By Kate Gross 23 days ago, Apps and Software
Finding the best freelance services for businesses is currently relevant due to the global changes in many industries caused by quarantine, lockdowns, and massive downsizing. The call to stay at home resonates particularly well with the idea of freelance, as it allows cooperating with your employer remotely from home. Meanwhile, employers can save some costs during a crisis by cutting down the number of rented office spaces and other related expenditures.
When it comes to looking for potential employers and employees, freelancers, start-ups, private businesspersons, and other independent contractors can always access the web and visit a couple of top freelance sites that passed the test of time even before COVID-19 made its impact on the world.
Freelance is a great way of earning some additional income and it can even become a lifestyle, but the specific working obligations between the two parties can often become an obstacle. The issue of payment is the most common one: the contractor can decide that the project doesn’t meet the requirements and won’t accept it after it’s complete, or the freelancer might do more than was required and expect a bonus and outstanding review.
Situations like these are exactly why the internet has marketplaces for freelance services. Not only do they offer a platform for searching for work and talent, but they also allow both parties to communicate, rate each other, perform and receive secure payments, and use resume writing software.
The best freelance services for businesses can take a fee for each project or place paid ads to keep evolving as a global community of qualified workers and reliable employers while defending the interests and investments of both sides.
Verdict: If you’re just starting your freelancing career, you can consider Fiverr as one of your first options. It turned from a marketplace, where you paid people 5 dollars for anything, into a legitimate top freelance platform, where you can find professionals that can help you with your business or personal projects.
Fiverr allows browsing through ready and willing professionals, including programmers, WordPress experts, illustrators, video editors, and even voice actors.
New freelancers use Fiverr to make a name for themselves, offering services at minimal prices until they build up their portfolio. The more projects you complete and client reviews you receive, the more you can increase your prices. If you can create your own niche and specialization as a Fiverr freelancer, it can become a great source of new projects and additional income.
Verdict: Elance and oDesk merged into a popular organized system that allows you to hire freelance “stars” and look for reliable employers based on a rating and review system. Freelancers can register for free and receive a certain number of free “connects” each month to place bets on vacancies on a competitive basis and improve their rating.
Upwork offers all the tools needed to begin your freelance path – a collaboration platform, an online chat, a video-call system, an hourly freelancer rate, a payment protection system, and a transparent hiring process.
This is one of the best freelance services for businesses where you can find specialized and licensed help, including Civil Engineers, lawyers, and financial consultants. Upwork encompasses everything from software development to design and writing, sales and marketing, administrative support, and customer service. You'll find talents for virtually any profession and industry that might be of use to your business.
Verdict: Being one of the best freelance services for businesses, this elite platform helps companies find the best (3 %) world-class industry experts to guarantee they’ll be a perfect match for each other. Developers, designers, financial experts, project and product managers – they are all welcomed here.
The selection process is quite complex and you’ll have to do a lot of work to prove you deserve to be among the best. Before you can join their freelancer list, you need to pass a careful selection and participate in test projects that test evaluate everything from your language and personality to skills.
The selection process on Toptal is so thorough that only a few applications are approved each month from the thousands they receive. This might seem like a scary feat to accomplish, but if you manage to do it, you’ll get a chance to show your skills to some of the biggest companies out there.
Verdict: This is the largest freelance, outsourcing, and crowdsourcing marketplace with over 32 million registered users and job postings. The platform is aimed at projects related to website development, SEO marketing, mobile development, and other internet-oriented projects.
If you work with content management systems or technologies, you'll find your target base here: from design and photography to blogging, programming, and SEO – experienced applicants can find everything, even freelance photography orders.
Freelancer is among the best freelance services for businesses that mainly function online, as its subsidiary platforms Warrior Forum and Freemarket allow you to buy and sell sites. Freelancers send applications for your projects, and you can view their previous projects and user reviews to make a decision. Freelancers can inform employers about their job progress and communicate using the real-time live chat feature.
Verdict: FreelanceSwitch merged with this community of talented designers, actors, artists, developers, and other professionals involved in the digital technology and creativity industries to create one of the best freelance services for businesses out there.
Evanto Studio offers opportunities for all types of freelancers, as variety is one of its biggest strengths. Whether you're a Shopify, WordPress, or Magento developer, a guru of converting PSD to HTML, or possess valuable online sales skills, you're bound to find something on Envato.
The website features plenty of tips and articles like how to become a freelance… photographer and resources that can come in handy for both beginner and experienced freelancers.
Evanto Studios verifies its freelancers and doesn’t allow just anyone to post their services in its catalog. Their freelancer profiles contain detailed information about pricing, work examples, and client reviews.
Verdict: This website is a community of freelance designers that create logos, websites, and book covers. 99designs is the top freelancing platform if you’re looking for a project manager for your new logo, web page, or product label.
This platform has a well-developed collaboration feature: freelancers can work with contractors directly or cooperate with the entire creative community to work together on a project while dividing the allocated budget between all participants. Contractors have two options: post a project and pick from the applied candidates, or hold a contest for the best design.
99designs offers part-time jobs in over 90 categories that are updated every few seconds. With zero investment on your part, you receive a platform for displaying your work and improving your creative skills by reading relevant articles.
Verdict: FlexJobs is similar to other freelance web sites like Upwork. This service is free for employers and provides access to qualified freelancers. All featured freelancers have to pass a test, and you can publish a list of requirements to find a candidate with the perfect skillset.
FlexJobs isn’t just one of the best freelance services for businesses, but also an invitation for everyone to try this career path. Besides, this freelance website hosts job postings from all around the world. For the price of a monthly cup of coffee, you’ll receive full access to a broad range of contractors, various skill tests, and a detailed description of each company.
Verdict: This is among the best freelance services for businesses. Its broad capabilities are achieved thanks to two convenient tools: a list of weekly gigs and the “Courses & Tools” section. As for the first, the SolidGigs team browses through dozens of job boards each week to inform freelancers about the best 1 % of available daily postings.
As for the latter, the platform established a partnership with people involved in freelance and self-employment to offer training and educational guides on all sorts of subjects from presentation and sales to pricing and client attraction. There is a selection of articles on a hybrid working scheme but if you are particularly interested in remote job opportunities, you should head to ThinkRemote resource.
Verdict: This website is used by over 3 million people and is known for checking their freelancers and publishing their ratings and transaction data. Guru promotes transparency, values trust, and tries to ensure that all of your expectations are met. Guru is a reliable service that doesn’t have any hidden schemes.
The website offers multiple categories, allowing contractors to find web-designers, Spotify developers, mobile app developers, WordPress experts, Magento developers, etc. Create your profile, pick a membership type, and receive payments via the secure SafePay service while receiving a rating of your professional services.
Guru is more flexible for freelancers than most other best freelance services for businesses when it comes to payments, offering four options: fixed price, hourly rate, task-based, and repeatable. Additionally, the escrow system protects both the contractor and freelancers from scammers.
Verdict: PeoplePerHour deserves to be among the best freelance services for businesses due to being dedicated to smaller jobs in the design, technology, content, and marketing industries. It imposes several limitations on the type of publications you can make, which allows making more specific job postings and requirements.
It encompasses a broad range of categories – from 3D printing to asset management, translation, part-time writing, and Facebook consulting.
The implemented project creation tool asks hiring companies to tell what kind of help they need, prompting them to enter key details about their project. Next, this information is processed by an AI, which analyzes it and selects suitable designers.
Small business owners can hire freelancers for a small test project before committing to a long-term contract. Freelancers publish their profiles and services at a fixed hourly rate. All workers have a rating since their provided services are constantly checked and evaluated, as they complete their jobs.
