UpworkReviews 2,134

I was a paid eLance member for more than 6 years and then one day I received an email from eLance that they closed my account. It happened to me a few days ago. Elance will not explain *why* the account was closed. The email isn't specific. There was no warning. Elance did not alert me to any problems beforehand, did not give me the chance to correct whatever was wrong. Elance just closed the account.

Six years of membership fees and all the surcharge money eLance received from the jobs that were awarded to me, and then they close accounts without warning and without explanation.

Customer loyalty means nothing to eLance. Stay away from eLance!

I have been on Freelancer for several months, looking for incremental business. Each time that I apply for a job, Freelancer requires that I take an exam, e.g., math, English, etc. All exams requires that I pay a fee. I have been a bookkeeper and tax preparer for over 10 years and decided that this site is not what purports to be. I have since removed myself from this site and would not recommend it to anyone. It's too bad, because the concept is good.

I am a happy Elance.com user.
It's true: it's not that easy to find your first work.
This is due to the fact that you have to "fight" with many competitors all over the world.
Thus, just make sure to have a good profile, to distinguish your offers from other "copy-and-paste" ones, to Always be kind with buyers.
You can see this as a long-term investment: once you find the right buyers, and you are able to proove your skills, they will for sure get back to you with new projects, and you may even no more have to look for new projects on your own.

At least, give it a try!

For 2 1/2 years it has been fine. Evidently business is slow so now they are trying to extort more money from the contractors. That 'free' membership is no longer free. If you want to see how much competitors are bidding, you have to pay $10. They also said that companies would be identified by logos and individuals by photos. They are allowing companies from over seas to pass themselves off as individuals and accepting jobs that pay less than US minimum wage.

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.

Freelancer promised everything and did nothing, and I mean NOTHING, but took the escrow money, almost $1000. So I disputed it. Elance didn't even read the dispute, told me to pay $133 to some other website to dispute it? WTF? When I contacted Elance they said "Elance is not a legal decision-making entity and therefore cannot investigate the facts or judge who is right or wrong. Elance cannot decide how funds should be divided between the parties." WHAT THE F? What good is using elance if they can't refund money? Isn't that the entire point of using elance, that if the freelancer does nothing i can dispute it and get a refund? I might as well just hire anyone online and not even use elance, refund policy is the same.

I had reviewed a similar case like me:
I have reached the minimum payout of upworkptr.com few months ago which is $20,000. I've got a total of $24,000 on my total earnings page. I was so excited thinking I hit a jackpot considering this huge and easy money over the net. So I immediately went to the request payout link. To my dismay, it gave me a message that I have not yet reached the minimum payout limit of $20,000 for standard members. I contacted support (no live chat nor forums available) which only replies through email. I was then told to wait for 30 days so I waited for 30 days. I did the same step 30 days after and there it goes again, I still have not reached the minimum pay-out (I already have $64,000 total earnings). I started to think my suspicion might be true, this website may be a scam. To give them benefit of the doubt I emailed support for the 4 time, asking why I still can't request for payout when in fact I'm over the payout limit for standard members and had passed the wait time (according to them which is not on their terms of service.) I got the same reply, I HAVE TO WAIT FOR ANOTHER 30 DAYS TO REQUEST PAY-OUT and INSISTED THAT I UPGRADE MY ACCOUNT. So I responded that I'm through with the waiting time, and I made a payment to fund my account at Upworkptr to upgrade my account to the premium membership to get the payment. I have not heard anything again from them since.
Thus I made my rating to the $#@! Degree and suspended it till I see any development from Upworkptr who I expect to reply via e-mail.

Elance is considered by many as one of the most popular online destination to find freelance work or outsource jobs to freelancers from across the globe. I believe that running such a website must be a very difficult task. Employers want to hire the best possible candidates for a job and the job seekers want the best possible price for their work. Elance provides these two parties a platform to develop strong business relationships.