This platform has completely fallen apart. Maddening that's 2023 and links in job alert emails don't open the mobile app. Also, a vast majority of the jobs offer egregious pay. Worst of all, I just spend the past month bidding on gigs that prospects couldn't see because my profile was set to private, which can't be easily turned back on unless you go through the support area of the site. Basically, I just wasted a month applying for gigs that there's virtually no way I could land.
Reviews for Upwork
← Back to UpworkI've had mixed feelings about my experience with Upwork. It has been great for finding freelance gigs and the app itself is easy enough to use. However, I feel like they need to be more transparent about their payment processes. I've gone from waiting two weeks to get my first paycheck. Now today, when I am supposed to get paid. I learn about a ten day security hold. Meaning you will actually have to wait 3+ weeks to get paid. Read up on all their payment processes before you take a job!!
The concept is sound, The ability to post skills and search for jobs people need completed is a nice option to have. I have not been on long enough to find any potential contracts, but it seems like a solid app. The one issue that loses a few points for you is not so much the spending of connects to bid on jobs, (though not a fan) it is that It was somewhat hidden before the sign up process was complete. There is a chance I just did not see it. **would be great if edits were clearly marked. 👍
This app is really slow and the message system, which is crucial for me as a freelance to contact my clients and contractors, is messed up. The message system always take a lot of time to properly load and sometimes it doesn't even load. I almost lost some jobs because of that. Please, fix this app asap. We need it to run better in order to keep using your platform.
Overall it works well except for a few things that I've noticed. The most annoying is that message notifications are really delayed. Somethimes is only 10min other times it's more. The other really annoying thing is when you get a notification that you have been invited to a job, go to notifications and, click respond, you are taken out of the app to your browser.
Site is good but the app needs serious help... 1) I cannot decline invitations from my phone. 2) Messages do not update or refresh automatically. 3) Notifications are either late or don't come in at all. 4) Messages take forever to load if they load at all. For example, if I see a notification (even when it's late), I MUST click the notification to view the message. If I attempt to open the app to view all messages first, it won't load. 5) Typing is a chore thanks to their selection method.
The web version is a little bit better and I like all of the features in messages, like the able to save attachments from a conversation, and to keep private notes about a customer. That is great. But on both platforms it's easy to get scammed and way too hard to report a scam. And it's nearly impossible to talk to a human. You have to send one message then wait two days, and hope they answered you, otherwise you gotta wait and wait.
Be very careful to make sure you enter a contract. Do not chat with the clients on "telegram" or outside of the Upwork app. Do not do any work until a contract is initiated. Like any other platform it's prone to having inconsistent dealings, so protect yourself. Other than that if you are diligent it works. The UI is a bit cluttered and can be hard to find things but it is still acceptable. For their efforts to mitigate issues, I give some props.
Dark pattern ads. It seems they've introduced Fullscreen ads for their apps, which is displayed once a day (?). There's no option to disallow it, and the worse thing about it is, there's a small dot at the top left of the close button, so when you can't close it easily. Otherwise the app is fine in most cases. I'll update my review if the ad is stopped or there's an option to stop the ad. This is really unexpected from Upwork, doing something so cheap.
I would've gave this app a 5 start review, but after an email I received recently, I'm done using it COMPLETELY. I thoroughly enjoyed the app for the meanwhile, despite a few ailments (the slow loading speed of the messages and filtered pages, the small variation of jobs pertaining to a specific art category, and the app closing during proposals). But what changed my mind is when they decided to start charging freelancers money for finding jobs to earn, guess what, money. So no thanks, I'm out.
I started on Upwork almost a decade ago & back then it was a great app for freelancers. You could always buy connects but also received some every month, most jobs only required a few to apply. The most I ever used for a single application was 5. Now you have to pay and jobs are upwards of 20 connects to AND you no longer get them back. Not to mention the sheer amount of scams and leeches now running rampant on the app. Just another classic example of corporate greed. Don't waste your time
Upwork is a great app for finding freelance jobs and it's easy to find to make some extra money. One biggest plus is amount of jobs available and it's easy to search. I'm a student in research and I found jobs similar to classroom assignments. One grip recently is the device verification feature from cloudfare among the platform. It's doing it too often and it's midly infuriating, especially if you want to find jobs fast and easy, strongly recommend asking less. Overall it's good.
It advertises itself as a free remote vote, work job, search app, and as you go through, like a million steps, before it finally says in order to apply for any position you have to buy something and every time I click on it, it just consistently loads instead of opening the payment thing, so I can't even see how much it is. they already take out a service fee for every hour worked of around a buck fifty why do they need you to pay more to use the app
I wish I could even get started. I am having a problem uploading my profile picture. At first, I didn't pay attention to neither the sizing of the photo,nor the pixels min and max. Then I finally found a photo with the correct dimensions and it's a JPG and it is still not uploading. It has been 45 mins and I am super frustrated. I'm ready, but something as tedious as a photo upload is holding me back. SMH.
Most of the clients.....if they are indeed real, suck up the connects and are unresponsive. So it's a waste of time most of the time. The app has definitely changed since I last used it a couple years ago. It also has issues like allowing you to upload or change your profile pic which is important because that is the first impression to the client and if you are going in a different direction with your career, you want your profile pic to reflect that.
Most of the positions I have seen so far are alot less lucrative than led to believe when signing up. I thought I was really underbidding putting my rates between $40-50/hr. I have yet to even see any positions above $25/hr before platform fees. I can make low income like that anywhere. The majority of the positions are product testing. Not worth the cost of connects and the platform subscription with what little is being paid considering the time it takes to fulfill the purchase.
great for a beginner freelancer like myself. it has been easy and I hadn't had to put in too much of my own money to get started, just enough to get some connects to apply for the jobs. I started out with smaller jobs that paid less until I got a hang of it and to build up my profile ratings, after purchasing some connects I got hired pretty quick and then just keep your account active or it'll be deleted. There's a lot of helpful material, just stay in the guidelines!!
Overall, it's a good app. But a few things could be improved: 1. The chat thread gets glitchy when there's a lot of text. The cursor drops down to the bottom of what I'm typing, which creates errors that I'm constantly correcting. 2. Notifications should go away once the app has been checked. Unlike Gmail, for example, the chat notifications remain at the top of my phone even after I've read the messages. This creates extra swipes to clear notifications. 3. "Available Now" is not reliable.
Every time I go into the Upwork app, it prompts me to log in. The app must have a bug because then it doesn't allow me to click into the space to input my login. The search tool also doesn't work well because you can't search anything except for their suggested topics. I think they would have a lot more users if the experience was more user-friendly.
Terrible business practice. You buy and spend "connects" to bid on contracts, but all of this is done prior to identification verification (which is automated). You can only do the verification after you're offered your first contract. If there's an error with your verification, you get suspended immediately, lose the contract, and lose all of the money and time you already invested. They have no real support, just ai. Not a good experience.