There's not hope for trying to start your freelance right now because there are so many freelancers that are way more established and the website would rather advertise them.

What's been most useful about my experiences since joining Freeelancer is the instant education the site provides about the global economy. Presumably skilled professionals are competing to win jobs that pay $10-25 for what must be a couple of days work on graphic design or web sites. It's a wake-up call to anyone who doesn't yet realize what kind of system we're living in / working in / trying to survive it. Forget about your self-image as a privileged professional—everyone is competing against slave labor these days, and it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better. I think I may have applied for a job or two; I don't recall. I urge everyone who is doing any kind of freelancing to join this site and learn about the real world. Don't expect any benefits, or payments, or anything—just a wake-up call! What's the answer? Solidarity with the International Proletariat? Xenophobic Isolationism? Drop your dreams of individual success and join a monastery/nunnery? None of the above? Who the hell knows. Sign up for the site,. Poke around. See what you think.

A PURE SCAM SITE - WAVE YOUR MONEY GOODBYE Freelancer.com scam – suspends accounts but keeps your money I have been hiring freelancers for at least 5 years now. I have tried and used all the websites out there which provide services of this kind. But let me tell you what I have experienced at Freelancer.com 2 weeks ago I posted a job on Freelancer.com. I then uploaded money to Freelancer.com, in order to pay one freelancer for a completed translation job. However, Freelancer.com DID NOT pay out the money to my freelancer. No - what they did, was to follow their usual routine of trying all the tricks in the book, in order to hold the money on their account. My freelancer had to face a myriad of various verifications, unreasonable and even ridiculous requests and requirements - but even though she complied with them all, money WERE NOT PAID OUT, till this very day. My freelancer finally wrote to me, that she had lost any hope to get the money from Freelancer, and that she will rather let Freelancer keep the money. However, I have conscience, and cannot let someone do the job without getting paid - so I encouraged her not to give up, and now took the matter into my own hands. I submitted a support ticket, in which I clearly demanded Freelance.com to either pay my money to my freelancer, or to return the money to my credit card. What I can tell with 100% certainty, is that Freelancer.com staff has a very clear set of instructions, set up and given to them by the very top-leadership of the company. Since the majority of freelancers come from the 3rd world countries such as India and Pakistan, Indonesia etc., this scam site Freelancer.com knows that an average person from these countries, with poor English skills and zero knowledge of relevant laws, has no chance to fight back and force Freelancer.com to pay out the money. So what Freelancer.com does - they gladly allow freelancers to sign-up and immediately participate and place bid on the projects. They also gladly accept money from the hiring parties, such as me - no verification needed. Just send the money, man! But once the money are uploaded to their account - oh boy - that's when the party starts. Suddenly they become very concerned with security (allegedly - your own security!) and now need to "verify" both the freelancer and the hiring agent. Again - they didn't need any verifications in order to accept your money. So - after they receive your money, they immediately create a "Wall of Verification". First they demand an ID copy (which, by the way, is illegal under both Australian law, and law of the most countries - private companies HAVE NO LEGAL RIGHT to demand copies of one's ID, as long the customer does not ask for services or products in credit). Now, if a freelancer from Pakistan or India complies with the illegal demand, and indeed sends their ID copy, Freelancer.com starts to demand for an ID in English letters - despite having the many years practice, and despite already knowing very well that IDs from these countries are only issued in native script. Then they ask for bank statements, and if a freelancer has no bank account (for example, a teenager or a woman from Asian countries) - sorry, we can't give you your money. Then, if by a miracle a freelancer somehow manages to satisfy all they demands, Freelancer.com then starts from the other end - starts "verifying" the hiring agent. Now, if the hiring agent has some understanding of the relevant laws, and refuses to send any sensitive IDs - they will simply keep the money. Like I said - all of this is done deliberately, hoping that freelancers, especially those from 3rd world countries, after many unsuccessful attempts will finally lose patience and hope, and give up on their money held by Freelancer.com. Because, as in my case, if the payment is around 250 USD, then the chances are slim that the average freelancer will ever get enough projects to generate the same amount in form of fees. And even if Freelancer.com is finally forced to pay out the money ( I guess 1 out 20 Asians probably manage to achieve this), most often Freelancer.com will have kept the money for significant amounts of time, without paying the money owner any interest. In practice, this means that they daily get massive free loans, which, very often, are not even paid back. I assume, this strategy alone generates around 50% of Freelancer.com revenue. So now, as of today, Freelancer.com official excuse to hold my freelancer's money, is that they are "reviewing" my - the hiring party‘s account. They asked me to send them a copy of my ID - something that no private company can demand. Of course, I am not going to send any copies of my IDs or other sensitive documents, because of 2 reasons: 1. such request is simply illegal - IDs are highly sensitive personal documents, and only official state institutions can demand for it - not private companies as this one. 2. at least ninety percent (90%) of Freelancer.com customer support are outsourced to namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, etc. This means that their customer support is based in these countries. Any documents that you upload to Freelancer.com, can be accessed with one click by hundreds of 3rd world nationals, who can (and will) easily abuse and forge your ID and use it for financial crimes or terrorism. Like I said, I have been hiring freelancers for many years, and I know these tactics in and out. However, I must say that Freelancer.com scores highest, as the most fraudulent site of them all. I am going to draw their criminal practices into the daylight. Already in 2015 they were sued in Australia and sentenced to pay a compensation to one freelancer whom they were abusing. If you are a freelancer or a hiring party, remember, that I and my freelancer are not the only people whose money have been literally stolen - Google up "Freelancer.com“ and „scam", read Wikipedia and all the review-websites out there- there‘s only negative reviews, mixed up with some very few positive reviews, usually written in poor English, and certainly not by Freelancer.com itself. A pure scam site. An update will follow.

I had one of the FreeLancer sellers scam me out of $155. They lied to me and told me that I just had to 'complete' the order - and they'd release the product they were paid to design for me. I "THOUGHT" that FreeLancer was there to protect you, and would be able to help me if the product wasn't really ready. And I should have known - FreeLancer did NOTHING to help me. They just said "Sorry, you're SOL. Should have known exactly how our website works."

First of all, I don't really get all the bad reviews "FULL of LIES" from other reviewers !!! Why all this hate ?? You should be honest so others will benefit from your reviews when reading it. I have been on Freelancer.com for over a year now and will tell you the truth about my experience. -Payment: Freelancer takes commission of $5 or 10% (which ever higher), they don't charge you $21 for a $10 project like I read in some reviews here. -Customer Support: I'd give them 8/10, they are nice, they answer your questions and help you get things done. (I even got a project fees refunded when I missed checking the creation of milestone by the employer and he cancelled the project without asking for my permission, that was mainly my fault, but Freelancer support agent refunded me and advised me for future projects). -Guarantee: If you follow the rules, you will never lose your money !!! NEVER ! It's all about milestones, if you make the employer create them before you accept the Hire request, your money is safe and you'll eventually get it even through a dispute (of course only if you did not violate the rules). - Website and mobile app: for these two I'd give them 6 and 2. The mobile app is super duper terrible ! no use at all (a little bit for chat and early reply to employers only). The website is very slow, and sometimes it crashes. If they get these two improved, I'm sure Freelancer.com will rank first. - Payments: Freelancer.com is FREE as long as you choose the non-paid memberships. That's all I have to say, I hope you really check what everyone says before making any judgments.

Worst freelancing site ever! Scam stealing money from freelancers.

This is a warning to anyone using Freelancer. You might not get paid. Fleenacer has a bunch of bogus reasons for keeping the funds themselves and not paying contractors for the work done. Seems like their business model is based on scamming people. Stay away.

0 for customer service 0 for resolving any issues They allow people to post fake jobs which turns out to be requests for pornographic work, when you bid on this false work which at the time is unbeknown to you, you immediately get charged a project fee without even doing work or getting paid. If you dispute the charge, they block your account. If you dispute the charge directly with them the online chat person copies and pasts a bunch of links from their website and then stops answering you. I overall lost over $200 in 2 days for 4 jobs that were all fake posted by sicko men from India wanting pornographic images or videos. I reported this a bunch of times and were told there is nothing they can do. The website looks fancy and works fancy but offers ZERO support to freelancers. They are only concerned with getting their money. Even after paying a membership fee I get ZERO support. My best advise: don't use this website. You will be frustrated and disappointed.

Dear colleagues, Never ever start having a deal with this establishment. It is a fraud. The mechanism they steal your money is quite simple: 1) you place your bid 2) you are awarded 3) in a couple of minutes your project is marked as "Incomplete" and you are to pay 10% of its cost (which you have never received). You have neither rights nor place to appeal. I am sorry for those people who had money on their accounts when these "incompleteness" happened. All their savings were simply stolen. I was lucky enough to have 50 cents at the moment. Thus, I congratulated the fraudsters with the huge loot ;) Nevertheless, the time I had spent to build my profile was gone for nothing.

Pay for tests, pay for highlighting bids, pay for membership, pay for jobs you were not payed for. The worst site.

The Worst Platform for freelancer. Freelancer is not protcted at all. In three months I was frauded 5 times. Moreover commissions are too high, minimal commission fee is $5. Ok, I agree to pay those commissions, but I would like to be protected. Support is worst I saw, they usually tell about "Friendly manner of resolving th conflicts", that is all support they can provide. Overall worst experience!

once you fall in their vicious circles, getting out of will cost you at least 60$. I would never want to hang around with people behind this business under any circumstance ever.

I agree with most all of the complaints raised by previous reviewers below. As a 30 plus year freelancer, I have serious issues with any of these freelance job platforms who choose to make their money off the freelancers, without whose services they'd have no business, instead of making their money off the people who don't just post jobs, but actually employ freelancers. This would weed out a lot of the lo-ballers right away. Freelancer.com definitely nickel and dime's it's freelancers to death. Where I've learned to make it useful, is to maintain only the free membership level, which supplies access to most their job listings, and provides about 8 free bids a month, which is plenty enough for me, after I weed out my own undesirable job listings each week. If I am contacted about a job, and manage to actually land it, I usually invite the client to work through me directly and disengage from Freelancer at that point. If the client wants to stay with Freelancer, I will inform them that they will have to absorb their fees, and those charged to me will be added to the bill. They usually will choose to work directly after that. At least in my experience. I know this doesn't build credit for me on Freelancer, but I don't need their accreditation. I did try their basic membership briefly recently, at $.99 a month, but in the second month they wanted me to up it to $4.99 a month, with no option for the $.99. Then they needled me through e-mails incessantly, so I went back to the basic free plan. It's unfortunate, they make you want to work their system like this, but they are still a viable source through which to bid on jobs.

Commission rates are pretty high, taking fees in advance is certainly looting and overall bad experience

Its easy to be ripped off by a client. They can easily cancel a paypal transaction after payment and they get the refund back. What does freelancer do about it? They don't lose, oh no, they don't. They take the money from YOUR account, including fees, even when you already paid for them.... The chat support is managed by malasyan punks, they dont really care about CS and barely solve your issues.

In few words, it's worst and most greedy freelance website, whether ur a client or a freelancer. Seems like their main aim is to charge for whatever they can charge. You can "promote" your offer in hundred ways and they charge you a hard money for that, but whatever you'll pay chances ar small anyway as usually 90 percent of your competitors are completely unskilled freelancers happy to work for $5 for whatever they are asked to do

I am freelancer since last 6 years. I am working on 3 platform and rejected all others. Freelancer.com is the worst platform that I have experienced. They will deduct project fee from your hard in advance and project payment is also not guaranteed, I accepted $300 contract and they deducted $30 from me in advance. When I completed the job the client ran away. I sent him many messages but he didn't responded. I contacted customer support but they just sent mail to him. nothing else. I requested freelancer.com support to refund the $30 fee but they didn't. I did free work and also lost $30. Thats how it works. When you fortunate enough to earn some money then it comes to withdrawals....... Initially when you request withdrawals they delay your withdrawals for 15 days. They says its there policy. After that they will ask you to verify your self.... They will require your Id card, Photo with their code and utility bill. They will reject your documents multiple times. After few months it approves then they start delaying your withdrawals. That happened with me. You can't get paid within 6 months. Its my guarantee.

Its fine. Everything is great but they pay too much attention on getting paid themselves instead of quality of service. At one point I did a project, got payed, got feedback but 3 days later, the money was reversed from my account and the reason freelancer told me is "there were problems in the clients account". They didn't even reversed me the project fee taken by freelancer.com . That is just something very basic to a freelancing website. Upwork is a lot better actually the best one.

Its very bad, IT shows like working for Freelancer.com website without earning $1 for your work. For using website we need to pay. No support nothing. I have faced many problems with freelancer.com, Highly not recommended for good workers, Its a headache thing with freelancer.com, You can work anything anywhere but don't choose freelancer.com for your work and don't trust this website, You don't get support.

Freelancers are steped on, very high rated for small projects (for a project that you get 10$ as freelancer they get around 21$ with all the commisions)

The worst website for freelancers.