Freelancing platforms like Upwork act as a bridge between independent talent and potential buyers. They allow customers to find, compare, and hire services provided by freelance workers to solve their specific business needs.
Regardless of the type of work you do — whether it’s web development, sales, customer support, or anything else — these platforms are a great way to put your work in front of more people, get more clients, and save the money it usually takes to generate leads.
To help you save time filtering among the options, we shortlisted the 15 best freelancing platforms that tech freelancers can join in 2023 to scale their freelancing businesses.
15 Freelancing Platforms For Tech Freelancers
01. Upwork
One of the best-known outsourcing sites in the world, Upwork is a freelance marketplace trusted by over 5 million buyers in the world, out of which 145,400+ spend at least $5,000 USD per year in Development & IT, Sales & Marketing, and Web Design services.
After signing up, a freelancer’s services become searchable to millions of buyers around the world. Freelance users can also apply to job postings submitted by buyers with specific needs. The platform handles transactions and secures payments on behalf of the freelancer to ensure everything goes smoothly between them and their buyer.
Freelancers need to buy Connects, Upwork’s internal currency, in order to apply for job opportunities. Connects cost $0.15 each and some projects may cost several Connects to apply, depending on their scope and the buyer’s requirements.
Upwork also charges a 20% commission fee per project (for fixed-rate projects), or per hour billed, depending on the agreement between the freelancer and the client.
02. Fiverr
Arguably the second best-known freelancing platform, Fiverr registered 4.2 million active buyers and an average spend of $242 per buyer in 2021.
Fiverr centers around the sale of productized services known as Gigs. Freelancers can create a Gig for every service they provide that caters to a different customer need.
Every Gig is specific, has a thorough description, and can host up to 3 variants (known as ‘packages’) to cover increasing scale and scope. Sellers can also add ‘Gig Extras’ to their services to upsell and earn more by providing added value.
Fiverr’s Gig model makes it easy for buyers to find precise solutions. It also allows freelancers to create multiple sales funnels that lead to their profile.
Like Upwork, Fiverr charges a 20% commission fee per fixed-rate project, while longer projects can also be broken down into separate milestones.
03. Pangea.ai
Pangea.ai is a platform that matches businesses with pre-vetted and remote software development and other tech companies who specialize in a diverse array of tech services.
Whether a business needs to increase the bandwidth of their teams, or completely outsource certain tasks or even projects, they can do both using Pangea.ai’s Team Augmentation feature.
Team augmentation provides clients with the perfect candidate(s) based on their budget, industry, tech-stack and domain, saving them the time and headache of comparing several options.
All vendors within Pangea.ai are hand picked and approved so that clients can laser focus on growing other areas of their businesses while leaving their software development work in good hands.
04. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the top employment platform in the world, with a staggering 850 million users and 58 million companies registered. They’ve recently launched features that cater to autonomous workers (and buyers willing to hire them) as a way to capitalize on this work trend.
The biggest one is LinkedIn Services Marketplace, a built-in search engine filter that allows entrepreneurs and companies to easily pin down independent service providers. Likewise, users can now offer freelance services within their profiles, upload an accompanying portfolio, and receive reviews from previous clients as social proof.
While LinkedIn doesn’t have built-in transactions like Upwork and others, leveraging its sizable user base to find clients will definitely prove game-changing for the most proactive tech freelancers.
05. Indeed
Indeed is a worldwide employment search engine and job listing site boasting the highest traffic by unique visitors of any job website in the United States, and more and more freelance opportunities are being posted on the site by the day.
Indeed profiles contain previous job positions, education, and contact information. If you’re looking for tech freelance jobs, you can filter through available listings by salary, modality (home office/remote, or in-person), industry, and employment type (full-time, part-time, or freelance), on its search engine.
06. Revolancer
A new entrant to the market, Revolancer launched in 2021 as an alternative to sites like Upwork or Fiverr.
While it works similarly, it does so with a big twist: Revolancer charges zero commission fees, instead opting for an optional subscription model (£10/month) that provides freelancers with additional tools to optimize their profiles.
Revolancer has a vetting process similar to Pangea.ai’s to ensure only high-quality service providers face customers. They look to create a frictionless experience that gives buyers peace of mind when outsourcing their work.
Revolancer’s most popular service categories are programming, web design, marketing, writing, and graphic design.
07. Contra
Contra is a Gen-Z focused freelancing platform that hand-vets clients instead of freelancers. Similar to Revolancer, it launched in 2021 and replicates the zero-commission, optional-subscription business model in exchange for advanced features.
Among Contra’s unique aspects are the ability to create visually-appealing portfolios that can be shared with a link, full-on automated websites generated from the data on an online portfolio, and the ability to receive crypto payments in USDC.
Among the tech-related opportunities frequently posted on Contra are front-end engineering, and mobile development gigs.
08. RemoteOk
Trusted by companies such as Amazon, GitHub, and Upwork itself, RemoteOk has become a favorite option among high-profile companies looking to fill both full-time and freelance roles.
RemoteOk works similarly to other employment and job listing websites, with two catches: only remote positions can be posted, and listing a job costs an above-market fee of $599 USD to ensure only serious, high-quality opportunities reach the eyes of qualified individuals.
The platform is heavily-geared towards back-end and front-end development, but it also gets design, writing, and digital marketing opportunities listed occasionally.
09. Toptal
Toptal is a freelancing platform changing traditional hiring. Like Pangea.ai and Revolancer, Toptal screens and hand-picks which talent gets to join.
Toptal’s looks to gather the top 3% freelance talent. This is the actual rate of applicants who pass their screening process.
One thing setting Toptal apart is that new entrants don’t have to build a reputation from scratch to get clients, as is the case with Upwork and its competitors. Instead, Toptal’s vetting process is enough confirmation for companies such as Shopify, Duolingo, and Bridgestone that a freelancer is worth hiring.
Toptal doesn’t take a cut from a freelancer’s fees, but instead adds its own service fee for the buyer to pay for, creating a rewarding scenario for independent workers.
10. Showwcase
Showwcase is a specialized network where coders can connect with a community of 50,000+ developers.
Built by coders for coders, Showcase has an intuitive and easy to use job board where dozens of full-time and freelance opportunities are posted on a weekly basis.
11. Remotive
Remotive is another job listing site similar to RemoteOk, focusing on remote openings aimed at programmers, software engineers, and coders.
Remotive is another darling of big names in tech, having been used by the likes of Zapier, Stripe, Square, and Shopify to find talent for their ranks in full-time and freelance capacity.
12. Arc
Directed at experienced remote software developers and consultants, Arc matchmakes distinguished companies with ideal freelancers within 72 hours, more thoroughly than Upwork and its competitors.
In Arc, professionals are first screened by a ‘Silicon Valley-caliber vetting process’, which only 2.3% of applicants get through. They then learn about the role, its technical needs, and budget from the company. Finally, it matches both parties for a final interview.
Arc gets rid of the wasted time and bureaucracy abundant in HR procedures, culminating in a leaner, speedier, but equally responsible hiring experience.
13. Dice
Dice is a NY-based career website primarily serving IT and engineering professionals. While it started as a job board like Indeed, nowadays both full-time and contractor opportunities are posted on a daily basis.
14. WhoIsHiring.io
WhoIsHiring features a compendium of freelance and full-time opportunities from all over the world presented in an interactive world map view.
Opportunities in WhoIsHiring are fetched and/or synced from other job listing sites, though they differ from what can be found in Upwork or Fiverr. Its visual arrangement by geographic location makes it easier for freelancers to sort for jobs in companies close to them or based in specific locations.
15. AngelList Talent
AngelList Talent is a venue for job seekers to join companies and startups spearheading tomorrow’s technology.
Applications are completed with one single click, without the need for cover letters other than one’s own profile. Details such as salary and stock options are fully transparent throughout the process, and talent here is interviewed directly by founders.
AngelList is ideal for tech professionals with an entrepreneurial drive who are passionate about solving problems and shaping the tools of the future.
FAQs:
Q1. What is the largest freelancer platform?
Upwork is considered the largest freelancer platform because of two things. First, it has the largest number of registered freelancers, with a total of over 12 million as of 2020. Second, it possesses 145,400 ‘core clients’ (buyers spending $5,000+ USD per year), the largest amount out of any freelancing platform, according to Backlinko.
Q2. What is the highest paid freelance job?
Web and mobile development, data visualization, machine learning, email marketing automation, and e-commerce development are among the freelance jobs with the highest yearly salary, as reported by CNBC.
However, it should be noted that every freelancer is free (pun intended) to price their work according to their experience. A freelancer’s earnings also depend on the amount of clients they’re working with simultaneously and the hours of work they put in daily. As such, these lists should be taken as an indicator only, and not as concluding evidence.
Q3. Which skill is highly paid as freelancer?
Among the highest-paying freelancing skills in 2022 are programming, web development, copywriting, editing, data analysis, and SEO consulting, according to a report published by Upwork.
Most freelancers start charging an average hourly rate of $12-15 dollars per hour. Those with more experience can reach (and even break) the $100 dollars per hour mark, depending on their services.