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    Upwork

Upwork

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Overview

Upwork has a rating of 2.5 stars from 2,120 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
    478
  • Value
    460
  • Shipping
    253
  • Returns
    290
  • Quality
    454

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 16.7%
Positive
3
Neutral
0
Negative
15
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How would you rate Upwork?

Reviews (2,120)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (91) freelancing platform (135) credit card (23) customer support (44) payment protection (24) freelancing site (80) bank account (20) freelancing career (25) post jobs (16)
Thumbnail of user ibrahii
Algeria
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 24th, 2020

Till now I have 5 months in Upwork, I found the opportunity to improve my skills and to earn a lot of money. I really like freelancing on Upwork very nice experience.

Date of experience: November 24, 2020

Thumbnail of user aleho
RU
1 review
0 helpful votes
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August 14th, 2020

I've been looking for and trying different sites to earn money. Just Upwork that I find
Better conditions. You start and you hit the whirlpool of orders.
Thanks, Upwork for this opportunity!

Date of experience: August 13, 2020

Thumbnail of user carlod63
Philippines
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 25th, 2021

Upwork is a great platform to find work and professional talent. As a freelancer, It is a safe and easy way to find new clients and just search for the projects that you are good at.

Products used:
Platform

Service
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Quality

Date of experience: February 24, 2021

Thumbnail of user boscom
Panama
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 17th, 2020

Upwork is a great platform for freelancing. They provided excellent support for a freelancer that wishes to connect wi employers around the globe and all is done in a very secure way.

Date of experience: December 17, 2020

Thumbnail of user markf420
Pennsylvania
1 review
16 helpful votes
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April 9th, 2019

Not only is their website terrible to work with, they appear to be stealing money from my freelancer. I just logged on to re-hire a freelancer I hired in February. That is when I saw a message from him that he left back in February after the job was done. I copied the message below

Hi MarkI hope everything is fine with you. I have big favor to ask. Upwork suspended my account without giving any reason. Which is very strange to me. All my feedback is very good, clients were happy with the work i did for them, i am doing projects currently. I don't see what that reason could be. But from what i read now online it's not for the first time that this happened at upwork, which is alarming! They basically block freelancer accounts (including account balance) without any explanation and don't respond to any form of communication. I am experiencing this now with them. They took money from my balance and i believe returned it to your account. I have big favor to ask, i hope you value the work i did for you and would like to pay me for the work i did i would be very grateful.

So, I looked at my account and see Upwork billed my credit card twice for this job and credited back one of the charges. So Upwork took my money and did not pay the Freelancer. My credit card company has pulled back the money Upwork took and I just paid my freelancer on PayPal. This company cannot be trusted.

Date of experience: April 9, 2019

Thumbnail of user michaels5811
Arizona
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 8th, 2021

I was recommended to Upwork by a colleague who knew I was interested in locating some writing gigs to help generate some additional income. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the volume of potential "requests for proposals" available to generate opportunities. Eventually, I learned to differentiate between those that paid poorly and those that rewarded the freelancer appropriately for the investment of time. The variety of potential opps required me to properly focus my search for clients. Within a month of joining I had generated over $1,000 in revenue and met very professional and interesting clients. The fee charged by Upwork for building a platform that facilitates finding clients is well worth it. The interface, billing, and payment features are easy to adapt and make the whole process of receiving funds exceptionally easy. I would highly recommend becoming a member if you are interested in locating gig work as a developmental editor, copy-editor, proofreader, or even very creative writing of courses and presentations.

Tip for consumers:
Well worth the investment

Products used:
Freelance Services

Service
Value
Quality

Date of experience: February 7, 2021

Thumbnail of user yazana7
Cyprus
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 27th, 2020

I've been using Upwork for 4 months as a freelance designer. Upwork is a great platform for clients who are looking for professional freelancers and vice versa.

Tip for consumers:
For every professional freelancer in almost every field, you should try Upwork

Products used:
Freelance project

Service
Value
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Quality

Date of experience: December 26, 2020

Thumbnail of user brajpals
India
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 27th, 2020

I find Upwork most genuine freelancing jobs site, clients are good and freelancers are protected, if you have the skills and ability to complete the jobs successfully, there is no way freelancer will not get success here, but, big but, the commission is highest on any site, moreover, they have stared the connects buying system, however, in my view all these steps have been taken to keep active and professional freelancers on the platforms so overall I love working on Upwork and as I said, everyone who has skills, dedication, desire to perform and help are the key points to get success here.

Here i want to request Upwork management on this platform because they have asked for the honest review, that please think about the freelancers benefits too because no matter how good platform you provide to clients and freelancers but if you keep finding the ways to make dent in freelancers earning, gradually freelancers will start making distance from this site and ultimately it will be harm to Upwork's credibility, please stop taking freelancers for granted because sooner or later it will happen if you Upwork's management doesn't pay attention to this issue.

Best of Luck.

Date of experience: September 26, 2020

Thumbnail of user faizank9
India
1 review
1 helpful vote
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August 23rd, 2021

Good pay for each minute spent, excellent learning platform, great work life balance, a good option to start a second career after a break, many career options to choose from.

Date of experience: August 22, 2021

Thumbnail of user enriquef37
VE
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 7th, 2021

Upwork is great to find work, but their commission pyramid is a killer for small jobs. Unless you can get long-lasting clients (which does not always happens on several fields like graphic design and translation), you have to pay 20% over the first 500 bucks, and then 10% from $501 to $10,000, and then 5% after that. This means that Upwork keeps a huge slice of your payment, they are essentially your "partners."

That, added to the fact that the client ALSO has to pay a commission on the work they hire out, means Upwork is a silent partner in almost all of their freelancers' businesses.

If they cut down on their rates, they'd earn that last star. The website works great and there are countless opportunities to get work.

The other issue is that there are a LOT of bots and a lot of "one cent" freelancers from India and China who use auto-posting scripts to flood all jobs with over 50 offers, so I imagine it must be daunting for a client to go through that many offers and find the most competitive and professional one that fits their needs.

I've had an account from the time when it was ODesk, and that has helped me continue to get good jobs because of a very active profile filled with reviews from clients, but from what people with new accounts have told me, it is very difficult to get hired with a new account and no reviews. The flooding of offers by bots and low cost freelancers from abroad make it hard for newbies to find jobs.

In general, I do recommend Upwork, but IT CAN IMPROVE.

Service
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Date of experience: March 5, 2021

Thumbnail of user talimurr
Bangladesh
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 5th, 2021

I found upwork as a truly professional platform to work as a freelancer as they have a lot of features for both the party I mean for buyer and seller like me.

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Value
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Quality

Date of experience: March 5, 2021

Thumbnail of user alio43
Cyprus
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 23rd, 2020

I am an audio production specialist. In 2018 I started with $5 an hour and now I get paid $25 an hour. Upwork is the place where professionals can get great value.

Date of experience: September 23, 2020

Thumbnail of user designw2
Pakistan
2 reviews
11 helpful votes
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February 10th, 2018

(There's a Suggestion for Upwork at the end)
To Survive at Upwork, you need to be a Salesman, which is a Requirement by Upwork, not by the Client. As Once if you get hired, Client has Nothing to Do with you Selling Skill.

If you are not a Good Salesman, doesn't matter how experienced you are, you will get SUSPENDED! Simply!

I have Seen Hundred's of Suspended Experienced (Field Expert) people from upwork, in fact its an Hot Topic on Google. (just query something like "upwork account suspended")

Client Requires Field Experts, Upwork Delivers them Salesman. This is how Upwork is NOT CONNECTING the Right Candidate!

SUGGESTION FOR UPWORK:
If someone is Not getting Hired, it doesn't mean he/she is not field Expert, it depicts he/she is not Good At Selling!

Upwork can easily Improve its Algorithm by Including the "Test Results" (Conducted by Upwork) to Determine the Experienced Professional. Define a Threshold, below that Threshold may get suspended (if they are not earning enough)!

Date of experience: February 10, 2018

Thumbnail of user dougb331
Kentucky
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 21st, 2020

Upwork does a great job of maintaining a website that is very functional and feature-rich and organized. The options for protection, for client and freelancer, are valuable. I consistently make many 10's of thousands of dollars a year on Upwork.

The challenge is that Upwork is an open market, meaning anybody can post their job there, and almost anybody can join as a freelancer. This means, frankly there are an abundance of unqualified clients and freelancers. I understand the reasoning behind this - if Upwork were to assign themselves the role of judging who gets to join, running the business would become untenable for them.

And so, there is a portion of Upwork that is a race to the bottom in pricing, where clients believe design is not something they should pay a lot for, and many freelancers will happily do a logo for $30. And then the client is surprised that a $30 logo is not very good.

But there are many "professional" clients, as I call them, who have realistic budgets, and are looking for experienced pros like myself. So you simply have to do the groundwork to find them, and manage the project and the client properly.

I am happy to have Upwork.

Tip for consumers:
see my review

Products used:
not applicable

Service
Value
Quality

Date of experience: December 20, 2020

Thumbnail of user yuhanp
Sri Lanka
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 30th, 2021

Upwork has helped me to get quality, recurring work that pays really well and has helped me get my career up and running. I'm very thankful for the opportunities that I've received through upwork!

Tip for consumers:
Find your niche!

Products used:
Freelancing services

Service
Value

Date of experience: March 29, 2021

Thumbnail of user yuriyg9
Ukraine
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 27th, 2020

After quitting my offline job at it agency, I found it quite easy to take jobs like I did before directly from clients via Upwork platform. I am thankful to Upwork for such a possibility

Date of experience: September 27, 2020

Thumbnail of user nataliec259
Philippines
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 11th, 2020

Upwork is a great platform for freelancers like me to search for jobs and get hired! Also, I am confident that I will be paid since Upwork also verifies identity and payment method of clients.

Date of experience: December 10, 2020

Thumbnail of user dwip4
Indonesia
1 review
0 helpful votes
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December 8th, 2020

Joining upwork creating opportunities for me, who came from Southeast Asia to work with International employer, earning dollars that converted to have better value here.

Date of experience: December 6, 2020

Thumbnail of user tessas156
Wisconsin
1 review
1 helpful vote
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March 24th, 2020

Upwork takes no responsibility for anyones problems. They act like a middle man that doesn't have to resolve any issues putting sole responsibility on the freelancer and the client. When the freelancer and the client are on bad terms though, you come to find out there are no real solutions and when money is involved, this is a huge issue.

As a client, I've had 2 issues with freelancers and I'll leave it at that. I'd be writing a novel to describe my terrible experience with freelancers eager to sell their skill and desire to deliver on your project, to then only complain when they spend hours fixing their own mistakes. Blame you and get mad that it's a fixed contract price. I've wasted over $1,000 on this site with freelancers who treat their clients like crap. It's clear why they can't get clients on their own without this site. Upwork clearly doesn't care who works on their site. They should be focused on helping their customers who pay and actually make them money. They've done nothing to help and I'll be staying far far away from this company. I urge you to learn my my lesson and save your own money before going to this platform that should be shut down.

Date of experience: March 24, 2020

Thumbnail of user ibrahima206
Nigeria
1 review
0 helpful votes
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February 5th, 2021

With Upwork, I won't only meet my freelancing goals but also develop exponentially in my chosen career path as I get to solve real word problems of clients all around the world.

Service
Value
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Quality

Date of experience: February 4, 2021

Thumbnail of user kazis11
Bangladesh
1 review
0 helpful votes
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April 16th, 2021

UpWork is a platform that contribute million of people lives better and become independent. It's a cross border platform so that you can do work from home.

Date of experience: April 16, 2021

Thumbnail of user muhammada317
Pakistan
1 review
0 helpful votes
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September 27th, 2020

Its very professional supportive and good plate form for both buyer and seller, I highly recommend this platform for every to invest and start your own business

Date of experience: September 25, 2020

Thumbnail of user ronaldl711
Philippines
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 8th, 2021

The best online freelance platform. Offers a lot of opportunity for both new and skilled talents. I've been to many platform, but this one is the best!

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Date of experience: March 7, 2021

Thumbnail of user julienm38
Czechia
1 review
1 helpful vote
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March 18th, 2021

Using Upwork since 2012 and work only through them since, a lot of client, sales/customer support/IT/Design/Legal/Translations they have it all.

Highly recommended!

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Value
Shipping
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Quality

Date of experience: March 18, 2021

Thumbnail of user veronicap171
Philippines
1 review
0 helpful votes
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January 24th, 2021

Upwork is a great platform for a graphic designer that is looking for a job opportunity while working from home. It really helped me raise my monthly income and work from home at the same time.

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Date of experience: January 24, 2021

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