Is Upwork Legit? Hear the Verdict of Verified G2 Users

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. 

What do G2 reviewers say about Upwork?

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. 

Upwork review: What do G2 users like best

The G2 reviews mainly touch upon the following pros of Upwork, both as a client service provider and a freelancing platform:

• Public hub for entrepreneurs: Upwork benefits early adopters or startup founders as they can hire quality talent, access freelance portfolios and send private or public interview invites. Businesses can also add industry-specific filters to find aligned and suitable portfolios that will be a right match for their project requirement.
  
• Wide range of industries: Be it automotive, graphic design, finance, sales, coding, or content development, professionals from varied backgrounds can freelance for money on Upwork. With project filters and advanced UI, businesses and freelancers can narrow down job specifications and direct their contracts in the right direction. 
• Site layout and user interface: Upwork has a sleek user interface where freelancers can add data like recent short or long projects completed, client reviews, peer recommendations, number of skills, bio, profile picture, or other details. Based on a freelancer's availability and skills, Upwork shows relevant clients and job openings. 
• Reasonable cost to hire: Upwork charges a talent marketplace fee from businesses out of the salary they set aside for freelancers. While the fee usually ranges between 8-10% of the total amount, the net cost-to-hire is still cheaper than hiring full-time professionals.  
• Freelancer billables: Upwork has a work diary that computes the billable hours of freelancers based on milestones they achieve and contracts signed every month. The billing cycle runs on a monthly basis and invoices are shared with both freelancers and clients.

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.

Upwork review: What do G2 users dislike

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.

• Not enough recruiter attention: With a stream of freelancer resumes to screen, it becomes difficult for recruiters to get the exact talent match. Even though certain features like badge availability and boosted profiles help recruiters, they still struggle to integrate Upwork profiles with applicant tracking system (ATS) software to shortlist the right freelancers. 
• Job posters restricted to demographics: Businesses sometimes post vacancies restricted to a specific demographic. While most recruiters offer work from home, some of them are only restricted to one geographical area.  
• High service fees: Upwork charges a service fee of 10% of your total freelance earnings. Whether you are appointed on a fixed-price or hourly payment mode, one-tenth of the payment goes to Upwork via any payment mode.  As clients already deposit the payment in an escrow account before the project starts, Upwork deducts the fee automatically within 14 days of project initiation. 
• Unresponsive customer support: Upwork's customer service has been a little under-par for both freelancers and businesses. Although, in some cases, customer service ensures they attend to the matter and solve it, they are yet to come up with generalized grievance processes. 
• Restrictive brand policies: Recent policies around the surge in Upwork service charges, marketplace fees, and limitation of features on free plans have caused unrest among freelancers. These new brand policies appear more profit-oriented and selfish.
• Payment-related issues: Upwork hasn’t set a payment standard that businesses should follow during freelancer hiring. Because of no policy in place, freelancers are hired at a fraction of the cost and paid meager salaries in return for their efforts.

Key features of Upwork that G2 users like

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

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.   

Messaging

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.

Freelance screening

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. 

Secure payments

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.

Payment automation

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. 

Guidelines and policies

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.

Digital asset management

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. 

What G2 users are saying:

“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 Basic vs. Freelancer Plus

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. 

Is Upwork worth it? What G2 users say about Upwork pricing

While Upwork doesn’t explicitly mention the cost of the platform, here is a detailed breakdown of what you can expect.

Upwork pricing for freelancers

Below are the five specific types of pricing that Upwork provides for freelancers, which you can consider before enrolling with your profile. 

• Free to join: Freelancers can build a basic profile and apply to standard jobs without making any payment or subscribing to any other plan.
• Connects: Freelancers can purchase Connects to submit their proposal for good and long-term projects at $0.15 per Connect.
• Service fees: Freelancers need to pay tiered service fees to Upwork. Payments under $500 face a deduction of 20%. From $500 to $10,000, it is 10%, and above that, it's 5%.
• Conversion fees: For clients and freelancers who want to continue the relationship outside Upwork, the platform charges a contract conversion fee of 13.5% on the freelancer’s estimated annual earnings.
• Withdrawal and payment fees: Additional processing fees are levied on payment transfers via third-party platforms like PayPal or bank transfers.

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 pricing for clients

Upwork offers four kinds of plans, namely, marketplace, business plus, enterprise and conversion plan. Let’s break them down:

• Marketplace: Businesses hiring short-term freelancers for small-scale projects go for this plan. It offers free access to Upwork’s talent pool with 3% processing fees.
• Business Plus: Priced at $49.99 per month, this plan offers a project tracker, advanced reporting, and budget monitoring. A service fee of 10% is charged on transactions.
• Upwork for Enterprise: This plan is suited for brands that onboard multiple freelancers and manage custom workflows. 
• Conversion fee: Like freelancers, businesses are also charged a contract conversion fee if they want to continue collaborating with the client outside of the platform. 

What G2 users like best:

"The best thing I like about using Upwork is that they help me find a job easily by using their platform. Its platform is very user-friendly and service fee is now in a low-rate status."

- Upwork Review, Richard C.

What G2 users dislike:

“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.

Is Upwork legit?: Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Is Upwork a safe platform to use?

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.

Are freelancers on Upwork reliable?

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.

What fees does Upwork charge?

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.    

Can Upwork be used for long-term contracts?

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.

How do I ensure quality results on Upwork?

Set clear expectations, share short-time rewards for completing small milestones, and be disciplined when remitting payments to freelancers submitting work promptly.

Are there any hidden costs on Upwork?

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.

Final word: Is Upwork legit or not?

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.

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