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Upwork

Upwork

Overview

What is Upwork?

Upwork headquartered in Mountain View, California offers their eponymous freelance management system (FMS).

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Upwork, a popular freelancing platform, offers a range of use cases for both individuals and businesses. Users have utilized Upwork as a …
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Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Plus

$49.99

Cloud
per month

Basic

Free

Cloud

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

Data Entry Work Demo for BEGINNERS | Make Money Online

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Product Details

What is Upwork?

Upwork Video

At Upwork, we believe the best companies win with the best talent. But great people can be hard to find. Through Upwork, you can hire and collaborate with high-quality independent professionals with the exact skills you need to get the job done. Watch our short video to learn ...
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Upwork Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Upwork headquartered in Mountain View, California offers their eponymous freelance management system (FMS).

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.1.

The most common users of Upwork are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(68)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Upwork, a popular freelancing platform, offers a range of use cases for both individuals and businesses. Users have utilized Upwork as a customer acquisition channel, enabling them to create a higher number of blog posts, copy for ads, and graphics for social media and Google ads at scale. The marketplace provides the opportunity to hire contract developers for small to medium-sized projects, allowing users to prioritize marketing tasks over content creation. Upwork has also become a go-to platform for agencies looking to find clients that match their specific Amazon seller skills, while facilitating billing and invoicing processes. Freelancers leverage Upwork to build a client database and generate extra income by utilizing their writing abilities. With its hourly service model, Upwork helps businesses grow in client volume and build trust through regular screenshots.

Additionally, the platform is used for short, randomly-occurring tasks that don't require hiring permanent staff or when departments are overloaded and specific skills are needed. It solves administrative pain points by providing virtual assistance for general administrative duties and data analysis. Upwork can be a quick way to outsource tasks or projects without upfront expenditure and ensures that freelancers get paid worldwide. This has proven beneficial in boosting efficiency in workflow and roadmap by providing candidates for different project lengths and commitments. Overall, users have found that Upwork streamlines the process of finding, vetting, and managing an outsourced workforce while effectively tracking hours worked and facilitating payment activities.

Valuable platform for finding verified talent: Many users have found Upwork to be a valuable platform for finding reputable and verified designers, writers, and creative talent. They appreciate the extensive candidate pool on Upwork, stating that it almost guarantees finding individuals who specialize in the specific skills they are looking for. Convenient communication and project management: Users appreciate how easy it is to communicate with customers and keep track of billing, tracking, and conversations in one place on Upwork. They also like the messaging service available on Upwork's desktop app, browser app, and mobile app, which allows them to stay in constant contact with clients regardless of their location. Flexible payment options: Some users find it useful that Upwork offers both fixed bid and hourly options. They mention that these options are helpful for different kinds of projects and provide flexibility when working with freelancers.

Difficult to contact customer service: Many users have expressed frustration with Upwork's customer service, finding it difficult to get in touch and feeling that the company lacks transparency in their decision-making processes.

Upwork does not prioritize freelancers' best interest: Reviewers frequently mention that Upwork seems to prioritize its own interests over those of the freelance community. This has led many freelancers to feel disposable and undervalued on the platform.

High fees charged by Upwork: A common complaint among users is the high fees charged by Upwork, especially for freelancers who are just starting their businesses. These fees are seen as a significant barrier and make it challenging for both clients and freelancers to use the platform cost-effectively.

Users recommend the following when using Upwork:

  1. Be patient and put in consistent effort to find good clients and build a good rating. Thoroughly fill out your Upwork profile and explain your needs clearly.

  2. Send multiple pitches per week and bid lower than others when starting out. Take on jobs outside of your preferred skills to get the first few 5-star reviews. Start with small, quick turnover projects to build your portfolio. Ask for fair pricing to avoid charging too little.

  3. Use a guide and review freelancers' performance on Upwork for reliability. Conduct thorough interviews with candidates on Upwork and communicate only through the platform. Make sure to explain what you need in detail and have a clear idea of what you want.

Overall, users highly recommend trying Upwork for freelancing opportunities and finding qualified professionals. They believe that Upwork is a great platform for achieving business objectives, economic independence, and connecting with excellent freelancers quickly.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-23 of 23)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Lena Mannerfelt Holm | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I used Upwork to hire a freelancer to help us get back a hacked and deleted facebook account. We were unfortunately decieved by the freelancer who did absolutely no work and had made us pay in advance. We naturally had the Upwork Customer service involved, but we got no help whatsoever in the dispute, even though complete evidence were presented of the fraud. In my opinion it is very sad that Upwork permit scams on their site. They also removed the review I wrote about the freelancer. Please be careful everyone...
  • Their site looks good
  • In my experience, they allow scamming on their site, freelancers ripping clients off
  • In my opinion, their Customer Support don't take disputes seriously
  • In my experience, Upwork removes written reviews
Maybe you can get lucky and find honest freelancers here? Unfortunately, in my opinion, as long as Upwork lets scammers work on their site, they ruin it for all the honest freelancers out there... In my experience, we were tricked and scammed by a freelancer there and got no support at all from Upwork Customer Support.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Upwork when we have short, randomly-occurring tasks that we need completed and it's not worth hiring a permanent staffer. For instance, when we need seasonal customer outreach calls made, or if we need some graphic design work done for some marketing material.
  • Huge selection of talent.
  • Good at presenting the skillsets of the freelancers.
  • Easy to understand and use user interface.
  • Mobile app works decently well.
  • Biggest issue: In my experience, about 1/3rd of Upwork freelancers are running some sort of hustle where they overbill and under-deliver.
  • Second biggest issue: In my experience, most of the Upwork freelancer's English is pretty bad.
  • Third biggest issue: In my experience, a lot of the Upwork freelancers come from cultures who's expectation of quality work do not match those of my country.
It's great for easy, very, very well defined tasks. When it comes to more complicated tasks, Upwork can be used, but per prepared to spend a lot of time and energy working to guide the Upwork freelancer.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our company utilizes Upwork for our workflow shortages, and for short/long-term projects different departments may need assistance with. Upwork allows us to find candidates for different project lengths and commitments while also boosting efficiency in our workflow and roadmap. We have utilized Upwork for basic data entry needs, and for interim product owners and scrum masters while looking for more permanent replacements.
  • Short term staff replacement.
  • Helpful with projects.
  • Business Growth.
  • Workplace efficiency.
  • Billing notices.
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.
Meryl Siegman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Upwork specifically to find freelance projects. I am a sole proprietor and therefore the only one in my organization who uses it.
  • Providing me with opportunities specific to my specialty.
  • Matching me up with clients.
  • Making me feel secure about being paid.
  • I don't always show up in key-word related search for my skills.
  • The talent managers constantly invite me to apply to jobs that are not appropriate.
  • Dispute resolution is pathetic. The person who was in charge was barely literate.
  • Job posters should have to be more specific about what industry/type of business they are in.
It is a great way to be matched up with projects that specifically align with my skills. It really helps me find clients in my particular niche, whom I would not necessarily found on my own or vice versa. It's not appropriate for full-time or salaried part-time work.
September 14, 2022

Upwork is great

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We hire contractors from all over the world to do some simple tasks for us. It provides a flexible workforce that without having the burden of starting with a lot of upfront expenditure. Since we are an AI company we use it for data annotation mainly. We can hire as much talent as we want for as much time as we want, and we don't worry if they are going to be able to get paid or not. Upwork always makes them get paid anywhere in the world.
  • Easy access to talent
  • Allows us to bring our own talent if needed
  • Easy and safe payment system
  • NA
It's an all-in-one platform: talent market place, talent tracking, and easy payment system.
Eduardo Noriega | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We used Upwork as part of our customer acquisition channel.
  • Big project database.
  • Communication with customer is easy.
  • 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.
We were a top-rated agency in Upwork, with thousands of hours recorded and millions of dollars billed. Upwork blocked our accounts without providing a reason why other than a violation of their terms of services. We asked for details, and they never provided one. Interacting with their customer service was a nightmare. We presented all the information requested; we received a ton of support from our customers, and they not only didn’t provide a reason, but they froze all the money we had in their escrow account. After weeks of back and forth and still, without providing a reason for the closure of our account, they contacted all our customers and suggested that they would help them to pass our projects to other freelancers in their network. They tried to harm our business regardless of the many engineers whose only support is the work they do for our customers. We decided to move our operations to other marketplaces like Guru, Freelancer.com, etc. In my opinion, Upwork is only after the money they can make through the freelance community and don’t have our best interest in mind.
Joshua Rodriguez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Because of Upwork, we are able to create a higher number of blog posts and have a copy for ads as well as graphics to use for social media and Google ads at scale. Working with several professionals allows us to prioritize the marketing tasks over the content creation tasks and the people we work with offer an affordable rate.
  • Easy to find reputable and verified designers, writers and creative talent
  • Keeps billing, tracking and conversations in one easy to manage place
  • Makes sharing a job listing quick and easy and pulls in new potential contractors at lightning speed
  • Once you find a professional you have to make sure to turn off applications to make sure that you don't continue to receive email notifications about inquiries.
Upwork allows our team to easily find professional designers, editors, and copy writers for projects that we need a quick turnaround time on. Rather than sifting through resumes or seeking out individual people online, Upwork makes it easy to search for what you need, set up projects for professionals to apply for, and review their work in a time-saving and effective way. We have been using Upwork for several years now and have worked with data entry specialists, video editors, copywriters, and more. Upwork makes the process of finding a digital creator to work with an easy one.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As an agency, we use it as a way to find clients that need our specific set of Amazon seller skills. Once we find the client, we use it as a way of billing and invoicing them, which is all done through the platform. We also use it as a means of client communication through their chat and video chat features.
  • Provides means of easier communication and contract setup
  • Matches our skillset with people in need
  • Makes it easy to bill and invoice clients all in one location
  • They are really particular about not taking people off the platform, which can make things difficult during the initial meeting process if they want to know more about us or if they have trouble using the call features. It is understandable though, so Upwork doesn't lose the business off the platform.
  • Their calendar sync feature can be a little tricky and make it hard to schedule calls or meetings. I was able to figure it out, but it took me a bit.
  • I don't really like how you have to pay for connects when applying for jobs, but I understand why Upwork does it.
Honestly, I love Upwork. It has made it so much easier to find people that are looking for our skillset and get us connected in a way that is very easy. They also do a great job of vetting people who want to use the platform, so you know you are getting a real person when a job is posted or when you apply to a job posting.
Alan Bloxham | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our organization's business model is based on a hourly service to our clients instead of a flat rate. Upwork has been a great tool in helping our business grow in client volume, since the large client base is built on trust by taking screenshots every 10 minutes. This proves to the client that we are working on them, and not goofing off.
  • Periodic screenshots - Upwork takes screenshots every 10 minutes which the client can view and feel confident in progress that is being made.
  • Upwork messaging - The desktop app, browser app, and mobile app all feature a messaging feature that lets you stay in contact with the client at all times.
  • Time Zone sync - Clients are across multiple time zones and it gets confusing adding manual time if you forget to track time.
Upwork is great for freelancers who work in the design industry since the screenshots help the clients see a step progress of whatever you are designing.
Upwork is great, in general, for freelancers who work on a digital platform, since the screenshots help with that.
Upwork might not work well with physical freelancers who don't work on a computer. However, if you set up a webcam in your workspace, Upwork could take screenshots of the live feed.
Taylor Robinson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Upwork to find and sort clients for our organization. Upwork makes the screening of potential clients easy as well as communication with potential leads. We use Upwork to communicate with current clients and collect payment as well. All of our employees use Upwork to track time for client work and to communicate with clients. One of the most beneficial features is the billing, makes collecting invoices so much easier and it is automatic.
  • Finding clients
  • Screening clients
  • Collecting payment
  • Tracking time
  • Application occasionally has bugs.
  • Better messaging integration to the application.
Upwork is perfect if you are looking to find clients for your service. I think Upwork would be not so appropriate if you are selling more complicated services or products. Ongoing jobs with communication between clients and workers are ideal. It works best for service-based businesses that can handle multiple client's jobs at the same time.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used by departments independently, rather than a top-bottom approach. Our company lead and managed a significant amount of its wor through outsourcing and that's exactly where UpWork comes into play. UpWork makes it possible to find a vast range of skills in pretty much any area from graphic design to software development or simply translation. Hence, our organization uses UpWork within departments according to rather spontaneous needs, different departments having different business needs.
  • Outsourcing
  • Services Platform
  • Contract
  • It is a bit hard to distinguish good, high-quality service providers from the mass, huge amount of population. Due to high competition, even high-quality services are forced to lower prices and this can be realized only once the service is completed. So UpWork has room for improvement to distinguish quality from the mediocrity.
  • Even though it is supposed to increase the overall quality, the entry barrier is a mechanism to prevent quality service to enter into the free market, too. So, rather than simply disallowing new memberships, there must be a better way to filter good service providers.
UpWork is especially useful when a spontaneous, niche, rather specialized custom work is needed such as graphic design where one's company/organization might not have such a team within. Because UpWork is full of responsive, responsible, hard-working, and highly available service providers, even strict deadlines will be met thanks to its great community and performance system UpWork created. So it can be said, rather than everyday tasks, UpWork is best fitted for niche, custom work that can arise in somewhat exceptional times with strict deadlines.
March 06, 2020

Upwork works!

Brian Chung | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We've used Upwork for higher virtual assistance for our company. It was used when we were first starting out and needed some general administrative duties done. It helped solve some administrative pain points for our company. Afterward, we used Upwork for our Marketing department to help with some data analysis and record keeping.
  • It's a global platform.
  • I feel secure using it.
  • It's an easy to use program.
  • It could do a better job at filtering people.
  • It could do a better job at telling us the rules of use for Upwork.
  • The user interface could look better.
If you are looking to hire people quickly, Upwork does a great job. It allows you to hire people from around the world. If you are looking for general administrative jobs, this is the perfect platform. We did not use this for very advanced hires, we felt like that was better done in person.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it to hire talent, from creative personnel to developers. For any skill we need or any job too tedious to be done by the core team, we outsource through Upwork. The external team fluctuates a bit, due to changing needs, but we also have a core team of freelancers who stay for a few months at a time.
  • It provides access to talent across the globe -- location is no longer an issue.
  • The feedback/rating system helps with choosing the right candidate.
  • The escrow system is great for us to feel safer. It can be scammed still, but only to an extent.
  • The error messages are quite prevalent. The system isn't fail-safe.
  • I signed up to receive notices about partial disruptions, etc, and I get a handful of notifications weekly.
  • The mediation services that help with the return of escrow are not always just.
Upwork does what it is purported to do -- connects freelancers to clients, and does it better than others we tried. New freelancers come and say they moved over because of the safety the escrow provides, and we use it very efficiently as clients. Even with all its faults, if you need a freelancer for anything, Upwork is a good choice.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I currently use Upwork to outsource various marketing, sales and development tasks for several side projects. It's a great tool to find, vet and manage an outsourced workforce. Upwork saves a great amount of time that would be wasted searching and vetting potential contractors. It also makes it very easy to hold contractors accountable by automatically logging their hours, creating milestones and brokering payment activities.
  • Ratings and reviews of outsourced workers help add credibility to your potential contractor.
  • Payments via escrow once milestones are agreed upon and executed makes for a seamless transaction.
  • The ability to filter on several dozen categories allows you to find the contractor with the precise skill set you are looking for.
  • Searching for contractors could use some help as keyword search drives many applicants that are not qualified.
  • Although the current filters are great, more precision could be added to drill down deeper into categories.
  • When posting a job, the responses you get are canned from about 75% of applicants. It would be nice if Upwork developed a system to flag applicants that respond with the same verbiage to everyone.
Upwork is well suited for startups and small companies looking for outsources help. It is probably a bit too all encompassing for the enterprise, as the needs of the enterprise are not fully met because of a lack of privacy tools such as NDA's and onsite visits.
Carlos Eduardo de Souza | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We've been using Upwork to prospect new clients and offer our services abroad. It helps us expand to another markets in North America and Europe.
  • It has a lot of job opportunities (single projects)
  • Great amount of companies searching for developers and designers
  • The search tool is awesome, offering tools and filters to display exactly what you are looking for
  • They could offer better pricing for small companies
  • Change the way they handle company accounts (who are offering services), it's somewhat confusing
  • Since there are so many developers, they could better distinguish job offerings from individuals to companies
I think it's perfect for short term projects, since if you work with clients from around the globe, you don't know if they're organised and follow best practices on project management.
Justin Roodman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Upwork to hire contract developers for small to medium sized projects. While we have some technical skills in-house, Upwork provides us with a marketplace to hire short term workers for skilled positions. The majority of the individuals that we hire on Upwork are programmers - specifically individuals who have experience with PHP, WordPress, and the LMS that we use. Upwork has other types of professionals available as well; from writers to graphic designers, to virtual assistants.
  • 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.
  • Costs and fees. Upwork is not cheap. As a client you pay a fee to Upwork on top of what you're paying to your freelancer. As a freelancer, you ALSO pay a fee (20% of the first $500 earned from a client and 10% until you hit $10K, where it then goes to 5%).
  • The process for using Upwork can be lengthy when you're trying to find a new freelancer for something you have not hired for previously. Per Upwork, it takes an average of 3 days for a client to hire a freelancer.
  • Job success scores are not exactly accurate. If a freelancer ends a contract that has been sitting open too long, clients are not required to leave feedback. No feedback counts as a negative toward job success score.
On the client side, Upwork is great for accessing a huge pool of talent in a wide variety of skill sets. It's also excellent for finding US-based freelancers. It allows you to interview (chat with or ask questions of) freelancers before you hire them, so you can get an idea of whether or not someone will be a good fit for your project.

On the freelancer side, Upwork is a mixed bag. Their policy of "receiving no feedback hurts job success score" seems unfair. This is far overshadowed by the 20% fee on the first $500 though. It makes doing small projects on the platform a lot less profitable or desirable (maybe they do this on purpose?). It is extremely nice though to be able to filter projects for "US only," though.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Upwork to find people who are specialized in a certain kind of work that we need help on and do not have time to train our in-house team on. We are using Upwork specifically for the needs of the marketing team. We have hired Upwork contractors to work on things like Google Analytics, design, coding etc.
  • Great interface. It is easy to navigate around and find the type of work you need
  • Able to read reviews of others who have worked with the individual
  • Safe and fair payment for both sides of the job
  • Upwork is in a difficult business where their success depends on the reliability of the people who use the product. I think if they continue to focus on their customer service they will be going in the right direction.
  • It would help to have the option to communicate more with them prior to hiring.
  • More payment methods.
There are many projects where we do not need someone on our team to be dedicating all their time to it, so Upwork is great for those scenarios. Instead of training someone for days on how to use something, an Upwork specialist can complete it in just hours.
Brent Lionel Mausisa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I basically use Upwork to find clients and work with them. My clients at times ask me to do recruitment on Upwork on their behalf. Upwork gave me a career-changing opportunity. It allowed me to find the clients I liked to work with and not have to entertain clients that don't align with my principles.
  • Upwork allows you to easily filter the job listings and find the job that fits your preferences.
  • Upwork allows you to feel secure with every transaction with their payment system in place.
  • Upwork allowed me to do what I love and earn more while I'm at home or traveling.
  • Upwork should focus on allowing people to part of the platform based on test results and not just not accept them because there are lots of freelancers already with the same skill.
  • It should also be strict with some of the job postings like suspending those with just soliciting for free work or proposals.
  • Upwork should proactively provide free valuable to its top freelancers.
  • They should improve the metrics they use for the "Job Success Rate."
Upwork is suitable for freelancers who are looking for a shift of career from the usual corporate setting to a more flexible online freelancing career. I believe it's best for beginners and pros - there are lot of opportunities for everybody. It's not suitable for people who like to work in a typical office - obviously! Upwork is great for us millennials who love working flexible or even work-leisure integrated lifestyles.
Benjamin E. Jerew | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have been using the Upwork freelance hub since 2012 (back when it was oDesk and Elance). Upwork offers good exposure to clients looking for contractors (freelancers). Over the years, Upwork has bettered itself, making it easier to bring together contractors and clients to work on projects big and small. It is a paid service, but I find I enjoy the security that comes with vetting contractors and clients to work together to get great things done.
  • Messaging service is available in a browser, Windows, and Android, so I can communicate with clients wherever I go.
  • Project searching is very powerful, which makes it easy for me to find projects to bid on.
  • Scaled project fees make great sense for long-term commitments.
  • Ratings and feedback system make it easier to spot good clients.
  • Tech support is active and always responsive.
  • Scaled project fees make it hard to get started with some clients.
  • Kinda wish we could chat with clients before making a bid, but it seems to make sense the way it is right now.
As a freelance hub, Upwork seems to be a great place for individuals to get started in the freelance world. Compared to other options, Upwork makes it easy to set up a profile and gain exposure that might otherwise be impossible. At the same time, standing out in a sea of freelancers can be difficult, especially for one just starting out. Still, I can't recommend a better way to get started, really. There are paid memberships, but I get enough exposure without them.
McKay Salisbury | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Upwork to get short-term freelance gigs. I used to train companies on a specific project management software and it's a very specialized skill. I have a profile on sites like Upwork and companies contact me for help with their business. It's basically just a way to get leads and easy work for your spare time. I still have my full-time job, but I can make $50 just by jumping on a call with someone and telling them what I know. It's also a great way to connect with other businesses and grow your personal brand. There is some issues with stuff like their "job success score." It goes down if you mostly only do one time jobs.
  • High volume of leads with little effort on your part
  • Decent rates and a wide variety of work
  • You have a profile so you can brand yourself there and it is easy to get started.
  • Job Success score has nothing to do with "job success." It is a arbitrary number that punishes freelancers like me that aren't doing services where a company would use me again and again. Also, they punish you for leaving jobs open even though most clients want to leave the job open in case they have followup questions.
  • Not enough follow up to try to get clients to leave reviews. You are punished if they don't leave feedback.
  • The platform is price sensitive, this may be a smart move but it also turns a lot of top freelancers away.
It is great if you are trying to get some easy freelance work. It's not great if you can't provide a complete service by yourself. It's also not great if you are a large brand looking for an agency partner to work with. Once you are more than a $10 million dollar business, you need to go to the next level and not use platforms like Upwork.
Manuel Aguilar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I don't use Upwork at my organization, however, I've been an Upwork member for a year working as a freelancer in analytical writing and mostly in Spanish to English translations and vice-versa. It is a great tool for creating a clients database for freelancers like me who like producing extra money by using my writing abilities.
  • Upwork's payment platform is really secure since it counts with direct bank account linking Upwork counts with hacking prevention and a high level of encryption. Also, it is always really responsible for its payments, if you do the work listed in the time provided, then expect to be paid.
  • Other sites have a minimum rate, in Upwork this is free, so the competition with other freelancers gets interesting. And there is a progression once you get more work, which allows you not to be stuck with the same work rate.
  • When trying to hire a freelancer, it's really easy to set the money you will expect, since the freelancers provide a fixed or hourly rate. You can specify a preference in your job posting depending on your needs.
  • Upwork is pricey, they take 10% of every transaction of the freelancer, and if you have a premium membership the cost gets higher.
  • Doing your first freelancer job can be difficult since there are so many freelancers on that website, so be prepared to set a really low rate at first.
  • The website can be a bit laggy. I have lost some jobs just because I'm not able to load the information before the clock finishes just because of some lag issues.
From a freelancer point of view, Upwork is an excellent platform for starting to work on your own. It can help in connecting with lots of potential clients whose needs match your talents, whether it is for writing to graphic design and software developing, just keep in mind that at first, it will be a little bit difficult getting your jobs with a good pay rate but once you gain a good reputation, work will practically come along.
Tony Phan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Upwork is used in our company as a quick way to outsource when all departments are overloaded with enormous numbers of tasks or projects. This allows us to focus on developing more strategy or more important tasks in order to maintain business objectives. This also helps us if we are in short of some particular skills needed to finish the job (for example, content translation to a different language).
  • Reaching out to talent for short-term projects: It is a quick an easy way to have extra manpower for your project, all you have to do is create an account on Upwork and post your project online.
  • Easy to manage your freelancer's performance: once you have found the right freelancer, you would need to direct them to finish your project as you require. Using Upwork, you will be able to monitor your freelancer's work online. Working hours are recorded and screenshots can be requested through Upwork's software (need to install Upwork on your computer).
  • Easy to make a payment to your freelancer: You can make payment to a freelancer half way around the world through Upwork which makes it extremely convenient for both freelancers and project owners.
  • More payment methods: at the moment, an online transfer is available as the only payment method to freelancer. It would be nice if both project owners/freelancers could choose other payment methods (such as gift card or discount of a particular product/service).
  • It would be great if Upwork can have a quick test for project owners to use to test the potential freelancer (for example, quick language test to make sure the freelancer is capable of translating a particular document).
  • Giving points to freelancer: some freelancer that do particularly well on a task could be rewarded by project owners and those points could be converted into some prizes to encourage a freelancer (currently only reviews are available).
Upwork is extremely useful if you are in need of an urgent talent for your project. For example - you need to translate your website into a local language for a market and your staff simply does not know that language, or you need to develop a mobile app to enhance sales through a mobile channel but you do not have any staff who knows to develop a mobile app. All of this could be done by a freelancer on Upwork; either it is a native in the local language who lives halfway around the world from you or a software engineer that does freelancing projects in his/her free time.
Kara Rhodes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Upwork to access an entire world of talent, instantly. We've used it to find people to design artwork, transcribe research interviews, build contact lists, and more. We're a really small company, so it helps us fill gaps in our skill set.
  • Breadth of talent (thousands of freelancers, rated by users).
  • Ease of communication (instant chat, file sharing).
  • Instant access to talent (post a job and get replies within a few minutes).
  • I'd like the ability to share folders in addition to individual files.
  • On some occasions, I'd like to post a job without revealing my budget. Would be nice for freelancers to propose a price.
I can't think of a scenario where Upwork doesn't work. Perhaps if you need to meet with your contractor face-to-face, you should look into a local option.
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