Upwork

I will skip the part about their huge fees which basically doubled last year, leaving a freelancer with about 70-75% of the money a client pays. I won't even complain about the stupid job completion getting ruined because a client left a contract open for possible work after completing the contract, and dropping my completion ratio for no reason and resulting in no more proposals.
What made me quit upwork was their overnight change in policy which requires a ton of information from me (a freelancer) that I refuse to provide - this is a completely unjustified invasion of privacy, I had no problem working happy with several clients without sharing my personal information.
And by refusing to comply with their overnight policies the money I earned fair and square are now blocked into their account - I have some doubts this is even legal.

Find another website, encourage competition to make things better. DO NOT encourage this trash.

They've really gone downhill since the merger a couple of years ago. I had a great experience with Elance and then saw that Upwork was nothing but a garbage site with $5 jobs, so I didn't transfer my profile.

Then they add insult to injury by upping the fee to freelancers to 20%, on a sliding scale: the more money you make with a single client, the smaller the percentage they take but you have to hit something like $1000 before you get a break. Since most jobs are one-off and under $100, they are killing their freelancers profit margins. Greed like I've never seen.

They also are having problems with hackers. They get into the site easily posing as clients and employers. NO FILTER system to keep them out. UpWork relies on the freelancers to spot the scammers. Disgusting.

If it's any comfort, the site is in real, not imagined, decline, per Alexa's website ranking system. See their graph attached.

Upwork has hurt my confidence so much and hindered me from starting as a freelancer. It feels like they're outright rude and not at all sorry to see anyone go. This is not a platform for people who are just starting out, who don't have much on their portfolio. Try Upwork after having a decent portfolio and video ready. I will not be coming back. I haven't had such a bad user experience anywhere else.

I wasted 2 weeks working with a fraudulent freelancer on Upwork.com I didn't notice until after he got nearly $1500 out of me. Just 1 day he disappeared and stop responding to my messages. Worst thing about it is that Upwork refused to refund the money! No worries, I just called my bank to handle it but now I'm behind schedule and need to find a reputable freelancer to create my project. Beware of these scam artist, they are everywhere!

I've been on upwork for over a year now, and I'd highly recommend it.
What i really love about upwork that the efforts you do will never be wasted as they insure you will get paid and support through any issues. This is really important thing to be secured and always know they got you covered!

Also it has a very wide range of different opportunities around the world which makes it perfect to find the best job match for yourself.

Great website!

I am very happy working on Upwork as it gives me great opportunities to work with business around the globe which otherwise I won't have got.

Most of the clients are very good with communication, requirements & payments. Obviously there have been couple of times where i faced difficulties but that's the case even when you work with clients offline.

Looking forward to work with more businesses and help them succeed in their goals and eventually grow during this process

I started filling out an online profile on this website so I could make a little extra money with my general admin and data entry skills. It asks you to basically fill out a new resume for some basic freelance work... ok. So I am in the middle of this and selecting jobs that I may interested in and Upwork is supposed to be verifying my bank account for payments etc.

Then I receive an email from Upwork support, before I have even completed my profile mind you, stating they are not interested in me and I am not qualified. They know nothing about me yet! I haven't finished filling out my current and previous work experience. What a joke!

Being able to work remotely and especially at my own pace is something that I am very grateful for especially during these unprecedented times. I'm so happy that I am still able to earn without risking my health outside.

Upwork is an amazing community to find clients based on your specialty. They are also generous for giving additional connects that let you apply for more jobs. Their customer service is responsive. I also love their Upwork Protection for payments so I do not need to worry about my clients not paying me. I feel more comfortable working knowing that Upwork got my back.

The only con with Upwork is their app being sluggish but you just get used to it and actually that's a very small con compared to so many pros.

I have ample experience with upwork. Here are the major problems with it:
1. Many jobs are listed at slave wages, such as writing 10 articles for 5 dollars, working at $1.20 per hour etc.
2. The Job Success Score with which freelancers are rated is atrocious, hated by all.
3. Upwork wears on its sleeve the fact that it will not listen to its freelancers.
4. The IT is atrocious. I've experienced a glitch with every component of the site... in the last week. It just doesn't work.
5. Customer support is absurd.

I've been evaluating various platforms for freelancers. Upwork is the most reliable platform which I've joined. You can get paid for hourly. This is guaranteed by an monitoring application. For fixed priced projects you can define milestones. When each milestone is completed, you start to get paid so you don't have to wait until the project finishes. Searching for jobs is fairly well but it would be nice if there is a notification system for interested jobs with respect to keywords. Payment options work great. I recommend Upwork to reduce commission rate since most of the jobs don't exceed $500 and most of our clients are long term clients.

I've been using it for about 2-3 months now and I'm not a fan. Way too crazy with monitoring you. For hourly work they make you download a time clock which will take screen shots of your computer while you're working every 1-10 minutes at random. Total invasion of privacy and feels like the employer is standing over your shoulder. Also, they have to "review" your account and it takes 24 hours+ to do so, which will make you loose opportunities to other bidders for lucrative jobs. There's a way better way to do this that respects the privacy of the users and doesn't tie their hands so much. They also take 20% of your income for your first $500 in profit, and then lower the rate after that to 10%, which can be a lot depending on what you're doing.

I am a freelance copywriter. I was struggling to find good-paying projects and to stay safe from scammers. Upwork is so far the best marketplace for me where I can workpiece fully without the fear of scams. The customer support is great, I can communicate with the client directly and show my skills.

Now they have increased their fees to 20% up to $500 which is insane, but offers have only decreased. They also added 3% fee to clients... Clients are increasingly stingy, and since I have no intention of working for UpWork I will limit my time spent on any flat fee project to whatever I am getting paid, not any portion going to UpWork. I'm a licensed attorney and have found good clients on Odesk previously, which was a great site, however now its dried up into a desert, and they have the nerve to rip us off more and more. I attempt to remove all clients from the site asap so I can charge what I'm worth.

After letting me post a job, award it, get the guy working on it, they froze the whole account asking for a government issues color id with a picture, birthdate, full address and other identity information, PLUS the full credit card information, all emailed to some unknown person at zendesk that won't even tell me what country they are in or what their last name is.

I close the account immediate and am fighting to get the funds which they are not paying to the freelancer either.

Real scammers - be careful and do not use them! Be Warned.