Freelance platforms empower you to work from home while taking care for you of much of the paperwork that a job requires. Major advantages of being a freelancer include a more flexible schedule, the ability to choose what projects to work on, and, of course, all the little benefits that come with working from home, like warm coffee all the time and pleasant interruptions. Whether you’re a web designer, programmer, developer, or creative professional, there are many freelance platforms on the web than try to tempt you with promises of well-paid projects, secure payments, or low fees. To help you find online jobs as a freelancer more easily, we’ve put together a selection of the top freelance websites for online jobs. Discover them below!
Formed after the Elance and oDesk merger, Upwork has 4 million registered clients and offers 3 million jobs annually, being the world’s largest freelancer marketplace. It features a wide range of jobs at all levels, with both hourly and per-project payment options, and an accessible registration process, with user profiles where you can showcase your past work.
One of the oldest freelance websites, Freelancer offers a huge marketplace for both new and seasoned freelancers, with thousands of new projects posted every day. Due to the bidding system it uses, however, you may have to buy a subscription in the beginning to find work.
Intuitive and accessible, Guru has a community of 1.5 million members worldwide and features an effective job-matching feature and plenty of good projects. Overall it’s a streamlined and user-friendly platform for experience freelancers.
This UK-based freelancer platform guides you through the process of building a strong profile and provides useful tools that do away with the paperwork, including built-in invoicing. Focuses on higher-end projects.
Peopleperhour features lots of web-related projects, being an engaging freelancer platform for skilled and experienced graphic designers or web developers.
A platform for creative professionals, Demand Media works with expert contributors to create content for partner websites, including eHow.com and livestrong.com.
Encouraging meetings and interactions between freelancers and employers, Hirable offers opportunities for both short term and long term work, and allows you to change your status from Hirable to Busy whenever you want to.
The largest freelance social network caters to beginners as well as pros, featuring a straightforward bidding process and more affordable processing fees than many other platforms.
Staff is currently 100% free for both companies and applicants, making it more than worthwhile. Web development jobs are posted on it regularly.
By joining this community of hand-picked web designers and developers you gain access to freelance projects from all over the world. Admission is tougher than on most sites, but once you get in, you can get freelance jobs you won’t be able to find elsewhere.
Toptal is a high-end freelancer network for experienced professionals that uses a challenging screening process. On the plus side, it rewards successful applicats with well-paying jobs for companies such as Airbnb or Zendesk.
With Fiverr you can create freelance Gigs to sell your services to potential employers, without having to register or make any long-term commitments. Fivver has over 100 different job categories and lets you keep 80% of each transaction you make.
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iFreelance
Smaller than other platforms on this list, iFreelance stands out thanks to its no-fee policy, which allows you to keep all your earnings. It’s also fairly easy to get into.
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Project4hire
With its SafePay service, long project categories list, and accessible interface, Project4hire is a good freelancer platform for starters. Because it is lesser known than others, job postings are fewer and so easier to browse.
Do you work as a freelancer? What platform do you use?
