According to Wikipedia,
A freelancer or freelance worker is a term commonly used for a person who is self-employed and is not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term.
If you’re looking to work, this means you can work from the comfort of your home for a diverse range of clients globally. If you’re a business owner, this means you can hire the best people from around the world without moving. Isn’t that amazing? Talent isn’t limited by boundaries anymore, it’s accessible globally with secure systems in place.
To help you hire or work, here are the top 7 freelancing marketplaces which can help you make your dreams come true:
1. Fiverr
If you’re a freelancer just starting out or a business owner looking to get simple projects & small tasks done, Fiverr is the way to go, it’s a great place for new freelancers to get their break.
There are different levels on the site with the transition from Level 1, Level 2 & Finally Top Rated Sellers(TRS). Each level requires certain standards to be met with a monthly evaluation.If you fail to meet the level requirements, you can be demoted. Say, I’m a Level 2 Seller but if I fail to maintain a 4.8+ review rating in the past 60 days, I’ll be demoted to Level 1.
This is a recent feature introduced by Fiverr and brings sellers to severe accountability forcing them to maintain their standards which is obviously good for buyers.
People looking to hire can post “Buyer requests” describing the service they’re looking for in response to which sellers will send their offers. However, you can attract considerable spam in this way so I would recommend you to search for a particular skill you need and filter out the good sellers. This is what I always do when I need something done beyond the scope of my work.
- Charges a 20% fee on every transaction, for e.g if you earn $20 on an order, Fiverr will cut $4 and you’ll get to keep $16.
- Screening is available in their ‘Pro Seller’ process which assures buyers that the seller is a professional in their field, however, these badges are very less in contrast to the majority of freelancers in the marketplace.
- Fixed priced projects are offered by creating different packages for a service known as a gig on Fiverr.
- Multiple payment options including Paypal, Credit/Debit Cards & Fiverr earnings.
- Multiple Payout options including Paypal, Payoneer & bank transfer.
2. Upwork
Upwork was created by a merger between 2 popular marketplaces namely Elance & ODesk in 2015. It’s a great place for business owners looking to get entire projects & complex tasks done instead of simple ones. However, it’s not a good place for new freelancers to start out as opposed to Fiverr and professionals should consider it to get clients.
Clients post projects in response to which sellers send proposals.
- Hourly & Fixed Priced Projects.
- Screening process available in Upwork PRO & Upwork Enterprise.
- Complex fee structure with fees charged related to specific clients.
- Top-Rated & Rising Talent programs to make sellers stand out.
- Multiple Payment options including Paypal, Credit/Debit Cards.
- Multiple Payout Options including Paypal, Payoneer, Skrill, Wire Transfer, Local Funds Transfer(LFT) & Direct Deposit(ACH).
3. Freelancer
It is one of the most used and popular freelancing marketplaces with a wide range of services being offered.
You have 3 options for hiring:
- Creating contests and selecting freelancers with the best submissions.
- Posting projects and selecting freelancers based on their bids & proposals.
- Filtering through freelancer profiles hiring what suits you best.
As with Upwork, Freelancer also has the option of fixed or hourly priced projects.
- Different skill tests are offered for a price to help you stand out as a professional.
- If that’s not enough they also offer 5 different membership plans with increasing benefits & privileges.
- Multiple payment methods including Credit Cards, Paypal & Bank Deposits.
- Multiple payout options including Paypal, Wire transfers and Skrill.
4. PeoplePerHour(PPH)
As the name suggests, you get to hire people on an hourly basis. Again just like Freelancer, You have 3 options for hiring:
- Creating contests and selecting freelancers with the best submissions.
- Posting projects and selecting freelancers based on their bids & proposals.
- Filtering through freelancer profiles hiring what suits you best.
To attract buyers, PPH offers the option of getting your profile or service known as an “hourlie” featured.Payment methods include Paypal, Credit/Debit Cards, Bank Transfers, PPH Earnings, Skrill & many others.
5. Guru
According to Wikipedia,
Guru is a Sanskrit term that connotes someone who is a “teacher, guide, expert, or master” of certain knowledge or field.
This is exactly what the marketplace Guru does for you, they aim to offer you a global network of experts in different fields!
Just like Freelancer, they also offer up to 5 different membership plans along with skill tests to make freelancers stand out.
Payment methods include Paypal, Credit Cards, Wire Transfers, Money orders & E-Check for US Bank accounts only.
6. 99Designs
Unlike other freelancing sites who mostly offer all types of work, 99Designs is for designers only.
You have 2 options when it comes to hiring.
- Simply hire freelancers by filtering them out by assessing their profiles.
- Start a design contest where sellers submit their ideas according to your needs and at the end, you can select any freelancer whose work appealed to you the most to create the full version for a price.
99Designs has a screening process involving 3 levels namely Top Level, Mid Level & Entry Level designers which are judged on the basis of execution of design principles, conceptual thoughts such as creative designing & originality, technical skills & deliverables and client communication & satisfaction according to their website.
- Payment methods include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, Paypal & SOFORT for certain regions.
- Payout options include Paypal & Payoneer which also facilitates global bank transfers.
Just recently, 99Designs has rolled out a new feature allowing users to select a designer based entirely on their own needs. This means that you could now filter the designers you always desired through different categories, industries, languages and designer levels.
For example, if I wanted to hire someone well experienced to design a logo for my restaurant, I’d select the restaurant industry, the Logo & Identity Category, the Top Level designer level and well, someone who speaks the English language. Kaboom! I have my dream designer. This is a useful tool especially for those who are looking to hire designers who specialize in particular fields and who could offer expertise within a specific industry rather than being an overall guru.
7. Toptal
If you’re tired as a business owner having to filter through different marketplaces to get high quality and professional freelancers to work for you or on the contrary tired of getting high quality clients as a freelancer, Toptal is the place to go!
As stated on their website,
It takes us one to three weeks to locate, fully screen, and work with every expert before we feel confident enough to admit them to our network and introduce them to a client.
This shows how well they screen every candidate offering services as a part of their network.
- Payment methods include credit cards,ACH, Wire Transfer & Paypal.
- Very expensive as you’re offered highly skilled professionals.
- You can hire freelancers on an hourly, part-time or full-time basis.
Companies such as Airbnb, J.P.Morgan, Gucci & Shopify are few of their clients which can give you a really good idea about the top-notch work talent being hired.
So whichever field you’re a part of, you can immensely benefit from freelancing platforms either by hiring or working, it has never been so easier before!
