UpworkReviews 2,133

Full of scams, my very first job was a scam confirmed by Upwork, but even so they won't refund the amount I invested buying connects to work on Upwork. And the platform still blames you and has no real intention of helping.

After having had success with Upwork on previous projects, we had one not work out. The contractor was unable to meet our specifications on a fixed price contract. He pleaded poor and asked for final payment before completion with a promise to complete in the next 90 days. Based on previous success, we were admittedly naive and acceded to the request. The "finished" product never materialized. What was delivered was unusable. We waited beyond the 90 days as they attempted fixes, but it was clearly beyond their ability to deliver. Attempts to get a complaint handled with Upwork wound up with "it's too late. Talk to the contractor." After the struggle to get through to Upwork assist in requesting a refund, they told us it was up to us to settle with the contractor. Given no support from Upwork, we were without leverage and without the money we paid for the botched contract.
Fair warning. In our case, Upwork worked well if there were no problems and was of no use when problems arose.
I can't drag this to your "proof of purchase" drop zone, so am leaving it here.
Payment report - Contract ID *******

I've used Upwork several times, and I have yet to get satisfactory work. I hired a CMO on the platform to manage a wordpress website project. 6 months and $65k later, I have 8 web pages that are not responsive, the builder doesn't work in the blog, an elementary design and I'm having to pay a new designer for a new website. I parted company with the CMO and her designer. They had rated me positively on Upwork until I cut them loose. Then, they changed their feedback. What type of nonsense is that? Upwork doesn't like accountability. I'm the client, I'm paying, yet when I give honest feedback about a provider, so others don't get poor performance like I have, I get a bad review. Lol I've worked with Marketers for 15 years, and I've yet to see a single one that understood personal accountability.

Upwork has been my trusted platform for finding freelance opportunities and connecting with clients from around the world. The platform's vast network of clients and freelancers, comprehensive job listings, and secure payment system make it easy to find meaningful projects and build a successful freelance career. I appreciate Upwork's commitment to transparency and professionalism, as seen in its dispute resolution process and feedback system, which ensure fair and equitable transactions for both parties. Moreover, the platform's collaboration tools and communication features enhance teamwork and streamline project management. With Upwork, freelancing is not just a job—it's a rewarding and fulfilling career.

Upwork technically is a safe platform to transact. However the processes to protect clients from fraudulent freelancers is flawed. I was scammed by freelancer Rehan Hamayun on an hourly contract. He billed 100% of his time in week one using the Activity tracking provided by Upwork. This activity tracking is flawed and cannot be trusted!

After week one, I did not get any deliverables, but the freelancer started asking a lot of valid clarification questions. This was a delay tactic to go beyond the 5 day dispute period. This continued into week two and that was when I started to get suspicious.

I now lost just under $2000 and received nothing. And as far as Upwork is concerned, all is legitimate.

Do not trust the Active hours! This is creating a sense of false security that work is actually done.

Do not trust the identity verification. Make sure you do your own verification.

You have 5 days to dispute anything! Make sure you get actual deliverables and do not get fooled with someone being very engaging!

Like Fiverr this site is basically worthless. People in 3rd world countries with a very low cost of living can afford to charge pennies compared to designers in the USA. So that means they get all the jobs. Don't waste your time.

There are many services here.
I was looking for a designer for a logo and found one here.
On the website you can contact the designer and discuss all the details. This designer does minimalist work, I need this.

Hired a freelancer who didn't speak much English but project was clearly posted as to what I wanted. Assumed if I had a problem, Upwork would help. Well freelancer completed 10% of the project, 90% NOT COMPLETED. And Upwork didn't provide a refund? Had to file a dispute with PayPal to get money back. Suggest you find help somewhere else as it seems Upwork sides with the dishonest freelancers when there is money to be made!

I eventually found the best freelancer for hire on here after a long search. He's fast and reliable

Have you noticed? Upwork seems to operate more like a gambling platform than a freelancing site. The increased prices for connects, the need for connects to boost bids or earn the 'Available Now' badge – it feels like freelancers are being taken advantage of at every turn.

Consider this: for every job posted, Upwork can potentially pocket $300-$500 in connects from freelancers, even for projects as low as $50. On top of that, they take a 20% commission from both clients and freelancers, meaning they could be making hundreds from a single $50 job. It's starting to feel less like a fair marketplace and more like a gamble.

I'm skeptical that Upwork will prioritize improving its system for the benefit of middle-class freelancers anytime soon. It seems like more than 20% of freelancers have already migrated to platforms like Fiverr due to these practices.

Upwork, are you willing to address these concerns and make changes that support the freelancing community, or are you solely focused on catering to agency profiles? Clarification would be appreciated." #Upwork

The freelancers who work there are mostly hard-working, and the clients are mostly decent. However, nowadays Upwork is trying to exploit every possible penny from everyone, while providing no improved platform for more than 3 years. The system breaks down so often, scam job posts are everywhere on the platform, the support team can not be reached for freelancers, the chatbot help function does not work at all, and Upwork has doubled the long-term contract fee from 5% to 10% this year, while doing nothing, or even worse - cut the freelancers' phone support service... And their so-called auto-bot customer service or online chat service is just another failure - NEVER worked EVER - 1 bug after another! The current CEO should be fired immediately, since she has done nothing in more than 4 years... If any lawyer saw an opportunity, start a lawsuit against this company, every freelancer and maybe some clients could get compensated for Upwork's unreasonable poor service vs. high fees! Let the group sue start ASAP!

The client has no option to turn off Auto Time Tracker. Once Freelancer starts tracking time, they get paid no matter what. The client can "dispute" but it is a useless feature. Upwork is forcing the client to pay their BS guarantee to freelancers and they cares 0% about the freelancer doing work right. The site is full of garbage freelancers, it is a waste of time hiring and trying to weed the total crap freelancers from decent freelancers, The 5-star rating system is as useless as Amazon or anywhere else. If you have to use Upwork, do fixed-price contracts and small milestones.

I liked the time once I worked at Upwork since they gave me enough opportunities to find suitable work to be completed and good clients.

THE GUY DID A VERY BAD JOB UNFORTUNATELY I DISCOVERED THE MESS TOO LATE AND WHEN I REACHED OUT TOO UPWORK THEY REFUSED TO OFFER ANY HELP; THE SCAMMERS ARE STILL OPERATING; CAREFUL I LOST MY MONEY.

They use every tactic to not provide valid information about freelancers. The website is so poorly designed that even the worlds worst criminal can scam people. Any company that knowingly designs a website to ALLOW, ENABLE AND PROPEL FRAUD - SHOULD BE SUED AND THE CEO PUT IN PRISON. What an evil enterpise and massive platform for theft. STTTTTAAAA WAY

Terrible customer service. No Support line, takes days to respond to inquires even when in the middle of multiple contracts. A terrible experience all around.

What a horrible business. They know of the fraudent freelancers who are working on their site and stealing money from customers and they don't do anything against it! Stay far away from them.

I started working with freelancer there for my packaging design and this was a first venture for me and I told her. After some going the explanation of my product and concept, when we started working she asks me for the copy… meanwhile I had already sent her my samples and I feel she should have mentioned that on our initial Zoom call. I did not like that she was not upfront about not doing copywriting, so I ended the contract and gave her a 3 star review with a comment like "communication problem". I never had any fight with this woman, but she was furious and then refused to return my samples. I contacted their customer service right away and explained that I wanted my samples back. And what did UpWork do? They removed my honest review and did not even care about me the customer and the fact that she refused to give my samples. I contacted their customer service again and they did absolutely nothing for me because that unprofessional person is a top freelancer, so they bowed down to her, removed my honest review and were not even concerned that she is holding my samples. Do not trust UpWork reviews, they only show the good ones. Do not work with them, they will not have your back.

I'm trying to find a lawyer and they asked for all type of private information for me to even do so. Then they suspended me after sending offers to lawyers. So basically they stole my private information and unethically suspended me