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Contents
Best Freelance Websites
Freelancing is a viable career path that is ever-increasing every single day. People of all ages have been getting in on the movement, especially students—who have expertly made it a pathway to gainful employment. So what’s so appealing about freelancing, to begin with?
Freelancers, when posed with such a question will generally mention four main attractions behind choosing a freelancing career: being one’s own boss, more choice, greater flexibility, and access to an endless variety.
The best freelance websites provide freelancers unbridled access to the freedoms that they enjoy as successful freelancer. Furthermore, freelance websites empower freelancers by granting them access to companies or individuals looking for help from skilled professionals such as themselves.
What’s more, these online forums allow freelancers to work on a multitude of projects all at once or focus on a particular discipline, it simply depends on their preferences.
This article will provide a list of the top freelance websites that best facilitates all of the strengths behind choosing freelancing as a career path.
What Makes a Good Freelance Website?
For starters, what distinguishes a good freelance website from a mediocre one begins with their professionalism. Not all freelance websites come equipped with the prerequisite professionalism needed to run a successful and productive site.
Mediation
With any business—complications and difficulties will arise, however, the measure of a site is how timely and precisely such problems are resolved. A good site should hold both parties to the contents of their contracts and step in to mediate between the two when necessary. Your freelance website should be responsive to your inquiries.
Variety
Furthermore, the best freelance websites will have access to a litany of jobs. Nowadays, you can find freelancers from different walks of life having very different skill sets from one another. What you don’t want is a bottleneck of freelance professionals all vying for the same jobs due to a lack of job availability and variation.
People are very talented and the best freelance websites don’t just cater to one discipline; on the contrary, it offers a variety of opportunities for people of different talents to fill the need that a diverse clientele needs.
When navigating these sites you don’t want to be bumbling around because the site is hard to understand and navigate. A good freelance website will be easy to navigate and the site will make the mechanism behind interviewing for a job easy to understand.
Sites that are too cumbersome can deter participation from freelancers or even cause very capable freelance professionals to miss job opportunities that they would have otherwise landed.
Good freelance websites—thanks to their easy-to-use interface, should provide you with a simple and easy way to query the jobs that you’re qualified for. There’s nothing more frustrating than wading through a bunch of job opportunities for which you don’t have the skillset for.
A quick search of the kind of work you’re looking for using the website’s search engine should link you with the job opportunities that you’re qualified to perform.
Price
Finally, the cost of using the website shouldn’t be too exorbitant. A good website may begin by charging you a certain percentage and decreasing the amount as you become more productive and provide more business.
Site Reviews: Best Freelance Websites
Using the criteria listed above we’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of the Best Freelance websites for your convenience. Below you will find 7 of the best sites in no particular order. Please continue to read to discover what we considered to be the best freelance websites that are currently at your disposal.
1.Upwork
When it comes to versatility no website does it quite like Upwork. Finding work is a snap no matter what kind of freelancer you are. More specifically, there’s no shortage of work for freelance professionals in fields such as graphic design, web development, freelance writing, and even customer support.
You may be surprised to learn that Upwork features a virtually never-ending feed of job postings which is continuously updated to boot. From large corporations, all the way down to the little guy there are companies of all kinds in the business of hiring freelance designers, bloggers, and freelance writers via Upwork.
When you first begin searching for jobs on Upwork there’s an adjustment period that everyone goes through. That adjustment period has to do with learning how to write effective proposals to companies looking to fill a particular position. However, once you have mastered the art of the proposal landing a job should be infinitely easier.
Moreover, you may have bid below your pay rate to improve your feedback rating. Upwork has plenty of jobs to choose from, however, the competition can be fierce because other capable people are interviewing for the same jobs.
Keep in mind that unless you’re rated very high, bidding on a job that already has 20 proposals may not be worth your time.
Freelancers are sure to find opportunities in Upwork—just sign up and get started today.
Related post: How to Make Money on Upwork [2021 Updated Guide]
2. LinkedIn
This unique site is perfect for all talents, especially the creative kind. If you are someone without a skillset looking for a job then having a LinkedIn profile should be on your list of priorities.
This site is more than just a space where you upload your resume. You can post examples of your work from any role you’ve ever had. Having your skills searchable on this platform is sure to get business trafficked directly to you. And these people will be looking for your specific expertise.
LinkedIn also has an innovative feature called the LinkedIn ProFinder. This feature helps businesses find qualified professionals to work for them. Additionally, the Linkedin ProFinder will send project leads to your email allowing you to write a proposal to bid for the position.
Finally, LinkedIn also has job postings where you can find part-time or full-time positions at one push of a button. LinkedIn is one of the best job sites on the web due to its consistent ability to link professionals with companies looking for help.
3. Designhill
With Designhill there are a few ways for employers to find freelance designers. One option involves employers creating a project contest—this is purposed to bring a litany of design entries directly to them. The alternative method is to seek your services by using a search box at the top of the landing page.
Not everyone cares for design contests; you may be someone who doesn’t trust crowdsourcing work on freelancing sites, and that’s understandable. However, not every design contest is a scam, and Designhill had shown themselves to be above board in this regard.
Designhill has seemingly endless opportunities available to anyone with a zeal to work. Designhill has a place for web designers and graphic designers alike. Even if you’re pursuing other disciplines of design, Designhill has opportunities for you as well.
Designhill even takes it further when it comes to enticing creative minds to work on the site. Designhill offers freelancers the chance to design their very own T-shirts and print them out to be sold in Designhill’s online shop. This benefit gives their freelance designers yet another opportunity to display their talents while making a buck or two off of it as well.
4. Behance
This site is a creative haven that features creative works such as animations, web design, illustrations, and more.
When you create your Behance profile, you will have the opportunity to add the best examples of your work to your profile. Your work is then put on display in front of other creative people. If your work earns the spot of the featured project—your art, style, and brand will receive even more exposure. This could open up doors that you never thought would open for you as a result of your work being rewarded with the spot of featured project.
Additionally, Behance functions as a social media network connecting employers with other designers. If you were to expand your list of contacts, you would be sure to land new design opportunities.
Furthermore, Behance has a job section with a lot of leads for anyone looking for quality freelance work. The feed of jobs isn’t endless by any stretch of the imagination. However, the postings will be in alignment with Behance’s awesome reputation.
5. SimplyHired
Notably, SimplyHired does not charge people to put up job postings. As you can imagine, having no restrictions on job postings allows for job opportunities to be in abundance on this particular website.
What’s more, freelance professionals looking to be visible on the site can upload their resumes to the site and get your profile set up in no time at all. Doing this increases the chances that a freelancer gets seen by potential clients who intend to hire them.
There are even job search functions on the site which enable you to narrow down your searches. This function allows you to be precise about your job search—giving you a query of jobs that you’re truly interested in. SimplyHired has focused opportunities, which is much better than dealing with sites that display loosely-related results.
SimplyHired even offers resources for people looking for work. They have guides on how to write resumes, cover letters, and other informative information. SimplyHired is invested in the experience of the freelancer. Get started today and see how far this site can take you.
6. Dribbble
No matter where you find yourself in your career path as a designer, having a profile with Dribbble is a must. Dribbble boasts a high quality and variety of projects and a strong supportive community of creative minds.
Behind the prestige of a high-quality Dribbble profile, you will be able to properly market yourself and show potential clients your abilities and the full range of what you’re capable of.
This site receives lots of traffic from clients looking for talented freelance designers. The best way to go about making yourself visible on the site is to create an inviting bio and to show off the best of what your portfolio has to offer.
Dribbble has a convenient way to update your work availability. There may be some days where you can take on a heavier workload, and there may be others where you may need a bit of a respite. Whatever the case may be you can flip the notifying switch off and on at your discretion.
Moreover, you can upgrade to the pro level granting your access to an exclusive freelance design job board. Dribbble is a great place for graphic designers, web developers, and others with a similar skill set to find their next freelance job.
7. We Work Remotely
We Work Remotely reports that they get about 2.5 million users a month. That’s an astonishing number, to say the least. This site features a bevy of job postings, many of them being design-related. Admittedly, We Work Remotely can feel less personal than other design-centric websites.
However, the sheer amount of job postings found on the site more than makes up for this. We Work Remotely operates by recruiting people or companies that are seeking designers. These individuals have to spend a fixed price of $299 to post their listings on the site. This prerequisite serves as a screening process to discourage any low-quality job leads.
The most prolific companies such as Amazon, Google, and Invision have all posted on the site attesting to the platform’s legitimacy. An added benefit to using this site is that you don’t have to create a profile. Just click the job link and you will be taken directly to the posting.
We Work Remotely is guaranteed to have freelance jobs which fit your skillset.
Review of Best Freelance Sites
Now that you have all of the information on the sites, here’s the condensed version to help you quickly highlight which site is best for you.
Here’s a brief recap of the best features for each freelancing site:
Upwork
Upwork offers an array of job opportunities in terms of variety and sheer volume. Upwork is a freelance website that doesn’t cater to one kind of skill set but they offer job opportunities in fields of graphic design, web development, freelance writing, and even customer support.
LinkedIn offers a space where you can be your very own promoter displaying to the world the best that you have to offer. You can literally post examples of your work from any role you’ve ever had. Having your skills searchable on this platform is sure to get business trafficked directly to you.
Designhill
Designhill has a place for web designers and graphic designers alike. Even if you’re pursuing other disciplines of design, Designhill has opportunities for you as well. Most notably, Designhill goes the extra mile in allowing designers to create shirts and make money off the merchandise in their shop.
Behance
This site is a creative haven that features creative works such as animations, web design, illustrations, and more. Behance functions as a social media network connecting employers with other designers. What’s more, if you win the coveted featured project—your art, style, and brand will receive even more exposure. This opportunity could open up doors that once seemed impossible to open.
SimplyHired
Notably, SimplyHired does not charge people to put up job postings. As you can imagine, having no restrictions on job postings allows for job opportunities to be in abundance on this particular website. There are even convenient job search functions on the site which enable you to narrow down your searches.
Dribbble
Dribbble has a convenient way to update your work availability. There may be some days where you can take on a heavier workload, and there may be others where you may need a bit of a respite. You can also flip the switch on or off to indicate your work availability. With Dribbble you can upgrade to the pro level granting you access to an exclusive freelance design job board.
We Work Remotely
We Work Remotely reports that they get about 2.5 million users a month. Companies seeking designers have to spend a fixed price of $299 to post their listings on the site. This requirement serves as a screening process to discourage any low-quality job leads. An added benefit to using this site is that you don’t have to create a profile. Just click the job link and you will be directed to the posting.
Wrap-Up
Freelancing can open up a world of possibilities to someone searching for a viable career path. Freelancing can empower a person to be their own boss—enabling them to enjoy a kind of freedom and flexibility that they never could enjoy working a typical job.
Moreover, these websites help to best facilitate this liberating process while simultaneously providing an able and professional workforce for employers and companies alike by tapping into the freelance community.
These freelance websites provide interfaces that are easy to use as well as a space to advertise your talents to an exclusive group of employers who values them the most.
Related post: Fiverr Review: A Versatile Platform for Freelance Gigs