By Tamara Levit in Upwork — Aug 5, 2024

Freelancing Without Upwork: Honest Reviews of 6 Alternative Marketplaces

6 other freelancer marketplaces with my honest feedback

Have you ever heard the saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket"? This advice rings especially true for freelancers. Do you think Upwork is an amazing place to find work? Me too! However, I know how much you fear losing this platform. One of the top questions I get is, "What else could I use?" Of course, you can use LinkedIn, emails, roadshows, etc. However, today, I am going to tell you about my experience.

Personally, I have explored 55 freelance marketplaces in my life. Today I want to tell you about 6 of them. My experience:

PeoplePerHour

Long story short: Recommended

What to know:

UK Clients: Mostly clients from the UK who are very tired of low-level workers, so you have some advantage there.
Lower Pricing: Prices were not more than $30 per hour.
Traffic: Not as much as on Upwork.
Service Fees: Takes a percentage of your earnings.
Project Limits: Limits the number of proposals you can send without a subscription.
Approval Process: Requires approval to join, which can be restrictive.
Projects: Catalog similar to Fiverr and Upwork.

Guru

Long story short: Recommended

What to know:

Traffic: Not as much as on Upwork, low.
Project Size: Could be a good project, however, very hard to find.
Fees: Charges a membership fee and takes a commission on earnings.
Visibility: Less popular than other platforms, which can mean fewer job opportunities.
Competition: Low.
Trick: At least buy a basic subscription to be able to ask your clients questions openly in public. Freelancers with subscriptions are at least visible to clients.

Freelancer

Long story short: NOT recommended

What to know:

Traffic: Good enough!
Pricing: Usually called bidding wars because it can lead to underpricing to win projects.
Complex Interface: Some users find the platform’s interface difficult to navigate.
Fees: Charges fees for various services, including membership plans and project commissions.
Competition: High, and the platform ranks you by jobs you have done, making it almost impossible to win a competition as a newbie.

Toptal

Long story short: NOT NOT NOT recommended NO!

What to know:

Test Tasks: This is the worst part. A client could give you and four more candidates a free test work up to 20 hours. Each candidate may receive a different task, so the client receives 100 hours of work for free. After the test task is done, they can just skip you all. Many of my clients were just doing free test tasks for months without getting any money.
Difficult to Join: High barrier to entry with a rigorous vetting process.
Limited Categories: Primarily focuses on developers, designers, and finance experts. Moreover, they don't accept all devs, mostly CMS ones.

Fiverr

Long story short: Maybe! If you sell a lot of fixed-price projects.

What to know:

Catalog: Looks like Upwork's project catalog? That's because Upwork took the idea from Fiverr!
Low Entry Barrier: Easy to set up and start offering services.
Flexibility: Freelancers can create custom packages at various price points.
Diverse Categories: Wide range of services, especially creative fields.
Competition: Many freelancers offer similar services, making it hard to stand out.
Low Initial Pricing: Starting at $5 can undervalue your work.
Fees: Fiverr takes a 20% commission on every transaction.

99designs

Long story short: My opinion is NO, however, I've heard other opinions.

What to know:

Fun!: It's like a competition where you are doing step-by-step game projects, and the client chooses only one winner.
Pricing: Low, could be time-wasting for a not small job.
Quantity: However, one of my new acquaintances (Hey Kostia!) said that there could be a scenario where you can count how exactly to win more competitions and earn from there.