Upwork Alternatives – Just Try!

Probably you already know, freelancing marketplace Upwork has announced a price hike effective from June 2016. It will drastically double the platform service fee for many freelancers and add a new fare on payments made by clients. This announcement had a remarkable impact on the Upwork community. Users are not happy with the decision and many of them are seeking for an alternative.

So where to go? A good question. Until the latest price rise, Upwork was comparatively better choice than other platforms of its kind. Until May 2016, Upwork’s service fee was 10% of the total cost of a project on the marketplace. It didn’t require clients to pay any fee to use the platform. Only  freelancers needed to leave 10% of their earnings as  service fee.

On the other hand, Freelancer.com charges almost 13% (3% from a client and 10% from a  freelancer) of a project’s expenditure. Another freelancing site Guru’s overall charge is 11.45% per project (client 2.5% + freelancer 8.95%).

So, until May 2016, Upwork was a good choice for clients and freelancers. But from June, both sides will face additional charges. Clients will be charged 2.75% processing fee for each transaction (or flatly $25/month for some specific regions) they made via the site.

From the client’s viewpoint, Upwork will be a highly expensive choice. It will ultimately charge 22.75% from a small/medium sized project’s budget. Although 2.75% is to be paid by a client and the remaining cost goes to a freelancer, but still it will definitely have an impact on the bid price. Freelancers will wish to offset the high service charge by gaining higher price from their clients. So it might be rather hard to find a compromise between them.

What is more, Freelancer.com has an offer that encourages freelancers to migrate their clients to the platform and claim 0% service fee from a freelancer for that specific client for lifetime. It says, if a freelancer can convince a client to sign-up with Freelancer.com for the first time, then the both can work together without any commission from the freelancer’s side.

But this may not work for all, because it involves lots of tasks to start with a completely new platform. And if you are an existing Freelancer.com client, you will need to spend 3% service fee.

Then, as a client, you may have another option that is Guru, which charges 2.5% fee to a client and 8.95% to a freelancer. Although the freelancer can reduce this fee down to 4.95% with a maximum $39.95 monthly subscription charge. But the client will always have some extra costs unless he/she uses a bank account, wire transfer or check as a payment method.

So, there is no freelancing platform that could satisfy you as a client and even as a freelancer. Many online project managers are leaving these traditional platforms and choosing alternative tools to work with a remote team. Screenshot Monitor is a tool which can give you and your employees time tracking ability, calculate hourly bills and much more. It’s free for any team of 3 members. So you can track freelancers’ time with screenshots and get invoices without any costs. If you manage a bigger team, you can add more members with additional $5 to $7 per member/month. Just review the time log and pay the freelancers using PayPal, Skrill, Payoneer or any other payment options you prefer. Screenshot Monitor doesn’t charge any payment processing fee because the project payments are handled outside the tool. Freelancers will also be able to use the tracker for free.

If you are worried about the fees charged by the traditional freelancing marketplaces, Screenshot Monitor could help you work in remote teams at zero to less cost. Given that, you need to find a freelancer/client by yours and then team them up using Screenshot Monitor and you will see how  it is easy in use and very helpful. Good luck!