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Fiverr vs Upwork: Benefits and Features of Both Platforms

When you’re looking for freelance work, these are the top platforms

By Kristen BradyPublished 2 years ago Updated 2 years ago 9 min read
Image courtesy: Ivan Samkov via Pexels

Do you want to employ a remote worker, especially a freelancer? If the answer is yes, you might be familiar with businesses like Upwork and Fiverr. However, how will you know which business is better and who has the best freelancers?

The short answer is Upwork and Fiverr are both excellent, verified businesses. Where you wind up choosing your freelancers will depend upon the kind of work you need done, your preferences, and your budget.

To get you started, this post will introduce an overview of how both Fiverr and Upwork work, which includes their benefits and features. At the end of this post, you will be more familiar with both companies and prepared to start employing a staff of remote employees.

Upwork

If you are looking to employ a remote worker, this company is an excellent place to begin. It is over-saturated with skilled freelancers in multiple industries. Upwork freelancers also list their services at affordable prices.

Upwork: How Does it Work?

On Upwork, the process for locating talent is simple. You begin by creating your account. Once you’ve created an account, it’s possible to begin to post your job listing on Upwork. The site is intuitive in the kind of details you should include and it’s possible to make a great listing by entering the details they request.

But, where the company really shines is they additionally provide four short, but comprehensive, training modules on what internet work is, how to create the ideal listing to attract top skills, the best methods of vetting profiles and employ great freelancers, and how you can get the best results.

The modules take less than one hour to finish yet will assist you in finding a better freelancer utilizing the Upwork platform. It’s possible to make a listing without having to watch the training modules, yet the modules are available to guide you.

After watching the modules, it’s possible to post your job listing.

Upwork utilizes data science to spotlight the freelancers which best fit your job description. This way, you do not need to be concerned with browsing thousands of profiles to find the perfect match.

Instead, it’s possible to flip through the leading profiles to find your match. Also, you have the choice to browse a brief list of skilled freelancers on Upwork. It’s possible to reach out individually to those who pique your interest.

It is useful to have both the choice for freelancers to reach out to you and you to have the ability to get in touch with freelancers. This way, it’s possible to find somebody who interests you, who’ll do a great job, and has time for your project.

How Will You Know You Are Getting an Excellent Freelancer?

If you are on the lookout for a high-quality freelancer, Upwork is an exceptional place to start. And why is that? Because they have multiple steps in place to ensure the platform is reliable and fair.

Upwork verifies all freelancers so you know who they say they are. Also, they show details about someone’s skill level to assist you in understanding that you’re getting the skills requested when employing a freelancer.

Upwork authenticates e-mail addresses to ensure you’re communicating with who you need to reach. Also, they show every freelancer’s job success score and feedback on all past projects. It helps you gauge how well a certain freelancer has performed within the past.

Also, Upwork gives results of internet skills test. For instance, if you’re employing a freelance writer, it’s possible to check how well they performed on grammar and writing skills test to make sure you are receiving the quality you need.

If the online skills tests, past feedback, and job success scores are not sufficient to determine the talent of a possible freelancer, you also can ask customized screening questions in your posts.

You can also use Upwork’s chat and video conference features to interview your final applicants.

When it concerns hiring a high-quality freelancer, Upwork has considered it all to ensure you are receiving the best of the best or at least have all of the tools in place to employ a great freelancer.

Upwork: Will They Hire for You?

Let us say you do not have the energy or time to undergo the process of screening. You simply want to hire somebody skilled and hire them as fast as possible. For that, Upwork provides the Upwork Pro service. Upwork personally sorts through the market of talent to pre-vet the top pros for your project.

How to Work Within Upwork

One benefit of using a platform such as Upwork is it’s possible to complete all your communication via the Upwork platform.

You’ll have a shared space with you, the client, and freelancer to share files, talk in real time through text, video, or chat, and you even can access the details on the run through Upwork’s mobile app.

How Do Taxes and Payment Work with Upwork?

Payments are secure and happen through Upwork. Paying with Upwork safeguards both the client and freelancer from any possible payment issues. It’s possible to rest assured that the contract details are clear and that all parties involved are getting paid what they ought to be getting paid.

While payments happen through Upwork, you’ll have lots of flexibility on how you opt to pay a freelancer. For instance, you can pay by the hour or pay a flat rate-price and use the escrow account to release money when specific milestones are met.

It’s possible to pay through Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, or PayPal. Like other services, the majority of payments are subject to a 2.75 percent processing fee.

You also can download invoices from the platform for your records. But taxes are dealt with by Upwork.

When you pay via Upwork and if the freelancer is properly categorized as an independent contractor, you do not have to report payments on a 1099. Their escrow service is thought to be a “3rd-party payment network,” and it casts the responsibility of reporting to Upwork, and not your company.

As such, Upwork reports payments to independent contractors upon a 1099-K. Just keep in mind you have to correctly categorize your freelancers as independent contractors, instead of employees.

If the freelancer must be categorized as an employee, use Upwork’s Payroll service. When using this service, Upwork’s staffing provider will hire the employee, deal with all the payment of and withholding of taxes and give the employee a Form W-2.

Fiverr

Now that we have covered the benefits and features of Upwork, let us go over another popular platform for companies to employ freelance workers — Fiverr.

Fiverr: How Does it Work?

Fiverr began as a freelance platform in which you could hire a freelancer to do a project for you for only $5. That rate still is available for some brand-new freelancers and it’s possible to get great deals on work from quality freelancers.

The platform has grown a lot since its humble beginnings and currently freelancers may provide packages, or better services for over $5. Freelancers also will occasionally provide basic services for $5 then require extra payment for add-on services.

For instance, if you employ someone to create a logo for you, they might charge $5 for one idea, then charge you extra costs for more services. They might charge you $10 for three more ideas, an additional $10 for various file saving options, an additional $10 for revisions, and so on.

You will find that as you currently look at Fiverr, the majority of the gigs do not begin at $5. While all freelancers currently post varying starting rates, the rates still are very affordable, and you will get a good deal employing a freelancer on Fiverr.

What Type of Work Do Freelancers on Fiverr Do?

Fiverr is an excellent network if you’re on the look-out for a robust and diverse skill set.

For instance, it’s possible to hire Fiverr freelancers to do anything, which includes design, graphics, writing, digital marketing, videos, translation, music, animation, programming, audio, business work, tech, and there even are gigs that are lifestyle related and fun.

Occasionally it is fun to browse the platform to check what type of services are provided. Since they’re so reasonable, it’s possible to dabble in various services to check if it’ll impact the bottom line of your company.

How Do You Find a Fiverr Freelancer?

Something that’s especially cool about the website is how it is organized.

When you visit the Fiverr site, it’s possible to swiftly sort the kind of work needed. It’s possible to sort by choosing one of the categories.

For instance, if you require a freelance writer, there’s a category referred to as “Writing and Translation” in which all of the gigs are posted within that category. Since it’s a broad subject, Fiverr additionally sorts translation and writing services into sub-categories, which includes cover letters and resumes editing and proofreading, creative writing, translation, research and summaries, business copywriting, blog posts and articles, transcription, legal writing, press releases, and other.

If that still does not quite hit the mark or if you will need other services, Fiverr additionally provides a list of associated services for the category you chose. For writing, you will see associated services, which includes animated and whiteboard explainers, SEO, short video ads, website builders, social media marketing, and CMS.

In addition, Fiverr has other ways it’s possible to refine your results. You may sort by the kind of work you’re searching for, price range, delivery time, gender, seller status, language, purpose, age range, accent, seller level, what the service includes, seller location, seller language, and much more.

Each service has different ways it’s possible to filter the results pertaining to the service. For instance, the aforementioned services are for voice over services. For some services, accent or gender might not be applicable, yet it is, regarding voice acting.

The platform is unique in that you do not post jobs and get freelancers to apply to them. You must instead have a concept of what you want in mind then refine the results ’til you locate a gig which matches your job description.

To repeat, the search results are simple to refine and there are many different freelancers who offer a broad array of gigs; therefore, you should not have an issue finding a good freelance worker if you are asking for a common business service.

How Do They Vet Their Freelance Workers?

When you initially begin to hire Fiverr freelancers, it is imperative to recognize that anyone may become a Fiverr seller.

But Fiverr does not let you fly blind. They have ways of vetting their freelancing workers.

First, at the end of every gig completion, a buyer has the choice to rate their level of satisfaction with the project and freelancer on a star scale of 1 to 5. Freelancing workers accumulate ratings that way to show possible buyers how well they work.

Also, prior buyers may provide written feedback with every star rating. New buyers may browse through a seller’s profile then read the feedback to check what the freelancer’s weaknesses and strengths are.

Also, Fiverr categorizes specific elite sellers as “top rated sellers,” which means a certain freelancer offers an overall excellent customer experience.

Plus, Fiverr will show if a seller is “level two seller,” level one seller,” or a “new seller,” in addition to their “top-rated sellers.” It’s one other way that Fiverr shows different categories.

Conclusion

While browsing a freelancer to join your staff or complete one-time projects, you have multiple options.

Here’s the good news: it’s possible to you find amazing freelancers on both Fiverr and Upwork and both companies have a way of vetting their freelancing workers.

The service you wind up choosing will mainly depend on your personal preferences and budget.

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Kristen Brady

Kristen is contributor on Medium, Substack, and NewsBreak.

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