If you’re looking to hire a freelancer, there are many websites to choose from. However, over the years, a select few freelancer-centric platforms have gained popularity to help you find your target resources. They offer robust security features and payment protections and are very client friendly. This list can help you find the best website to hire freelancers.
Our Criteria
There could be many niches freelance services that are more suitable for your project. However, our shortlisted options have been in the business for a very long time and offer a relatively dependable pool of freelancers in diverse areas.
To compare them, we evaluated how well these top sites perform in terms of:
- Breadth of Services: the variety of freelance services available
- Freelancer Quality: ease of finding quality talent that fits your budget and project needs
- Escrow and Security: how effectively they protect you from scammers
- Billing Methods: payment options supported (including Crypto)
- Client-Friendly Features: tools and functionalities from a client perspective
| Fiverr | PeoplePerHour | Truelancer | Upwork | WeWorkRemotely | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Breadth of Services | 5 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Freelancer Quality | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Escrow and Security | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 |
| Billing Methods | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Client-Friendly Features | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Overall Score /25 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 20 | 21 |
1. Overall Best Website to Hire Freelancers: Fiverr
Initial Cost: Free with premium options
Fiverr stands out as a great website for hiring freelancers, offering quantity and quality access in the largest areas. The website ensures that no matter how niche your project is, you’ll find a verified freelancer for your budget.
A quick overview of the services helps you browse remote workers across multiple service categories. This includes every conceivable skill in graphic design, programming, digital marketing, writing and translation, music, video editing, and more. On Fiverr, you can also discover skilled professionals in emerging fields, like AI development.
But it’s Fiverr’s Tier-2 search filters that offer an unparalleled experience to the client. They allow you to narrow your search for the perfect resource based on critical criteria, including cost, location, current online status, budget, verified delivery timelines from past projects, and much more.
Rather than opting for expensive prepaid packages or booking expensive consultations, it’s more cost-effective to contact the freelancers directly and let them know your project budget and timelines. With new arrivals, you get much better rates based on negotiation. To satisfy clients, the payments go to an escrow account.
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2. Best Website for High-Quality Work: PeoplePerHour
Initial Cost: Free
Unlike Fiverr and Upwork, PeoplePerHour is a more sophisticated platform that helps you connect to top-tier freelancers straightaway, as the process of hiring is more stringent than many normal freelancing websites. Less than five percent of applicants qualify, according to Fiverr’s internal criteria, which ensures you deal with serious professionals from the start.
The website uses a vast collection of skills and budgets and has all the necessary filters you need initially. This is the only platform on our list that supports cryptocurrency as payment. The other options include bank accounts, ACH, wire transfers, PayPal, Payoneer, Apple Pay, and more. Of course, the payment is set up in an escrow account until you’re satisfied with the work.
PeoplePerHour does seem rather limited in the number of skill areas, but there’s enough for every task. It especially has many great options for digital marketing, and activities such as SEO, AdSense, affiliate marketing, viral marketing, and even influencer marketing. Yes, this is one platform where you can get verified access to the right influencers to amplify your market reach.
Working with any resource you find starts as easily as sending them a contact request. While PeoplePerHour may not have the sophisticated metrics of Fiverr in terms of average response time, you get access to more skilled resources at your leisure. If you want to work with new talent, rather, there are many other options.
3. Best Website for One-time Projects: Truelancer
Initial Cost: Free
Truelancer describes itself as an “on-demand curated freelance marketplace.” This is one platform where you can find freelancers at a very low budget, but also browse the marketplace for more established talent with more verified skills.
Truelancer works by giving you more choices (and a decent sign-up credit) and is one of the best choices if you want work done without any long-term commitment. While this may seem unfair to the freelancer, and some would argue that it may affect the quality of work, in my experience, this is not always the case.
Posting a project is as simple as answering a few quick questions about the work you need, the price you are looking to pay, and the skills needed. In just a few minutes, freelancers from all around the world will submit their proposals to complete the job. All payments are secure, thanks to the “Safe Pay” mechanism and Truelancer’s own coordinators.
Initially, you may feel disappointed by the quality of the work, so it’s best to prepare your expectations accordingly. However, be patient on this platform, and it might take just a few clicks to find true gems hidden in rocks. Once you get to know them well, you can, of course, work with them outside the service.
4. Best Website to Look for Writers and Designers: Upwork
Initial Cost: Free
As with Fiverr, Upwork is one of the best websites to hire freelancers based on multiple sub-filters. While the site recommends their best top talent on the homepage for each skill area, you get more mileage using their Advanced search button. It lets you filter the resource by job success rate, English language proficiency, and whether or not they’re open for “contract to hire.”
Upwork offers the “Rising talent” label, which ensures you can find someone who’s going to give you quality work, while not proving too expensive. All project funds are transferred to an escrow account, and the best part is, you can set various project milestones (Stage 1, Stage 2, etc.), and transfer payments based on how much of the work has been completed.
While all the other websites on our list also offer them, Upwork provides a huge breadth of services linked to writing and graphic design. It’s one of the best specialties of the platform. In my experience, the freelance writers on this platform were averse to corrections and changes. You can get more seasoned professionals with enough budget and a little communication skill.
With the right amount laid out in terms of project milestones, you can get very sustainable, high-quality talent if you look hard enough. Currently, Upwork supports bank codes, ACH, PayPal, Payoneer, ACH, credit cards, and Instant Pay for US freelancers.
5. Best Website to Hire Freelancers for Ongoing Projects: WeWorkRemotely
Initial Cost: $299/10 job listings
If you are looking for a website to help in hiring freelancers for enterprise and big business, this is it. WeWorkRemotely is a mammoth service that mostly caters to programming, design, DevOps, management and finance, and sales/marketing roles. You can also find other skills, including content writing and digital marketing, but the platform is mostly known for its tech talent.
True to its business credentials, WeWorkRemotely is already being used by reputed companies, like Coca-Cola, Hotjar, TestGorilla, Sticker Mule, TopTal, GitHub, GoDaddy, Axios, and many more. This ensures a more qualified approach to seasoned professionals, and from the very beginning, you get access to high-quality remote workers.
The only drawback of WWR is the huge base cost, which is not a good choice for one-off projects or a really tight budget. However, this platform works more for continuous work, and you do get 40% to 50% discounts for each purchase plan. You can support up to 10 projects with the initial job posting.
The best websites to hire freelancers include every budget need and job complexity. If you’re a freelancer looking for work, these are some of the best free tools to get you started. More importantly, whether you’re a client or a freelancer, don’t fall for one of these LinkedIn scams when verifying your new contacts on that platform.
Image source: Pexels. All screenshots by Sayak Boral.
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