1. Elance.com
How it works: You can hire by the hour or by the project and then track progress in your “Workroom” where you can “View and manage work-in-progress online instead of on-site. Messages, screenshots, files and completed work are automatically saved here”. One nifty feature is the ability to Invite co-workers to join your Workroom as needed.
Payments: Approve milestones or time sheets prior to making payment.
Fees: Elance deducts between 6.75% and 8.75% from each payment (depending on the project budget), transferring the remaining amount directly to the service provider’s Elance account. In addition, there is a one-time $10 account activation fee to set up an Employer account.
Our experience: Generally higher quality providers that are bit more expensive. Probably the best option for larger jobs where you need to hire a team with strong technical skills, or if you don’t want to be bothered with mediocre providers. Note that in 2013, oDesk merged with Elance although both websites retained their separate identities.
How it works: When you hire a worker you need to create payment milestones, as milestones are completed, payment is released.
Payments: based on milestones, or completed work.
Fees: Here’s where it gets messy:
- Posting a project – $5, refundable, fully refunded on selecting a Service Provider.
- Selecting a Service Provider – $3 or 3%, whatever is higher
- Posting a Featured Project – $19
- Hide Project from Search Engines – $3
- Optional Hide Bids from Other Users – $3
- Gold Membership – $24.95/month, 0% project commissions
- Posting a Full Time Project – $99.95
Our experience: Better for project based work (one off jobs). Easy to use, and suited to smaller jobs – “The average job is under US$200, making outsourcing for the first time extremely cost effective for small businesses.
3. Upwork.com
How it works: Pay only for verified time spent working for you – Upwork’s Work Diary software allows you to see each of team members activity levels (keyboard and mouse activity), and feedback, as well as web cams and screenshots of their computer to make workers more accountable.
Payments: based on hours worked, or completed jobs.
Fees: The fee is 10% of the employer’s payment to Upwork which equates to 11.11% on top of the amount paid to the contractor.
Our experience: Upwork is great when you have a task where you’d prefer to pay by the hour. Also, note that Upwork is formerly oDesk, which merged with Elance in 2013.
4. Guru.com
How it works: Pay for completed work.
Fees: Memberships are available from $29.95 to $99.95 per quarter.
Project Fee – Either 5 or 10% of the Invoice or Escrow amount, depending on your membership level.
Escrow Fee – 2% of the escrowed amount. Only charged when SafePay Escrow is used.
Employer Payment Method Fees – Up to 4% for a credit card payment and 2.5% for Withdraw Method Fees – $3 to receive funds by check and $9 to receive funds by wire transfer.
Project Fee – Either 5 or 10% of the Invoice or Escrow amount, depending on your membership level.
Escrow Fee – 2% of the escrowed amount. Only charged when SafePay Escrow is used.
Employer Payment Method Fees – Up to 4% for a credit card payment and 2.5% for Withdraw Method Fees – $3 to receive funds by check and $9 to receive funds by wire transfer.
Our experience: caters more to US based freelancers (182,000 workers in the US vs 51,242 in India, and only 1,887 in the Russian Federation). Working with a native English speaker is sometimes a good option when you need to be able to verbally communicate project requirements. Guru is also a good option if you are looking to work with a US based provider.
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