Fiverr vs. Upwork: Which One Should You Use and the Pros and Cons of each

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I am going to talk about Fiverr vs. Upwork. One of these websites may be the best for you and your particular situation.

It all is depending on what you are looking for in a website of this sort.

As with any other website, Fiverr and Upwork both have pros and cons, which we’re going to break down.

Fiverr is a freelance marketplace where you can find freelancers to help with your projects.

You can also register to be a freelancer. This is a great idea if you have some sort of skill.

Getting paid to do things that you love and already do anyway is amazing.

For example, I am a writer so I previously set up a Fiverr account to offer creative writing packages.

It’s not something that was a priority for me.

At the time, I had so many other things going on. I just didn’t stick with this Fiverr thing.

That’s not to say that Fiverr isn’t a great website. In fact it really is.

Fiverr is a site that allows you to find freelancers to help with projects of all sorts.

They cover a wide variety of projects.

You can find freelancers to work in these areas:

• Legal Agreements
• Podcast Transcripts
• Book Covers
• SEO Experts
• Voiceover Artists
• And so much more!

They’re always adding to the services that they offer. You have to see it to believe it!

What is Upwork?

Upwork is another freelance marketplace.

Similar to Fiverr, on Upwork you can find awesome freelancers to help with your project.

Upwork is a site that I use very often. So I kind of know the ins and outs.

This site connects professionals and agencies to businesses that are looking for specialized talent.

In my experience, I know that there are some individuals in search of help as well. But for the most part, Upwork is comprised of businesses and entrepreneurs looking for help.

They provide work in a variety of fields. Some of the areas are:

• Creative Writing
• Transcription
• Virtual Assistant
• Data Entry
• Article Writing
• Blog Writing
• Customer Service

The list doesn’t stop here!

How Does Fiverr Operate?

Fiverr is really easy to figure out. Unlike some freelance marketplaces, it doesn’t have a steep learning curve.

Everything on Fiverr is pretty much self explanatory.

Before you can start to explore you need to sign up for Fiverr’s website by clicking join.

After you join, your page should look something like this.

Let’s discuss the basics of what we see in the image above. There is a search bar where you can search the services.

This is especially helpful if you already know what you need or are looking for.

Right below that, you should see the many different categories that you can pick from.

There are so many choices that when I go on here, I come up with all kinds of business ideas. Things that I would like to add to my business.

It feels good to know that you are not alone. With Fiverr you can get a lot of help from people who know better than you what they’re doing.

The categories you’ll see underneath the ‘Search’ bar are:

• Graphics & Design
• Digital Marketing
• Writing & Translation
• Video & Animation
• Music & Audio
• Programming & Tech
• Business
• Lifestyle
• Industries

How Does Upwork operate?

Upwork has somewhat of a learning curve but it’s not hard to use at all.

True, it takes some getting used to. You’ll want to learn the important aspects of this website such as fees, contracts, and job posts.

The more you do it the easier it will become.

I have been on Upwork for several years now and it comes off to me as being super easy.

I could probably post a job with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back. I’m not going to try that, though!

Create a New Account

The first step to getting started with Upwork is to create you an account. It’s really simple and only takes about 5 minutes to do so.

As you can see in the image above. Upwork makes it really easy to find the sign up button.

I’ve seen some websites where the signup button or form is nearly invisible. It’s either too small or blends in with the background of the website.

This is the wrong thing to do because they should want more people to sign up for their site.

That’s one of the things that I really appreciated about Upwork is that it was easy to sign up with.

You can choose to sign up as a Freelancer or Client. Right now, we are going to focus on signing up as a client.

We’ll come back to signing up on both sites as sellers and freelancers.

Searching

In the image below you can see the search bar for Upwork. It’s very similar to Fiverr’s search bar.

I like how they put ‘ Find Freelancers & Agencies’ in their search bar. It tells new clients right away where they can search for and find freelancers and agencies for their projects.

It takes some of the guesswork out of trying to figure out what is what. This is not hide and seek or an iSpy challenge. So it shouldn’t feel that way when searching for information.

It’s a lot of other little stuff that you can find at the top such as jobs, talent, reports, messages, help/support and notifications, etc.

We won’t go into all of that because it’s similar to Fiverr and most other sites. These are like the basics of each website.

You’re able to see past hires and see messages that you’ve exchanged with your hires and perspective hires. You know, all that good stuff!

After signing up for Upwork, the very next thing you want to do as a client is Post a Job.

Creating a Job Post

You can give information that you want the potential hires to see and know.

It’s vital that you include as much information about the job as possible. Make your post clear and easy to read.

Try to keep it professional by not being too loose with using slang words or typing the way you may text. Incomplete sentences and made up abbreviations do not look good on a job posting.

Pricing

While creating a job post, you get to ask questions that you may have before hiring someone. You can set the price as a fixed price or hourly.

I always do fixed prices because I like knowing exactly how much I’m going to have to pay in the end. I don’t like those kinds of surprises.

However, I must say that the way Upwork is setup, even if you did hourly there still wouldn’t be too much to worry about as far as price.

You’re able to set how many hours your willing to pay for and the hourly price.

You can run into issues with this hourly pricing setup, though.

If you have a budget set for a project and you run it hourly, the time on the job may be up before the project is finished.

This could be due to the project taking longer than expected or the freelancer being slower than expected.

I avoid hourly contracts altogether because I feel it’s hard to trust that people are working when they say they’re working.

The freelancer may take extra long on a project just to continuously get more money out of you.

Now, that we’ve discussed how Upwork operates, we’re going to discuss some pros.

The Pros of Fiverr

Fiverr has a lot of great things going on their website.

I would like to talk about the benefits of using Fiverr.

One of the greatest things about Fiverr is that it’s free to sign up for. They don’t request a credit card or anything of the sort during sign up.

Some sites like membership sites, require you to pay money just to look at their content, let alone use it.

However, Fiverr is not a membership site but it is a freelance marketplace.

Let’s talk about some more pros.

Ease of Use

Fiverr is really easy to use. Everything on this site is crystal clear.

What’s important is that Fiverr doesn’t have a huge learning curve. When I first signed up, I went right to the places that I needed to go.

Oh and not once did I need to search Google to figure anything out on here. That’s a plus, as I’m always on Google trying to figure something out.

Searching for a freelancer is easy peasy. Messaging as well as submitting a job post is fairly doable.

Fiverr Pro

Fiverr Pro is an aspect of Fiverr that I have never used before. But I hear great things about it.

Fiverr Pro is a membership on this freelance marketplace that will allow you to get your job done by professionals.

I know what you are probably thinking, “Aren’t all of the freelancers supposed to be professionals?”

The answer to that is not straight to the point. Yes, a lot of the people on Fiverr are professionals to a certain extent.

Many of them have experience in the area that they are selling in. But understand that there are levels to being a professional.

There are some people who are good at what they do. And then you have those who are really good at what they do.

With the regular Fiverr signup, you can do your due diligence by researching and weighing all of your options before choosing a freelancer.

You pretty much have to hope that you are picking someone that is really as good as they claim to be.

On Fiverr Pro, you can rest assured that whoever you choose is going to be great!

Becoming a Seller

Becoming a seller on Fiverr is not so easy. It’s easy to sign up but it can be a little hard to know what goes where.

It can be even more difficult to know how to set up your profile so you can actually make money.

I set up a seller profile before and I soon became irritated, agitated and frustrated with the whole thing.

When writing this post, I went back into the ‘Become a Seller’ section to take a look. It seems that they have really upgraded this section compared to the last time I was here.

There are 3 steps you can take when preparing to open a seller account. The first step is to learn what makes your profile successful.

This is not something that they’ve always had but I am sure glad that they have it now. I’m considering opening me another seller account for the reason that the process is more streamlined.

It even has a modern look and feel to it. There is a video introduction and informational video on the right.

The next step is to create your seller profile. It’ll take you through the process step by step.

Last but not least, you can publish your gig and wait for the clients to come flowing in.

That’s definitely a plus.

The Cons of Fiverr

I can say that I don’t have a whole lot of negative things to say about Fiverr.

But if I’m being honest, and believe me I am, there are a few cons with this site.

Pricing

Pricing can be an issue on Fiverr. Some of the freelancers tend to charge higher prices for packages that don’t appear to be worth it.

This can be very frustrating when you’re on a budget.

I’m not trying to say that just because someones prices don’t align with your budget they’re too high.

What I am saying is that if you choose a reasonable budget then try to stick to it as much as you can.

If a price just doesn’t work for you, then move on and keep looking. There will be a freelancer out there for you. Unless your budget is unreasonable and unfair.

Personally, it irks me how on Fiverr the different listings say starting at a certain price. I’d like to see exactly what I’m paying right then and there.

You have to actually click into the listing to see the complete pricing list.

While this is not a big deal, it can be slightly annoying.

Messaging

Fiverr’s messaging system appears to be a little outdated. This is disappointing since the rest of the site has improved a lot.

It seems like they failed to put much effort into the messaging aspect of this website.

There are some good things about their messaging system. For example, you can see when a person is online or away from the computer.

I’m not sure if they have a way for you to not let people know you’re online. Because maybe you don’t feel like being bothered or just don’t want people to know every move you make.

I was unable to find anything like this in the settings.

I also think it’s a little weird or off to have notifications under messages. I mean they are sort of like messages but then again, they’re not.

I think notifications should have their very own section on the website.

The Pros of Upwork

I have a lot to say about Upwork as I use this site a lot more than I use Fiverr.

I’m really trying to start using Fiverr more because of the advancements on their part. But also the cons of Upwork that I will be sharing with you later.

Ease of Use

Upwork is by far the easiest freelance marketplace I’ve ever used.

Signing up is easy. Creating an account is simple.

As with any new site, it takes some getting used to some of the things on Upwork.

But for the most part, it’s all easy.

Messaging

Messaging on Upwork is Awesome!

You can organize what messages you want to see and can hide the others.

It’s also possible to show old messages and they don’t disappear after so many months. I think this is a bonus because I have collaborated with freelancers in the past.

But for one reason or another, I needed to go back to the messages. I was able to pull old files from my messages which saved me a lot of time.

Contracts

I love the contract aspect of Upwork.

Whenever you enter into a contract, you and the freelancer are now protected. This really prevents fraud and scams from taking place.

You can also save yourself from having to sue or be sued by setting the rules and requirements of the contract and sticking to them.

The Cons of Upwork

I really like Upwork, so it kind of hurts me to share these cons but I can’t be one-sided.

I value you and therefore I’m going to tell you the real deal about any company I review. Upwork is no exception.

Becoming a Freelancer

Becoming a freelancer on Upwork is not that easy, anymore.

I got in as a freelancer a very long time ago and then I later became a client.

As a freelancer, things are a lot more strict than they use to be and they have a criteria that every freelancer must meet.

There was one point where I was told that they weren’t accepting any new freelancers. I don’t know what the process is like now because I’m already on the site.

However, this was one of the frustrations for a lot of people.

Fees

Don’t get me started on these fees!

The fees that Upwork charges clients and takes from freelancers is ridiculous.

This is one of the main reasons that so many people are leaving Upwork and trying to start contracts off Upwork.

Of course, Upwork is against doing this. They tell you to stay on Upwork so you can be protected.

Those fees are scary and outrageous. Upwork has a lot of customers but they are losing a lot of business by increasing the fees that they take out.

Final Takeaway

It’s really hard to pick one website over the other. However, based on my experience, Upwork is the best website out of the two.

Fiverr is trying to step their game up. Please remember that I am saying this in all honesty.

Fiverr is a great website and I’m also an affiliate for them but these opinions are truly my own.

I am not an affiliate for Upwork but in my eyes this is the best website for me.

It’s different when it comes to each person. Fiverr may be a better option for one person and Upwork may be the better choice for the next person.

I say sign up for both sites and use them to get a feel for each one. You may find that you like them both for different things and decide to stick with both.

It all depends on you! I really hope this post was helpful and engaging for you!

Which website do you prefer, Fiverr or Upwork? Let me know in the comments below!

Originally published at https://www.bunnyspages.com on May 13, 2020.