5 Best freelancing Websites to find online jobs

Looking for a good freelancing website where you can find online jobs as you start your freelancing career? Here is a list of the top 10 freelancing websites for online work:

1.   Upwork

Upwork Global Inc, commonly referred to as just Upwork, is currently ranked as the largest and best freelancing website around the globe. It is an American freelancing platform headquartered in Santa Clara, California, United States.

It resulted from the merger of the top two online work platforms namely oDesk and Elance in 2015.

It is free to register for an account with Upwork. If you looking to register for an account simply visit their official website and sign up for an account. It takes 24 hours for the account to be approved or declined. So, after 24 hours, you should have feedback from Upwork on whether your account registration was successful or not.

It provides freelancers with an easy-to-use platform where they can create profiles outlining their experiences, job history, and skills for clients to view. The platform also has a job feed for freelancers where they can view the jobs posted by clients and apply if they feel they meet the requirements.

Freelancers can get any type of work in Upwork ranging from article writing, website design, graphic design, architectural design, accounting, virtual assistance, and engineering design to teaching among others.

To find a job in Upwork, the freelancer can scroll the job feed which is by default filtered according to the skills in his/her profile or they can choose to search for jobs in specific areas.

Once a freelancer is hired, the funds from the client are put in an Escrow account and released to the freelancer once he/she finished the work and requests payment from the client.

Upwork also provides an hourly tracking app that freelancers can use to track the hours worked in hourly contracts.

Freelancers are charged a 20%, 10%, or 5% fee depending on the amount of money they bill their clients. Amounts below $500 on a single contract are charged a 20% fee, while amounts between $500 and $10,000 are charged 10% and amounts over $10,000 are charged a 5% fee.

Upwork has a variety of ways through which freelancers can make their withdrawals, which include:

• Direct to US Banks (ACH)
• Direct to Local Bank
• PayPal
• Mpesa (for Kenyan freelancers)
• Payoneer
• Wire Transfer
• Bank Codes
• Instant Pay for US freelancers

2.   Fiverr

Fiverr is ranked as the second-largest and best freelancing platform.

It is an Israeli freelancing website headquartered in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel.

It was founded in 2010.

It has a very simple platform where freelancers showcase their skills using gigs for clients to order.

Freelancers can choose to wait for clients to order for their gigs or they can such in the buyer orders for jobs posted by clients.

It also uses Escrow to hold clients’ funds while freelancers are working on projects. The funds are released by the client once the freelancer submits work and the client approves the work.

In Fiverr, contracts are times using their countdown and if the freelancer does not finish in the stipulated time, the client may cancel the order.

Freelancers can only do fixed-price contracts. Fiverr does not offer hourly contracts.

A 20 % fee is charged on the amount that the freelancer earns for any project.

Freelancers can withdraw their funds through:

• Paypal
• Payoneer (Bank transfer)
• Fiverr Revenue Card

It is free to create a freelancing account on Fiverr. And the beauty of it is that you can sell and buy using the same account (only switching from a seller to a buyer and vice versa). To create an account visit their official website.

3.   Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is another great freelancing platform for freelancers.

It is an Australian online working platform headquartered in Sydney, Australia. It also has offices, in Manila, Jakarta, Vancouver, and London.

It has several subsidiaries among them Escrow.com, Freelancer International Pty. Ltd., Freelancer Technology Pty Limited, Freelancer.jp, CrowdIT Ltd., Warrior Forum Pty Ltd, Webmaster-talk.com, Freightlancer Holdings Pty Limited, SydStart, Freightlancer Pty Limited, and Warrior Forum.

It is one of the oldest freelancing sites and it used to operate even when Elance and oDesk were in operation before they merged to form Upwork.

It was founded in 2009.

Once a freelancer registers for an account and completes filling his/her profile, they can access millions of jobs posted on the platform by clients. The freelancers competitively bid for the project and upon being hired the client puts funds in an Escrow account until the project is completed and approved.

Freelancers can withdraw their funds through:

• (Bank) Express Withdrawal
• (Bank) Wire Transfer – a minimum of $500
• PayPal – Requires PayPal verification
• Skrill – It does not support USD and AUD currencies

Freelancers can get hired for fixed or hourly jobs just like in Upwork. Freelancer also has a time tracking app that tracks the time that freelancers have worked on hourly contracts.

Freelancers are charged a 10% fee for hourly projects and 10% or $5 USD (or its equivalent in other foreign currencies) for fixed-price projects. Also, any amount paid on top of the bid amount is charged an extra 10% fee.

It is free to register for an account with freelancer.com. Just visit their official website and register for an account.

4.   PeoplePerHour

Peopleperhour is a UK-based freelancing platform that allows businesses to access freelancers.

Once a freelancer starts being hired for a project by a client, the client puts the required amount of money in an Escrow account.

Peopleperhour is unique since freelancers are required to raise an invoice once they complete the work assigned to them. Once the client approves the work, the invoice is accepted and the money is released to the freelancer’s wallet on the platform.

For Over £5000 or $7000 or € 6000 contracts the freelancer is charged a 3.5% fee (excl. VAT) while for contracts worth between £250 or $350 or €300 and £5000 or $7000 or €6000 are charged a 7.5% fee. Those below £250 or $350 or € 300 are charged a 20% fee.

Freelancers can withdraw funds through:

• UK bank transfers
• SEPA/ Local bank transfers
• International bank transfers
• Paypal
• Payoneer

Registering for an account with PeoplePerHour is free. You only have to visit their official website and register.

5.   Guru

Guru is another Us based freelancing website. It is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States

Freelancers can work on fixed-priced and hourly contracts.

Freelancers can use one of the following methods to withdraw their earned funds:

• U.S. Bank Account (eCheck)
• Wire Transfer
• PayPal
• Payoneer.

Conclusion

There are lots of other freelancing out there. We only outlined the best five where freelancers can find any kind of freelancing job.

Most of the other freelancing websites target specific skills. For instance, 99Designs is made for freelancers who practice graphic designing, Nexxt is geared towards global focus, local focus, diversity focus, and career focus, Writer Access is made for writers, and Skyword is designed for content marketing.