Is Freelancer a scam? Even though Freelancer has a huge amount of registered users (+24 MILLION) and jobs, there are hundreds of negative reviews of their website on the Internet. Some people are saying it’s a scam website but others say they are earning a full-time income there. Let’s find out what is the right answer.
Freelancer Review
Name: Freelancer
Website: www.Freelancer.com
Founded: In 2004
Field: Make Money Online -Programs
Overall Rank: 50 Out of 100 (Check Out My #1 Recommendation to make money online, 98 Out of 100)
What Is Freelancer?
Freelancer is a huge marketplace for freelancers and business owners who want to outsource their projects. They have already more than 24 MILLION registered users and more than 11,8 MILLION jobs posted through their platform. Freelancer is the biggest online marketplace according to the number of their members.
There are simply two purposes for using Freelancer.com:
1.Earn money with your skills as a freelancer. Offer your services, create a profile, contact people who buy services, etc.
2.Buy projects and services from freelancers. Many times your best business move is to outsource some of your work. Sometimes you may be able to do everything yourself but by leveraging the help of other people, you can give a huge boost for your business. One of the typical thing what website and online business owners outsource is content writing.
Freelancer Job Offers
First of all, you need to sign up, verify your email address and add information to your profile. Once you have done these 3 steps, you are ready to start bidding on offers. Here are some examples of offers for Freelancers that are actual now:
On the left-hand side, you can see the project name, description, and the category. Then the number 28, 73, 0 shows how many bids other freelancers have already made for this project. Then the clock shows how much time there is left for offers. On the right side, you will see how much is the average bid for this project.
You may be wondering why there are 0 offers for “Create an Animation” project and what does that trophy mean.
In Freelancer that’s called a contest. You can create contests where you will receive several entries from different freelancers and then you will award the best one. This can give you a freedom to choose because you don’t have to use only one freelancer but you can “crowdsource” your projects.
But as you can see from this example, it’s much easier to get people bidding for normal freelancer projects rather than contests. I would recommend trying how contests work and then leverage them more. Probably it will take some to learn to use it properly.
Freelancer – Get Certified
As a freelancer, the most challenging part is probably making your first sales. People are thinking like,”If nobody has ever bought from you, why would I buy then?” But once you get the ball rolling it gets easier and easier.
Freelancer offers also some ways to boost your credibility and chances to get more projects – You can get certified!
There are several tests that you can accomplish in Freelancer and then people who offer a job can see your certifications. You can accomplish tests for example for Translation & Languages, Websites, IT & Software and Sales & Marketing. In the picture below you can see a few examples.
If I would be a buyer, I would for sure prefer buying from freelancers who have acquired certifications to show their skills. However, these certifications are not free.
Each test costs at least $5 and what happens if you fail? You may end up spending lots of money doing all these tests. It may be worth it if you get paid more then in freelance jobs but still in most freelancer sites you don’t need to pay such fees.
On the other hand, it shows a great commitment to buyers because you have invested time and money so that you could get more projects.
Freelancer Complaints
I think this is a highly interesting part of this review. Even though Freelancer is the biggest freelancing site on the Internet, there are hundreds of complaints and negative reviews of their service.
- In Highya.com Freelancer got an average rating 1,1 out of 5 stars based on 183 reviews.
- In SiteJabber.com Freelancer got an average rating 1,8 out of 5 stars based on 1,349 reviews.
- In TrustPilot.com Freelancer achieved an average rating 5,9 out of 10 stars based on 492 reviews.
If we are honest, these numbers are not really good. I am quite surprised but I have also seen the same phenomenon before. The biggest crowdfunding platform in the world, GoFundMe, has also tons of complaints.
The largest bitcoin exchange in the world called Coinbase has received several negative reviews from their users even though I never had any problems with their service. Instead, I earned good money through their website without doing anything.
I don’t know how is it possible that these three largest services have so low ratings and so many reviews. How can they be largest if everyone is complaining about their website? That’s strange.
What do you think? I would love to hear your opinion in the comments below of this article.
Pros & Cons
Pros:
- It’s the biggest freelance marketplace in the world
- You can outsource the work or earn money as a freelancer
- There is also a possibility to create contests
- You can achieve certifications to get more jobs (It costs $5 per test)
- You can get a $20 bonus if you sign up through my link
Cons:
- Tons of negative reviews on the Internet
- Negative reviews makes it harder to trust this website
- You may lose time and money if they are not reliable
Conclusion – Is Freelancer a Scam?
It seems that there are many scammers on their website. Hundreds of reviews also on the Internet claim that it’s a scam website and you will just waste your time and money. Meanwhile, you can find people praising their service saying that they are making a full-time income on Freelancer or outsourcing their projects successfully.
I would be at least very careful with their website and start small. When you how the things work you can go bigger. Or if things don’t work well, you can just leave their service and move to another freelance website. One possibility is to try their service with a $20 sign up bonus and see how it works.
I am not using Freelancer service regularly because I have found some other marketplaces useful. At the moment I am mainly using HireWriters and Fiverr. Have you used these websites to earn money or outsource some work?
After all, I prefer building my own online business instead of using my time on building someone else’s business. Have you heard the old saying? “Follow your dreams or work for someone who did.”
If you are interested in learning how to build your own online business to create an income flow, have a closer look at Wealthy Affiliate. You will get a step-by-step training that teaches you literally everything you need to a successful online business.
I will also offer my helping hand and 1-on-1 support. If you have any questions, you can feel free to ask them below and I will be more than happy to help you out. Oh, and by the way, Wealthy Affiliate is completely free to get started.
=> Tired of Working for Someone Else? Create a Successful Online Business!
Freelancer at a Glance…
Name: Freelancer
Website: www.Freelancer.com
Founded: In 2004
Field: Make Money Online -Programs
Overall Rank: 50 Out of 100
Have you ever used Freelancer or other similar
I have been with freelancer for many years just to kill time
1) Freelancer’s policy is to only get their fees from designers they let contest holder make contest example for 7$USD fee to CH yet winner need to pay 5$ usd therefor a payout of less than 1$
2) Most winners are copycats because FL does not check unless the contest holder reports and if designer reports nothing is done.
3) The Clients abuse the system be it on one on one work or contest and lord and behold do not post on CH comments that he should be ashame of requesting a full days work for a payout of less than 1$ by FL after he pays the winners fees
4) I was banned by Freelancer but they keep my earning actually earnings from contest I would have won but the contest holder pulled out like 60% of contest
5)Their support are robot they do not care what clients requests as long as they get their %
Bottom line if you are a client this is the place to get slave labor and if you are a designer do not waste your time unless you want to work for less than 1$ per hour
Thank you very much for sharing your experiences Henri!
It is better to join a freelancing site which is scam free and provides value to you as much as possible. That is why it is critical to look at reviews. There are tons of scam out there, and Freelancer maybe one of them. I’m guessing Fiverr and Upwork are much better than Freelancer.
I have heard about Freelancer. Howeve,r I have never checked this out. I have treied upwork. On upwork you can do tests in order to boost your credibility, however tests are not mandatory. Good thing is these tests are free. I don’t think paying $5 for each test is a good idea if you are joining the site to make money.
Yeah, I think UpWork is more reputable than Freelancer. Still, I recently got to know a few people who were working on Freelancer.com and they had earned money there well. But hundreds and even thousands of complaints about this site haven’t become by an accident. There must be a reason behind it.
I remain a registered member of freelancer and in as much as I did not earn a dime from the site as a result of too much competition going on there and also considering that I could not find some that could mentor me on that site.
However, I later got friends that earn much from that site and that makes me agree with you that it is not a scam. I think that the people calling it a scam are those that got frustrated working there or the ones that were tricked by clients to work outside the milestones for them and later got scammed.
Aside from the mentioned issues above, a freelancer is a site that can pay writers and other freelancing workers such as graphic designers handsomely for posting on their sites.
Yeah, Freelancer is not a scam. It’s good to hear that your friends have also earned good money on this site.
Last week I was in Lisbon, Portugal in the event of digital nomads and I got to know several people from Argentina. They had used this website to make a living and travel around the world. Actually, the founder of Freelancer was a main speaker in one of the events that they arranged in Argentina so they knew the guy personally.
It’s scam. All job postings are fake. You can’t find work on this site. Freelancer.com is a scam site.
Thanks for sharing your experiences Watako
Hi Roope; very interesting, as an online marketer myself I’ve decided to take a different view than most.
It seems to me that the percentage of people that are succeeding out there is low in all businesses. I think the reason is that most people don’t put in the time and effort to become successful.
The first thing people tend to do when they don’t have success easily is complain. (Lots of scam reports). Don’t get me wrong, I understand that there are scams out there, It’s just that I believe it up to the individual to do their own personal research before they get involved.
I see you recommend Wealthy Affiliate. They seem to be the genuine article. Thanks for your invite, Dave
Hi Dave,
you are right that the reason why people fail in business is because they quit. That’s especially true in the online business. I haven’t seen anyone failing who followed Wealthy Affiliate training and kept going.
In the beginning, I was about to quit because I didn’t see immediate results. It would have been a huge mistake. At the same time I saw other people quitting who started at the same time as I did. Now I am enjoying the results while they don’t have that privilege.
That’s why I always remind people to keep on going. Always learn and try new things. When something works, do it a lot!
Cheers,
Roope
I found this site to be very informative. Everywhere I go I’m hearing about Wealthy Affiliates. Great insight into giving people information on what to really expect when getting into a business online.
Do you know of any other programs that are great to look into. I know everything takes time, but how long did it take you to start earning at least $500 a month
Hi Max,
yeah, I also find so many positive reviews of Wealthy Affiliate on the Internet.
There are several other good make money online training. I can recommend Chris Farrell Membership or Affilorama. However, their tools are not so good as in WA. In addition, the community in Wealthy Affiliate is bigger and more vivid.
Still, these two program have formed many new online entrepreneurs and their teachings really work.
To your question I would recommend reading this article that I wrote about making money with blogging.
I believe it answers to your question well.
Wish you all the best!
-Roope
The concept of Freelancer sounds inticing, but how do you trust a business with that many complaints?
I’m glad you put in a plug for Wealthy Affiliate at the end there. I’ve been thinking of starting up a blog for a long time, but I just had no idea where to start. The details and structure of the training has been great. And I feel like the process they walk you through truly sets you up for success online.
Hi Dustin,
yeah, I am not going to use Freelancer because there are so many complaints. In addition, there are many other alternatives out there. Of course, I could try it first a little bit but I don’t know if it’s worth it.
I am happy that you have found Wealthy Affiliate. You will create a full-time income flow online when you go through their training and put it powerfully into action. Keep on going always forward and learn during the process.
You WILL succeed if you never give up. I have never seen anyone not to succeed online if they didn’t give up. However, I have seen way too many persons giving up too early when they were just about to succeed.
Cheers,
Roope
Hi Roope,
Freelancer sounds a lot like Fiverr. Is Freelancer older than Fiverr?
The thing about sites like Freelancer is that you still have to work in order to get paid. So if I don’t get any job offers, I won’t make money. So sure I’m making money online, but it’s still a job.
I do see the appeal as a business owner using Freelancer to outsource certain jobs though. Sometimes writing content for your blog can become time consuming.
Also, you have to pay in order to be certified? No thank you.
Thanks for this review,
Diana
Hi Diana,
yeah, being a freelancer is a job but at least it gives you the location independence unlike many other office jobs where you are always stuck in the same location.
You need to pay to get certifications but it’s not necessary. You can start working without them but they give you more credibility and probably more people are going to buy something from you.
Cheers,
Roope