Pros
Fully remote. Good resources available, especially for freshers/graduates without experience. The whiteboard/assignment dashboard system is actually pretty decent. Process managers are helpful when you report issues. The minimum amount of work required per month has been scrapped off so no more penalties for not meeting minimum productivity targets.
Cons
The best time to work on contract/freelance for CACTUS was until 2022; editor experience has gone downhill since 2023. They started using AI to pre-edit assignments at around 2021/22; these assignments pay a lower rate. However, 2023 onward, the volume of work available has dropped drastically, and the compensation for these pre-edited assignments decreased even further. For many assignments, we need to prepare additional files: a cover letter and letter to the client. There is no additional compensation for this work despite the effort spent on them. Pre-2023, the high volume of available assignments with a reasonable compensation made the effort worth it, but not anymore. The reason for reduced fees for pre-edited assignments ("reduced effort required") makes no sense because we still need to be check and edit the ENTIRE manuscript anyway! Editors, who contribute the most to the edit process, receive a fraction of the fee paid by clients. AI has been gradually rolled out to pre-edit all assignment types; there is almost no choice of opting out. CACTUS is using AI to reduce the compensation paid to editors, while expecting full effort. They claim that editors can write to support and request additional compensation if extra effort was required; however, this does not serve as a solution to this exploitative model. At present, there are very few assignments available daily, which pay anything more than peanuts. Even if you join now, you would mostly be staring at an empty list waiting for anything decent to show up. Of course, you're only paid for the assignments you do,