The concept of Freelancing has evolved over the years and with the advent of technology, digital nomads are flocking towards opportunities. The internet has something to offer for everyone and it is now easier than ever before to outsource your work or make some money on the side working on someone else’s project. Freelancers Union reported of almost 34 percent workforce being engaged in Freelancing in the US. Be it the side income or the professional freedom and flexibility it offers, freelancing has definitely been well taken by the masses.
Opportunities abound for everyone with a particular skill-set to their name. Be it in copy-writing, programming, music, arts or almost anything; if you have the skills, freelancing could be great for you. Although not a walk in the park, freelancing does require commitment and perseverance from your end to succeed. Not to mention the fierce competition that you would be facing at these networks for high quality jobs.
With a major merger being signed between Elance and oDesk back in 2013, Elance-oDesk has now re-branded itself to Upwork after raising $160 Million in funding. oDesk is now officially Upwork and although the name could be a little put-off (work, duh!), it has added some cool new features to the already popular network. Upwork has something for everyone including web developers, Writers, Designers, Virtual assistants, Marketing experts and more.
Opportunities abound for everyone with a particular skill-set to their name. Be it in copy-writing, programming, music, arts or almost anything; if you have the skills, freelancing could be great for you. Although not a walk in the park, freelancing does require commitment and perseverance from your end to succeed. Not to mention the fierce competition that you would be facing at these networks for high quality jobs.
Best Freelancing Websites 2015
If you think you have what it takes to be a successful freelancer, there are plenty of tools to help you land your next gig. Here are 15 of the best Freelancing websites for you.
1. Upwork
A new real-time free chat service has been integrated into Upwork, which their new CEO Stephane Kasriel describes as a “Slack killer.” Among the other new features are a new mobile app, redesigned interface, new search algorithms and faster processing of tasks. Upwork will still continue to take 10% of the share for your proceedings on their network. With the network covering over 180 countries and 2700+ skills under its tow, it still hopes to grow better. The marketplace is capable of accommodating people of different skill sets from all walks of life.
You post a job, receive proposals from independent professionals and after interviewing them, you can hire your favorite one. Same goes for individuals, apply with your proposal and portfolio to the postings to hear from them. Upwork features a ‘Work Diary’, that provides snapshots of freelancer’s screen every 10 minutes to assure you that your project is on track.
2. Freelancer
Founded in 2009, Freelancer.com was one of the earliest networks for freelancing jobs of all shapes and sizes. With over 15 million registered users and over 7 million completed projects, Freelancer is a popular destination among both employers and freelancers. Employers could post their work and then freelancers could find them and quote their proposal to complete the project.
Just like Upwork, Freelancer.com also charges a 10% share of the proceedings on their network from freelancers earnings. This share could be reduced to 5% or 3% with a paid monthly membership. Freelancer.com offers a wide range of categories including Website development, designing, SEO, marketing, writing, engineering, translations and many others to choose from. A very popular choice among freelancers to find their share of work on the web.
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3. Elance
Founded in 1999, Elance is easily one of the oldest network for freelancers. Elance features an amazing number of freelancers and job postings on their network. With over 110,000 jobs posted in just over the past 30 days, Elance is a freelancing machine. Programmers and writers are the most represented on Elance with over 300,000 freelancers available for each of those projects. Elance has everything for everyone including job categories ranging from Writing and content to SEO/Marketing and Web development and Engineering.
An employer could easily post a job, get recommendations and interview applicants for their project before handing them the assignment. Freelancers could make bids for the recommended projects based on their skills and present a proposal with their bid, experience and portfolio. Once short-listed by an employer, be prepared for an interview and Elance’s payment protection scheme makes sure that you are paid for your services. Compared to the previous two networks, Elance charges a share of 8.75% on your proceedings on the network.
4. 99Designs
99designs is a premium marketplace for designers. Brand and logo designing, Stationery designing, web and mobile app designing are some of the key categories that are covered by 99designs. It is more like an online hackathon for designing. The customer specifies his needs and the prize money for each piece of design. Freelance designers participate in the competition by submitting their own design idea for the project. The customer could pick the best design out of all the entries and later the payment is made.
With over 400,000 competitions successfully completed to date, 99designs is a great place for employers and graphic designers to get anything designed. Although the competition could get a bit fierce for designers, that’s the beauty of it. You also get feedback from your clients regarding your design, to improve on it and hone your designing skills. The pricing for designs are as per 99designs’ standards which could be found at their webpage.
5. Toptal
Toptal is a premium network for hiring the best developers in the world for your ambitious software project. Forget all the fuss about looking for your perfect developer and head over to Toptal for your software project. Toptal hand-picks the best freelance programmers and developers in the world for you. They claim that out of 1,000 developer applications submitted to them, only 3% are selected. A highly selective network of the best freelance developers in the world is what Toptal is offering.
Once you describe your project adequately, Toptal will do the work of finding the best developers for your project. You can efficiently communicate with your freelance developer to build your project on your own terms. Just name the technology upon which you want to build your project upon and Toptal will handle the rest. These top 3% freelancers are the elite developers who clear 5 levels of screening process conducted by Toptal themselves. However, this should be your priority if you are ready to splash the cash. Given the quality they are providing, Toptal charges start from $1000/week for part-time front-end or back-end developers.
6. People per Hour
PeoplePerHour is a freelance network founded in 2005. This network offers small business all kinds of services ranging from logo designing, website wire framing to website designing and everything in between with SEO, marketing and content. PeoplePerHour is a great website for freelancers looking to work on cool projects. PeoplePerHour is cost effective and allows small business and individuals to hire freelancers to get their project completed.
Employers can browse for Hourlies and pay a down payment on a task to get the work started. A follow-on will help you continue on your process and get the entire thing developed. When an employer posts a job, relevant freelancers are notified to submit their proposals. Workstreams allow freelancers to keep track of their workflows. Invoicing, feedback and in-project conversations are handled by PeoplePerHour themselves. PeoplePerHour charges a commission of 3.5% for the sales through their network.
7. Guru
Guru.com is also one of the oldest networks for freelancers, being founded in 1998. Guru.com features of 1.5 million users and over a million completed jobs through their network. More than 3.4 Million services are available through the network spread across eight categories. Services ranging from Web/IT and design and writing to management, marketing, legal and engineering are available at Guru.com.
For freelancers, all they need is a complete and up-to-date profile on the network and then search for jobs and apply to them. Your proposals are backed up by your portfolio and also a daily match feature is available. Collaborate using Guru.com’s Work room and set deadlines, milestones and schedule on your way to completing a project. Safepay makes sure the freelancer is paid once the employer gets a satisfied outcome. Guru.com charges a commission of 8.95% for its free and basic membership plans, which could be reduced down to 4.95% with an executive membership plan of $39.95/month.
8. CrowdSpring
CrowdSpring is another great network for the creative freelancers. CrowdSpring is all about freelance logo and graphic designers. Founded in 2007, CrowdSpring is a marketplace for creative services. This network offers two ways to get your design or naming project successfully completed. One way is to ‘Work with the crowd’, which allows employers to post a project, its pricing and let all the designers chime in with their proposals.
Later, the employer could choose one of the best design proposal and they offer a 100% money-back guarantee for unsatisfied designs. Another way is to ‘Find your perfect creative’, that pairs you with one of their 178,000 creative people to work on a private 1-to-1 project.
9. Envato Studio
Founded in 2007 as Microlancer, before going on to re-brand itself as Envato Studio, this is one of the premium hand-picked online marketplaces for digital services. Envato Studio is a part of the Envato network and offer hand-picked freelancers for design or software development needs. Major categories covered by Envato studio range from copy-writing, designing, logo design, WordPress services and animation to mobile apps and website development.
Envato Studio hand picks their freelance designers and developers through theirregistration for service providers. As a freelancer, you can select your Registration of Interest under Web/Mobile development, Designing or for other services. Envato will get back to you if you are deemed fit to work for them. Envato allows employers to post a project, compare prices and portfolios to find their favourite talent. After a brief on the project is provided to that freelancer, using in-built messaging and collaboration apps, the entire work is managed online. Once the job is approved, the deliverables will reach the employer’s end. Over 4 Million hand-picked envato creatives are available at your service through this network.
10. Pick Crew
Another hand-picked online digital service provider is PickCrew. Major services covered are website, app and branding designing. You can use PickCrew to either build a new website/app or to overhaul an already existing design. You submit a project for a website, app or branding at this network and PickCrew provides you with an estimated budget and three developers or designers hand-picked for your project.
For Freelancers, PickCrew allows users to work on exclusive projects bysubmitting an application to them. PickCrew will contact you regarding your application and know more about some of the cool things you’ve done before handing you their exclusive projects. Their careers page is also a great way to find some full-time and part-time writing and programming gigs. Some of the projects completed through PickCrew are Eventbrite’s app, Caribu iPad app and WooThemes’ founder’s website. PickCrew charges 15% share on the projects completed through their network. Out of the three recommended freelancers, employers can connect with them and review their hand-picked designer or developer.
11. Fiverr
Fiverr, founded in 2010 is all the new rage in online freelancing services. This online marketplace lets people list any of their task for as little as $5 and this is where it gets its name from. There are available add-ons to these services that could make a single service range from as little as $5 to as high as $500. Fiverr is reported to list over 5 Million gigs on its network.
Fiverr offers categories ranging from design and media to writing & translation to programming and tech related. Silly gigs are also common on this network, which make it a fun and interesting place for freelancers to get creative. All you need is just post a gig offering a service using your best skills. Gigs on Fiverr usually range from micro-jobs to full-blown projects with add-on services to them. More tools and add-ons could be unlocked after completion of sufficient number of transactions.
12. mTurk
Amazon Mechanical Turk or commonly known as ‘mturk’ is an online freelancing network that lists gigs which are not done by computers alone. Mturk is a marketplace that lists ‘Human Intelligence Tasks’ or known as HIT’s to provide tasks such as taking photographs of a physical store, product descriptions, etc. Employers are restricted to US-based services.
Employers could list their physical tasks and hire Mechanical Turk workers to complete HIT’s. You only pay when satisfied with the results. Freelancers could make money by working on the HIT projects. Work hours are flexible and some tasks even let you complete a task from the comforts of your home. Founded in 2013 by Amazon, mechanical Turk features over 300,000 available HIT’s for mechanical Turks.
13. Get a Coder
Get A Coder is an online freelancing marketplace to find designers, developers and writers for your next project. This is a network to find the best Programmers, Designers and Freelance writers. Post a free project on this network and start receiving bids from freelancers within minutes. Get A Coder offers services at affordable rates, aimed particularly at small business and individuals. Millions of micro-jobs and small scale tasks are available on the network.
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14. Task Rabbit
Have no one around the home to help you with your household tasks? Task Rabbit is the best online marketplace for you. Founded in 2008, Task Rabbit is a mobile marketplace offering small jobs and tasks to people in your neighbourhood. With $37 million in funding, Task Rabbit was founded when its founder had no time to personally buy her dog’s food! Task Rabbit provides an impetus on the importance of little things in life and lets freelancers help their neighbours with chores like house cleaning, running your errands, cleaning your oven, building IKEA furniture.
To join Task Rabbit as a Tasker, you can Start an application with them. Once you complete your application, Task Rabbit makes sure it verifies the authenticity of their ‘Taskers’, after which you could specify your skills and start Tasking on for local people. Task Rabbit mobile app helps its Tasker keep up with their appointments and clients. This app lets people delegate their chores to people who are willing out to help their neighbours for some money in return. Currently, this service is only available in 19 Cities across US and supports Worldwide tasks, as long as the required task is a virtual one.
15. Handy
Handy.com is a premium online marketplace for home-related tasks and chores. Services such as house cleaning and IKEA assembly are provided by this network, backed by trained professionals. The professionals at Handy are background-checked, insured and perfectly qualified for your household tasks. Services can be booked as early as a day before the task. Money-back guarantee is offered for unhappy customers.
For freelancers looking to work for Handy, you can Apply to be Professionalwith Handy. In the cities of available service, Handy pays $22/hour for its professionals. Flexible schedule and easy direct deposit payments make Handy an ideal network to find freelance jobs.Handy lists a few requirements for their professionals like no criminal background, work permit and previous paid work experience in that field. Handy’s iPhone app makes booking as quick as under 60 seconds. Book for an appointment by selecting the date and time and make the online payment. Services delivered right at your doorsteps!
