What is a freelancer platform?

A freelancer platform (aka marketplace for freelancers) is a resource where contractors (people in need of those who’ll do their tasks for money) look for freelance programmers (people who want to earn some money doing things they are best in). Freelancers / offshore developers aren’t connected to any institution (technically unemployed), and the contractors won’t have any additional expenditures: insurance, healthcare, or tax payments. There are two main kinds of such platforms: bidding and vetting. Bidding platforms (Gigster, Upwork, Turing.com, 99Designs) don’t check their freelancers’ proficiency. If you want to make some money, you just need to register, fill in your profile — and start making money. Clients post projects — and the registered offshore specialists make their bids. The driving principle of bidding is that of the reverse auction: the smaller price you offer for your service, the more chances you’ve got to get the job. The key disadvantage for clients? Due to the absence of vetting, you should check your contractors’ skills yourselves. Vetting platforms, as their name tells, vet all the freelancers before letting them in. Most such marketplaces check professional networks (some kind of extended googling), test soft skills (empathy, active listening, time management), and arrange a coding session to find out everything about hard ones.

Which freelancing site is best for experienced programmers?

If you want to hire experienced developers (at least strong and confident Middles or Seniors), you’d better look for the platforms that explicitly state that they don’t accept newbies. There’s nothing bad in Juniors as such (eventually they can turn into star Seniors!), but if you have strict hiring requirements, they slightly blur the scene. Our recommendation of the marketplace that accepts only Middles and Seniors is Lemon.io. Created in 2014 as a small friends-only startup called Coding Ninjas (performing mostly WordPress tasks), it grew into one of the most prominent vetting marketplaces in Ukraine. Lemon.io doesn’t accept any IT freshmen: only Middles and Seniors are accepted. Its clients are American tech startups, and they need proficient coders to get things done. US clients seeking tech-savvy pros needn’t additionally filter them by proficiency and experience level: Matching and Recruiting departments will do everything themselves.

Is Freelancer free to join?

No, actually the Freelancer.com website is not totally free of charge. Those who decide to try earning money by freelancing on this platform will have to pay a 10% fee on projects with a fixed price, or $5 USD (the option that is greater) . They also pay 10% of the entire expenditures. Companies pay a fee of 3% for projects with a fixed price or $3 USD (whichever is bigger). For projects paid on an hourly basis, companies should also part with a 3% fee.

Is freelancing a real job?

You’d be surprised — but yes. What’s more — the percent of onsite workers has been steadily decreasing over the last 10 years since more and more people choose to freelance. For those offshore workers who occasionally have to answer similar questions or look for apt reactions in response to their fully employed friends’ jokes, we’ve prepared a first-aid verbal toolkit. Explain that all freelancers are entrepreneurs: they’re in charge of absolutely everything connected to earning money: paying taxes, appointing days off, sick leaves, insurance, and social guarantees. They have to deliver all the mentioned by themselves and to themselves. They are doing it all at once — and no one pays them for extra hours at work. However, there are quite a few gifted freelancers, and they manage to accomplish all the responsibilities so that there still will remain some time for rest and night sleep. Freelancers are the experts competing for clients. No one brings them jobs and tasks — they should look for them, complete them, and fight for their right of getting a decent wage. No warm ocean, huh? Freelancers join in the proficient communities, actively communicating with each other and discovering new facts about their brothers and sisters in arms much more than office workers secluded in the cubicle shells.

Top 10 Freelance Websites to Hire from

As a business owner, you always want to outsource to the best freelancing websites. But what platforms are worth your attention? Check out our list of the top freelance websites to find your dream contractor.

Table of contents

Lemon.io (former Coding Ninjas)
Gigster
Freelancer
PeoplePerHour
99Designs
Upwork
Gun.io
Turing.com
Fiverr
Codeable
What is the best freelance platform?

Top 10 best freelance websites: your handy cheat sheet

As a company owner, chances are you’ve at least once considered outsourcing for business tasks. This is often a viable solution because of its cost-effectiveness, versatility, and direct communication between you and the contractor.

If you Google up a list of freelance websites, the number of websites to hire freelancers you'll get will be astonishing. How do you know where to hire? Can a contractor do the job well? To avoid wasting your time and money, you only want to hire on the best freelance websites.

To help you choose from the wide variety of services, we’ve prepared a list of top 10 freelance websites that accommodate qualified, experienced contractors.

1. Lemon.io (former Coding Ninjas)

Overall grade – 4.8 / 5

Lemon.io is a rebranding of Coding Ninjas – a reliable resource for hiring highly skilled web and software professionals. A balanced price and quality solution.

Reviews

Lemon.io has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Trustpilot (95% positive reviews) and G2 Crowd (90% positive reviews). The latter named the platform “High Performer Summer 2021.” The majority of the reviews come from customers commending fast and efficient service, and the professionalism of the freelance work online.

Talent

Lemon.io relies on a multi-stage vetting process when finding new contractors. The company’s staff interview every freelancer to check their hard and soft skills, so you’ll end up hiring a competent developer. Lemon.io live support team ensures your projects are delivered on time and according to your requirements. All contractors speak good English, so you won’t have problems communicating with them.

But don't take our word for it. Here's what our clients say:

Prices

Lemon.io accepts Central/Eastern/Northern European freelancers on their network, as well as specialists from Latin America. Many believe this to be an advantage: devs from these regions are known to be highly skilled and work for reasonable hourly rates. On Lemon.io, their ranges fluctuate within the $20-45 borders. This is way more affordable than on many websites for finding the best freelance jobs.

At least that's what our grateful customers are saying:

Security

As in the case of other best online job sites, security is one of Lemon.io’s priorities. You can (and are encouraged to) sign an NDA with a freelancer you hire from Lemon.io. All the communication and project data transfers between you and the contractor are direct, so none of the info you exchange with them is stored on Lemon.io servers. The company also sees its thorough pre-screening procedures as an additional guarantee of your safety,

Customer service

Lemon.io will find you a perfectly suitable expert able to deliver quality freelancing services within the minimal time limit possible. Usually, the time between you place an order and a freelancer starts working on it takes up to 24 hours, which is faster than on some of the best freelance websites.

Here's one of Lemon.io's mighty devs. Meet Roman, a Senior Python Developer at Lemon.io, who can come on board with your project miraculously fast.

The support team monitors and coordinates your work with them, to ensure you have the best possible customer experience. You can address whatever questions you have to the company managers, and expect a fast solution.

Learn more

2. Gigster

Overall score – 3.8 / 5

What is Gigster? A service that assembles teams of freelancers to build software products for you, based on your requirements. A good viable idea with some flaws in realization.