Is Lemon better than Upwork?

Actually, these are two fighters performing in different weight categories. What’s the difference between them? Upwork is a bidding marketplace whereas Lemon.io is a vetting one. What does it mean? Let’s clarify together! Anyone can register on Upwork — there’s no filtration whatsoever. The road to Lemon.io, on the contrary, is open for strong Middles and Seniors only. No one tests the web developers on Upwork, whereas on Lemon.io all the registered specialists undergo thorough 4-stage vetting. Lemon.io has a whole Customer Success department caring about all your interactions with developers and answering all your queries. At Lemon.io, the Matching and Recruiting departments find the most suitable candidates for your projects in 1-2 working days, and if the first ones won’t suit it, you’ll be offered other professionals to choose from. If the developer won’t satisfy your requirements sometime in the future, Lemon.io grants a swift substitution. All in all, if you crave decent and guaranteed quality, Lemon.io is better. However, Upwork can be also fine — if you want some quick gig to be done by cheap coders.

Is there an alternative to Upwork?

Naturally, there’s a whole bunch of bidding alternatives to Upwork. The examples that come to our mind, first of all, are Freelancer, 99Designs (mostly for design projects), or PeoplePerHour.

Who are Upwork's competitors?

If we’re talking about bidding platforms only, the most prominent Upwork competitors are Freelancer (one of the top bidding platforms ever), 99Designs (one more bidding platform for designers and visual specialists), Gigster, Fiverr, or Guru. If we’re switching to the vast vetting field, then the competitors’ pool becomes completely different — for example, Turing.com, Toptal, or Lemon.io. However, the basic functional principles of vetting platforms are totally different: they test all their freelancers, don’t accept Juniors, and mostly have a proper Customer Care department.

How difficult is it to join Lemon?

There are two answers to this question. On one hand, it’s relatively easy to join Lemon.io: you just need to follow the link, leave your contact details, fill in the application form, and pass a 4-stage vetting procedure (professional network check, English language check, soft skills, and hard skills tests). On the other hand, our vetting process is quite rigid — and only 4% of developers go through this fine sieve.

Can I freelance without experience?

Actually, yes. There’s a whole bunch of platforms where newbies start their freelance path. They’re called bidding platforms. On such platforms, freelancers don’t pass any preliminary tests. They just come, register, and pick up suitable projects. Bidding platforms work on the reverse auction principle: the one who offers the smallest price for their work will win the bid. Juniors with no experience can easily start winning bids on Upwork or Freelancer — and move on, gaining experience. Moreover, bidding marketplaces help gain experience in multiple different fields — for the eventual transition to the next experience level.

Upwork Alternatives - Top 5 Sites Like Upwork

Sites like Upwork: our short-list of the best Upwork alternatives

“Upwork alternatives” is probably one of the most popular search queries among business owners considering to hire an independent contractor.

It’s not that Upwork is bad. On the contrary, its reputation is well-earned. Many customers and freelancers fruitfully work together on projects in jolly cooperation.

So, what’s the problem?

If you want to learn a bit more, just read on. If you already know your reasons, you can

Jump to the list of alternatives now

Lemon.io vs. Upwork

Toptal vs. Upwork

Upwork vs. Freelancer

Fiverr vs. Upwork

Guru vs. Upwork

So, why bother searching for websites like Upwork?

The reason for this is that… No, wait. Three reasons for this are:

Poor security

Yes, Upwork does have ID verification procedures. And yes, the platform does have an escrow service to protect your payments. But oftentimes, this still fails to protect you from scammers and cheaters, who defraud your money and disappear. Encountering a problem like this for the first time you contact the support service, but BLAM!

Upwork’s support sucks

Sad but true. Perhaps, with millions of customers and freelancers using Upwork it is impossible to address all requests properly. Perhaps, someone has had a wonderful experience with Upwork’s support.

But in reality, Upwork’s support seems to be working according to pre-compiled manuals. If the problem is not typical and isn’t described in the manuals, it will probably take days or even weeks to resolve. And, in this case, the solution will probably be in Upwork’s favor, not yours.

Bidding sucks too

As the CEO of a technological startup, you are probably busy fighting turmoils that young companies typically face. Considering this, do you really have time to wade through dozens of bids to find just one competent freelancer?

This is not to mention that unscrupulous contractors can try to win the enormous competition on Upwork by lowering their prices to the minimum or just cheating. Qualified professionals who value their time and labor leave Upwork in favor of other platforms.

Simply put, if bidding ran for president, we wouldn’t vote for it.

Is it that bad?

Well, no. There are good things about Upwork too. There is an escrow, due to which your payments are safe. It is possible to find truly amazing freelancers for ridiculously low prices. Also, there is an ID verification system – not perfect, but it’s still something.

But, all this does not overlap the need for sites similar to Upwork, only better.

So, this raises a question:

Who is the best Upwork competitor?

It depends (surprise!) on what you need a freelancer for. Some websites like Upwork house contractors of all possible professions, others specialize in several narrow fields, focusing on quality.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the sites similar to Upwork. As for the Upwork alternative for you to use, we’ll leave the choice up to you

Let’s roll.

Lemon.io vs. Upwork

Since Lemon.io specializes only in web and software development, we’ll be comparing it to Upwork only in this regard.

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And the winner is…

Lemon.io!

An obvious victory. Lemon.io is just by all means better for hiring developers than Upwork. Simple as that.

Toptal vs Upwork

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And the winner is…

Toptal!

In the Upwork vs Toptal competition, the latter wins unconditionally. We honestly believe platforms with pre-screening will soon force bidding sites like Upwork out of the market. Toptal, Lemon.io, Gun.io, and other vetting alternatives to Upwork can be on the edge of the big changes.

Upwork vs. Freelancer

Perhaps you expected something like a clash of titans or a planetary collision under this heading, but in fact, these two marketplaces have a lot in common.So, it makes more sense to show their similarities and differences in lists, not tables.

Similarities

Bidding

Both Upwork and Freelancer are bidding platforms. As a client, you post an order with a job description. Freelancers whose qualifications meet your requirements apply to the order, naming their prices and deadlines. You then review their portfolios and testimonials, and choose one or several contractors whose experiences match your needs.

Diversity of skills available for hire

As these platforms are the biggest freelance marketplaces in the world, the number of freelancers working there is astonishing. This means that you can find experts of any profession here – if you can afford to hire by trial and error.

Varying hourly and fixed rates

Registration and order placement is free on both platforms. Since the sum that you will spend greatly depends on a hired contractor’s hourly/fixed rate, there is little point in discussing Upwork vs Freelancer in terms of prices.

Mediocre support

Both websites share the same issues with support.

Differences

Fees

On Freelancer, depending on whether you hire a freelancer for a fixed price or an hourly rate, you will need to pay different fees. For fixed-price projects, it’s going to be 3% of the sum or $3, whichever is greater. For hourly-rate projects, the platform levies 3% of each payment you make to a freelancer.

Upwork, in its turn, only has a 3% payment processing fee, that’s it. Freelancers, however, pay a fee of 20%, which is one of the favorite arguments for many scammers persuading you to work with them off-site.

Features

Upwork has a cleaner and more user-friendly interface, but lacks features such as live chat. Freelancer.com interface can look overloaded with all those menus, categories, and filters, especially if you are new to the platform. Live chat is present, though, which is nice.

And the winner is…

Upwork. By a slight margin. It just seems to be investing more into its ID verification and the quality of work than Freelancer. Guys in Upwork realize that many customers who hire contractors for the first time do it on Freelancer – just because they are first in Google by the search query “freelancer.” Things you do for the win.

Fiverr vs Upwork

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And the winner is…

Well, both platforms win. How? Fiverr is better for outsourcing for smaller design tasks: fix a logo, add a banner, change colors of an app icon. Also, Fiverr historically employs better media specialists. For everything else, we’d recommend using Upwork.

Fiverr is okay, but Upwork takes the upper hand due to escrow, fewer fees, and a greater variety of skill sets available for hire.

Guru vs Upwork

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And the winner is…

Upwork!

It is just less controversial, and its payment and feedback mechanisms are more transparent and reliable.

So, who’s the best Upwork alternative?

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