Are you considering Upwork as your next gateway for work?
Freelancers often face challenges with untimely payments, misleading job postings, and multiple project stress. On the other hand, businesses are tired of lengthy talent acquisition, sourcing mediocre candidates and overshooting hiring budgets.
If you are either of these two categories and wondering "Is Upwork legit" for future, you're in the right place.
With seamless portfolio building, a high quality talent marketplace, and the new AI matching and decent remuneration, Upwork is a fast and efficient freelancing platform for job seekers and businesses. However, it's important to research and judge all parameters before actually investing your time and resources and trying to secure good project collaborations.
To arrange your thoughts on whether upwork is reliable or not, we've tried to summarize the experience of Upwork users in this article. Keep on reading to find more.
Upwork ranks #2 per G2's Fall 2024 grid report for Freelancer Platforms. Buyers are encouraged to consider individual needs when making a purchase decision.
While navigating the decision of "Is Upwork legit", evaluate your goals, industry domain, and words of fellow peers. By being up to date with recent policy changes and features that Upwork provides, you can secure both short-term and long-term projects with confidence.
The Upwork reviews on G2.com talk highly of the credibility, secure payment disbursements, authentic client profiles, and skilled hiring processes of the Upwork platform. However, it also brings more critical questions into the limelight, like service fee deduction, scam hiring, etc.
Mostly, Upwork has received a reputation as an inclusive virtual freelancing platform that offers cross-border opportunities, easier access to projects or job openings, and a convenient and easy-to-use user interface. Though there are some exceptions, here is what G2 users are saying for this platform.
The G2 reviews mainly touch upon the following pros of Upwork, both as a client service provider and a freelancing platform:
In a nutshell, reviewers view Upwork as a talent attracting and retaining platform, where both freshers and experienced employees can sign contracts with reputable companies based on their distinct skills and expertise.
While users still appreciate Upwork, one of the reasonable drawbacks is the increase in service fee and price of Connects (the tokens freelancers use to bid on projects) on the platform. The platform kept a standard fee for clients and freelancers before, but has increased its fee margin recently.
That being said, more concerns regarding job posters from scam companies and fraudulent job emails are really putting more question marks on the platform.
Below are some of the highest-rated features that makes Upwork more efficient and trustworthy than other competitors and also ensures the genuineness of identities of both businesses and freelancers to collaborate better.
RFP Creator allows businesses to structure and define their project proposals and job descriptions. The creator feature also offers themes, page layouts, and font styles to design briefs and make them more appealing when the job vacancy is published.
Freelancers and businesses can send direct messages consisting of employment-related information and connect virtually to discuss project progress and timelines. Clients can send tasks or alerts over messages to ensure that the project stays on track and doesn't extend.
This feature helps you to evaluate a freelancer's background. Explore freelancers' previous project feedback, work tracker, reviews and recommendations, and overall aggregate expert score. Clients can also double-check the freelancer reviews by other employers and the genuineness of their skills.
Upwork provides multi-payment gateways like Amex and Paypal so businesses can credit hourly salaries or fixed salaries to the freelancer's account. The platform helps freelancers to register for an escrow account which would receive dues from the company at the beginning of the project and later, would credit it into their savings account.
Upwork doesn't let freelancers wait longer to receive payments. As a project milestone is completed, the platform releases the escrow payment that is deposited beforehand by clients. It offers several payment options like Amex or Paypal.
Upwork shares document-style guidebooks or sets of regulatory policies so freelancers abide by the rules and regulations and work on projects as instructed by the Upwork team. It helps prevent any spam or fraudulent collaborations.
Upwork provides a safe repository for freelancers to store digital assets like documents, curriculum vitae, recommendation letters, appointment letters and so on. It also ensures that intellectual property uploaded on the platform is secure and retrievable.
On Upwork, there are high chances of every freelancer, whether they are freshers or not, getting quality jobs and earning satisfactorily. Even though the policies have shifted, it still remains a highly collaborative and interactive platform.
Having said that, you have to be stringent and cautious in spotting spam jobs and fraudulent company postings. Every job-seeking platform is exposed to risk, and Upwork is no exception.
"Upwork allows our team to easily find professional designers, editors, and copywriters for projects on which we need quick turnaround time. 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 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."
- Upwork Review, Joshua R.
Upwork offers two plans for freelancers: Upwork Basic and Upwork Plus. Both have their own set of features and benefits. Here's the rundown:
Before choosing any of these plans and investing your money to purchase connects, check and verify the identity of job providers as well as log your project login and logout hours to maintain a clear billing cycle. This will reduce any implications of receiving less salary or working for a bad clientele.
While Upwork doesn't explicitly mention the cost of the platform, here is a detailed breakdown of what you can expect.
Below are the five specific types of pricing that Upwork provides for freelancers, which you can consider before enrolling with your profile.
If users exhaust their Connects, they can purchase extra ones for $0.15. These Connects would bring them to the recruiter's notice and improve their chances of getting shortlisted.
Upwork offers four kinds of plans, namely, marketplace, business plus, enterprise and conversion plan. Let's break them down:
- Upwork Review, Richard C.
"Fee% charged is 20% of the total earning or maximum $500 for a month, i think it's high for starting level freelancers and over and above this fee currency conversion is also charged.
Keyword search is a little disappointing, there should be a feature where you have the option to show results for entire sentences or individual words. e.g. if i search for "document automation" i should have an option to search both words together in a job listing. Currently it shows results for document and automation keywords separately also."
- Upwork Review, Goldi S.
Upwork is a secure and reliable freelancing platform that follows stringent data protection practices to protect your confidential data. It is highly safe for data exchange and payment transfers, especially for remote work.
Freelancers have a verified Upwork profile and share authentic information with hirers. Whether they are fresh graduates or experienced freelancers, Upwork has an identity verification system clients can use before accepting applications.
Upwork charges a 10% service fee on all freelancer contracts and a 3 to 5% marketplace fee from businesses out of the money they keep aside to disburse to freelancers. If you sign a contract for $500, the net income would be $450, which you would receive in your account.
Upwork is used both for temporary and permanent contracts. Recruiters who hire short-term freelancers then change their status and hire them full-time under "contract to hire" management.
Set clear expectations, share short-time rewards for completing small milestones, and be disciplined when remitting payments to freelancers submitting work promptly.
None, but users should consider service fees that Upwork deducts from a freelancer's net takeaway salary. At the same time, clients deal with service fees while upgrading to Upwork Business Plus or Upwork Enterprise.
Upwork is regarded as a trusted marketplace to find collaborative opportunities both for businesses and freelancers. While there are some factors to be cautious of, the benefits of this platform truly surpass the mark.
With the bunch of exclusive and intelligent features that Upwork provides, countless people have found jobs, built their network and sustained their business with good collaboration. Before you invest your time in this platform, it's advisable to give a patient ear to everyone's feedback and then decide for yourself accordingly.