UpworkReviews 2,128

The way upwork (old odesk - old elance) works is really pathetic. It is like torrents website where content would be posted free. I got a small website work done which was pathetic, so I threw it into trash, and got a fresh work done with a professional company. In a few months, top google search results of my website are actually all upwork, and there atleast 40 freelancers who have put it in their portfolio that they have developed it. I did try to contact elance, and it has given me a big list of forms that I need to fill, FOR EACH OF THE 40, and growing number of links. The forms need proof that the website is mine, from when it is showing, which professional company did it... etc. I did complete it a couple of times, but still they did not take any action to take of the links. Now when I search google for my company name, there are atleast 100 freelancers claiming to have developed my website.

There is no privacy with Upwork. They suspended my account (which had all 5-star ratings) because of a comment in an email stream. Neither I nor the freelancer had spoken to Upwork about this. If it was an infringement of their policy, I don't have a problem with it. But the suspension was done without warning and could only be known by reading the email stream. I don't want my business known by the snoops at corporate headquarters of Upwork.

I had a profile with Elance for several years and had no complaints.

I was able to keep my location and my earnings private if I chose to. This isn't the case with Upwork.

After a phone call and several postings in the forum, I had made it clear that freelancers have the right to decide whether or not they want to display their earnings and location because this is a personal decision. There are several other freelancers in agreement - and hundreds of complaints in the forums.

No change whatsoever.

These are privacy violations, and Upwork doesn't care. People are unhappy - they've spoken about this - and Upwork doesn't care.

WARNING to others - Upwork freelancers V T Nezwelt ripped me off $10K and didn't have the qualifications to complete the work despite claiming on Upwork's website that they did - this is the response from Upwork's legal counsel when I asked for help in getting my money back for an end product I can't use:

Upwork makes no representations about, and does not guarantee the quality, safety, or legality of, the Freelancer Services; the truth or accuracy of Freelancer's listings on the Site; the qualifications, background, or identities of Users; the ability of Freelancers to deliver the Freelancer Services

I was a top rated freelancer for a long time, until I got a bogus review from an unorganized client. This put me right under the top rated program upwork now has, and I stopped getting views. I contacted customer service, but they were no help as usual. Customer service has always been a joke, and their time tracker has always had ongoing problems. The fee structure needs to be worked on, also. If they listened to the community and upped their minimum of $3/hour, the site would be much better and effective for everyone involved. I left recently and couldn't be happier.

I am disgusted at Upwork.
I had been working as a freelancer for three months until a few weeks ago.
And after all, they suspended me without any reason.
I lost almost $350 overnight.
The worst thing is I lost clients with good relationship.
I tried to contact Upwork and asked to explain the reason several times, but they answered with silence.
Even they refused to explain clients what happened.
I am suspicious that Upwork feels lack of money and scams this way sometimes to resolve his economy.
If you think you are right, why can't you give me any reason until now?
I say again, "No Upwork Until Forever!"

This website is absolutely awful. I must admit the way they set it up isn't bad.It is easy to navigate, but holy crap the freelancers on this website are terrible. I have only done one project on this website and it was a disaster. I asked the first guy I hired to make a cartoon Donald Trump. I thought the design was great until I found out he took the image straight off google images. Then I asked to make a cartoon Hillary Clinton and he absolutely butchered that. It took him for times to actually make the revision I asked for then when I asked to add something he wouldn't do it because he said his design looks more professional. So I fired him. Next I hired someone for the same project and it took 4 days to get any kind of update from him. My work was still not complete. 3 days later still no design. And to top things off the website goes down for at least 2-3 days a week... THIS WEBSITE SUCKS!

I have ample experience with upwork. Here are the major problems with it:
1. Many jobs are listed at slave wages, such as writing 10 articles for 5 dollars, working at $1.20 per hour etc.
2. The Job Success Score with which freelancers are rated is atrocious, hated by all.
3. Upwork wears on its sleeve the fact that it will not listen to its freelancers.
4. The IT is atrocious. I've experienced a glitch with every component of the site... in the last week. It just doesn't work.
5. Customer support is absurd.

Yes, there are people who are trying to scam you here, just like any other freelance site. Yes, there are people who want to pay too low. You don't have to accept those offers. I put it offers with maybe 30 places, only got a couple answers, because I want a good price for my work. The last person who hired me ended up having a lot of work for me. I write questions for him, they take 5-10 minutes a piece, and it pays $5 a question. So, I'm making 30- 60 dollars an hour with this client. He has been very professional, very available, and I haven't had a rejection or a problem with pay. I have a full time job, and this is still easy enough to make an extra ~500 or so a month. Sift through all the bullsh*t and you can find some great work on here.

Had small job started by freelancer. Was so bad I fired him. He billed me for $80 for time spent working on a project which he never delivered, and for sample work that was so bad I couldn't even use that. Contested with PayPal, which was denied. Disputed with Upwork, which was denied.

Beware - PayPal protection absolutely useless and Upwork protection a joke. DO NOT USE. There are others... or you get someone local that understands English and has some degree of ethics.

I have done quite a bit of work through Upwork and the one thing that rings true through all of my work is the lack of pay. I was writing for one online paper and earning only $1.50 per 400 word article. I took the job only for the by-line. I kept my work, and that was very important to me. The major drawback was the amount of time I spent researching the articles I was writing. I would spend 3/4 of my day doing research for between 2 and 4 articles each day.
I have since been asked to do many, MANY jobs that pay less than $1 per 100 words. I am not going to spend my precious time researching an article to make that amount of money. Being a writer is something that is part of who we are. It is an art and we should be paid accordingly.
I will also say that the number of scam artists on this site is staggering! I have been approached by a group trying to get my bank information at least 8 times in 6 months. You have to be so careful with these people, it is really easy to get fooled. And, the first time I got scammed, Upwork suspended MY account because they said I didn't perform the job correctly! I do not like having to research each job because the scammers are so prevalent. All I can say, honestly, is do your research, get what you are worth! Don't take a job just because you will get the by-line, I learned my lesson on that one.

What a piece of crap website. Possibly not quite as bad as Freelancer, through which I just suffered an appalling ordeal with a Pakistani woman who addressed me like a piece of $#*! on her shoe andwanted an article written like, the day before yesterday, for 7 measly dollars, and then didn't end up paying me, because I couldn't make amendments as soon as she asked for them because, hey, I have a life and do other things.

Anyway, I digress. Upwork's rates are crap, but not that crap. And I signed up in good faith, knowing that I'd have to take on some low-paying jobs in order to build up some sort of ranking, and I was fine with this. Took on a couple of jobs within a couple of days, and worked my socks off to beat deadlines, for low prices. One of my guys was pleased, gave me a bonus, wrote me a stellar review. Other girl was also pleased, and throug these two jobs I amassed something like $80. I work in England, so that's not great for the number of hours, but fine.

Then I started getting these emails from Upwork, saying that they suspected dodgy dealings with my clients... but not explaining what these were, due to 'privacy'. They asked for samples of my work, which I sent gladly, hoping that they could get to the bottom of whatever it was. Except, the clients didn't seem to know about the issues when I spoke to them, and so I was left wondering whether it was the clients that I couldn't trust, or Upwork themselves!

Next, Upwork started sending me emails asking for me to scan in photo ID and utility bills, again not explaining why, so that I could 'verify' myself? But, surely the texts that I proofread, and the happy customers, was verification enough? Why do they need that sort of information? I asked all these questions, and so far have no answers... and no money. Not sure where I stand legally, but *surely* I shouldn't ahve to give them this information after I've done my part of the deal? Surely there are other ways of verifying?

I joined Upwork about a year ago when my husband was diagnosed with lung cancer, and I decided that working as a freelance editor/proofreader would be a good way for me to earn money and stay at home with him. I completed my first assignment at Upwork two months ago, and the client never paid me, although my work was impeccable. Another client approached me about a job for which I wasn't qualified, and I turned it down. Upwork also kept telling clients that I was not a native English speaker, Not only was I born in New Jersey, but my English is practically flawless. One client wanted a freelancer with lots of experience who would work for minimum wage. Another client wanted me to send THEM money so I could work for them. I sometimes wonder if these jobs and clients really exist. I was forced to return to school in order to become a certified medical transcription editor in order that I might be able to find legitimate freelance work. They should call this site Throw Up Work. When I realized how bogus this site is, I felt like throwing up!

J M's review ("Be careful with these guys") further down says it all. I don't want to totally put down UpWork. There's still legitimate work there, but it's harder to find, and UpWork simply doesn't care about freelancers.

I worked as a freelancer for oDesk for about three years. I had constant work, I was making decent money, and I felt well treated by oDesk. When I had a question or problem, I was treated with respect. It was a good service.

That all changed when it became UpWork. The other reviewers who say UpWork doesn't care about freelancers are 100% correct. When it was oDesk, I was a top rated freelancers with a 4.99 rating and I had constant work. After it became UpWork, the rating system changed. At some point I lost my Top Rated status but was never notified about it, then after a while I became Top Rated again, but with absolutely no changes in my status. I wasn't working at all during that period. With oDesk, I always knew how my status was calculated. Under UpWork, it's a mystery.

When there were technical problems with oDesk, they responded immediately; UpWork just makes excuses and tries to shift the blame. Their site frequently goes down, but when I've reported it, they've claimed it was a problem with my computer (it's not - I've been a a computer professional for decades and know when the problem is my computer and when it's the site).

For nearly three years, oDesk was the only place I looked, but that's ended. I had constant work with oDesk, but since it became UpWork I've had only one very small job even though I've been looking constantly. I'm still looking for work on UpWork, but I'm now also looking for other sources of work.

Losing oDesk was a major loss for the freelancing community.

As a consumer using the site seeking to hire, I see many people complaining of not getting paid in a timely fashion. If its for the purposes of vetting a process of accountability to completed projects done right then its a must. Sorry, some "freelancers" are unaccountable for providing inferior work. We have come across profiles that are not real at times and at best borderline. Upwork needs to clean out these profiles, verify authenticity of work they reported to accomplish and create a rating system that is verified by work. We take notice of 5 star reviews from low total job costs ie those costing around 200 usd as spam and warning sign that internally someone is posting jobs and basically paying themselves with a small loss of fee, then basically rating themselves 5 stars. There needs to be a product verification of each rating posted. Warning signs, asking for positive reviews prior to a full and complete job. A 30 day wait period to post and revise within that time. As a consumer you need to do some due diligence outside of the platform, run searches on names and companies, call or email those who claim they have work done by the individual or company. For the most part Upwork and formally elance has been a great resource, and works well. However, due diligence is a big must.

Upwork looks polished, professional and "committed" to providing writers with excellent freelancing opportunities. Until, that is, you see the riff-raff that post jobs. Indeed you'll find out quickly that the vast majority of posters show total disrespect to writers and the writing profession by offering 1970's wages, yet expecting professional quality work. For example, it's very common to see job offerings of $. 01 per word, or $25.00 "total budget" for an 8 page article that would take most accomplished writers a minimum of several days to research, write and complete. I've seen ads for 35,000 word e-books paying a generous $75 (that's THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND words). Of course, anything less than $. 25 per word is basically slave labor, and even $. 25 is amateurish. Apparently, many clients posting jobs have no idea what writers should be remunerated or are simply taking advantage of newbies eager to get work. Additionally, many posters are foreign and seem to think that it's okay to stiff 'Western-based' writers. I'd avoid Upwork by any writer with credentials like I would a raccoon with rabies.