28 Platforms For Freelancers to Find The Perfect Work
Being a freelancer is very popular nowadays. The ability to work from home, to decide how much to work and on what projects is considered a great advantage by many professionals in all kinds of different industries. In the same time many companies find it easier and cheaper to work with freelancers.
In this article we will be focusing on the ways freelancers can find good job opportunities. I am sure you will agree that one of the toughest aspects a freelancer’s job is finding new project to work on. The competition is so big and there are always another people that are either willing to do the job for less money or have more experience than you.
The good news is that there are plenty of portals that connect employers with freelancers.
Basically, there are three general types of platforms for freelancers. The first are ones that offer opportunities only for freelancers in different fields – mainly in the tech industry, but not only. The second group are portal again only for freelancers, but the job opening there are limited only for a certain role, for example software engineers, designers or copywriters. The third group are job portals where you can mainly find a full-time job, but in the same time they offer a lot of great freelance opportunities.
The Internet is full of articles about those platform, but a big disadvantage is that most of them are slightly outdated as some of the platforms for freelancers featured there are not functioning any more or seem not to be active.
That is why we decided to create a new list only with functioning and active platforms. We will be doing our best to keep it as up-to-date as possible.
General Freelancing
First we are listing some of the best platforms where candidates for freelance work can find all different kinds of job offers. That means that they are not limited to a certain role, such as a designer or copywriter, but there is an opportunity for everybody.
However, you will notice that most of them are especially dedicated for professionals in the tech industry.
With more than 15 million user Freelancer.com is one of the best options for freelancers to find a job opportunities. The platform connects small businesses and people that are looking for part-time job opportunities in different fields, such as web development, article writing, logo design, web design, SEO Marketing, etc.
Companies can easily post their new projects and then select the right freelance candidate on the basis of their bids. The platform provides a useful reputation system so that businesses know that the freelancer they are hiring is trustworthy.
In the same time freelancers can choose among several different opportunities – project-based jobs, contests or hourly work. Members can easily browse through open job offers that match their skills and previous experience. The contests are one of the unique features Freelancer.com provides. Through them professionals can compete with other freelancers in the same area of expertise and proof their qualities.
Another platform that connects freelancers and companies. Upwork (formerly oDesk) provides overall freelancer revenues of about $1 billion and plans to expand them to $10 billion in six years. According to the company its main advantage in the crowded marketplace is the ability for companies to hire candidates quickly.
The company offers a chat board – Upwork Message Center,that enables businesses to directly contact freelancers that are free and able to take the job immediately. In terms of collaboration the platform offers also native Android and iPhone apps as well as shared workplaces that enable larger teams to work together.
Elance is a platform operated the by the same company as Upwork. For now it is still operating despite the fact that it is highly possible that in the future Upwork and Elance will be a single platform. The main difference is that Elance charges freelancers less than other platforms.
In terms of finding a job, it works like other popular platforms for freelancers. Candidates need to sign up for an account, browse through job openings and bid on them. If they beat other candidates in terms of money or skills set, they will be hired.
Guru is another big platforms with 1.5 million users worldwide and $200 million paid to freelancers. Companies can post openings for free in numerous categories that are not limited to the web industry and include management & finance, engineering, architecture, legal, etc.
Guru also offers a useful function that inform freelancers for job openings that match their previous experience and skills set.
PeoplePerHour is a platform for freelancers that is perfect for professionals in the web industry that are looking for hourly job openings. Candidates can browse through offers in all parts of the web industry – from web design and development to SEO, copywriting, marketing or video.
Freelancers can browse through job offers, make proposals or ask for clarification if the offer is not clear enough. In the same time companies can either post new jobs or directly browse through curated freelancers, check out their skills set, previous experience, reviews and hourly rate. If a company thinks a freelancer is good enough for their job, they can directly get in touch with each other.
Just like PeoplePerHour iFreelance is best suited for professionals in the web industry – developers, designers and marketers, as well as photographers, data entry specialists and others. One of the main benefits of the platforms is that no matter whether you are a freelancer or a company looking for one, you do not need to pay to mediators. That means that freelancers get the full amount of what companies pay for the job.
Fiverr is a unique service as it works the other way around – the ones that post offers are not the companies, but the freelancers. The openings that freelancers post are called “gigs”. Then companies browse through all gigs in a certain category to find the most suitable freelancer.
In terms of categories, Fiverr offers plenty of options – from all kinds of graphic and web design to voice overs, singing and songwriting.
Freelanced is a job posting portals where job candidates can find a project to work on in exchange of a fee for membership that starts from $7. Unlike most of its competitors, the portal gets out of the relationship between freelancers and companies once they agree to work together. That means that all other aspects of the job, especially the payment, must be arranged without the involvement of Freelanced.
The platform is a good choice for any kind of jobs that could be done remotely.
ProgrammerMeetDesigner is a platform crafted mainly for the web industry. It lets professionals from different fields connect with each other in order to complete different projects. The jobs are not only limited to programming and designing, but to all other aspects of the web industry. The usual case is that an entrepreneur looks for either a programmer, a designer or both, but there are plenty of opportunities for other professionals, such as writers for example.
WeWorkRemotely offers plenty of great opportunities for candidates that are looking for an offsite job. Most jobs are in the tech industry – software engineering, web development, web design or copywriting.
Companies that want to post their offers there need to pay $200 for their offer to last for 30 days.
Do not get fooled by the name. GetACoder is not dedicated only to coders but to all members of the tech industry. The platform lets companies outsource their programming, design or content work. In the same time it’s a good place for freelancers if they wish to find a serious project to engage with. Joining is free.
Pro-Freelance.com is an aggregator that collect freelance job postings from all the major platform. It’s a good option if you want to easily find a job offer without having to dig into many websites in the same time.
Project4Hire is a useful freelance marketplace where professional from all kinds of industry can find a flexible job or a project to contribute to. Freelancers need to pay a small commission to the platform in order to use it.
Project4Hire is great not only for designers, developers or writers, but also for business consultants, sales experts, HR or Legal experts and others.
Job-specific portals
There are some good platforms for freelancers out there that provide job offers only for a certain role. We have collected some of the best ones in the programming, design and writing industry.
Update 10/05/2018:
The platform offers jobs in plenty of different design categories, such as logo design, web design, business design, books or magazines design and many others. Each category is divided into numerous subcategories so that companies or individuals looking for a certain design could definitely find it easily.
The past ten years have seen 99designs establish itself as the world’s largest design marketplace, and in 2017 99designs surpassed AUD $250 million in designer earnings.
99design offers two intuitive ways for companies to meet designers:
• Via contest – after each contest is launched, designers can submit designs. After 7 days companies or individuals pick the winner and continue to work together directly.
• Via a “Find a designer” search that allows individuals, agencies, and companies to browse and select a designer based on their needs.
It’s a good opportunity for freelance designers to access customers globally, to earn income, and to build their portfolios.
DesignCrowd is a platform for freelancers similar to 99design. Employers post a brief, describing their project. After that designers submit their designs and receive feedback. At the end employers choose the best design. Receiving the first design usually takes about 1 day and employers can set a deadline for the whole project.
In fact, DesignCrowd is not the regular freelancing portal, but a crowdsourcing marketplace. That means that only the best designers get paid, but nevertheless it is a great opportunity for talented professionals.
ArtWanted.com is one of the oldest design-selling portals out there and it has been around since 1999. The platform let’s designers sell their artwork and has a community of over 37,000 people. In fact, its community is maybe the biggest advantage of the website.
LogoMyWay is a portal dedicated only to logo design. It connects people needing a logo with a community of over 20,000 designers. It works in a similar way like other such platforms – you set up a contest and then choose the best design among all submissions.
Toptal is one of the most popular portals that provides offers only for developers. It’s a good option for small businesses or startups that need to hire a freelancer.
You can find almost every kind of professional there and as freelancers go through an extensive recruiting process where their abilities are tested, companies can be sure that they hire only the best ones.
If you want to learn more about how the platform works and what it is like to be a part of it, you can check out these blog posts by Cameron Barr and Bojan Ilievski.
FreelanceWrating.com is a pretty old portal for writers that has been around since 1997. You can join a lot of writing contests there and try to win them or directly browse through open job postings.
The sites provides also a lot of useful resources for writers, such as articles and tutorials.
Problogger’s job portal is a great place for bloggers to look for some extra income. There you can find plenty of part-time and remote blogging opportunities.
In the same time employers need to pay a fee of $50 to have their offer displayed for 30 days.
General job portals that are also good for freelancers
In fact, specialized portals are not the only place where freelancers can find a good job opportunity. Every web portal for job openings offer such. We have selected some of the best ones.
A slightly different platform with an interesting business model, Aquent is good for people that are looking either for a freelance job or a full contract. Job candidates have many useful opportunities, such as courses and online trainings.
Rate Race Rebellion is a job-posting portal. Its main focus is on freelancing and work-at-home. Unlike other similar portals this one does not require candidates to pay a fee in order to use it, but supports itself from the ads on the website.
Freelancers can use the site only to find a job and everything after that must be arranged offsite.
FlexJobs aggregates job postings from all over the web. It is good for candidates that look for a freelance job or a part-time role. If you want to use the platform, you will need a paid subscription that starts from $14.95 monthly.
The main advantage of FlexJobs is that it provides professional research from its staff.
SimplyHired is a job portal, but in addition to full-time jobs, you can find a lot of freelancing opportunities. Just type “freelancer” or “freelance” in the search field and you can browse through them.
Dice is another job portal, but the difference is that it is totally dedicated to professionals from the tech industry. Again if you want to find a freelance job there it is a good idea to include the word “freelance” in your search. Apart from that a lot of big companies from the tech industry, such as Amazon, eBay and IBM post their postings there.
Another advantage of Dice is that candidates can receive professional advice about writing CS, cover letters and resumes.
Behance is another portal dedicated mainly to the tech industry. Most job offers there are full-time or onsite, but there are plenty freelance offers as well.
Another job portal, but also good for freelancers. You can easily select the job type to be “Freelancer” and browse through the offers. Almost every job is in the tech industry, especially web development or design.
This is definitely an interesting place to look for a job. Most people believe that Craiglist is just a marketplace where you can trade something in your neighborhood, but in fact freelancers can find plenty of great job opportunities there.
Finding and applying for a job there is slightly different than in the other platform, as that is not the sole purpose of the platform. You need to look through job postings and usually there are instructions on how to apply. In most cases freelancers are required to send a cover letter and examples of previous experience.
In fact, the main advantage of Craiglist is that as it is a platform for trading and not for freelance jobs, candidates can apply free to the job postings and do not need to pay anything.
Bidvine.com is a services marketplace connecting customers with professionals online. They cater to both freelancers and sole traders who want to find work locally and remote workers. Clients come to Bidvine.com to submit a request and they then send out a notification to professionals who are interested and signed up to Bidvine.com. It costs a small fee to make contact with the client but past that all repeat business is free of charge for professionals.
