Bonsai vs. Upwork

I would recommend Upwork to a colleague as a solution to workplace issues. Our company has utilized Upwork to vet out potential competitors as well as partners in a lengthy data analysis project, as well as given our engineering team extra hands when implementing new products, projects, and features. This has allowed our company to stay on track with projects without in-house manpower.

Incentivized

• Allows us to filter freelancers by location. This is especially important when working across time zones.
• Upwork is one of the only freelancing websites that actually provides a filter for US based contractors; and they rigorously verify this.
• Huge candidate pool. You're almost guaranteed to find a few individuals who specialize in whatever you're looking for.
• Allows both fixed bid and hourly. Each one is useful for different kinds of projects.

Incentivized

• In my opinion the worst customer service. It is impossible to contact them via phone, and they are not transparent about their decisions.
• I feel they don't have the freelance community's best interest in mind. Their focus is on the companies that pay. Freelancers are disposable.
• They charge ridiculous fees to the freelancers that are the ones that need the money the most because they are the ones starting their businesses. It is like if your employer charges you for coming to work.

Incentivized

Support has been great. Rarely have I ever had an issue that has required support but when I have they have been great. I did have to interact with support to confirm my identity and the process was easy and quick and support was helpful to know what I needed to do to accomplish that task.

Incentivized

Upwork is better suited for finding contractors that you can have ongoing relationships. Compared to Fiverr, it's a much easier process to find qualified designers rather than one-time contractors to design simple things for you. The interface is easier to use as well and the billing management makes it so much cleaner and easier to know how much we're spending and how contractors are logging work hours.

Incentivized

• We have gotten close to 50% of all of our clients through the platform.
• Upwork backs the work done through the platform, so no matter what the client or person you are working with does, you get paid for the work that you do. You aren't left hanging after doing hours of work for a client and then never getting paid for it.
• Made it easy to communicate with clients from different parts of the world and set up partnerships and agreements in an easier fashion. I would highly recommend it to anyone with a unique skill set.

Incentivized