Upwork for Freelancers Reviews

by Ryrubes

Can’t specify location in work searches, only country. Really stupid. Job searches come up from other states. If there is a way to do it and I somehow missed it, that’s ridiculous in itself because it should be evident—but I don’t think there is.

If you do an advanced search and want to add more specifics, it makes you start completely over rather than allowing you to tweak your filter. It’s really strange to see the lack of awareness at this point in the digital era.

There are other things that are clunky and not user-friendly like other platforms but this app doesn’t care so why bother going into detail. The website is just as bad as Upwork . “Hey, just let me know what country you’re in, that should narrow down the search to infinity.”

by Stage&Set

Im not sure why this app needs two apps- one for hiring managers and one for freelancers, it seems a bit excessive to me. Not to mention, I’ll get a notification that I have a message and when I open Upwork , its a blank white screen. I always have to close Upwork then re-open it so I can read or respond to messages. Seems a bit ridiculous that someone whose base is 30+% IT would have an app with glitches.

Additionally, since I had an active contract, I had not applied to other contracts. So Uwpork made my profile private. Thats not fair to hiring manager or freelancers. How can hiring managers source top or rising talent if they cannot see profiles? How are you providing a good experience to your freelancers if our profiles are private and then we have to PAY to make ourselves public again? Since I work on both sides of the platform; both as a hiring manager and a freelancer, I can say with absolutely certainty, once my contracts are up, I will not be back.

by Gniliem

Honestly, Upwork is so buggy that I haven’t bothered to shift over from the old one (which isn’t that much better). Every time I get a message and I open Upwork to look at it, one of two things happens: 1) Upwork crashes, or 2) I get a blank white screen and have to close and reopen it. Since the main point of getting Upwork was to check my messages on the go, this makes things terribly inconvenient.

Also, a number of other reviewers have already mentioned this, but the high percentage this app takes from freelancers makes it less viable for real high-quality freelancers to remain on this platform. Combined with the $ it costs to buy Connects just to bid on new jobs now, this app is becoming less and less attractive.

It’d be better to set the % based on a freelancer’s total lifetime earnings rather than per client - you already know that those freelancers have a good track record on this app, so might as well reward them for remaining on the platform.

by Nkon8

A client promised me a job, we had an interview and everything looked legal. Except the fact when they were trying to give me the materials for work that I needed for free and I knew that was suspicious. They had to send me the deposit so I could put it in my bank account and then give it back to them which was odd, I asked why they need to do that and they said their policies has changed after the pandemic. I was just curious to see if it actually works but I didn’t fully believe until the deposit was actually transferred successfully and bank confirmed it. I was scared that somehow I’m going to lose my money but I didn’t. After awhile they promised to send me a tracking number of the materials they “ordered” for me. And then they said they didn’t have enough funds so they needed to make another deposit of $1000 which they send to me and I had to give them back. I don’t even know why in the first place I trusted them. But I did it anyway. And then after a couple of days that $1000 of deposit was a chargeback. When I tried to ask them, they blocked me and that’s when I realized that it was a scam and i wasn’t even surprised. I knew that it could happen. Anyway, so now I don’t trust Upwork again. It was probably my fault but I still don’t get it how these scammers are on Upwork.

by Ijustwantedtowork

This company has REPEATEDLY marked my profile inactive, while I was APPLYING FOR JOBS!!!! They have never removed the “call for verification” flag from my account despite the THREE ID VERIFICATION CALLS I HAVE COMPLETED! I am livid with them because they also never respond to me when I have pointed this out and, the one time I did get a response, all they could say was “we still have to verify your id because it says so on your account”. They are PREVENTING ME FROM FINDING WORK!!! They also had to “investigate” one of the few clients I did manage to secure between the constant locks on my account; and why? All because we shared the same last name. They lock the accounts to quickly, without actually looking into if the person is an active worker or not. Upwork works fine when the company doesn’t screw you over. Take my advice, go to Fiverr instead freelancers. this app is not worth it.

by Asianielle1992

App is full of a bunch of scammers! No one real on Upwork besides a bunch of scammers preying on people who are looking for work! I wasted my time giving an interview to someone who almost scammed me! It was absolutely ridiculous and I’m glad I caught on! Do not trust Upwork! I was so upset I had to interview with someone who I thought was serious and wasted my time! Upwork should verify people with drivers license and SSN before being able to post a job to weed out the scammers in Upwork ! I cannot even tell which jobs are real and which jobs are not anymore because of the over flow of scamming in that app! Sad because it was my first time trying out this app and I almost got scammed by a ridiculous person! You know it’s a scam when they want to speak with you outside Upwork ! A lot e-mail and WhatsApp! Be careful! I’m deleting my account!

by Ilovebenniboo

I love the idea of this app and I still would love to gain clientele through Upwork . But Upwork is full of scammers. Corporate really needs to overhaul the screening process or maybe require proof of business in order to hire via this app. The answer is above my pay grade clearly but as a freelancer it’s incredibly hard to find good work on an app specifically designed for freelancers to find good work….that seems hypocritical to me. Even clients that are plus with verified payment methods are often a scam or the description vs actual work/pay do NOT match at all.

Overall like I said it’s a great app, but with the work from home boom from Covid I feel like it’s running rampant with scammers and people looking to abuse the system and the people trying to use it correctly.

by Double7Oh

First, my primary pet peeve is that Upwork will log you out after some time of inactivity. I understand that this is for security reasons, but the fact that this app’s site and mobile apps have poor integration with password managers like iCloud and Dashlane means I’m always having to reset my password. Tangentially, why are there restrictions on the characters I can use for my password? A second year computer science student can design a password input that accepts all characters.

The second pet peeve I have is with the Freelancer app itself. There’s a glaring bug where individual search results are impossible to interact with. I can’t tap more to expand the summary section of the project unless I go back then retry the search. Overall, my experience with the poor app and lackluster project selection has lead me to move on past this app. It seems that freelancers can be successful, but only after significant effort to get started on their part. I wouldn’t recommend this app to anyone seeking to freelance part time.

by Miss. What Happened To Yahoo?

It started off good I was excited to book my first this app gig and was happy with the company and employer. Then without warning they froze my account due to verify and threatened to hold my funds. I was new to the profile I didn’t get any explanation emails prior to explaining this would occur. I tried to verify and the process was bogus. I’m still trying to learn this system till this day. Then they asked me for a copy of my photo I.D -and I gave that. And then they asked for a video interview. Which is fine BUT I never got the email for the interview and my account is still on hold. They are making this harder than it needs to be for just a side hustle. 🤷🏽‍♀️. I don’t understand what’s so hard about setting up a virtual interview. This site is NOT newbie friendly in my opinion. I’m still learning about all the website has to offer. So if your going to use them be sure to have some patience and a little bit of time to get the logistics down.

by Sai Leigh

I started using this app a year ago and it was great. Convenient for finding and applying to jobs quickly and bringing in a bit of extra money. At this point having a free account still got you some connects to use monthly. Recent changes mean that users, no matter the membership, now need to pay for connects. Not really worth it for a side gig with middle-of-the-road pay - especially since they already take a cut of what you make.

On top of that, I’ve consistently had issues with their support/customer service. They don’t really resolve or answer anything. I had a client trying to pay me OFF of the site through Venmo (not allowed), and when I brought it to their attention with screenshots of his emails, they shrugged it off. In retaliation the client paid me only a small portion of the agreed upon price. There are definitely better ways to go about freelancing.

by Reimuz

To start it’s a nice platform but there’s more drawbacks than positive things, to start, lately there has been so many bugs with Upwork , messaging to name one, the other thing to be aware of is, as a seller if you are actively submitting proposals they will lock your account into private mode until you start earning after a short amount of time, I wish they would make Upwork a better experience for the Seller and Buyer because of all the scams that happen, it would be nice for them to make a way to weed out scammers and only show sellers who can back what they’re offering in more than one way. Upwork is so saturated with fake people and the ones who are really trying and working end up not having a chance to make this a successful day experience for anyone

by MadtRocks

There is nothing better or more convenient than being able to talk with my clients while on the go. I have used Upwork and Upwork before this one for year without any complaints. However, in the last few weeks I have had more problems with Upwork than ever before. It does not notify me on my lockscreen or with a badge icon if I have a new message (it is set to have these notifications in my settings). This has resulted in me having late responses while traveling or in the evenings multiple times, my JSC has also dropped because of this issue.
Also when I get job proposals now and view them on Upwork it no longer tells me the date or time I received them Upwork just says “invalid date.” Not the biggest problem, I can still reply to these proposals. This just was not a problem with Upwork before the last update.
I had to completely delete Upwork from my ipad because it was incapable of even loading to open. (But somehow I was able to get notifications of new messages on my ipad, i just couldn’t open Upwork to view them.)
As a freelancer who has worked with you for several years, I have come to respect you as a company. I love what you do and provide for us to be able to work online and with our own schedule. Please fix Upwork, it’s been good before and it can be better in the future. So many freelancers use Upwork for work everyday, it would mean a lot to us if it was as reliable as the company it represents.

by Breadsies

The web version is solid, but on the phone if you happen to accidentally press someplace else when you go to submit a cover letter it’ll delete everything. EVERYTHING.
It’s incredibly frustrating to have to figure out what to write again after you put in some time writing something if you’re on the go and can’t pull out a computer. I recommend Upwork for checking for jobs, but that’s it. Be very careful when submitting something on Upwork .

Sometimes the submit button doesn’t populate on Upwork too, so you can’t submit even if you wanted to. You go pressing around on your phone and then POOF! Your CV is gone, your writing is gone.

by Veelei1998

I must say I LOVE this app, no doubt. this app gave me tons of opportunities to work my favourite job. But I have some some issue with Upwork ( and probably the public view for non-member site as well).

For Upwork , I used to receive and reply messages through the messages section on Upwork when I work my other job or when I’m away from home. But I could reply, or even open the message section anymore these days. This effects my response rate to customers! I could have missed an invite or a contract while I’m not using my laptop! Please fix this ASAP.

For the public view for non-member, when I link the account to my personal website and click on the link to test using a non-member site, I couldn’t see any reviews clients gave me at all! I have 3 jobs total and the non-member view site only presents 1 job, no review! Please tell me why, or fix this so I could link and show them on my personal portfolio website.

Overall, love this app and the team behind all of this, just need to fix some major issues!

by Sherrill.hue

The new updates to Upwork look nice but the chat flags in my app is now broken and will not display any of my conversations or allow me to send or receive messages with my clients. I’ve been using this app for many years now and have never had such a problem getting help from their support team before. I tried contacting them to correct the error only to be run around and hung up on. Even tried to fix it myself by uninstalling and reinstalling Upwork but that’s about all I can do on my end. I’m disappointed. Upwork is useless for freelancers if you can’t use it to communicate with clients.

by Hal2030

This website offers a variety of jobs and is very flexible. However, you would need to buy connections to be able to apply for jobs. They have already deduct your pay for service fee which 1-2$/ job and they still charge you connection to apply for jobs. They would give you free connections at the beginning and will require you to buy connections to apply. If you don’t have any connections, you can’t apply for jobs. They cost 0.15$/ connection. I just don’t see a legit reason for why they would charge connections, which is money, to apply for a job. Indeed, ziprecruiter, glassdoor, and many other websites never charge you anything to apply. It should be free.

by StrangeCoyote

I’ve been using this app for a while now. I mainly try to use it on PC, but having Upwork for things when I’m on the go is extremely helpful. Unfortunately, it’s become less helpful in recent months because messaging never loads conversations when you open them. Therefore I have to wait to get home just to be able to respond to something properly.

Lastly, I agree with everyone else I think the 20% fees are too high just to provide a platform to connect people. Unless you’re actively getting me clients on the regular, or helping me do the work, you honestly don’t deserve that big of a cut—especially when we also have taxes to consider 🤷🏻‍♂️

by Ashley JG

First off, Upwork its self or fairly user friendly and the contract process is very smooth. Communicating within Upwork exclusively is rather difficult once a project is underway. But my biggest complaint is the high fees Upwork takes (20% on the first $500 and 10% offer that) so there isn’t a real incentive to seek multiple new clients at one time. And then to finally get paid, the money is already paid by the client but then held in an account until the project is complete. Once you submit payment approval and the client okays it, it takes 3-5 business days to credit to your this app account where you then half to transfer it to your bank and even an ACH transfer connected directly to one’s bank takes 3-7 business days... so
Your money is sitting there for almost 2 weeks. Horrible!

by Thodder23

My dreams have finally come true. I’m 6 months away from graduating with my BBA, and have an 8 month old. I’ve been working for almost three weeks and already, got over 80 hours in and made over $1,300 after the 20% is taken out. I’m very good at excel or anything Microsoft, and there’s so many jobs that relate! Also if you’re good at writing resumes or cover letters, building websites or being a virtual assistant, this job would be perfect for you. I told my whole family and friends about it and found this at the perfect time!

by Joel_ball4ever

Upwork is great, until I realized I had to sign into the back every time I closed it. My initial thought was Upwork has some work to do (and still does). But my mistake was being signed into Google, that automatically logged me out of the account, forcing me to sign back in when I open Upwork . The fix was to migrate it to “Sign in with Apple” and everything now works flawless. It’s no wonder Apple fixed everything. Thanks Apple!

by IApps4Muse

UPDATE : I had a ticket into support about notifications, badges, invitations. App doesn’t show or will show notifications nor badges-this is not planned. What?

It’s still dreadful slow.

This is a joke!

this app CEO sends email saying, oh by the way, we are going to start charging you ABOVE the the 20/10% out of your earnings, you now must pay for each job you send in a proposal. If the client closes the job, will we get our money back? NOPE!

I’m not being hyperbolic, they seriously are doing this nonsense. I’m considered a top freelancer and I’m searching for another solution. Ridiculous.

=======

Sorry, it falls way short

It is horridly slow. Use mobile browser better then Upwork

No notifications. important notices.. missed

No access to MUTC communities - still!

Did you guys beta test it??? Goodness

...or is this how you are beta testing-just release!??!

Going to use old app.. much safer!

(I have no need to email you. I have an open active trouble-ticket for a couple weeks now. still nothing. )

by Hudaks89

I’m still not sure why there is a separate app. Can’t you just add the extra features for freelancers into the already existing app? I’m a freelancer and just downloaded the new app, and it is absolutely horrible. Very glitchy and when I touch something like a job or just going from page to page, Upwork doesn’t respond.

The interface is also ugly. I much prefer to original app’s interface. Everything is big (fits to screen), easy to navigate, and seamless. The newer app actually looks outdated.

I had to delete this. I couldn’t work with Upwork at all. It was starting to aggravate me. I’m sticking with the original app - love it! My only annoyance now is that every time I open Upwork , a popup comes up informing me of the NEW app! Please give the option of disabling this popup or removing it completely after it’s shown once. It’s really ridiculous and excessive if it’s constantly popping up every time I open Upwork , which is FREQUENTLY throughout the day! I urge you to take this into consideration.

Thanks.

by Willwoff

A lot of freelancers are finding success but without a reputation, it’s hard to get jobs. Sadly also, if you don’t get jobs, you can’t build a reputation. Last week, I got my first job after two years of proposals. I was either too inexperienced on this app to gain any trust or the samples I showed them didn’t quite fit what they were looking for(not Upworkd fault on that one).
Another thing to consider is fake accounts. People give themselves work to build their reputation so be on the lookout for that.
And finally, this app takes 20% of your earnings! A $50 job gets you $40. A $1,000 job gets you $800. Why so much?

by Renaynay8

I never get notified when I receive an invitation to interview. Even though all my notifications are turned on. I’ve missed possible job opportunities because of this. It’s also not user friendly at all. If you click on one of the bottom tabs, it’ll take you to that tab but then all the tabs disappear at the bottom. You have to literally keep pressing the back bottom until you get to the main screen again. 😳 It’s weird and a waste of time. I’m deleting it and redownloading the old app.

by EnjoiRelyks

The new app is an improvement over the older one in terms of some functionality but it lacks in many ways as well.

Newer functionality such as being able to attach files, view basic reports, etc. is a nice addition.

However, having to maintain two separate applications, since I am both a contractor and a client on this app, is less than ideal.

This doubles the notifications you receive and if you attempt to view a notification about a message from a freelancer within this new app it will inform you that functionality doesn’t exist.

That’s fine. But if it doesn’t exist you should set it up so the push notifications do not alert this newer version of the mobile app.

If you’re going to segment them then segment them.

Also, there’s no way to view your current invitations in the new app if you don’t find them on your alerts screen first. This is a surprising example of short-sightedness.

All that being said, it could be worse and I look forward to the this app team reconciling these two apps in the near future.

Net promoter here would be a solid 4/10.

by Ojai2014!

Overall, this app is pretty good. Even though the rates I get paid on this app are on average 25-50% lower than with my other clients, I still like working on this app because I do not have to worry about invoices and clients always pay on time. I also get access to a larger volume of clients with interesting projects. The new app is is also a big improvement because the old app terrible. I also like that this app keeps making improvements.

by Bleedin' Midnight Green

My only complaint is that the messaging system seems to be very buggy. The message thread randomly scrolls up when I type or when I send a message, making it easy to lose my place in the conversation. Also, it seems like only get push notifications 50-75% of the time—no idea why. Nothing too serious, and I’ll gladly change my review to five stars if these issues get cleared up!

by Pizzainmouthhole

When I first joined this app I was so excited! I spent hours perfecting my profile and filling out proposals... Unfortunately I have yet to hear one word back on any jobs. I realize this has nothing to do with Upwork , it’s just my personal experience. The idea in general is great & Upwork is extremely easy to use. There are so many categories for jobs, with many, many jobs in each category!

by Yawn Gagbreath

Props to the this app developers for providing freelancers with an fully functional app! The previous app had severe limitations. The first thing I checked in this update was for the ability to attach files directly from the phone, and there it was! Proposals will be so much more convenient now; no more missed opportunities because I’m away from the computer. Thank you this app! Keep the good workUp 🤓