UpworkReviews 2,128

Slow as crap. Slow page loads, partial pages loaded, and "Wait" buttons pop up constantly. This is a legitimate business? WORLDS WORST WEBSITE!

I hired a highly rated Thai translator. He was supposed to do translation for a piece for me. It had some Isan words in it but he was meeting with a Thai person that knew those definitions. He not only didn't have the discussion, he charged me for work he didn't do. When I followed up with him, our entire discussion was why he charged me for work he didn't do. So he then charged me for the discussion as well. I was charged the highest rate, 30.00 an hour for this.

When I asked for a refund, he accepted the refund. He gave me back 1.00. That closed my options for a dispute.

The second translator I had do a presentation I was giving. She was supposed to give me the Thai translation. She gave me this stuff that had multiple options in it, with notes about the work mixed into the translation I was supposed to cut out. She asked me, a person who I made it very clear could not read or write Thai (that's why I hired her!) to proofread her work, pick the best word all in Thai, no English whatsoever to guide me, then edit out the stuff that was just notes to me. Incredible. I'm done with UpWork,. They also did not publish either of my negative reviews, so this whole website feels shady.

I am thoroughly enjoying my experience with upwork as this website helps me to make some extra money online without much hassle. Thank you upwork!

My account has been suspended for one month, the customer service said it was a bug, but the technical team can't solve it and keep me waiting. I wonder if the technical team is really working.

I am just starting working at Upwork and do not have much experience, but I am enjoying it so far. Can recommend to try.

I have used Upwrok.com for many years now. Recently, I got into a dispute with a freelancer who overcharged me $700 over a 3-month period. After we got to some resolution of my getting some money back, he was able to remove my honest feedback about the situation. You cannot trust freelancer reviews!

This has been the worst experince of any I have had online. Upwork literally allows coders to deliver substandard wok and still get paid. The force you to disute into binding arbitration. We hire a coder Kiran Sutar, to develop our app. We had numerous meeting and he became irate because we keep telling him he was not giving us what we asked for. Found out he really did not know whaat he was doing. Reported this to upwork. The still paid him, we never got any work product or access to it even though the forced us to pay him $4000. The will not protect their customers.

Upwork is a great tool to make some extra cash on the side. All fees are upfront. Prepare yourself... you need to build your profile and do a handful of jobs before you get a proper rating. So do all sorts of quick and cheap jobs to start with to earn yourself a rating so that you can secure bigger tasks

Upwork is just like any other big business, making money for themselves. Freelancers are obviously there because they need work, yet you have to pay to try to get work. That makes a lot of sense! And I say try because you have to bid on a job you're interested in. The more you pay, the better place in line they put you in to try to get you noticed. On top of that, you have to pay even more money once you get a job. They take a percentage of anything you make. I say anything because you're lucky if you even get a job. Most people that post jobs are either scammers or want to pay you absolutely nothing. If you need help with anything, you can never talk to a live person. And if you're lucky enough to get a response from Upwork via email, their response has nothing to do with your question. So it's absolutely pointless! It's just not worth it. These guys tried to create something new, but it's just a money grab. Stick to temp services.

-It cost roughly £7.50 to apply for a semi popular job (20-50 people applied)
-You have to pay to say you are available for the job (despite having just applied for the job) This price can go up or down depending on "demand."
-The £12 membership only gives you 80 connects for the month. If you bid for a semi popular job you half your connects, whilst having to spend 20-30% of them on saying that you are available for the month.
-On top of this they take 20% of earnings, you also loose out each time over transfer costs.
-I'm pretty sure the clients don't know they take 20% and so continue to low ball you.
-In the automatic Upwork contract you have to give over your files (the files you work on) which is absurd and should be down to you.
-Very little response from Upwork if you need help/ when the community is angry. So many people spoke out about the connects system and they SHUT DOWN those forums. (Example of someone complaining below)

As you can imagine when applying for jobs you apply to multiple, and it simply isn't doable with Upwork. It costs and arm and a leg to apply to two-three jobs with the next person quickly outbidding you so you stand no chance. Joke of a website who don't care about the freelancers who make their site work. I would be fine the 20% off my earnings if they got rid of the connects.

Upwork won't give me my earnings. The only way to reach a human is on a subdomain with an HTTP login prompt that belongs in the 1990s, like they're trying to make it more difficult for users to reach any actual support. They provide certification for race and orientation. I didn't know I was joining the Nazi Party. They withhold earnings without warning for no good reason. They are some lying woke thieves at Upwork.

Terrible customer service, absolutely atrocious. I have never in my days delt with a company that charged me for a product and then locked me out of the account without providing the service, saying I must verify my identity, and then after seeing all the information is all that's needed for access. I provided all necessary verification info including license and credit card info and now they are asks for the identity information of other living in my household as well including MY HUSBAND! Have you ever heard of a verification needing to also know other people who live with you? I made an account, bought a service, and in the same day was locked out, yet my bank account is still charged and its 14 days later with the same run around! I said no he will not provide his information as it has nothing to do with MY account, and that I will take a refund and take my services elsewhere. They said they can't give me my money back until THEY 'unsuspend the account," So I said then unsuspend it and give me my refund and then close it. NO RESPONSE. This is crazy, I have filed a dispute with my bank AND am heading over to BBB and will also file with Canadian consumer affairs to do an investigation on this, overarching personal information request!
Date of experience: March 28,2023

The person i hired to do accounting did nothing and charged almost $2000. I was able to get some money back, but read the terms, they keep some. It gets worse. The contacts of tenants and rental owners in my program are systematically being scammed using my company information. They are contacting tenants as my company saying they owe rent and to send the money. I really thought it was a great concept, but executed poorly. The person that i hired is still on here and still has two profiles. Hire at you own risk.

Upwork has worst support system ever.

THREE MONTHS! Have passed since my application.
There is no solution to the problem with my profile.

I write more and more new messages to my ticket, but I only get "the issue was transferred to our Technical team."

I have worked with Upwork for 7 years now and have a great reputation, but now I am not getting new orders at all because my profile is not working.

Be careful when working with this company. You may one day get similar problems with tech support.

I am an experienced academic writer and can work under no supervision and within the limited time we

Do not sign up with this company on any of your future projects. Poor costumer service and bad support. I hired someone to finish a job for me, the name of this stupid unprofessional person is Sanjivani P. Do not hire this person! She was sitting in a cave in India probably watching YouTube videos how to build a website. Very poor service and no creativity at all. I've been charged $287 for a work that was not done properly and the job I assigned her was not done. She messed up all my previous work and she has no basic idea how to upload photos on a website. Poor communication and bad service. Whatever you say or do Noone will stand up for you. They don't care about their clients, they are trying to get as many hours as they can and as many money from you. Horrible experience!

Its shocking the level of incompetency exhibited by the support of a company this size. Tickets last DAYS in the queue and in my situation didn't event get resolved. Their language towards clients is impersonal and the chatbot is horrible. I have worked with freelancers since 2014 on various platforms. My review is not to do with talent on the platform. This is about the worse company I have had to encounter on that freelance space in terms if support. I will recommend you look somewhere else.

There has been fraud on my account for over 2 months now where a freelancer got into my account for another country and charged $250. The freelancer's name is Suleman Ahmed. I complained to Upwork and they said there's nothing they can do even though I have a message from the freelancer saying "Ok manny I use your fund. I return your fund in 1 week. Send me Account number I send you.

I with draw you fund." This happened again with another freelancer name Muhammad Faizan and he took $650 without me hiring him for the job. Can someone please help me? I have worked with IT for over 3 months now and I haven't received any resolution. I'm sure Hayden Brown wouldn't like to hear about this type of service. I've been with Upwork since they were formerly known as Elance. So we are talking over 9 years.

I've had some really good contracts with Upwork and I'm grateful for it. However, the platform does barely nothing to help freelancers, except putting them in contact with clients. And even then, most clients are terrible. I think it is unethical to accept clients that pay people $3/h or $5 for a 2000 words article. If the platform can't offer a legit minimum wage, I think it is useless. And even then, it takes 20% of our money, even if we just made $5. So many clients are disrespectful and have unrealistic expectations and Upwork does not protect us. I have also lost a lot of contracts because Upwork deleted them even though they were totally legit. With all the money they made from my work, I would expect them to have a live chat for support. Instead, it takes them a day to answer by email. I keep getting frustrated when using this platform. If you ever want to use it, remember that Upwork is not your friend and it does not want to protect freelancers.