Reviews for Upwork

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.

I'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.