The Best Freelance Websites and Marketplaces – Updated List of Freelance Job Sites

Flexjobs

Flexjobs can give you some significant bang for your buck as far as monthly subscriptions go. If you’re not familiar with this model, paying just to explore job listings may leave a bad taste in the mouth, but the idea is that you are seeing better jobs and not competing against very low bidders.

Depending on your plan, the monthly cost can range from a high of $15, to a low of just $5 — if you take the yearly subscription. The average listing is higher quality than those on many comparable websites, and the robust search features let you preview the gig offerings before committing to a subscription.

One thing to keep in mind, however, is that not all listings on Flexjobs are telecommute. If this matters to you (it probably does if you’re a 1099-er!), then make sure you specify this in your searches.

Patreon

Patreon is a freelance site designed especially to allow creators to create membership-style businesses around their fan base. If you create music, YouTube channels or other kind of media, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Patreon at this point. If you haven’t, do yourself a favor and check it out.

Patreon allows freelance creatives to fund their work by offering followers regular paid subscription services with insider content and other special privileges. Rather than connecting creatives with gigs offered by employers, as most freelance websites do, Patreon allows artists to make their passion their income.

WorkMarket

Work Market is one of the new “for-everyone” project markets we’re most excited about. The platform boasts gig offerings in a very wide array of disciplines and is one of the few freelance websites that currently offers a responsive mobile app (Work On-Demand) for browsing projects on the go and processing payments quickly at the close of projects. They also promise payment at the close of the project, so you minimize your risk from slow-paying clients.

GigSalad

GigSalad is a one-stop shop for organizers who needs live entertainment for any kind of event, from a small party to a conference, festival, trade show or school assembly. So this is a great freelance gig site for musicians, face painters, motivational speakers, jugglers, mimes, DJs, bartenders, photographers, magicians, auctioneers or emcees. Your profile page allows you to share audio and video demonstrations of your work.

If you’ve ever thought you had it in you to be a roast master, belly dancer or Elvis impersonator, here’s where you can test the market. Browsing on here makes us want to throw a party.

Coworks

Coworks is a freelance marketplace that allows creatives to showcase their portfolios in the public sphere, much like they would on LinkedIn. But instead of collecting generic recruiter messages, freelancers are matched up with gig opportunities that fit their abilities and preferences by Coworks’ recruiters.

Konsus

Konsus promises to minimize the bidding and proposing once you pass their application process and to keep the work flowing steadily without all the back and forth common on other freelance websites.

It’s a novel idea and one that offers a potential solution to an issue freelancers have dealt with now for many years. One caveat, however, is that Konsus uses fixed hourly prices that cannot be adjusted.

LocalSolo

LocalSolo is going to be very attractive to people tired of the platforms taking a cut of their earnings. Unlike many marketplaces for freelancers listed here, LocalSolo charges fees on the employer side. Freelancers negotiate their own fees and keep all the contract for themselves . . . if they pass the application process. Employers pay because they are getting a “curated talent network” rather than a bazaar.

Employers connect with you on LocalSolo in three possible ways — post a job for you to bid on, reach out to you directly if they notice your profile or hire LocalSolo to handle the recruiting. Some common freelance jobs listed include copywriting, software design, game development, marketing, social media management, commercial photography, project management, sound editing, business strategy development, UI/UX design and web design.

LocalSolo also tells us that a benefit to their platform is that freelancers find one another, team up to join different skill sets together and take on bigger projects.

Loom

Loom offers an interesting deal to startups: “Leverage passion by trading equity for work from top-tier freelancers around the world.” That means you can negotiate for a piece of the action (and presumably less cash up front.) Ready to gamble that this prospective client is the next Amazon in its early stages? Then take a look at gigs offered on Loom. Naturally, most of the freelance jobs here are technology related, including software development and UX and UI design

Hubstaff Talent

Hubstaff Talent is a relatively new freelance website that promises fairer compensation for the independent contractor.

Some distinguishing features of the platform are their strict no-commission fee policy for their talent and their transparent time tracking model.

Hubstaff Talent uses their own screenshot monitoring system that their clients can check in on whenever they like. If you’re not familiar with this kind of time tracking model, make sure you know what to expect so your clients don’t catch you checking Facebook on the clock!

Working Not Working

Working Not Working lives by their mission statement — “WNW was started by creatives and we look after our kind.” This freelance marketplace is a slick and impressive-looking project board that grants its thoroughly vetted 10 percent of applicants access to a number of perk-laden projects with no “behind the scenes” costs. Most of the freelance jobs here are in advertising, design, technology, production and photography.

Working Not Working is highly selective, but well-worth the effort if you have a portfolio that you feel speaks for itself.

ilovecreatives

ilovecreatives is a small but dedicated freelance platform that connects clients with creatives in an extensive range of disciplines (everything from filmmakers, to accountants, to stylists).

ilovecreatives has a unique personal initiative dimension to its vetting. They require a $40 application fee and an extensive application from all of their creatives before approving them for the platform. However, they boast a 100% acceptance rate from all of their applicants who are willing to work through the rigorous vetting process with the ilovecreatives team.

This freelance site takes the initiative to feature their new freelancers whenever possible across their newsletters.

Simbi

Simbi is a little different from the rest of the freelance job sites here. The name is a play on the “symbiotic economy,” and it’s set up as a completely cashless bartering marketplace for freelancers. While it will not “rake in the bucks” for you, the new “talent as currency” platform offers members an interesting twist on the standard job board or Craigslist outsourcing.

On Simbi users trade services with each other or opt to pay for work with Simbi credits. Need some things updated on your website? Design a couple logos for a developer. Need some tuba lessons? Use your Simbi credits to pay for it. Or earn credits by offering your dream interpretation services or your t-shirt quilt designs. It’s pretty darn cool.

You get 100 Simbi credits when you join and offer a service.

Collaborizm

Collaborizm is wild — and wild in a good way. It’s a public collaboration board for creatives, engineers and entrepreneurs. It’s part Kickstarter (i.e. “Help me code my coffee delivering robot.”), part Product Hunt, part Angelist and part marketplace for freelance jobs.

Anyone can post projects ranging from app development, to game design, to robotics work, and freelancers across the globe can claim specific roles in the given project (at the creator’s discretion). Collaborators can be paid in either money or equity in the project.

There’s some pretty cool stuff going on here. It isn’t all paid work. (You’ll find a lot of passion projects in the mix.) But for freelancers looking to get their hands in some cutting-edge creative work, Collaborizm is really worth looking into.

99designs

99designs is a platform that connects freelance designers with companies that need logos, websites and other assets. They operate on a design contest model. Instead of bidding for a project, the freelancer submits a concept and gets into a bake off with other designers. After the client selects the winning design, the prize is awarded to that freelance designer.

There is a risk that you are doing work that won’t get paid for. But proposals take effort to. Some designers prefer to just skip the proposal stage and to put that time into creating work. It can also be a great way for a less experienced designer to expand into a new area like brand identity design. Not having a portfolio doesn’t matter, because you can enter a contest and win the job on your talent.

By the way, if you are not a freelance designer but are running a solo business, 99designs is a great way to get an affordable logo for your website.

Toptal

Toptal in the last few years has become the heavy-hitter among sites for freelance engineers and developers. If you aren’t familiar with this “cream of the crop” freelance marketplace, Toptal accepts only the top three percent of applicants in the web development, design, consulting and finance fields.

Following their vetting process, the platform connects freelancers with lucrative projects for many resume-boosting companies.

Designs.net

Designs.net offers a simple and fairer alternative to the iffy spec work model. Those design contest websites are great for businesses, but pretty crappy for freelancers. While it is possible to repurpose elements of rejected deliverables, spec works often amounts to free work, and many hours worth, at that.

On Designs.net, you post your design products — whether themes, templates, fonts, infographics, banner ads, business cards or many other designs — at whatever price you choose, and you sell your goods to their expansive client base.

The The 25-to-30 percent commission is not insignificant, but as this is more of a ecommerce site than a jobs marketplace, that isn’t unusual.

By the way, be sure to check out our guide to productizing your freelance services.

Gun.io

Gun.io, like us, is gung ho about the potential of the remote workforce. This site matching employers with freelancers promises its clients a stable team of dedicated professionals.  They appear to work on a temp agency model but on a project basis, putting together teams of freelance app developers, designers and software engineers. It sounds like they get that freelance doesn’t mean between jobs. Creating a real professional relationship with freelancers is key to mutual success in the gig economy. Be sure to check out their freelancer’s manifesto for their vision of what professionalism in the gig economy.

Codeable

Codeable is even more niche than many of the freelance websites for developers listed here. They specialize in WordPress development projects in particular.

Codeable claims a 2 percent acceptance rate for their applicants and therefore promise high quality to clients. Freelancers review projects and offer quotes, and Codeable advertises a $60/hour minimum rate. It also appears that the fee is charged to the employer rather than the freelancer.

Gigster

Gigster provides a range of talent management solutions to companies needing software development. Those services include innovation, design, development, prototyping and maintenance, and they particularly emphasize AI applications.

And how does Gigster provide these software services? That’s where freelance developers, designers and product managers like you come in. This a website for freelancers that works more like a traditional temp agency than a marketplace. You apply for positions at Gigster, and they deploy you on temporary jobs with a team of other freelancers. Gigster claims to take only .5 percent of applicants.

Gigster also has a plan to pay bonuses to freelancers out of their own returns from investing in companies on the hiring.

Hired

Hired may be best known as just another job board for the nine-to-five crowd, but take another look. A couple years ago, they realized the market opportunity in matching employers with gig workers and built out the platform to include freelancers and side hustlers. They must be seeing the same gig economy data that we are: Around 11 percent of all knowledge workers are full-time freelance; half of those won’t go back to a role-based job at any price; another 22 percent of employees are gigging on the side.

As we’ve noted elsewhere, a talent strategy that doesn’t account for the growth of freelancing is going to miss out on a lot of talent. It’s terrific to see a “job board” that is helping companies with a more comprehensive approach to the talent marketplace. When you think about it, freelance websites and job sites ought to be the same place from the perspective of employers. The future of talent management is blended workforces.

The service that Hired offers is more hands-on than many freelance websites and job boards. They have internal specialists helping to play matchmaker. The freelance jobs on Hired are mostly in tech and graphic design. Some of the specialist freelance jobs include AR/VR engineer, brand design, site reliability engineer, solutions architect, IT project manager and blockchain engineer.

Scripted

Scripted is a newer talent marketplace geared toward high-caliber writers of many specialties. They promise the best writers on the web, so you can think of Scripted as similar to Toptal, though web design and writing are different enough that making a direct parallel here between the two isn’t quite on point. But Scripted does offer a very steady flow of freelance jobs with many notable clients to the two percent of vetted writers who make their cut. This is much in the vein of Konsus’ model discussed above.

TextMaster

TextMaster is a European freelance website that is a good place translators and copywriters to look for freelance jobs. The site uses a fixed price per-word model, and while there can be drawbacks to this, it does eliminate the problem of clients posting freelance jobs for scammy flat-rate articles.

ServiceScape

ServiceScape works differently from many freelance websites by offering clients predefined jobs that are built into the system to create a “click-to-buy” experience. For freelancers, that means less bidding and negotiating than on other freelance sites. Your freelance profile looks more like a storefront selling particular projects at set prices.

This site is limited to freelance writers, editors, translators and graphic designers. Their marketing to clients emphasizes academic work, so this might be a good site for freelancers who want to expand beyond the usual marketing content. One benefit to freelancers on this marketplace is that the social sharing functions are designed to let clients promote you and your work in particular. Your personal brand stands a little better chance here than on many freelance websites.

However, ServiceScape charges the highest commissions we’ve seen.

Skyword

Skyword’s unique angle on freelance websites is their focus on content marketing for noteworthy clients, including Fortune 1000 companies. They also work with a specific talent pool — freelance videographers, photographers, designers and writers.

In spite of the impressive clientele and high earning potential for many of their gigs, the platform is not closed off to casual creatives who simply want to put themselves out there and explore the marketplace.

Once a freelancer has submitted a portfolio, Skyword’s community management team assesses the work and recommends prime candidates for a more-thorough vetting process that unlocks more consistent work on the site for Skyword’s elite clients.

Needless to say — if you want to reap the maximum benefit of using Skyword, a top-notch portfolio is a necessity.

SmartShoot

Smartshoot specializes in an underdeveloped corner of the talent market by connecting serious brands who want serious original work with talented freelancers.

While killer photo and video work are more in demand than ever before, it can be mighty difficult to find work in online. Very few freelance websites give honest consideration to these very hands-on and on-location disciplines. The work of freelance photographers and videographers are getting turned into commodities or outright stolen online.

With ties to big brands like Yelp, Airbnb and Groupon, Smartshoot is a worthwhile resource for those of us who work through the lens.

Domino

Domino is different from other websites for freelancers because it helps you and your friends find work through one another by connecting your social networks. When someone is looking to hire a freelancer, Domino shows them who their own social media contacts have recommended.

Domino’s freelance marketplace is primarily made up of creatives such as art directors, designers, developers, illustrators and film makers. As of our latest update, this freelance website is still in beta.

Field Engineer

Field Engineer matches business and technicians so that that our digital infrastructure can stay up and running.  This is a great example of how the gig economy is spreading vertically into other industries. Some of us are so used to working in the digital economy and with software companies, that we may forget that the gig economy touches the firmware too and that highly skilled technicians can be independent contractors.

This freelance website is for network engineers and architects, project managers, security engineers, voice engineers, wireless engineers, data center engineers and VMware engineers. Field Engineer works like most of the other freelance websites we’ve seen. Once an independent contractor is vetted, he or she bids on jobs and negotiates their own terms.

CookUnity

CookUnity is one of the first of its kind — a platform that connects foodies with any number of restaurant-quality chefs who either want to pick up some work on the side or build a name for themselves independently. Other freelance websites leaving you hungry? This might be the dish you’ve been looking for.

You might think of CookUnity as the crowdsourced version of Blue Apron. People can join as either employed chefs or amateurs who “can cook amazing food.” Right now CookUnity only operates in parts of New York City.

Fiverr

Fiverr is best known for every gig paying exactly five dollars . . . when it launched in 2008. That gimmick didn’t hold forever, though, and now freelancers on Fiverr actually establish a number of price levels for their services. Some people prefer Fiverr because it works on a fixed-price plus invitation model instead of a bid model like Upwork is known for. Clients reach out to you to offer a job after they’ve reviewed profiles they are interested in. Fiverr also has a reputation for being easier to get your account approved and start building a profile.

Fiverr lets the freelancer be creative about what they are selling, so this is also a good testbed to see if there is any appetite in the market for some unique service you are thinking of developing. Put it up on Fiverr as a package, see what kind of response you get and iterate.

Upwork

Upwork is the rebranded company resulting from the merger of Odesk and Elance. It is one of the biggest freelance websites around, with over 10 million users, 3 million jobs posted annually and 1 billion dollars worth of work done each year.

Users on Upwork search for desirable gigs and bid on them with a competitive rate (paired with their qualifications, which potential clients assess). After a member secures and completes a job, Upwork takes its variable commission, and the client pays the freelancer’s hourly fee or project rate.

The site features an intuitive and well-organized user interface and communication system as well as a relatively high number of hourly gigs and various certification tests that are free to all users.

However, there are some limitations to Upwork as a free user, such as a finite number of bids you can make per month, which can be expanded via membership plans. Customer service can also be somewhat slow when handling inquiries, and there can be a bit of lag in their payment processing.

Be wary of, but do not get discouraged by, bottom-dweller clients looking to get hard work done for pennies on the dollar. Don’t give them the time of day.

And be sure to check out our special guide on getting jobs on Upwork.

Freelancer

Freelancer is a longstanding and respected presence in the online project market, as well as one of Upwork’s biggest competitors.

The veteran freelance board offers a wider resource base (15 million users, 7.4 million annual jobs, 2.2 billion dollars in work done yearly), but at a few costs. Despite its greater reach, there is also far more competition for jobs, with many independent workers competing from international territories. Freelancer used to offer premium plans that mix in more features, but that information isn’t available on its site anymore.

Guru

Guru is a bit smaller than the other veteran freelance websites discussed in this section, but it still has a fairly large number of gigs to browse. Here’s another very solid freelance job site that uses the familiar bid system.

While the site’s notification features and general ease of use are great, you might have to look a little harder to find the right gigs that really bring in the cash. Conversely, Guru’s commission is below average and varies from 8.95% to 4.95% depending on the user’s membership level.