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Upwork

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Overview

Upwork has a rating of 2.5 stars from 2,119 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Upwork most frequently mention customer service, credit card, and job success problems. Upwork ranks 6th among Freelancing sites.

  • Service
    477
  • Value
    459
  • Shipping
    253
  • Returns
    289
  • Quality
    453

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 16.7%
Positive
3
Neutral
0
Negative
15
View ratings trends
270
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How would you rate Upwork?
Top Positive Review

“Unlocking Freelance Opportunities with Upwork”

पपीता म.
4/23/24

Upwork has been my trusted platform for finding freelance opportunities and connecting with clients from around the world. The platform's vast network of clients and freelancers, comprehensive job listings, and secure payment system make it easy to find meaningful projects and build a successful freelance career. I appreciate Upwork's commitment to transparency and professionalism, as seen in its dispute resolution process and feedback system, which ensure fair and equitable transactions for both parties. Moreover, the platform's collaboration tools and communication features enhance teamwork and streamline project management. With Upwork, freelancing is not just a job—it's a rewarding and fulfilling career.

Date of experience: 4/22/24
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Top Critical Review

“Not worth it”

P X.
9/10/24

Business practices are arbitrary and unfair with the cost for freelancers of doing business on the site constantly increasing and various services and perks taken away. Not worth it for freelancers--and clients don't fare much better.

Date of experience: 9/10/24
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Reviews (2,119)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (91) freelancing platform (135) credit card (22) customer support (44) payment protection (24) freelancing site (80) bank account (20) freelancing career (25) post jobs (16)
Thumbnail of user nadunr
Sri Lanka
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 4th, 2021

I am a teacher by profession. But I also worked as a graphic designer for about 5 years. I use this knowledge of mine to work at Upwork as an additional source of income. Of course I have made a considerable amount of money so far.

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Value
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Quality

Date of experience: March 3, 2021

Thumbnail of user jenisht
Nepal
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 4th, 2020

I am really enjoying working with different clients at this platform.It gives you a number of opportunities to present your skills and portfolio to clients and get work remote work. I will highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make a career as a freelancer.

Date of experience: December 3, 2020

Thumbnail of user bobj215
Oregon
1 review
5 helpful votes
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July 11th, 2018

Got linked up with a freelancer and it was going well until I realized there was no way this person could accomplish the task, and then you are just screwed. The freelancer was making 8th grade graphics, literally thought it was a joke when it first was submitted. I would never use this site again because of the process, you should get a trial period to see if the person can actually do what you are looking for.

Do not ever use this site, and if you do then know how much risk you are taking. I'm sure there are good freelancers on there but few and far between, good luck hunting.

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Value
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Quality

Date of experience: July 11, 2018

Thumbnail of user viktoriiav1
Sweden
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 18th, 2021

The platform is made very thoughtfully: to protect the rights of both the freelancer and the employer.
The platform gives you the opportunity to make a real start to your career.
I am glad to continue to cooperate with Upwork.

Tip for consumers:
Recommended for both business owners and freelancers

Products used:
graphic designer services

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Value
Shipping
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Quality

Date of experience: September 18, 2021

Thumbnail of user mayam22
Serbia
1 review
8 helpful votes
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May 23rd, 2017

Try to keep away from this platform. You risk to be tricky by lots of scammers protected by them or to be humiliated by their `gurus` in forum. Their behavior is very violent and you will be verbally abused by a three or more them at the same time. The worst experience ever.

Date of experience: May 23, 2017

Thumbnail of user butrinth
Serbia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 23rd, 2020

Upwork is a platform for online jobs, depending on your profession, you can easily find jobs related to that profession. It is easy to communicate with clients and a very secure way to earn money based on your skills. Will recommend it to every person in the world, who loves to work online!

Date of experience: July 23, 2020

Thumbnail of user kurtw84
Belgium
1 review
0 helpful votes
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October 9th, 2020

I've been working as a freelancer on Upwork over a year to get remote jobs.
It's a very, very good place to get jobs - reliable, good support, good clients and jobs.
I'd recommend Upwork to all who wants to get a good and reliable remote job - try and you'd get it in days or in few months.

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Value
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Date of experience: October 9, 2020

Thumbnail of user chrisc223
Texas
1 review
7 helpful votes
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January 25th, 2016

Had small job started by freelancer. Was so bad I fired him. He billed me for $80 for time spent working on a project which he never delivered, and for sample work that was so bad I couldn't even use that. Contested with PayPal, which was denied. Disputed with Upwork, which was denied.

Beware - PayPal protection absolutely useless and Upwork protection a joke. DO NOT USE. There are others... or you get someone local that understands English and has some degree of ethics.

Date of experience: January 25, 2016

Thumbnail of user alexanderb256
Alabama
1 review
1 helpful vote
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August 9th, 2020

Worked my way up from
$4/hr at age 19 to $80/hr now that I'm 23.

What I've noticed is that 90% of the clients can't affiord my rates. But that's fine.

What's not fine is the way Upwork is managed. You'll understand what I'm saying after you use Upwork for a year. There's a lot of idiots working at Upwork's corporate offices.

Date of experience: August 9, 2020

Thumbnail of user yaroslavk11
Ukraine
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 12th, 2021

I work on Upwork from 2017 and I want to share with you my experience of working on this great platform. Before Upwork platform I had a lot of clients that underestimated my skills and always tried to pull the price down for the work I did. Also nothing guaranteed the payment from clients I worked with. Being on Upwork my salary grows up every year and I always know that my work will be paid in time due to Upwork contracts system. I can say a lot of good things about this platform! I'm very satisfied! Now I always have work and long term clients that I satisfied with. Thanks Upwork for this opportunity! I highly recommend this platform for anyone who want to be successful!

Date of experience: March 12, 2021

Thumbnail of user angelah923
Virginia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 26th, 2021

As a freelance writer & editor, I am so happy I stumbled upon this site! Upwork is a fabulous, fair play for obstaing new clients and making quick money. Their rates are fair, and the option for instant payment is
Much appreciated. I highly recommend Upwork, and plan to stick with it for a very long time.

Tip for consumers:
Keep your rates low at first, until you get a few good ratings under your belt.

Products used:
Clients for hire

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Value
Shipping
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Quality

Date of experience: February 25, 2021

Thumbnail of user drhajram
Pakistan
1 review
0 helpful votes
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April 15th, 2021

Hey, I am Dr hajra. I have been working as a content and blog writer at Upwork since 2020. I never find a platform like this before in my entire life. It gives you satisfaction and provide you a great source of income. I love to work on Upwork and want to continue till my last breathe.

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Value
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Date of experience: April 14, 2021

Thumbnail of user waleedn5
Zambia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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June 13th, 2022

In my opinion Upwork is by far the best platform available for freelancers. I have been on fiverr and freelancer but Upwork is the one I recommend. There are things to be done, and the good thing is Upwork is constantly trying to upgrade it to match with needs of clients as well as freelancers.

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Value
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Date of experience: June 12, 2022

Thumbnail of user patriciaa216
Canada
1 review
0 helpful votes
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October 15th, 2018

I have very mixed experiences with upwork, no good ones for SEO, some
Lovely ones for a marketing adviser and photoshopping of images, but
Terrible for website design. Am in the middle of a dispute now, the
Designer was supposed to do design templates for 3 specific pages, and
The layouts, looked great. However his integrating was and still is a
Mess, affecting text and layout on all the pages, to the extent, that I
Am now having to spend hours undoing and re-doing all the work. And the
Upwork view..." it appears that no clear violation of our terms has
Been made"So sure, use them, but you are entirely alone if it goes wrong.

Date of experience: October 14, 2018

Thumbnail of user tetyanas
Ukraine
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
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July 19th, 2018

My Upwork experience started from March, 2018. I used to have up to ten clients. But the one was strange. It was Emma Serlin. Firstly, she asked to prepare the transcription without opening a contract. Secondly, she said that the result was great and opened the contract in order to pay for the previous file. Then she asked for another transcription and suddenly ended the contract with low feedback. After I asked her what was wrong, she said that she was not satisfied with the results. I can't understand, why she didn't say that she didn't like something when she actually did not like and asked for changes. I don't think this is reasonable. Be aware of such kind of employers, who can make a poo to your job success score.

Date of experience: July 19, 2018

Thumbnail of user jamaldeeno
Nigeria
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 22nd, 2017

I started out freelancing on Upwork. I bidded for over 30 tasks, a few of them would contact me back only to decline my proposal after I had sent a sample. After two months I receive an email saying the amount of proposals I had submitted without a job means that my skills were not of value in their marketplace, so my account was suspended. I tried to delete my account but they would not even allow me to do that. I contact support to delete my account but I am replied by a bot several times.

Date of experience: February 22, 2017

Thumbnail of user francinej12
Dominica
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 30th, 2020

Upwork has been my new favorite platform to source employment. There are millions of opportunities out there for any skill and any type of freelancer - from entry-level to expert. Definitely my go-to work-online office!

Date of experience: September 30, 2020

Thumbnail of user willl45
GB
1 review
5 helpful votes
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December 4th, 2017

This site is a rip off! I cancel a milestone - thanks to a freelancer who did not read the job description. Upwork took a 10% fee off the total sum saying they had to process it. What an absolute joke of a site!

Date of experience: December 4, 2017

Thumbnail of user ricks131
Panama
1 review
2 helpful votes
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May 14th, 2017

I was with Odesk for several years before it became Upwork and have had a good experience with them the entire time. The only problems are that the site goes down more often than I'd like, and it would be nice if they had more payment options in addition to Payoneer and PayPal. They seem honest and aboveboard, the clients I've worked with have nearly always been viable and easy to work with, and their payment process is very straight forward. In addition, I must add that their customer service department has always been exemplary whenever I've had a problem. All in all, I've had a good experience with the company going on almost 6 years now and I intend to continue working with them for the foreseeable future.

Date of experience: May 13, 2017

Thumbnail of user cg43
Ecuador
1 review
6 helpful votes
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July 1st, 2015

We got ripped off by our freelancer. Elance released the funds they held from us to the webdesigner even though he had never finished the job. We called the customer service: unfriendly, unprofessional, giving us the feeling that they did not care

And above all

They did not do anything to get back our money or to make sure our website would be finished. In the end we even got charged for copyright violation by GettyImages because the webdesigner had used stolen material from the web.

I do understand all the good reviews from freelancers: they can basically do whatever they want!

Date of experience: July 1, 2015

Thumbnail of user tessal3
Minnesota
1 review
12 helpful votes
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October 10th, 2016

I have been freelancing for over 2 years with clients- not through a website. I tried this out. It's is by far the worst way to go.
Clients: find your freelancers by posting jobs on craigslist/indeed/design sites. Not Upwork.
Freelancers: find your clients somewhere else. Upwork is BAD.

Date of experience: October 10, 2016

Thumbnail of user atefehm1
Sweden
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 8th, 2020

Upwork expands your knowledge and increases your creativity. Working on international projects through Upwork broaden minds and keep you up to date and active as a freelancer. Getting feedback after finishing each project is a great way to know better yourself, your talents, your strengths, and your weaknesses.

Date of experience: November 8, 2020

Thumbnail of user kathrinab1
Philippines
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 18th, 2020

Upwork has a superb security when it comes to finance and communication. Ensures everything is going well with your job and client. I love working only on Upwork because I know that everything is well monitored and I feel so secured. I don't need to worry about anything.

Date of experience: November 18, 2020

Thumbnail of user evelynv68
Philippines
1 review
0 helpful votes
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April 8th, 2021

Upwork has given me opportunities to connect with great clients from all over the world and build long-term relationships with different companies. It gives protection and security to both the client and me as freelancer. I would recommend Upwork as the platform for everyone looking for online employment.

Tip for consumers:
Highly recommended!

Products used:
Freelancing platform

Service
Value
Quality

Date of experience: April 8, 2021

Thumbnail of user amirg13
Canada
1 review
6 helpful votes
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August 30th, 2016

A freelancer got my money there without delivering the job. I asked them to stop releasing money to him. They told we can't.
That easy, you can go to this website, as a client to release a first milestone to you and then you ca run away without any probem.

Their supports are sucks.

Date of experience: August 30, 2016

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