no clarity on what humans actually review
- Moderators without verified age and identity
- No access to your own audit trail
Compare the three ways to staff moderation
An in house team, an AI only vendor and a hybrid provider solve different parts of the problem. This is how they compare on the questions above.
| What matters | In house team | AI only | Moderators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Context and intent | strong once trained, slow to scale | misses sarcasm, slang and scam patterns | trained reviewers on every uncertain case |
| Spam and clear violations | expensive by hand | fast and cheap | closed by AI under thresholds you approve |
| 24/7 in many languages | one hire per language per shift | quality varies by language | staffed by language on every shift |
| Appeals and statements of reasons | a process you build | no person to explain the decision | a second reviewer, reason logged |
| QA and audit trail | needs senior reviewers | scores without reasons | QA sampling and a full audit log |
| Moderator wellbeing | a program you fund | not needed | rotation, exposure limits and support |
| Time to start | months of hiring and training | days to integrate | live within 30 days of sharing your policy |
| Cost model | salaries, management and tools | per item or per call | one monthly retainer |
How Moderators answers these questions
You keep the policy, you approve the AI thresholds, the SLA is contractual, appeals go to a second reviewer, every shift has native speakers for your languages, and the audit log is yours. The plan builder shows how the estimate is calculated before anyone asks for a call.
Get your moderation plan in two minutes
Tell us your platform type, content, volume, languages and SLA. The plan shows your team per shift, the AI and human split and a monthly estimate.
Get my moderation plan