The Beginner’s Guide: Fiverr vs Upwork

What are the differences between Fiverr and Upwork, which is better for new freelancers, and can you actually make money using them? I’ve experienced the highs and lows of both these freelancer platforms and after years of experience, am ready to share my professional opinion in the debate of Fiverr vs Upwork.

In this article you’ll learn:

Why Use Freelancer Platforms

Freelancer platforms are a great tool for those new to selling their services online. They help to bypass the often overwhelming challenge of finding your first client as a new freelancer by presenting your services to their pre-existing customer base.

These platforms work by taking a small percentage of your sales as well as charging a processing fee directly to the customer. With these funds, they are able to grow their platform and bring in more and more potential clients to you, the seller.

Freelancer platforms also offer an added element of security to both the customer and seller with guidelines and moderators ready to deal with any issues or complaints. Many new clients feel more comfortable trusting a large platform like Fiverr or Upwork, versus working directly with an unknown freelancer.

The Pros

Pool of customers: These platforms make it incredibly easy to advertise your services to a large number of potential clients. They connect clients with freelancers to help you find work and get paid far quicker than simply starting from nothing.
Low upfront costs: It is free to make an account with most freelancer platforms and advertise your services to potential clients. This saves you time and money on elements such as building your own website or marketing. With the website’s ‘order’ features you can also avoid writing up your own contracts and worrying about the legal side of being hired by someone as a freelancer.
Gathering reviews: Most freelancer platforms use reviews as a way to reflect the quality of your work and gain new orders. Increasing your number of testimonials at the start of your freelancer journey is a huge asset that can be used both on and off of these platforms.
Building your portfolio: When starting as a seller on Fiverr or Upwork, you will likely need to do a lot of work for very little money to build out your reviews and profile. A great by-product of this is that you are also creating a portfolio of work to use and show in the future.

The Cons

Fees: All platforms take a percentage of your sales in ‘fees’ meaning you do not receive 100% of your revenue. These fees can vary between 5%-25% and you will have to factor this into your pricing, however, due to the competitive nature of freelancer platforms, you are unlikely to make as much as would from working with clients directly.
Lack of control: By listing your services on a freelancer platform, you are agreeing to their terms and conditions. This often means the platform has the final say over disputes between you and the customer, and from my experience, they usually favour the customer. The platforms can (and do) frequently change their rating systems meaning you could be a highly-ranked top seller one day, and drop to the end of the search results with no explanation the next. If you get blocked or shadow-banned, your income will drop drastically and there’s sometimes nothing you can do to get it back.
High competition: There are thousands and thousands of other sellers listed on these sites selling the exact same services as you. That makes it difficult to stand out, price competitively, and start making money.
Scaling limitations: Ultimately, freelancer platforms do not want you to leave. They make it extremely difficult to pull clients away from the platform when you are ready to scale up to working directly with customers meaning you may be back to square one if you ever decide to move on.

Fiverr

If you’re thinking of selling on Fiverr, check out my Guide to Getting Your First Fiverr Order.

Seller-Experience

Fiverr’s biggest asset is its ease of use and great UX experience. Setting up a profile, making gigs, and advertising your services is straightforward meaning there is little to stop you giving it a try.

There used to be a simple Seller Level System, however, this was changed earlier this year to something using an ambiguous ‘success score’ that supposedly rates you alongside others in your niche, however, the results make little sense and you are unlikely to get a clear explanation from customer service on how to increase your level.

Customer service with Fiverr for sellers improves as your seller level increases, but for most is extremely poor with the platform typically siding with customers. You will be held accountable for customers cancelling orders for no reason and can be penalised for ‘private’ reviews made after orders are completed without being told what the issue was or how to correct it moving forward.

Ease of Selling

Completing orders is an easy process and it’s possible to extend deadlines, add additional costs, and speak directly to the customer through the order portal. Their system of creating gigs for clients to order from directly cuts out confusion and enables you to get passive orders at any time of the day. Customers can message you directly and you’re also able to create and send custom offers.

Once ready, you click ‘deliver’ in the order portal to send your work over to the client. They then have a limited amount of time to either accept the work or request revisions. Frustratingly, a seller does not get paid until an order is complete, and buyers often select ‘request revisions’ with follow-up for days or weeks until they have the time to review the work.

This can lead to your orders appearing ‘late’ and a major delay in you receiving payment that Fiverr has no current solution for. Once the order is completed, it will take 2 weeks for the funds to be released to you for withdrawal.

Fees

Fiverr charges a high fee of 20% of all sales which controversially even includes tips. They also charge a processing fee upfront to all buyers when they place their orders.

This should be factored into your pricing plan, although as Fiverr caters to a lower spending demographic, pricing on the site is incredibly competitive and with the 20% cut it is difficult to make good money until you have gathered significant reviews and climbed the Seller Level tiers.

Can You Actually Make Money on Fiverr?

Yes, it is possible to make extra income online with Fiverr, however, it is not guaranteed. Supposedly, less than 5% of sellers make more than $500 USD per month so only the top freelancers seem to succeed.

Five Tips to Succeed on Fiverr

Overpromise, underdeliver, and undercharge on your first 10 orders to prioritise 5-star reviews over money.
Invest time in creating a search-engine-optimised profile.
Make gig cover images on Canva that stand out from the crowd.
When delivering orders include the line “If you’re happy with the work I’ve provided, please consider leaving a review as it really helps me out as a seller.”.
Ask friends and family to place your first order to get the ball rolling.

I started my side hustle selling on Fiverr in 2022 and have since made over tens of thousands of dollars. Speaking from experience, it is an easy place to start out as a freelancer and there is potential to make real money. Unfortunately, Fiverr also charges some of the highest fees and has repeatedly failed to support its sellers in growth and customer disputes.

Earlier this year, Fiverr changed its Seller Ranking system and I was dropped from a Top Level Seller to a Level 0 with no explanation. I was removed from search results and lost the perks I had been collecting as a high-level seller and after countless emails asking for an explanation or advice, I received only the same repeated vague AI response.

In my opinion, Fiverr is a great site for new freelancers looking to make a little extra income from home, however, it has proven time and time again to not care about long-term sellers and I recommend removing clients from the site as soon as possible to begin working with them directly.

Upwork

Read How to Land Your First Upwork Order to learn everything you to know to start selling on the platform.

Seller-Experience

Getting started on Upwork can be a bit confusing. There are many aspects to get your head around from multiple profiles to pitches and connections. These additional features help to personalise your profile and show off as many elements and accolades as you have to offer potential clients.

Upwork markets itself as a marketplace for professionals, and as such you’ll find opportunities to demonstrate your skills through tests, qualifications, and portfolios. Setting up a profile that you are happy with does take some time, particularly if you want to create multiple profiles within one account to advertise different services or skills.

Ease of Selling

Unlike Fiverr, most work is gained via the job boards. There, clients post their jobs to Upwork for freelancers to apply to, instead of placing orders through their page. This puts the burden of finding work on the freelancer instead of having a customer find them.

Once you find a job posting you want to apply to, you’ll need to fill in an application, write a pitch, and bid for the payment amount. This process is time-consuming and more often than not, you won’t get a response from the client.

If you are successful with your pitch, the order process is simple and easy to complete. You’ll create milestones to tick off to update your client on your progress and choose to either invoice them hourly at an agreed-upon rate or accept a flat fee for the project completion.

After completion, funds take between 5 and 10 days to be released to you for withdrawal. Upwork has a great additional tool that tells you whether a client’s payment has been verified to save you from wasting time on potentially fraudulent contracts.

Fees

Upwork takes a flat fee of 10% of all sales on the site with a few specific exceptions including the Upwork Payroll service and Direct Contracts for a client who does not have an Upwork account but pays through Upwork at a 5% fee rate instead of 10%.

Can You Actually Make Money On Upwork?

Absolutely. A lot of freelancers find great success in using Upwork as an additional client lead for their work. As a brand new freelancer, Upwork can be a little more inaccessible as it prioritises established professionals and you are required to sell yourself directly to clients.

Like Fiverr, Upwork is an incredibly competitive marketplace that can be very difficult to break into. Growth on the platform is slow at the beginning and will require a significant amount of work before you’ll see a return on your investment.

Five Tips to Succeed on Upwork

Create a comprehensive and impressive portfolio.
Include qualifications and complete skills tests to bump up your profile.
Only apply to recently posted jobs. Pitches come in quickly and once the client has received more than 15, yours is likely to be overlooked and buried.
Always include samples of your most relevant work in your pitches.
Keep your clients up to date with your progress on the project with daily or weekly updates.

Upwork is a great addition to any already established freelancer’s client-lead techniques. In the past, Upwork was regarded as the freelancer platform for the highest quality professionals and jobs, however, more recently there has been an influx of low-quality and underpaying job postings on the site.

It is still possible to be matched with amazing clients using Upwork but be prepared to have to scroll through a lot of unpromising postings to find them. Despite this, as you become more established on the platform, clients will begin to reach out to you directly for interviews and work making the process of finding genuine contracts a little easier.

Like any freelancing platform, you do not have complete control over your contracts and orders, and so although I would recommend Upwork as an additional string to a freelancer’s bow, it shouldn’t be relied on as your sole source of income.

Fiverr vs Upwork

Having made thousands of dollars on both Fiverr and Upwork and using the sites for several years, I can confidently say that there are pros and cons to each. Ultimately, the platforms should be used for different purposes.

Fiverr has a lower earnings ceiling with shorter orders typically for one-off clients working on personal projects. The standard of work expectation is not at the same professional level as elsewhere, making it great for new freelancers looking to get started and build a portfolio or those wanting a side hustle that doesn’t demand perfection.

Upwork is tailored more for professionals with the potential to work on long-term and larger projects with much higher budgets and earning potential. It is harder to establish yourself on the site and takes a much larger upfront time investment, however, if you can grow your profile there is a lot to be gained.

Personally speaking, I would not recommend Fiverr to serious freelancers. They take a far too high fee and do not prioritise their sellers and repeatedly make decisions that could jeopardise your business and income. The site is good for getting started, but as soon as you have enough confidence and a solid portfolio, it’s time to start advertising your services elsewhere.

What Next?

If you’re at the start of your freelancer journey, try checking my Remote Work Resources or Freelance Writing pages. I’ve been freelancing for the past 3 years and love to share my journey and advice with those just getting started.

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The Beginner’s Guide: Fiverr vs Upwork