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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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TrustRadius Insights
TrustRadius Insights
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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

YouTube
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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

(67)

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
October 04, 2023

My experience...Scammed by (in my opinion) Upwork freelancer

Lena Mannerfelt Holm | TrustRadius Reviewer
Lena Mannerfelt Holm
Art Director
Oceanlogo (Design, 1-10 employees)
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
July 18, 2023

Upwork can be a great resource, but it's the Wild West and there are plenty of ways to waste time and money!

JG
Joshua Groves
Director
MM Acquisitions, LLC (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
September 22, 2022

Upwork creates and aide in business Efficiency!

Verified User
Administrator in Finance and Accounting
Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
September 16, 2022

Upwork - A Great Place to be Connected with Projects that are Specific to Your Skills

Meryl Siegman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Meryl Siegman
President
A&D Business Strategies LLC (Writing & Editing, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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 13, 2022

I feel as Upwork tried to destroy our business.

Eduardo Noriega | TrustRadius Reviewer
Eduardo Noriega
CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
NTSprint (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
September 13, 2022

The best way to find contractors, track their hours and see positive results for your projects!

Joshua Rodriguez | TrustRadius Reviewer
Joshua Rodriguez
Digital Marketing Strategist
Hāpara (E-Learning, 11-50 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
June 28, 2022

Upwork Is A Freelancer's Dream

JG
Jackson Gordon
Account Manager
Five Star Commerce (Marketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
September 13, 2021

Upwork - Easy Freelancer Software

Alan Bloxham | TrustRadius Reviewer
Alan Bloxham
Project Manager
Five Star Commerce (Marketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
May 08, 2020

Upwork: Great for time tracking and finding clients

Taylor Robinson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Taylor Robinson
Marketing Consultant
TGR LLC (Marketing & Advertising, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
April 23, 2020

Great platform to bring together service providers with business owners in the most agile way

Verified User
Professional in Research & Development
Consumer Electronics Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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
Brian Chung
Co-Founder
Alabaster Co (Retail, 1-10 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
November 06, 2019

Upping the Freelancer Game

Verified User
Manager in Marketing
Marketing and Advertising Company, 1-10 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
December 07, 2018

Upwork offers flexibility, credibility and trust to your outsourced workforce search

Verified User
Strategist in Research & Development
Information Services Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
November 18, 2018

Upwork - Global marketplace for hiring freelancers

Justin Roodman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Justin Roodman
Product Marketing Manager
nLyten Media LLC (Management Consulting, 1-10 employees)
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
June 27, 2018

Quality work for a fair price

Verified User
Employee in Marketing
Computer Software Company, 51-200 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
June 04, 2018

Upwork is the best online jobs marketplace!

Brent Lionel Mausisa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Brent Lionel Mausisa
Co-Founder
2for1 Virtual Experts (Internet, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
May 17, 2018

The Upwork Freelancer Hub is Continuously Improving

Benjamin E. Jerew | TrustRadius Reviewer
Benjamin E. Jerew
Freelance Automotive Writer
One Car Payment, Inc. (Marketing and Advertising, 1-10 employees)
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
April 12, 2018

Upwork works well for what it's used for. Midlevel paying gigs

McKay Salisbury | TrustRadius Reviewer
McKay Salisbury
Advertising Manager
Elemerce (Marketing and Advertising, 11-50 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
March 30, 2018

Great platform for beginning your freelancer experience

Manuel Aguilar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Manuel Aguilar
Geophysical Analyst
GMA Proyectos Siglo XXI C.A (Oil & Energy, 51-200 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
June 29, 2017

Perfect Way to Find the Right Talent for Your Short-term Project

Tony Phan | TrustRadius Reviewer
Tony Phan
Country Manager
Weshop Philippines (Retail, 11-50 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
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