Top 10 Freelancer Platforms

Freelancer platforms can help you get the job done. Looking to hire a freelancer for a technical or creative project but not sure where to find the right one?

When searching for a freelancer for a job, it’s all about finding the right one. It’s important to find a freelancer that can do the job, but it’s equally, if not more, important to find one that jibes with you or the person that will be managing them. They should also be passionate about the project, and have your best interest in mind.

To find the right freelancer, think about your project and understand its specifics. This will help you understand what kind of freelancer you need and which platform to use to find him or her.

For Technical Projects

Finding a freelancer for a technical project is extremely different than finding one for a creative project. Not only does the person have to have all the necessary skills and coding languages required, but they need to be easy to work with. Technical projects require a lot of back and forth and constant tweaking and editing when developing something. When you look for a freelancer to hire for a technical project, refer to one of the most popular sites, Upwork. The platform is the product of a merge between two massive freelancer sites – Elance and oDesk – has 17 million users, and though it has freelancers in categories like accounting and marketing, its main category is web and mobile development. Upwork has a great reputation and is trusted by businesses around the world, both big and small.

If you have a technical project and are looking for a specific developer, two other platforms to find your perfect freelancer on are Guru and Freelancer.com. Guru was started in 2001 and has freelance services in categories ranging from legal, to writing and translation. Its main category, though, with over 1 million services, is web, software and IT. Freelancer.com is used by millions of small businesses, as it makes finding a freelancer really simple. The platform lets you upload a job, on which freelancers can bid to win. You can then sort the bids to see which person best fits your criteria, and take it from there. Using a platform specific to technical projects is key to a good finished product.

For Creative and Artistic Projects

As opposed to technical projects, creative ones are more about the freelancer’s past work and their style, rather than learned skills and certifications. So if you have a creative project, the best place to find a freelancer is on a design focused site, of which there are many.

99designs and Behance are excellent design focused freelancer platforms. 99designs is exclusively for designers, and jobs are posted as contests. What does this mean? Instead of looking through freelancers and contacting the relevant ones, as you would do on any other site, 99designs brings the freelancers to you. You can post a job, including the task and budget, and then designers can submit their work for that job. If the designer’s job is chosen as the winner, they get paid for their design. Many people and companies use the site for logo, t-shirt, business card, and packaging designs. It makes the freelancer search really quick and easy. Behance, which was acquired by Adobe in 2012, differs in that it isn’t categorized as a freelancer site where people can go to hire freelancers, though it is used for that purpose. Behance aims to connect creatives in order to empower individuals and the community as a whole. Artists can showcase their work on the site, and many people use their work as reference to hire them. Behance has a community of over 10 million active artists.

Of course, there is the well known, Fiverr. Fiverr offers creative and design focused projects starting at just $5. Many projects cost more and can reach as high as $1000, but all projects have a basic plan for $5. It has freelancers in pretty much any category you can imagine. Are you looking to get your dog sculpted from clay? Want to send your girlfriend an animated video with voice overs? It can all be done on Fiverr. The site has freelancers from beginner to expert level, and has an extremely easy-to-use interface that makes getting what you need done, no matter how random, straightforward.

For One-Off or Long-Term Projects

If you’re looking to hire a freelancer based on the length of a project, you can. PeoplePerHour lets you hire people, as its name suggests, per hour. This is a good avenue for smaller, more mundane jobs. It has a nice feature called WorkStream that streamlines the hiring and management process by having everything you could possibly need in one accessible place. Craigslist is another favorite for one-off or short-term jobs. It has tons of users in almost every city and state, but using a site like Craigslist can be tricky, as the people don’t get reviewed, lack background checks, and there is no middle-man to make payments, making the process risky.

If you’re looking to hire more long-term workers through a professional site, Linkedin is your answer. It has over 420 million members in over 200 countries, making its freelance platform, LinkedIn ProFinder, extremely powerful. Thanks to its huge user base, LinkedIn has tons of data that makes it great at connecting companies with freelancers. LinkedIn ProFinder is a good tool to find professional freelancers around the world. If professional is what you’re looking for, try Toptal. The platform screens its freelancers before granting them access to be on the site. This ensures that you’re hiring some of the best talent around. It has major clients like AirBnB, Pfizer, and JP Morgan.

Consider the Job Done

When stuck with a project or task that needs to get done, the best place to turn to is the internet. But before you hire a freelancer from any old website, it’s important to ensure they’re right for the job. Go about your freelancer search by understanding your project, and from there, find the platform that best suits your needs. With this approach, you’ll get the best results possible.