• Upwork

Upwork

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Overview

Upwork has a rating of 2.5 stars from 2,117 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 7th among Freelancing sites.

  • Service
    475
  • Value
    457
  • Shipping
    251
  • Returns
    287
  • Quality
    451

This company does not typically respond to reviews

Positive reviews (last 12 months): 22.7%
Positive
5
Neutral
0
Negative
17
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.

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.

Reviews (2,117)

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Reviews that mention popular keywords

customer service (91) freelancing platform (135) credit card (22) customer support (43) payment protection (24) freelancing site (80) bank account (20) freelancing career (24) post jobs (16)
Thumbnail of user toddb36
1 review
18 helpful votes
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May 3rd, 2016

I was a freelancer using Elance before the merge with Odesk and Upwork was created. I had no issues with Elance and felt their rates were high, but I dealt with it. They had a lot of opportunities for gigs and I made good money on the site for about a year.

Then the merge took place and the policies and procedures made no sense. Upwork has no clue of what life as a freelancer is like. It takes one to two weeks to get paid for a job, even if the client put money in escrow when the job was started. The setup of the site is much more confusing than Elance and not user friendly at all. I will search for work and only a handful of the 3,000 jobs listed will show up for that category. Now they implemented new rates for freelancers, as you pay 20% for the first $500 made with a client, which is up from 10%! Then they charge the client an extra 2.75% now, so they are making an additional 12.75% on each job accepted on the site! However, if you make over $500 with one client, the rate goes down to 10% and if you make over $10,000 with one client than it goes down to 5%. Most clients on the site are looking to pay the least amount possible, so getting to $500 with one client would be hard with the new setup.

It was clear to me once the merge happened that Upwork was looking to make as much money as possible with keeping the money on hold for almost two weeks. This new increase in the percentages confirms that and I will not be using Upwork ever again.

Thumbnail of user johnc715
1 review
5 helpful votes
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April 5th, 2017

Suspended without any reason!
I was writing to support, they answered me to contact them on email, I have sent a message and they never failed to respond

Thumbnail of user kalevm
1 review
6 helpful votes
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September 26th, 2019

After paying them $29.99 to unlock unlimited invites for jobs I realized this payment applies for only 1 job. It's really stupid to pay them $29.99 every time.

Thumbnail of user dannyb58
1 review
16 helpful votes
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June 15th, 2016

I've been working with my team on Elance since 2008. It was not perfect, it even had some major issues, but still we could find clients there, and it worked OK overall.
When Elance announced the "merger" with oDesk, I didn't think it's going to end that bad.
In brief, Upwork is awful. It's terrible. It's annoying.
Now I see that Elance was simply perfect compared to what I have to use now.
Upwork simply doesn't work:
- it has numerous technical and logical issues: so far I reported around 20 bugs (and that's only a part of what I discovered)
- it doesn't have proper support for teams, it seems to aim at low-cost individuals and low-budget projects (but on the other hand, it charges 20%(!) fee on small projects)
- it has a lot of trash projects: it was hard to search through low-budget projects and compete with low-budget low-quality providers even on Elance, and now things got about 5x times worse.

Upwork is a low quality marketplace, and I with that:
- either Elance gets back
- some new marketplace appears, and at least does what Elance did

Upwork may remain a sort of a trash can for $5 projects and providers. This is what it does best.

Thumbnail of user vikask41
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 3rd, 2020

I am glad that I earned a lot of projects with active clients on Upwork. Upwork is good for finding and working with long term clients, be genuine with them and you can earn a handsome amount.

Thumbnail of user donnas221
3 reviews
33 helpful votes
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August 27th, 2017

I had a 90+ % job success score with Upwork. Eventually my shoulders started hurting a lot and I couldn't work at the computer much. Finally, I had to have surgery on BOTH shoulders. They only do one shoulder at a time and you have to go through all the physical therapy and get your range of motion back before they do the other shoulder. Anyway, I finally got to the point where I could take serious editing jobs again and I went to my Upwork account and found they had downgraded my success score to 75%! As you can see from my attached photo, I was a "top rated freelancer" with Upwork. Apparently, they got tired of not being able to take their exorbitant 20% fee from my earnings for such a long time, so they lowered my score, but you can check my job history - nothing but good client reviews. Upwork refuses to make any allowance for my being legitimately incapacitated by surgeries even if I send in documentation of the surgeries and lengthy PT. Word to the wise: If you value your professional reputation, stay away from Upwork. If you use their platform, youd better not have a lengthy illness or injury. Do yourself a favor and find another freelancing website. Better yet, build your own website and invest in marketing it - that way you can keep 100% of your earnings!

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Quality
Thumbnail of user jasmines152
1 review
0 helpful votes
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June 3rd, 2020

I do NOT recommend Upwork, it discriminates, its completely unethical and such an insult to you and your work ethics. It is DISGUSTING & HIGHLY UNPROFESSIONAL. DO NOT RECOMMEND! LEARN TO BE PROFESSIONAL OR CLOSE YOUR BUSINESS!

Thumbnail of user arsalank9
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 22nd, 2020

Upwork is a place where I spend my whole day to earn something and I really mean it as at the end of the day I have something in my pocket just because of them. Thank you

Thumbnail of user dmitryp
3 reviews
8 helpful votes
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June 21st, 2013

I'm professional freelancer for 4 years and this is my favorite freelance site
It's very intuitive, very easy to find information for the client, take estimates just from the glance, and overall working process mostly intuitive and easy.
I have one of the best clients come from this site.
Also I like that this site put no so much emphasis on numbers (like oDesk hours), tests, scores. I don't have time to make portfolio or perform tests but I have lot of to show or to say.
Also I like Elance that it clearly states where I am from thus it takes me advantage in competing with Indian developers - I have several times was chosen only by the fact that I'm not from India.

I can't point out some real downsize, there are lot of frustration about Elance because they rule out conflict into someone else favor, but it's natural - some one win an argue some one don't, who don't win - complains. At least there is some arbitration and you have a chance to win. For example at freelancer.com you don't have any possibility to initiate investigation if you wasn't paid. I don't think that this is real disadvantage of Elance.

And also - no withdrawal waiting time, no hidden fees, fees are paid ONLY when you has been paid.

For all those reasons I highly recommend Elance to everyone.

Thumbnail of user torir22
1 review
0 helpful votes
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March 25th, 2020

I was a client on Upwork. Hired a freelancer who turned out to be a fraud! He tricked me into paying him lying that the deadline had been approached BEFORE I had a chance to review his finished work. On completion, it turned out he had stuck me with a FREE SSL certificate for my website that was going to expire in 90 days. It did not even have my domain name on it! It caused a security red flag on my website. I had to spend MORE MONEY to fix it. When I showed them proof of that, free-lancer admitted to giving me a FREE certificate to expire in 90 days. But Upwork DID NOTHING to get me back my money. ASKED ME TO PAY AN ADDITINAL $300 TO GET BACK $150! BEYOND RIDICULOUS!

Thumbnail of user mirah8
13 reviews
26 helpful votes
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September 23rd, 2020

I had a good experience using Upwrok, got a job that works with my languages (English, Russian). I definitely recommend the page and I will use it again.

Thumbnail of user rosemaries1
2 reviews
6 helpful votes
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March 20th, 2014

I paid to upgrade and never hear back. I made up the ******* but it says I haven't reached the limit. I have sent countless emails but nothing. Waste of my time and money.

Thumbnail of user ariels60
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 14th, 2020

Upwork has provided me and millions of people around the world the means to work and earn at the safety of our homes - truly a blessing in the middle of this pandemic or crisis.

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

Upwork is the best freelancing marketplace for the freelancer like me who are trying to grow his/her career with a full of joy. I recommended Upwork for the self employed people for their career.

Service
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Shipping
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Quality
Thumbnail of user brittanyb595
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 3rd, 2021

I started my freelancing career on Upwork 7 months ago. There are a lot of jobs which are fit with my skills and I met some great clients. I really enjoy working on Upwork!

Thumbnail of user shawaizk
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 7th, 2022

It is great freelancing website and I help buyer to get they need. I am working on upwork from 1 year and I have great experience with this website.
Highly recommended.
Thank you upwork

Thumbnail of user ciocanc
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 5th, 2020

I really enjoy upwork. I recommend it to everyone.
For new freelancers it s a bit hard to get jobs but if you keep pushing you will get what you want.
Overall great website

Thumbnail of user carolm1196
3 reviews
0 helpful votes
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September 2nd, 2020

UpWorks escrow system is very helpful for me. I like their security measures to protect freelancers and clients. Their customer support is readily available by phone. Their website is sometimes hard to navigate. I like their option for phone and video conference through Upwork although many clients don't seem to have a clue how to use it -- maybe some client instructions on that could be added. I would also like to see the service fee % set for total Upwork sales level rather than only on repeat client sales. More and more freelancers are using Upwork for work that doesn't get repeat clients such as in my business of landscape designs which target homeowners who have only one property to landscape and my designs will last for years. This is discriminatory to businesses such as mine. Since client's payment methods and my bank have been verified at the time of hire, why does UW take so long before the payments are transferable and show up in my bank account when the transactions are electronic?

Thumbnail of user pieterh14
1 review
0 helpful votes
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June 21st, 2020

Other than other work from home websites with just empty words, this platform indeed gives you work opportunities and guaranteed income. Safe and securely.

Thumbnail of user diamakaa
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 28th, 2020

It's a very good freelancing website. It's difficult at the beginning (just like every good thing), nonetheless, its services are top notch. Highly recommend!

Thumbnail of user saraq26
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 4th, 2020

I am a social media expert and would love to work with Upwork. Thank you, Upwork. Upwork always helps me in my work. They give a response as soon as possible.

Thumbnail of user emmanuelt38
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 12th, 2020

I had a great experience as a freelancer and I highly recommend! If you are a 5 stars worker I think you will succeed on the platform and won't have a lot of issues getting projects.

Thumbnail of user danielles550
1 review
0 helpful votes
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November 23rd, 2020

I've been working on Upwork since they merged with Elance. I've been able to keep steady jobs coming in that pay very well. I highly recommend them to anyone looking to freelance.

Thumbnail of user piern
1 review
0 helpful votes
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May 12th, 2020

I`am highly recommend UpWork for a new Users and people ho wants to prove him selves and can gets some fund for this.
UpWork give a opportunity for new level of experience.
UpWork is a best site for Freelancering and i now will be fist in the worold after cople of years.
Make acount now to get benefits later.
Now is your chanse to be someone ho want to be belive in your self and start your dream to be real get in UpWork family.

Thumbnail of user anotherd1
1 review
5 helpful votes
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March 10th, 2016

I am SO glad I did not begin any work at all through Upwork. I was told in the past of their unreputable practices, but I took a chance and created a profile anyway. In the midst of a contract discussion, I informed the client that I was going to contact my bank to confirm the claims Upwork had made regarding payment options and bank policy vs their policy. I decided after a day or two that I really wasn't interested in the contract offered, so returned to the website to decline and found they had suspended my account for "policy violations" of attempting to work out offers with clients off the site. That did not happen whatsoever, and I kept all of my emails exchanged with the client - and also informed the client of the accusation and they said they knew nothing about it. It was the only contract on the table, so they are definitely up to something weird. Every freelancer worth their salt knows how to secure their own gigs anyway. Don't bother with this one. You'll likely waste your time!

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