Top freelancing platforms in 2023
Which freelance platform is best for me❔ 🤔 How would I determine where to start my freelancing journey and how all those freelance platforms are different❔😕
To those who are just thinking to try freelance work, these list would be help full. I try not only list best of freelance websites here, but also to review their pros and cons.
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🔰 Top 5 most popular freelance platforms to start from 🔰
➡️ Upwork
We all know the most popular and large freelance hub is Upwork. Anyone who is looking for flexibility in their job should definitely check out this freelance platform.
With Upwork, clients can post jobs and wait for skilled freelancers to apply. Also they can hire workers who specialize in particular tasks contacting them directly or using the Project Catalog.
To get started as a freelancer with Upwork, begin by creating a profile. Ensure it includes details about yourself, your expertise, and your work experience. You can wait to be discovered by clients or respond to job posts directly. Keep in mind that clients will decide whether you’re qualified by scanning through your profile.
✅ Major benefits of the Upwork platform are:
🔹 Payment protection for clients and freelancers
🔹 Get paid in variety of ways, such as Payoneer, PayPal or direct transfer
🔹 Largest client base from all over the world
❎ However, there are some disadvantages as well:
🔹 Relatively high service fee (10% + VAT)
🔹 Competition among freelancers is very high
🔹 Being hired is especially difficult for beginners without reviews and feedback
Freelancer.com is another biggest player in the world of freelance with a global pool of more than 50 million users.
Clients can list jobs on this site and wait for bids to arrive, while freelancers can bid for jobs, providing additional information about yourself and what you can do for the project. Freelancer.com also has Contests, similar to auctions, where you can submit your bid and see other people’s public bids for the project.
As with Upwork, it can be hard to compete with more experienced freelancers – you may have to accept low-paying jobs as you build a reputation. You can also become a Preferred Freelancer and get access to higher-value projects and get invited to bid for exclusive projects.
The platform fee from fixed-price project is 10% or $5, whichever is higher, immediately charged before-hand. If you accept an hourly project, you only pay 10% fee when it’s completed.
There are additional expenses to succeed here: to become Verified freelancer, you’ll have to spend $99, and Preferred Freelancers must pay project fees at a higher rate of 15%.
✅ Major benefits of the @Freelancer.com platform are:
🔹 Very easy to use and straightforward for both clients and freelancers.
🔹 Very slick and fast design, convenient messaging between clients and candidates.
🔹 Freelancer profile can be verified and provide a lot of useful information.
🔹 Freelancer.com is probably more expensive than other platforms.
🔹 Competition is very high, especially for newcomers.
🔹 There are more cheap one-time projects and fewer high-paid jobs.
➡️ Fiverr
The concept behind Fiverr is a stunning products catalog, where each item called Gig represent a simple unit of work, like a web page development, single page translation, a logo design, etc. Fiverr got its name from its $5 price tag that was on all the Gigs on its platform when it launched in 2010. Today, as a seller, you can charge anywhere between $5 to $10,000 for your Gigs. Fiverr charges you a 20% commission on every sale you make – including your $5 Gigs.
From buyers, Fiverr charges a service fee of 5.5% of each payment being made. Purchases under $50 charged a service fee of $2.
Fiverr has 4 Seller Levels based on delivery time, customer satisfaction, and service quality: New, Level 1, Level 2 and Top-rated. You start as a new seller, which can offer as many as 7 active Gigs at a time. As you sell for 60 days and meet other requirements, you’ll be moved to the next level. Keep selling to achieve Top Rated seller level.
Best Fiverr sellers can apply for Fiverr Pro status. Only 1% of exceptionally talented, hand-vetted applicants earn Pro status.
✅ Major benefits of the @Fiverr platform are:
🔹 Gigs are easy to search, understand and order. You can sell virtually anything. Clients get what they pay for.
🔹 Higher Seller Levels get more clients. Clients can filter out undesirable Seller Levels.
🔹 Fiverr Pro status allows to stand out of the competition.
🔹 The service fee is expensive for freelancers.
🔹 No freelancer screening process except Pro. Your competitors may have fake clients’ reviews and fake portfolios. Also, the catalog is repleted with incompetent and unresponsive sellers.
🔹 Clients can defraud or blackmail freelancers after they receive your work. Be careful!
➡️ FlexJobs
FlexJobs aggregates jobs from other sources all over the internet. What makes FlexJobs special, is you won’t find job scams, too-good-to-be-true business opportunities, ads, commission-only jobs, or junk jobs on FlexJobs. Every job post is first vetted by a real person who spends as much as 30 minutes per job making sure it meets FlexJobs’ rigorous criteria before it is served up to you.
The service is not free, one month membership is $24.95 and it gets cheaper when you commit to a longer subscription. You can also often save on membership by taking advantage of a promotion and using a coupon code.
When you find an interesting job listing, click on it and you’ll see the full details of that job. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the icon that will take you to the company’s application page. Follow their procedure to apply for the job.
🔹 No scam and fake job postings, hand-screened jobs only.
🔹 Thousands of jobs, categorized by remote, part-time, hybrid, freelance options.
🔹 Free access to a large collection of FlexJobs skill tests and Learning Center with video courses.
🔹 You’re paying for the aggregate service.You still have to apply individually with your resume for each job that interest you.
🔹 It’s not a dedicated freelancing site. It has different categories like remote, part-time etc. Expect to find ~2000 freelance jobs overall.
🔹 Monthly membership fee. There’s no guarantee that your dream job will be there waiting the very first time you browse the job listings.
➡️ Toptal
Toptal is a high-end freelancing website with only most professional vetted freelancers.
Any freelancer can apply to join Toptal’s talent network, but they must to pass trough a slow and rigorous screening process which is much harder than the vetting process at platforms like Upwork or Fiverr.
The key idea is that freelancers need to pass various tests for English language, skill reviews, a live screening, and test projects. Toptal claims they only accept 3% of the freelancer applications that they see each month.
Toptal doesn't take any commission from freelancers. Instead, they add their service fee on top of the freelancer’s rate and present it to hiring companies as a unified rate. Average hourly rates of Toptal’s developers receive are $40-$75.
🔹 Expect top clients, no fraud, long-term projects.
🔹 Toptal provides access to elite talent. No competitors from low- or mid-tier freelancers.
🔹 You can select projects and set your rate, Toptal will negotiate on your behalf to get your desired rate and will take care of the rest.
🔹 Toptal is mostly about tech jobs. Writing, photography, music is not presented here.
🔹 Screening process is extremely complicated. Not many freelancers can pass all tests.
🔹 Hourly rates are typically not higher than you can expect working on other platforms, if you’re a real pro.