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Upwork Reviews

Upwork Website

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With 10 million registered users and 4 million employers, Upwork is one of the largest and most popular outsourcing sites. Upwork began as two separate and powerful online entities – oDesk and Elance, which merged in 2014.

The type of work varies greatly – from programming to writing services to graphic design and virtual assistants, you’re bound to find what you’re looking for. This is one of the ultimate platforms for all types of freelancing work.

Employers post jobs in whichever category of work they’re looking for, create a job description, provide a pay range, and can ask potential applicants to respond to specific written questions. After the initial contact, employers and freelancers can communicate via Upwork’s messaging system, which allows group chats as well.

Employers can pay through PayPal, with credit cards, or through a bank account, and all payments go through Upwork’s secure system. If an employer is unsatisfied with the work there’s room for negotiation or changes before actually depositing any money while freelancers can rest assured an employer won’t walk away without paying them.

Employers aren’t charged any fees, only freelancers. Once an employer makes a payment, Upwork takes 20 percent from the payments. Once an employer has paid $500 or more the fee decreases to 10 percent. Additionally, Upwork sets a minimum payment at $3 to protect from excessively low bids.

Freelancers can also join for free, and are given 60 connects a month, which they use to apply to jobs. For extra connects and other perks like being able to see others’ bids, they can pay a $10 monthly fee.

Upwork offers a wide variety of ways to manage work and pay for projects. One popular and secure way is through desktop monitoring – an employer receives regular screenshots and data about what a user is doing to make sure they are truly working. You can pay by the hour, by completed work, set deadlines, create group projects, and much more.


REVIEW

Upwork has so much information, but is ridiculously easy to use for both employers and freelancers. It’s simple, straightforward, and you can get going almost immediately. Unlike other sites, neither freelancers nor employers have many extra service fees. Although freelancers can upgrade to get more “connects,” the basic 60 is very reasonable and usually equates to between 30 to 60 job applications.

There are a wide range of freelancers from all over the world and the same is true of employers. Finding the right freelancer or employer can be a bit difficult since there are so many applications to go through and so many job offerings. As a freelancer, searching for a specific type of job is easy, but it’s nearly impossible to search based on how much you’d like to make. Although employers are required to list a price in the job description, it often just serves as a place holder, and you can only sort based on what type of experience level the employer is asking for. Even if someone is looking for an advanced freelancer, they might still be offering the bare minimum wage.

Employers are better off – they can look through a pool of freelancers, review job applications, read review for freelancers, see their portfolios, ask for samples, and even see which freelancers are highest ranked.

Although Upwork is a valuable resource, it does have some major issues. The site often goes down for updates a few times a month, and they lack a more flexible messaging system. If you are working with many freelancers or have a lot of clients, it can be difficult to sort through the messages.

In 2016, Upwork increased their commission fees from 10 percent to 20 percent for all initial projects, which makes their fee one of the highest. If a freelancer makes $100 from a project, Upwork will take $20. Upwork continues to charge 20 percent for each job until the freelancer has made $500 with a client, at which point the commission drops to 10 percent for just that client.


RATINGS

7.5 Total Score
Great

Upwork is one of the largest and most popular outsourcing sites... the ultimate platforms for all types of freelancing work, from programming to writing services to graphic design and virtual assistants.

9.2Editor's score
Variety & Quality
9.5
Usability
8.7
Features
9.1
Pricing
9.3
Support
9.3
5.8User's score
Variety & Quality
6.5
Usability
5
Features
6.5
Pricing
7
Support
4
Add your review  |  Read reviews and comments

BRAND REPUTATION COMPARISON

Upwork
92 %
Competitors
50 %

USER ENGAGEMENT COMPARISON

Upwork
93 %
Competitors
50 %


POPULARITY TREND COMPARISON

Upwork
96 %
Competitors
50 %


PROS:
  • Large user base
  • Secure platform with conflict resolution and responsive customer service
  • Can monitor freelancer’s work
  • No fees for employers
  • Wide variety of services
  • Easy search tools

CONS:
      • Charges 20 percent to freelancers until $500 is met by employer
      • Must weed through many applications
      • Difficult for freelancers to search for projects based on pricing
      • Searching for the right freelancer or employer can be difficult
      • Messaging system could be improved




CONCLUSION

Upwork has a lot of potential, and it’s so easy to use with no fees you might as well give it a try, especially if you are an employer. However, Upwork might be a very pricey platform for freelancers who only work on short-term projects with various clients. Since Upwork has such a large user base and is a secure platform, the best strategy for freelancers may be to make connections and find long-term clients who would be willing to move to a less expensive payment platform once they’ve built a relationship of trust.

Have you had an experience with this company?  Please share your Upwork reviews below.


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2 Comments
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  1. Reply
    todor December 6, 2016 at 9:13 pm
    4
    Variety & Quality
    80
    Usability
    80
    Features
    80
    Pricing
    80
    Support
    80

    upwork just ate elance and it is a behomoth i’ve come to not really like much but use all the time. be very carefyl who you hire make sure you look at star ratings and job succes and make sure they have many hours of successful experience. also check to see if they took test for what you need.

    + PROS: lots of freelancers
    - CONS: platform seems glitchy lately
    Helpful(0) Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this
  2. Reply
    Kelly May 2, 2017 at 5:01 pm
    1.8
    Variety & Quality
    50
    Usability
    20
    Features
    50
    Pricing
    60
    Support
    0

    Upwork has been constantly going down and it is practically impossible to run jobs because of it. Can no longer easily reach support either.

    + PROS: Site is totally unreliable https://status.upwork.com/
    Helpful(0) Unhelpful(0)You have already voted this

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