Upwork Reviews & Insights

Score7.5 out of 10

72 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Upwork are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Valuable platform for finding verified talent: Many users have found Upwork to be a valuable platform for finding reputable and verified designers, writers, and creative talent. They appreciate the extensive candidate pool on Upwork, stating that it almost guarantees finding individuals who specialize in the specific skills they are looking for. Convenient communication and project management: Users appreciate how easy it is to communicate with customers and keep track of billing, tracking, and conversations in one place on Upwork. They also like the messaging service available on Upwork's desktop app, browser app, and mobile app, which allows them to stay in constant contact with clients regardless of their location. Flexible payment options: Some users find it useful that Upwork offers both fixed bid and hourly options. They mention that these options are helpful for different kinds of projects and provide flexibility when working with freelancers.

Upwork Reviews

26 Reviews

Warmest Lead Gen Network on Upwork

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 28, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am using Upwork for the last 4 years to hunt Marketing, Development and BPO projects for my company. Upwork is the platform on which if you follow the growth patterns you can easily get the warm leads for your niche. My experience throughout this tenure has been very pleasant and I would recommend Upwork to freelancer who are looking to work independent with diverse clients around the globe.

Pros

Get you connected with Relative Jobs
Opportunities to tap bigger Projects
You can also hunt Talent around the Globe as per your requirement

Cons

Connects pricing has increased a lot and it should be managed to keep the platform user friendly
Upwork should allow to share email and meeting invites for Team Members through Agency Account
To grow the biggest Lead Gen platform Upwork should reduce the 10% Fee to 5%.

Likelihood to Recommend

Lead Generation
Talent Hunt
Consultation Setup
Sell you Gigs effortlessly
Payment is secured with the clients while working on Upwork
Portfolio Development
Chances to interact with Global Employers
Review a client previous working background before jumping into the contract.
Efficient Feedback Management System
Success Score of every Freelancer you are looking to work with

Ch Shahryar Fazal

Business Development in Sales at Silver Ant Marketing (SAM) (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

Upwork is great at getting employers and freelancers together

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 26, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Upwork to find freelance job offerings that I can do in my free time, such as technical writing jobs. The platform is great to find jobs that match exactly my particular skills. And there's plenty of job offerings. Search filter also help a lot to refine complex searches.

Pros

Protect both employers and freelancers interests
Validate user's identity
Guarantee payments

Cons

Upwork could benefit from using AI to spot potential scammers
They should emphasize the risk of accepting a job when the employer is suspicious
They should clarify when paid bonus are not guaranteed

Likelihood to Recommend

Upwork offers plenty of tools to help freelancers create good profiles for themselves.
I think it is a little hard to get your first job when you just start on Upwork.
Upwork offers the freelancer to boost their proposals to increase the possibility of getting noticed by the employer, but it is not a good thing. In my opinion, many times it is a waste of money for the freelancer.

Gustavo Du Mortier

Software Engineer in Information Technology at Mastersoft (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

25 years of experience

View profile

Absolutely amazing tool for an Outsourcing company to get quality Leads from

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 22, 2024

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Well, it is the best Freelancing platform in the world for a reason. I have been working on UpWork since 2012 and it has been fantastic. Our agency also uses it get most qualified leads from.

UpWork has everything:
- For an Agency: It gives a way to manage the teams, their finances, the work, client and freelancer communication etc.

- For a Freelancer: It goes even beyond that. As with UpWork someone can start earning from Day one with a very minimal investment.

Pros

Provides exceptional leads for our business
We can find the right jobs from a very vast pool
We have an amazing Dashboard that we can use to work and communicate with our clients.
The payments system is hassle free. When I work with a client and if I bill them on Hourly basis, I get a payment guarantee.

Cons

Finding bad spots are hard in this amazing online tool. I can say that sometimes I feel that UpWork connects system is very expensive.
Bidding on some jobs costs more than 20 connects which is not quite budget friendly for people starting out.

Likelihood to Recommend

Best Suited: For Agencies and Freelancers who find it difficult to get good quality leads and clients for their Online based services. It is quite easy for them to find jobs, apply on them and then start working.

Less suited: It is less suited for someone who has a very very low budget and don't want to work hard to get leads from.

Ishant Harjai

Business Development Manager in Marketing at FAB Web Studio (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience

My experience...Scammed by (in my opinion) Upwork freelancer

Rating: 1 out of 10

October 4, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used Upwork to hire a freelancer to help us get back a hacked and deleted facebook account. We were unfortunately decieved by the freelancer who did absolutely no work and had made us pay in advance. We naturally had the Upwork Customer service involved, but we got no help whatsoever in the dispute, even though complete evidence were presented of the fraud. In my opinion it is very sad that Upwork permit scams on their site. They also removed the review I wrote about the freelancer. Please be careful everyone...

Pros

Their site looks good

Cons

In my experience, they allow scamming on their site, freelancers ripping clients off
In my opinion, their Customer Support don't take disputes seriously
In my experience, Upwork removes written reviews

Likelihood to Recommend

Maybe you can get lucky and find honest freelancers here? Unfortunately, in my opinion, as long as Upwork lets scammers work on their site, they ruin it for all the honest freelancers out there... In my experience, we were tricked and scammed by a freelancer there and got no support at all from Upwork Customer Support.

Lena Mannerfelt Holm

Art Director in Marketing at Oceanlogo (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Upwork can be a great resource, but it's the Wild West and there are plenty of ways to waste time and money!

Rating: 7 out of 10

July 18, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Upwork when we have short, randomly-occurring tasks that we need completed and it's not worth hiring a permanent staffer. For instance, when we need seasonal customer outreach calls made, or if we need some graphic design work done for some marketing material.

Pros

Huge selection of talent.
Good at presenting the skillsets of the freelancers.
Easy to understand and use user interface.
Mobile app works decently well.

Cons

Biggest issue: In my experience, about 1/3rd of Upwork freelancers are running some sort of hustle where they overbill and under-deliver.
Second biggest issue: In my experience, most of the Upwork freelancer's English is pretty bad.
Third biggest issue: In my experience, a lot of the Upwork freelancers come from cultures who's expectation of quality work do not match those of my country.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's great for easy, very, very well defined tasks. When it comes to more complicated tasks, Upwork can be used, but per prepared to spend a lot of time and energy working to guide the Upwork freelancer.

Joshua Groves

Director in Engineering at MM Acquisitions, LLC (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

12 years of experience

Upwork creates and aide in business Efficiency!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

September 22, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our company utilizes Upwork for our workflow shortages, and for short/long-term projects different departments may need assistance with. Upwork allows us to find candidates for different project lengths and commitments while also boosting efficiency in our workflow and roadmap. We have utilized Upwork for basic data entry needs, and for interim product owners and scrum masters while looking for more permanent replacements.

Pros

Short term staff replacement.
Helpful with projects.
Business Growth.
Workplace efficiency.

Cons

Billing notices.

Likelihood to Recommend

I would recommend Upwork to a colleague as a solution to workplace issues. Our company has utilized Upwork to vet out potential competitors as well as partners in a lengthy data analysis project, as well as given our engineering team extra hands when implementing new products, projects, and features. This has allowed our company to stay on track with projects without in-house manpower.

Verified User

Administrator in Finance and Accounting (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Upwork - A Great Place to be Connected with Projects that are Specific to Your Skills

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

September 16, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Upwork specifically to find freelance projects. I am a sole proprietor and therefore the only one in my organization who uses it.

Pros

Providing me with opportunities specific to my specialty.
Matching me up with clients.
Making me feel secure about being paid.

Cons

I don't always show up in key-word related search for my skills.
The talent managers constantly invite me to apply to jobs that are not appropriate.
Dispute resolution is pathetic. The person who was in charge was barely literate.
Job posters should have to be more specific about what industry/type of business they are in.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is a great way to be matched up with projects that specifically align with my skills. It really helps me find clients in my particular niche, whom I would not necessarily found on my own or vice versa. It's not appropriate for full-time or salaried part-time work.

Meryl Siegman

President in Professional Services at A&D Business Strategies LLC (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

Upwork is great

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

September 14, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We hire contractors from all over the world to do some simple tasks for us. It provides a flexible workforce that without having the burden of starting with a lot of upfront expenditure. Since we are an AI company we use it for data annotation mainly. We can hire as much talent as we want for as much time as we want, and we don't worry if they are going to be able to get paid or not. Upwork always makes them get paid anywhere in the world.

Pros

Easy access to talent
Allows us to bring our own talent if needed
Easy and safe payment system

Cons

Likelihood to Recommend

It's an all-in-one platform: talent market place, talent tracking, and easy payment system.

Johnny Maghzal

Head of Product Development in Corporate at Togal AI (11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

I feel as Upwork tried to destroy our business.

Rating: 1 out of 10

Incentivized

September 13, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Upwork as part of our customer acquisition channel.

Pros

Big project database.
Communication with customer is easy.

Cons

In my opinion the worst customer service. It is impossible to contact them via phone, and they are not transparent about their decisions.
I feel they don't have the freelance community's best interest in mind. Their focus is on the companies that pay. Freelancers are disposable.
They charge ridiculous fees to the freelancers that are the ones that need the money the most because they are the ones starting their businesses. It is like if your employer charges you for coming to work.

Likelihood to Recommend

We were a top-rated agency in Upwork, with thousands of hours recorded and millions of dollars billed. Upwork blocked our accounts without providing a reason why other than a violation of their terms of services. We asked for details, and they never provided one. Interacting with their customer service was a nightmare. We presented all the information requested; we received a ton of support from our customers, and they not only didn’t provide a reason, but they froze all the money we had in their escrow account. After weeks of back and forth and still, without providing a reason for the closure of our account, they contacted all our customers and suggested that they would help them to pass our projects to other freelancers in their network. They tried to harm our business regardless of the many engineers whose only support is the work they do for our customers. We decided to move our operations to other marketplaces like Guru, Freelancer.com, etc. In my opinion, Upwork is only after the money they can make through the freelance community and don’t have our best interest in mind.

Eduardo Noriega

CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in Corporate at NTSprint (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

View profile

Upwork Is A Freelancer's Dream

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 28, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As an agency, we use it as a way to find clients that need our specific set of Amazon seller skills. Once we find the client, we use it as a way of billing and invoicing them, which is all done through the platform. We also use it as a means of client communication through their chat and video chat features.

Pros

Provides means of easier communication and contract setup
Matches our skillset with people in need
Makes it easy to bill and invoice clients all in one location

Cons

They are really particular about not taking people off the platform, which can make things difficult during the initial meeting process if they want to know more about us or if they have trouble using the call features. It is understandable though, so Upwork doesn't lose the business off the platform.
Their calendar sync feature can be a little tricky and make it hard to schedule calls or meetings. I was able to figure it out, but it took me a bit.
I don't really like how you have to pay for connects when applying for jobs, but I understand why Upwork does it.

Likelihood to Recommend

Honestly, I love Upwork. It has made it so much easier to find people that are looking for our skillset and get us connected in a way that is very easy. They also do a great job of vetting people who want to use the platform, so you know you are getting a real person when a job is posted or when you apply to a job posting.

Jackson Gordon

Account Manager at Five Star Commerce (1-10 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

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I feel as Upwork tried to destroy our business.

Rating: 1 out of 10

Incentivized

September 13, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Upwork as part of our customer acquisition channel.

Pros

Big project database.
Communication with customer is easy.

Cons

In my opinion the worst customer service. It is impossible to contact them via phone, and they are not transparent about their decisions.
I feel they don't have the freelance community's best interest in mind. Their focus is on the companies that pay. Freelancers are disposable.
They charge ridiculous fees to the freelancers that are the ones that need the money the most because they are the ones starting their businesses. It is like if your employer charges you for coming to work.

Likelihood to Recommend

Eduardo Noriega

CEO (Chief Executive Officer) in Corporate at NTSprint (51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

View profile