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

Joshua Groves | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Upwork

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.

Pros

  • Huge selection of talent.
  • Good at presenting the skillsets of the freelancers.
  • Easy to understand and use user interface.
  • Mobile app works decently well.

Cons

  • 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.
  • Low cost.
  • Flexible resources to augment our staff.
  • Easy to use.
  • Positive: great ROI on simple, very clearly defined tasks.
  • Negative: I feel it is frustrating and a waste of time on more complex tasks.
I believe that with all its faults, for professional corporate use cases, Upwork is still the best tool for temporary, remote workforce augmentation.

Do you think Upwork delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Upwork's feature set?

Yes

Did Upwork live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Upwork go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Upwork again?

Yes

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.

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