Freelancer vs Upwork: Which is the Best?

I believe this comparison between Freelancer vs Upwork will give you a clear idea of which one of them is one step ahead. Both Upwork and Freelancer have great value on the web and a lot of freelancers and outsourcing managers are working here for more than 10 years. 

Let’s see the comparative analysis of Upwork vs Freelancer. Then make your mind where to go and build your online career.

Freelancer

Freelancer is a great site for freelancing and outsourcing. Here, you’ll need to sign up for your account and fill out your details to complete it 100%. The next step is to submit proposal for jobs. The higher your bid, the more you can apply. On average, you can get your first job in a month or submit 30-50 proposals with a good cover letter. So, if you get a project from a client right now, you are fine. On the other hand, you can try to get a friend’s help even after trying for a month.

At this point, friends, you need to ask to hire you for a project and give you a good rating, it reflects your portfolio and you can easily get your next job. You will find multiple tasks to strengthen your portfolio. The average application ratio for each project is 20-80 or sometimes even 50.

Upwork

Upwork is a very popular and number one freelancing site. The job opportunities are very good. The average application ratio for each project is 5 – 40, so the chance of winning a job is great. Upwork has great results when it comes to earning and pricing a job.

Creating an account is a challenge for newcomers if they are outside the United States of America. I mean they are not accepting every new freelancer by completing the signup form, they will review and get a 24-hour answer.

On the other hand, if you can create an Upwork account, you can work with a freelancer/clients and get results very soon. I hope you decided to go with it.

Subject	Freelancer	Upwork
Headquarter	Sydney, Australia	Santa Clara, California, United States
CEO	Matt Barrie (Feb 10, 2010 -)	Hayden Brown (Jan 1, 2020 -)
Founded	2009, domain created 1995-08-18	2015, Campbell, California, United States [1999 (as Elance), 2003(as oDesk), 2013 (as Elance-oDesk), 2015 (as Upwork)]
Founder	CEO/Founder: Matt Barrie	Created by: Beerud Sheth; Srini Anumolu; Sanjay Noronha Founders: Stratis Karamanlakis, Odysseas Tsatalos
Registered Users	25 Million registered Users all over the world	14 Million +  registered Users all over the world
Completed work	About 12 Million completed projects	About 08 Million completed projects
Expert Ratio	3/5	3/5
Scammer	Less Scammer 95% standard profiles in both freelancer and clients	15% – 20% Scammer (both in freelancer and clients) More disputes and more banned occurs.
User Rating	9.5 Star (Out of 10)	9.0 Star (Out of 10)

Freelancer vs Upwork – REAL Comparison

Upwork does not charge for every job taken as a freelancer, they charge after the project is completed. I tried Freelancer, I hated it. I tried Upwork and I love it. Instead of charging you upfront and back fees, Upwork will essentially deduct 5% – 20% of your total revenue for their project when a client pays you through your Upwork account.

It’s not as bad as it sounds. If you know you want to earn a certain amount, consider 10% before you bid or set an hour. However, keep in mind that if you are new to freelancing and especially if you do not have formal education or backup skills, you may have a harder time finding work if you set your rates too high.

In most cases, freelancing, if not all, websites like Upwork involve competing with other freelancers on a global platform. Some of these freelancers can make a living, which I consider to be very low wages, but because of this, their economy may be different from your own. I am not suggesting you print your own, but this is something to consider. Also, when you get overwhelmed by the high ratings from your clients, you can gradually increase your rate to something more appropriate.

When looking for work at Upwork, keep in mind that nothing is instant. Of course, you’re probably lucky and get a project right now, but if you don’t, don’t give up. When I started, my first gig at Upwork took 2 weeks to land. I bid on multiple projects daily for the first two weeks. That said, if you want to be a freelancer, don’t give up.

There are many freelancing opportunities. All you have to do is look for them and be patient. Once you get started, assume that each time you make 110% of your effort, tasks do not take too long for you to flow.

Compare Upwork vs Freelancer; which are the hardest to pick?

Upwork – History and Popularity

Upwork was first known as Alliance-oDesk. It is a global freelancing platform where millions of freelancers and contractors work remotely. Its current headquarters are in Mountain View, California, the USA.The founding members are Stratis Karamanlakis and Odysseus Sattalos.

Alliance-Odesk was renewed in 2015 as Upwork. Stephen Casriel has since served as CEO.

An upwork claim clearly states that they now have at least 9 million registered freelancers and 4 million registered clients on the market. Upwork, you can get 3 million job postings worth $1 billion a year. However, they believe that this number will double or triple in comparison to its current figures due to their simple and credible marketing policies. 

Freelancer – History and Popularity

Freelancer is another freelancing platform that works almost like Upwork. Freelancer’s headquarters for 20 years or more are located on George Street, Sydney, Australia. More branches of Freelancer.com offices are located in Southern California, Vancouver, London, Buenos Aires, Manila, and Jakarta.

Its founder and CEO is a guy named Matt Barry. But when it comes to freelancers, they claim that the platform is now working regularly with about 15 million registered members who have posted more than 7.4 million projects. Spending on cash projects? 2.2 billion per year.

Fees & Payment Methods

Subject	Upwork	Freelancer
Payment Methods	1. Direct deposit 2. PayPal 3. Bank transfer 4. Local Funds Transfer 5. Payoneer	1. Skrill 2. Paypal 3. Bank Transfer 4. Freelancer Debit Card
Fees	1. Withdrawal Fees (1% – 3%) 2. Earning Fees (5% – 20%) 3. Application Fees ($1 – $3)	Withdrawal Fees (1% – 3%) Earning Fees (10% – 15%) Application Fees ($0.5 – $2)
Fake Profiles	Only 2% – 5% (ID verification is a must)	10% – 20% (ID verification in a certain period)
Time Tracker App	Available	Available
Job Categories	80% Hourly Jobs 20% Fixed Price Jobs	50% Fixed Price Jobs 50% Hourly Jobs
User Interface	Upwork’s interface looks more user-friendly	Freelancer’s interface looks less user-friendly
Live Chat	For some specific categories	Open for all freelancers

Overall, it’s hard to choose a winner in this battle. In my mind, Upwork wins a bit – and only because I think they are more motivated by ID verification, as I know from my own experience. However, a freelancer is not the only available alternative for Upwork. There are many better options. See your project before trusting anyone.

Standard, Reliability & Securities

Subject	Upwork	Freelancer
Profile Standard	Upwork is better in terms of standard and reliability. Creating a profile in Upwork can be a daunting task, even in my freelancing phase. Only outstanding profiles ensure that they review the platform and majority profiles include more capabilities.	Freelancer – Low quality, but probably more opportunity due to short and medium-sized deals. If you are just getting started, this may be the right option, but you need to be efficient and cheap at the same time.
Security	Upwork has a great dispute system. But in most cases Upwork partially support the Clients and workers get victimized.	Freelancer has also a fine dispute system. You will find more scammer in this site and more disputes.
Usability	Upwork, has a cleaner user interface and generally has less loading and processing time than freelancers.	For the uninterrupted viewer, the freelancer interface can see an additional burden with the elements: all the filters, check boxes, and widgets in its dashboard can sometimes be discouraged.
Transparency	Upwork has more transparency than Freelancer. Everything is well organized.	Freelancer is not well organized and a new worker will face a lot of problems at the beginning.

The wise option would be to find and fix 5-6 top platforms; Local and global [does not mean old gold; Many new platforms are using top technology and AI to connect ‘professionals with professionals‘; Have you noticed ‘corporate with professionals’ ‘professionals with corporations’?]

Another good option is to join some companies on a salary basis, such as short-term 3-6 month engagements. In this short time, you can work with many companies, meet lots of people, learn a lot of technology and get handsome money for gig staff.

If you have freelancing, remote projects and 10-15 years of experience, you can start as a corporate trainer. You must be wondering where to go and what are the different platforms that provide all these solutions in a single point.

Upwork vs Freelancer (Which one is Worth)

Generally, both Upwork and Freelancer are worth your time and effort. Even though the competition is strong, you probably have to fight every order with thousands of freelancers around the world. As a client, you need to spend some time looking for qualified and reliable freelancers. As a contractor, you are at risk of facing a dishonest customer who is unwilling to pay for your service.

In short, upwork is the best if you are a professional and know how to treat good clients. It has the feel of the corporate world.

I tried Freelancer but never worked on it. I think it’s overblown and chaotic. The most annoying part is that they want to pay $5 per pay in the exams which all end up in the up so I felt that the freelancer would just have to make some money and not consider it for freelancers working on it.