Freelancer.com makes hiring look simple: post a project, receive bids, compare freelancers, and choose someone to do the work. With a massive global marketplace covering everything from software development and design to marketing and admin support, Freelancer.com can give companies quick access to independent talent.
But access to thousands of freelancers doesn’t automatically make hiring easier. The real question is whether Freelancer.com gives you the right balance of talent quality, cost, flexibility, and screening effort for the work you need done. Employers still have to compare proposals, review profiles, interview candidates, manage milestones, and decide who they can trust with the project.
In this Freelancer.com review for 2026, we’ll look at how Freelancer.com works for employers, Freelancer.com fees, pros and cons, safety, user reviews, and whether Freelancer.com is legit and worth using. We’ll also explain when a freelance marketplace makes sense and when hiring full-time remote talent through South may be a better fit for an ongoing role.
If you’re deciding whether to hire freelancers online or build a longer-term remote team, this guide will help you choose the hiring model that matches the work.
Freelancer.com Review: Quick Verdict
Freelancer.com is best suited to companies that need flexible help with a defined project and are comfortable handling candidate screening themselves. Its large global marketplace makes it possible to find freelancers across development, design, marketing, writing, finance, customer support, and many other fields.
For employers, the biggest advantage is access. You can post a project, receive bids, compare profiles, and hire relatively quickly. The tradeoff is that Freelancer.com operates as an open freelance marketplace, so finding the right person can require significant screening, especially when a project attracts a large number of proposals.
Here’s the quick version of our Freelancer.com review:
You can see Freelancer.com's current employer charges on its fees and charges page.
For businesses hiring for an ongoing position, the decision usually comes down to marketplace access versus recruiting support. Freelancer.com gives employers access to a large pool of freelancers, while a recruitment partner such as South focuses on helping companies find pre-vetted, full-time remote professionals in Latin America.
We’ll break down those differences throughout this review so you can determine whether Freelancer.com is worth it for the type of hire you need.
What Is Freelancer.com?
Freelancer.com is a global freelance marketplace that connects businesses with independent professionals for project-based and hourly work. Companies can post jobs, receive bids from freelancers, compare profiles, and hire someone directly through the platform.
The marketplace is huge. Freelancer.com currently reports more than 89 million registered employers and freelancers across over 247 countries, regions, and territories. Its talent pool covers software development, graphic design, writing, marketing, data entry, engineering, accounting, legal services, and many other professional skills.
Unlike a recruitment agency or staffing company, Freelancer.com primarily provides the marketplace where employers and freelancers find each other. Employers generally remain responsible for evaluating candidates, interviewing them, agreeing on project requirements, and choosing who to hire.
That setup gives companies a lot of flexibility. You can use Freelancer.com for a small one-time project, ongoing hourly support, or specialized work that doesn't necessarily require adding a permanent employee.
Freelancer Limited, the company behind the platform, is also publicly traded on the Australian Securities Exchange under the ticker ASX: FLN, giving Freelancer.com a much longer and more established track record than many newer freelance platforms.
For employers researching freelance marketplaces, the more important question is how that model works once you actually post a project. Let's look at the hiring process next.
How Does Freelancer.com Work for Employers?
Hiring through Freelancer.com follows a marketplace model. You describe the work, freelancers submit bids, and you choose who you want to work with.
For employers, the process usually looks like this:
1. Post a project
Start by creating a project with the scope, required skills, budget, deadline, and any other expectations.
The more specific the project description is, the easier it is to attract relevant freelancers and compare proposals. Include clear deliverables, preferred experience, communication expectations, and whether the work will be fixed-price or hourly.
2. Receive bids from freelancers
Once the project is live, freelancers can submit proposals explaining how they would approach the work, how much they charge, and how long they expect it to take.
Depending on the category and budget, you may receive a large number of bids, which gives you plenty of options but can also increase the amount of screening required.
3. Compare profiles and proposals
Employers can review freelancer profiles, ratings, previous projects, portfolios, skills, and proposed pricing before deciding who to contact.
This is one of the most important parts of hiring on a freelance marketplace. A low bid alone doesn't tell you whether someone has the right experience, communication skills, or availability for the project.
4. Interview your strongest candidates
Before awarding the project, speak with your top candidates through the platform and clarify anything that wasn't covered in the proposal.
Ask about relevant experience, availability, project milestones, expected turnaround times, and how they'll communicate progress.
For more technical or specialized projects, a short interview or practical assessment can save significant time later.
5. Award the project and set milestones
Once you've chosen a freelancer, you can award the project and agree on how the work will be delivered.
For fixed-price projects, employers can break the work into milestones tied to specific deliverables. Hourly projects can be managed based on time worked instead.
6. Review the work and release payment
When a milestone or project is completed, review the deliverable before approving payment.
This makes clearly defined expectations especially important. A detailed scope, measurable milestones, and agreed revision process can make managing freelance work much smoother.
Overall, Freelancer.com gives employers control over most of the hiring process. That flexibility works well for companies that want to source and manage freelancers directly, while businesses looking for more recruiting support may prefer a model where candidates are screened before they reach the interview stage.
Is Freelancer.com Legit?
Yes, Freelancer.com is a legitimate and established freelance marketplace. The platform has operated for years, serves millions of employers and freelancers worldwide, and is owned by Freelancer Limited, a publicly traded company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
That distinction matters because searches for “is Freelancer.com legit?” often mix together two different questions: whether the platform itself is legitimate and whether every freelancer on the marketplace will be a good hire.
Freelancer.com provides the infrastructure to post projects, receive bids, communicate with freelancers, set milestones, and make payments. The quality of the hiring experience still depends heavily on who you choose to work with and how carefully you screen candidates.
Because Freelancer.com is an open marketplace, employers may encounter freelancers with widely varying experience, pricing, communication skills, and work history. Reviewing ratings, completed projects, portfolios, proposal quality, and relevant experience can help narrow the field before you award a project.
For larger or more important projects, it’s worth adding an interview or practical assessment before deciding. You can also begin with a smaller milestone before committing to a longer engagement.
So, is Freelancer.com legit? Yes. The bigger question for employers is whether its self-service marketplace model fits the way you want to hire. If you’re comfortable sourcing and evaluating freelancers yourself, it can provide access to a very large talent pool. If you want candidates screened before you meet them, a recruitment or staffing model may be a better fit.
Freelancer.com Pros and Cons
Freelancer.com’s biggest strength is choice. Its marketplace gives employers access to professionals across a huge range of skills, budgets, and locations. At the same time, that flexibility puts more of the sourcing, screening, and management work on the employer.
Here’s a quick look at the main Freelancer.com pros and cons:
Pros of Freelancer.com
Access to a large global talent pool
One of Freelancer.com’s clearest advantages is the size and variety of its marketplace. Employers can search for freelance developers, designers, writers, marketers, virtual assistants, accountants, engineers, and many other specialists without being limited to a single region.
That can be particularly useful when you need an unusual skill set or want to compare candidates at different price points.
Flexibility for project-based work
Freelancer.com supports both fixed-price and hourly engagements, making it suitable for everything from a quick design task to a longer development project.
You can hire for a specific deliverable rather than committing to a full-time position, which makes the platform useful when workloads fluctuate or you only need specialized expertise temporarily.
Plenty of information to compare candidates
Freelancer profiles can include ratings, reviews, portfolios, completed projects, skills, and other work history. Employers can use that information alongside proposals and interviews to build a shortlist.
For experienced hiring managers who know what they're looking for, having direct control over candidate selection can be an advantage.
Milestone-based payments
For fixed-price projects, milestone payments let you divide larger jobs into smaller deliverables. That gives employers a way to review progress throughout the project instead of treating the entire engagement as one final handoff.
Cons of Freelancer.com
Screening takes work
A large talent marketplace can generate plenty of options, but someone still has to sort through them.
Employers generally review proposals, check profiles, assess experience, interview candidates, and decide whether someone can deliver the work. Projects that receive many bids can make this process time-consuming.
Talent quality varies
Freelancer.com accommodates professionals at many different experience and price levels. That variety creates choice, but it also means employers need to evaluate candidates carefully.
Ratings and portfolios are useful signals, though they shouldn't replace an interview or skills assessment when you're hiring for complex or business-critical work.
Time-zone and communication fit require filtering
Because Freelancer.com operates globally, candidates may be located anywhere in the world. That can help companies with flexible schedules, but teams needing real-time collaboration will need to check working hours and availability during the hiring process.
Companies specifically looking for Latin American talent may prefer a hiring model focused on professionals who can work closely with U.S. teams.
The hiring process is largely self-service
Freelancer.com gives employers the tools to find and hire talent, while the employer remains responsible for most hiring decisions and project management.
That model works well when you want direct control over a freelance engagement. For an ongoing position where candidate vetting, time-zone alignment, English proficiency, and long-term fit matter more, a recruitment or staffing partner can reduce the screening your internal team has to handle.
What Is It Actually Like to Hire Through Freelancer.com?
From a technical standpoint, using Freelancer.com is fairly straightforward. The harder part is usually turning a large pool of bids into a shortlist of candidates you’d actually trust with the work.
Your experience will vary by project type, budget, and skill level, but employers should expect to spend time reviewing proposals, checking profiles, communicating with candidates, and managing the project after hiring.
Expect a Wide Range of Proposals
Posting a project can attract freelancers with very different backgrounds, rates, experience levels, and approaches.
That variety is one reason companies use freelance marketplaces, but it also means the cheapest or fastest proposal won’t always be the strongest option. A useful first pass is to look for freelancers who clearly reference your project requirements rather than relying on a generic proposal.
Relevant work history, portfolio examples, ratings, and communication quality usually tell you more than price alone.
Shortlisting Can Take Longer Than Posting the Job
Creating a project may only take a few minutes. Evaluating everyone who applies can take considerably longer.
For specialized work, it helps to establish a few screening criteria before the bids arrive. You might prioritize:
- Experience with a specific technology or industry
- Similar completed projects
- Strong ratings and client feedback
- Availability during your working hours
- Clear written communication
- A realistic timeline and budget
That helps you quickly eliminate proposals that don’t fit the project.
Communication Matters Early
Messaging a freelancer before awarding the project can tell you a lot about what the working relationship might be like.
Ask candidates to explain how they would approach the project, what information they need from you, and where they see potential challenges. Someone who asks useful questions before getting hired may be easier to work with once the project begins.
For ongoing freelance work, you should also confirm response times, expected working hours, meeting availability, and how progress will be reported.
Project Management Still Falls on the Employer
Once you've hired someone, Freelancer.com provides communication and payment tools, but employers still need to manage the engagement.
For a simple project, that might mean approving one or two milestones. For more complex work, you may need to set deliverables, review drafts, provide feedback, manage deadlines, and coordinate the freelancer with your internal team.
Clear milestones can make that process much easier. Each one should ideally have a specific deliverable, deadline, and definition of what counts as complete.
Freelancer.com Works Best When the Scope Is Clear
Freelance marketplaces tend to work particularly well when you can clearly define what needs to be delivered.
For example, “redesign these five landing pages” gives candidates something concrete to estimate and complete. An open-ended responsibility such as managing an entire marketing function involves more collaboration, context, and long-term ownership.
That difference matters when deciding between hiring a freelancer and hiring a full-time remote employee.
For defined projects, Freelancer.com gives employers plenty of flexibility. For positions that require ongoing collaboration, company knowledge, consistent working hours, and long-term responsibility, a recruitment or staffing model may be easier to manage.
Freelancer.com Fees for Employers
Freelancer.com uses a transaction-based pricing model, so employers generally pay fees when they hire and pay freelancers rather than paying a traditional recruitment fee upfront.
For fixed-price projects, Freelancer.com charges employers 3% of the project value or $3, whichever is greater. For hourly projects, employers pay a 3% fee on each payment made to the freelancer.
Here’s the basic breakdown:
For example, if you hire a freelancer for a $2,000 fixed-price project, the standard employer project fee would be $60. A $10,000 project would carry a $300 fee before accounting for any optional upgrades or additional services.
The platform fee itself is relatively easy to calculate. The bigger cost consideration is how much internal time your team spends sourcing, screening, interviewing, and managing freelancers.
That distinction becomes more important when comparing a freelance marketplace with a recruitment or staffing service. A marketplace can be cost-effective for clearly defined projects, while an ongoing role may justify paying for more support with sourcing and candidate vetting.
Freelancer.com also offers optional project upgrades and additional services that can change the final cost. You can check the latest charges directly on Freelancer.com’s fees and charges page.
For a deeper breakdown of project fees, optional charges, and real-world hiring scenarios, see our Freelancer.com pricing guide.
What Do Freelancer.com Reviews Say?
Freelancer.com reviews are generally positive overall, although the experience can vary depending on the project, freelancer, and support issue involved.
As of September 2026, Freelancer.com has a 4.5 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot based on nearly 20,000 reviews. That’s a strong score for a marketplace of its size, but the individual comments are still worth reading because they show where users have very different experiences.
What Positive Freelancer.com Reviews Mention
Many positive reviews focus on customer support, onboarding, responsiveness, and successful project experiences.
Recent reviewers frequently mention helpful support representatives, quick resolution of account or payment issues, and positive experiences using the platform to connect with clients or freelancers.
For employers, that suggests Freelancer.com can work smoothly when the project scope is clear and both parties communicate well throughout the engagement.
What Negative Freelancer.com Reviews Mention
The negative reviews tend to focus on different issues.
Some users report frustration with:
- Customer support response times
- Payment or withdrawal disputes
- Account access issues
- Platform or technical problems
- Communication during dispute resolution
Those complaints don’t necessarily reflect every employer’s experience, but they’re useful context when deciding how to manage a project through the platform.
For example, keeping project communication and payments on Freelancer.com, clearly documenting milestones, and agreeing on deliverables before work begins can reduce ambiguity if a dispute occurs.
What Employers Should Take From the Reviews
The most useful takeaway from Freelancer.com reviews isn’t simply whether the platform has a high or low rating.
It’s that your experience depends heavily on how well you choose and manage the freelancer you hire.
A strong profile, good ratings, and positive previous reviews are useful starting points, but employers should still evaluate relevant experience, communication, availability, and project fit before awarding important work.
Freelancer.com can provide the marketplace and payment infrastructure. The employer still plays the central role in deciding who gets hired and whether the working relationship succeeds.
Is Freelancer.com Safe to Use?
Freelancer.com includes several features designed to make hiring and payments safer, particularly its Milestone Payment system and dispute resolution process.
For fixed-price work, employers can fund a milestone before the freelancer starts and release the payment once the agreed work is completed. Freelancer.com recommends using Milestone Payments because they also give both parties access to its Dispute Resolution Service if a project doesn’t go as planned.
That adds a layer of protection, but employers still need to hire carefully.
Use Milestone Payments
For larger projects, break the work into smaller stages instead of funding everything as one deliverable.
For example, a website project could be divided into:
- Wireframes
- Design
- Development
- Testing
- Final handoff
Each milestone should have a clear deliverable, deadline, and approval criteria before work begins.
Freelancer.com states that funded Milestone Payments are held until the client releases them, and recommends releasing payment only once you’re satisfied with the work.
Keep Communication and Payments on the Platform
Freelancer.com recommends keeping project conversations and payments on its platform. Doing so creates a clearer record of what was agreed and preserves access to the platform’s dispute tools.
Moving payment or important project conversations elsewhere can make resolving disagreements more complicated.
Review the Freelancer Before Hiring
A safe hiring process starts before money changes hands.
Look closely at:
- Previous client ratings
- Written reviews
- Number of completed projects
- Relevant portfolio samples
- Proposal quality
- Communication
- Experience with similar work
For higher-value projects, an interview or paid test project can give you more confidence than relying on profile information alone.
Be Specific About Deliverables
A vague project brief invites disagreement.
Before awarding a project, document what the freelancer is expected to deliver, when it’s due, which revisions are included, what files should be handed over, and what needs to happen before a milestone is approved.
If the work involves intellectual property or access to sensitive systems, your agreement should also clearly address ownership, confidentiality, and access permissions.
Start Smaller When You're Unsure
If you're hiring someone for the first time, consider beginning with a smaller project or initial milestone.
That gives you a chance to evaluate work quality, communication, reliability, and responsiveness before committing to a larger engagement.
So, is Freelancer.com safe? It can be a practical way to hire freelancers when you use the platform’s payment protections and follow a careful screening process. The marketplace provides tools to manage risk, while employers remain responsible for choosing the freelancer, defining the work, and managing the relationship.
Who Is Freelancer.com Best For?
Freelancer.com works best when you have a clearly defined piece of work, know what skills you need, and are comfortable managing the hiring process yourself.
The platform can handle everything from a quick graphic design task to a months-long software development project, but certain employers and projects are particularly well suited to the freelance marketplace model.
Companies With One-Off Projects
Freelancer.com is a natural fit when you need someone to complete a specific project rather than join your team permanently.
Examples include:
- Designing a new logo
- Building a landing page
- Editing a video
- Writing a batch of product descriptions
- Fixing a software bug
- Creating a financial model
- Migrating data between systems
Projects like these usually have a clear scope, deadline, and finished deliverable, making them easier to quote and manage through milestones.
Teams That Need Specialized Skills Temporarily
Sometimes your existing team has most of the expertise it needs but is missing one particular skill.
You might need a Shopify developer for a store migration, a motion designer for a campaign, or a data analyst to build a dashboard. Hiring a freelancer lets you bring in that expertise for the project's duration without creating a permanent position.
Employers Comfortable Screening Candidates
Freelancer.com gives employers a large pool of potential candidates, but you'll need to decide which ones deserve an interview and which person ultimately gets hired.
The platform is therefore better suited to companies that already have enough subject-matter knowledge to evaluate portfolios, proposals, experience, and technical ability.
For example, an engineering manager may be well equipped to evaluate freelance developers. A company hiring its first technical employee may find the screening process considerably harder.
Businesses With Flexible Collaboration Requirements
A global freelance marketplace can work particularly well for asynchronous work.
If a freelancer can receive a brief, complete the work independently, and deliver it by an agreed deadline, exact working-hour overlap may matter less.
Companies that need daily meetings, rapid back-and-forth communication, or close collaboration with U.S.-based teams should include availability and time-zone overlap in their screening criteria.
Companies Testing a New Initiative
Freelancers can also be useful when you're experimenting with an idea before investing in a larger team.
A company might hire freelance talent to build a prototype, test a new marketing channel, produce an initial content library, or automate a manual workflow.
That gives you a way to validate the need before deciding whether the work deserves a permanent role.
Freelancer.com becomes less straightforward when the position evolves from “complete this project” into “own this function.” At that point, companies often need consistency, deeper company knowledge, ongoing collaboration, and greater long-term accountability.
That’s where comparing a freelance marketplace with a different hiring model matters more.
When Should You Consider a Different Hiring Model?
Freelancer.com works well for project-based work. The equation changes when the person you’re hiring needs to join the day-to-day team.
If the role requires ongoing ownership, predictable availability, close collaboration, and deeper business knowledge, full-time remote hiring may be a better fit than repeatedly hiring freelancers.
Here are some signs that you may want to consider a different hiring model.
The Work Is Ongoing
A freelancer makes sense when there’s a clear beginning and end to the assignment. If you keep creating new projects for the same type of work, you may already have a full-time role.
This commonly happens with positions such as:
- Software developers
- Executive assistants
- Accountants and bookkeepers
- Customer support specialists
- Marketing specialists
- SDRs
- Designers
- Operations professionals
Hiring someone full-time gives that person more context, ownership, and familiarity with your processes over time.
You Need Consistent Working Hours
Freelancer.com's global talent pool gives employers plenty of geographic flexibility. For highly collaborative positions, though, availability can matter just as much as technical ability.
If someone needs to attend team meetings, answer customers during U.S. business hours, collaborate with managers throughout the day, or work closely with other departments, consistent time-zone overlap should be part of the hiring strategy.
This is one reason many U.S. companies consider hiring remote talent in Latin America. Professionals across LATAM can often work schedules that closely overlap with U.S. teams.
You Want Candidates Screened Before the Interview
Freelancer.com gives you the marketplace. Your team does most of the filtering.
That can work when you have the time and expertise to review dozens of profiles and proposals. As hiring volume increases, the internal time spent sourcing and screening candidates becomes part of the true cost of hiring.
A recruitment or staffing partner can take on more of that work by sourcing candidates and evaluating factors such as experience, English proficiency, technical ability, availability, and role fit before introducing them to your team.
You Need Someone to Own a Function
There’s an important difference between completing tasks and owning outcomes.
A freelancer may be hired to create a financial report. A full-time financial analyst might continually monitor performance, improve reporting, communicate findings to leadership, and develop a deeper understanding of the company.
The same distinction appears across engineering, marketing, sales, finance, customer support, and operations.
When the job requires thinking beyond individual deliverables, a longer-term employment relationship can create more continuity.
You're Building a Team Rather Than Completing a Project
Freelance marketplaces are designed around engagements. Companies eventually reach a point where they need people who learn the business, build relationships with coworkers, understand internal systems, and grow with the organization.
At that stage, the decision isn't simply Freelancer.com versus another freelance platform. It's freelancers versus full-time remote talent.
If that describes what you're hiring for, comparing Freelancer.com with a recruitment and staffing service such as South can clarify which model makes more sense.
Freelancer.com vs. South: Which Hiring Model Is Better?
Freelancer.com and South can both help companies access remote talent, but they solve different hiring problems.
Freelancer.com is a global marketplace built primarily around freelance projects. South helps U.S. companies find pre-vetted, full-time professionals in Latin America.
That difference affects everything from how candidates reach your inbox to how closely the person you hire becomes integrated with your team.
Choose Freelancer.com If You Need a Freelancer for a Defined Project
Freelancer.com makes sense when you can package the work into a project.
Maybe you need a designer for a presentation, a developer to fix an integration, or a video editor for a campaign. You can post the requirements, compare bids, hire someone, and end the engagement once the deliverable is finished.
You also retain considerable control over the process. Your team decides who to screen, interview, hire, and manage.
Choose South If You're Hiring Someone to Join Your Team
South is designed for a different situation: you need someone who will work with your company consistently and take ownership of an ongoing role.
Instead of sorting through marketplace bids, you tell South what you need. South then sources and screens professionals from Latin America based on factors such as experience, skills, English proficiency, working-hour alignment, and cultural fit.
You meet a smaller group of candidates who have already gone through an initial vetting process.
That model can work particularly well for companies hiring remote talent from Latin America across engineering, finance, operations, marketing, sales, customer support, and administrative roles.
The Difference Comes Down to What You're Hiring For
If you need someone to finish a project, Freelancer.com gives you a large marketplace and plenty of flexibility.
If you need someone to join the team and own an ongoing function, South provides more support around sourcing and screening while focusing specifically on full-time LATAM talent.
Neither model fits every hiring situation. The better choice depends on whether the work you're hiring for is a project or a position.
Is Freelancer.com Worth It in 2026?
Freelancer.com can be worth it in 2026 if you need flexible, project-based talent and you're comfortable managing the hiring process yourself. Its large global marketplace gives employers access to professionals across a wide range of skills, budgets, and locations, making it particularly useful for defined projects and temporary needs.
For a landing page redesign, software fix, video project, data analysis assignment, or another deliverable with a clear beginning and end, Freelancer.com can be a practical option. You can post the work, compare bids, review freelancer profiles, and choose someone based on your requirements and budget.
The calculation changes when you're filling an ongoing position.
If you need someone who will attend meetings regularly, understand your business, collaborate during U.S. working hours, and take ownership of a function over time, the amount of sourcing and screening required through an open freelance marketplace may make another hiring model more attractive.
Freelancer.com Is Worth Considering If:
- You have a clearly defined project or deliverable
- You need specialized expertise temporarily
- You want access to a large global freelancer marketplace
- You're comfortable reviewing bids and screening candidates
- Flexible working hours are acceptable
- You want fixed-price or hourly engagement options
Consider Another Hiring Model If:
- You're filling a full-time or long-term position
- You need consistent U.S. working-hour overlap
- You want candidates vetted before interviews
- English proficiency and communication are major requirements
- The person will collaborate closely with your internal team
- You want someone to take long-term ownership of a function
Ultimately, Freelancer.com is a marketplace, not a replacement for your hiring process. It gives you access to candidates and tools for managing freelance engagements, while your team remains responsible for determining who is qualified and who fits the work.
For companies hiring full-time remote professionals, South takes a more hands-on approach. We source and pre-vet professionals across Latin America based on your role requirements, so your team can spend less time sorting through applications and more time meeting relevant candidates.
If your next hire needs to join the team rather than complete a project, you can find remote talent in Latin America with South.
Need More Than a Freelancer? Build Your Team With South
Freelancer.com can be a useful option when you have a defined project and want to hire independent talent quickly. But if you’re repeatedly hiring freelancers for the same work, managing multiple contractors, or spending hours screening bids, you may need a teammate rather than another project-based hire.
South helps U.S. companies find pre-vetted, full-time remote professionals across Latin America for roles in engineering, finance, marketing, sales, operations, customer support, and more.
Instead of sorting through a crowded marketplace, you get candidates selected around the requirements that matter for an ongoing role, including experience, English proficiency, skills, cultural fit, and overlap with U.S. working hours.
You also get a simpler way to manage your remote team with one consolidated monthly invoice, no minimum commitments, and free replacement support if a hire doesn’t work out.
If the work has grown beyond a one-off project, it may be time to stop hiring task by task.
Schedule a free call with South and start meeting pre-vetted candidates for your next full-time hire.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is Freelancer.com legit?
Yes. Freelancer.com is a legitimate freelance marketplace operated by Freelancer Limited, a publicly traded Australian company. Employers can use the platform to post projects, receive bids, hire freelancers, manage milestones, and make payments.
As with any open freelance marketplace, employers should still review profiles, portfolios, ratings, and relevant experience before choosing someone for an important project.
Is Freelancer.com safe for employers?
Freelancer.com provides features such as Milestone Payments and a dispute resolution process to help employers manage projects and payments more securely.
Employers can further reduce risk by keeping payments and project communication on the platform, clearly defining deliverables**, reviewing freelancer history, and using smaller milestones for new working relationships**.
How much does Freelancer.com charge employers?
For fixed-price projects, employers generally pay 3% of the project value or $3, whichever is greater. Hourly projects typically carry a 3% employer fee on each payment.
Optional project upgrades and additional services can increase the total cost. See our Freelancer.com pricing guide for a more detailed breakdown.
Is Freelancer.com free for employers?
Employers can post standard projects on Freelancer.com for free. Fees generally apply once you award a project and begin paying a freelancer, along with any optional upgrades or additional services you choose.
Does Freelancer.com vet freelancers?
Freelancer.com provides profiles, reviews, ratings, portfolios, skills, and other information employers can use to evaluate freelancers. However, employers primarily handle candidate assessment and selection.
For specialized work, consider adding an interview, portfolio review, technical assessment, or paid test before committing to a larger project.
Is Freelancer.com good for hiring developers?
Freelancer.com can work well for hiring freelance developers for defined technical projects, such as fixing bugs, creating integrations, building features, or developing a prototype.
For an ongoing engineering position requiring daily collaboration and long-term product knowledge, companies may prefer hiring a full-time developer instead.
Freelancer.com vs. Upwork: Which is better?
Both Freelancer.com and Upwork are large global freelance marketplaces where companies can hire independent professionals for project-based and hourly work.
The better choice depends on factors such as the type of talent you're hiring, platform fees, available candidates, project management preferences, and how much screening you want to handle yourself. Employers comparing the two should evaluate the complete hiring process rather than choosing based on freelancer rates alone.
Freelancer.com vs. Fiverr: What's the difference?
Freelancer.com typically revolves around employers posting projects and freelancers submitting bids. Fiverr is built more heavily around predefined services, or "Gigs," that freelancers list for buyers to purchase.
Freelancer.com may suit projects where you want to compare several proposals, while Fiverr can work well when you already know the specific service and deliverable you want to buy.
Can you hire full-time workers on Freelancer.com?
Freelancer.com can support longer-term and ongoing engagements, including hourly work. However, its core model is a freelance marketplace.
If you're filling a permanent or full-time remote position, a recruiting or staffing service may better support sourcing, screening, and evaluating long-term fit.
What's a good Freelancer.com alternative for full-time hiring?
If you want to hire someone who will become an ongoing member of your team, South offers a different approach.
South helps U.S. companies find pre-vetted, full-time remote professionals in Latin America, with screening for experience, English proficiency, working-hour alignment, and role fit.
Freelancer.com makes more sense when you need someone for a project. South is designed for companies that need someone to join the team and stay.
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