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Upwork, a popular freelancing platform, offers a range of use cases for both individuals and businesses. Users have utilized Upwork as a …
Starting at $49.99 per month
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What is Upwork?
Upwork headquartered in Mountain View, California offers their eponymous freelance management system (FMS).
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$49.99
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per month
Basic
Free
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Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
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- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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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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| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
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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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!
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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:
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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.
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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.
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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
(1-7 of 7)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
October 04, 2023
My experience...Scammed by (in my opinion) Upwork freelancer
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
September 13, 2022
The best way to find contractors, track their hours and see positive results for your projects!
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.
June 28, 2022
Upwork Is A Freelancer's Dream
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.
November 06, 2019
Upping the Freelancer Game
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.
November 18, 2018
Upwork - Global marketplace for hiring freelancers
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.
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.
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.