Best Websites to Hire Skilled Freelancers for Your Small Business
Hiring a freelancer can help you grow your business quickly. Freelancers often do the work you don’t know how or want to do, giving you access to a wealth of different skills on demand and saving you time.
For a startup or small business, this can be a major advantage over hiring employees, as it keeps costs low and gives you the flexibility to respond to changes or new project requirements quickly.
There are many websites to hire freelancers online, some of the best being Upwork, Fiverr, Guru.com, and Codeable. Whether you’re looking to hire a web developer or programming expert, marketing professionals, writers for your website, accounting assistance, or other online help, these professional freelancer sites are a good start.
These freelance service sites often let you post jobs, browse through projects, and talk with prospective freelancers before hiring them. Hourly rates, project costs, and estimates are given so you know ahead of time how much hiring your on-demand freelance talent will affect your budgets.
7 Sites to find freelancers online
1. Upwork – covers every kind of freelance work
Upwork offers many skills to hire on a per-project or per-hour basis. Trusted by big companies like Microsoft and GoDaddy, Upwork lets you post a specific job in the talent marketplace, narrowing down the type of work and price you’re willing to pay.
You can look at their project catalog if you’re after a common job like logo design or even responsive web design, which will give you a good understanding of what’s available and the starting prices that some freelancers charge.
It might take some time to find what you need, but with a 4.9/5 client rating, Upwork prides itself on delivering a professional service.
Pros
- Wide range of freelancers available in various fields and skill levels
- Strong filtering and search options to find ideal candidates quickly
- Offers payment protection and dispute resolution for clients
Cons
- Service fees can be high for both clients and freelancers
- Quality varies, so additional vetting may be needed to ensure expertise
- Competitive marketplace where top talent may charge premium rates
2. Guru – 99% satisfaction rate
Another freelance hiring website, Guru, is an American-based company that offers a vast talent pool. You’ll be able to find verified professional freelancers for a variety of work, including programming and development, legal, writing, marketing, translation, and more.
How Guru works:
- Fill out a job form with a description of the work you need to do in detail
- Select how much you’re willing to pay
- The location or timezone you want your freelancer to be in
- The deadline for when you want the quotes to stop coming in.
You can then pick which one fits your needs and budget and hire them to complete the work.
It’s a good option if you’re after a specific project to be completed.
Pros
- Lower service fees compared to some other platforms
- Wide variety of freelancer categories and flexible payment options
- Robust vetting tools, including work history, portfolios, and feedback
Cons
- Interface can be less intuitive than other platforms, making it harder to navigate
- Smaller freelancer pool compared to Upwork or Fiverr
- Limited features in dispute resolution for clients and freelancers
3. Fiverr – cheap and fast
A freelance services marketplace, Fiverr offers a wide range of project types and skillsets with no hourly rates, just project pricing. This means you’ll always know how much a project will cost you, no matter how long it takes.
You’ll have to pay upfront, with your payment not being released to the freelancer you’ve hired until you approve the work that they’ve done.
Fiverr’s scope of freelance work ranges from your more standard online digital marketing and web design/development to more lifestyle-type work, including creating life coaching and tarot card readings.
For small businesses, they have a good range of different types of content writers and professional virtual assistants to pick from.
Their prices are reasonable, too, with a price range to meet nearly every small business budget.
Pros
- Affordable, with freelancers offering a range of price options starting at $5
- Easy to find specialized gig-based services for quick, one-off tasks
- User-friendly interface with clear pricing and tiered service options
Cons
- Focuses on short-term projects, which may not suit long-term needs
- Quality control can be inconsistent, requiring careful vetting
- Service fees apply to every purchase, which can add up for recurring projects
4. Codeable – hire a professional WordPress developer
If you’re running a business website on the WordPress CMS platform and need some custom coding, specific plugins, database optimizations, or general fixes, then Codeable is for you.
With a freelance website that only has vetted WordPress experts on the books, you can connect with one of their developers within a day of posting your project.
Depending on the complexity, urgency, and scope of your project will determine the types of pricing you find, but with estimates for your quotes being based on an average price of who responds, it ensures you get the best person for the job.
With hourly rates at around $70 – $120 plus a 17.5% fixed fee, it might not be the cheapest, but you know that you’re getting a professional WordPress developer who knows what they are doing.
Just note, much like Fiverr, you’ll have to pay upfront, but your payment doesn’t get released to the person you hire until you are satisfied with the job.
Pros
- Specializes in WordPress development, with vetted and highly skilled developers
- Quality assurance and strict vetting process ensure top-tier results
- Personalized matchmaking to connect clients with the best-suited freelancer
Cons
- Higher costs compared to general freelancer platforms due to expertise focus
- Limited to WordPress projects, so it’s not suitable for other types of work
- Fewer freelancers available compared to broader platforms like Upwork
5. PeoplePerHour – over 3 million freelancers to choose from
Another place to hire freelancers online is PeoplePerHour. Like UpWork and Guru, they offer a wide variety of freelance talent.
Top categories include: Content Writing, SEO, Voice Over Artists, Illustration and Logo Design. They also offer more business-orientated freelance services like tax consulting, legal advice, and administrative assistance.
Search for freelancers by area, price, and delivery time to see a set of eager freelancers waiting to do the work you need. A simple system that can help you find cheap but quality work.
Pros
- Offers a variety of freelancers in different fields, with hourly or project-based pricing
- Easy-to-use interface and transparent pricing structure
- Project proposals help clients compare multiple freelancer options quickly
Cons
- Quality varies widely, so additional vetting may be required
- Service fees for freelancers are relatively high, which can affect project costs
- Customer support response times can sometimes be slow
6. Freelancer – over 1800 different types of work on offer
Freelancer offer a quick way to get your ideas off paper and into production. Whether you’re looking for a content writer to write articles for your website, packaging design for your products, or some data entry clerks, you’ll be able to find them here.
Post a project for free with as much detail as possible, and let the bidding war begin. Freelancers will then bid on your project and provide you with quotes on how much it will cost to complete.
You can then pick from the best ones and review the freelancers’ previous work, ratings and reviews before accepting them.
During your project, you can track how your freelancer is getting on with the time tracking mobile app.
Pros
- Large global freelancer pool covering a wide range of skills
- Project contests allow clients to see multiple submissions before selecting
- Flexible pricing options, including fixed-price and hourly rate projects
Cons
- Fees for both clients and freelancers can be higher than average
- Spam and lower-quality applicants may require extensive vetting
- Dispute resolution process can be lengthy and challenging for clients
7. Dribbble – a creative hub of talent
At some point during your small business venture, you’ll need to have something designed. Whether that’s a logo, product packaging, leaflets, UX design, or illustrations, Dribbble lets you access a pool of creative talent to do just that.
You won’t find web developers or content writers here, only graphic designers looking to show off their work and find projects to get hired on.
You can post freelance projects for free, listing your design brief and price range and seeing which designers are willing to take on your job. It’s not as quick as some other freelance websites to get quotes on but has a wider variety of design freelancers.
Pros
- Ideal for finding high-quality designers and creative freelancers
- Strong portfolio showcase allows clients to view extensive work samples
- Attracts top talent in graphic design, illustration, and branding
Cons
- Limited to creative roles, making it unsuitable for other project types
- Higher rates, as many Dribbble designers are seasoned professionals
- No built-in contract or payment processing system; arrangements are often off-platform
Is hiring a freelancer best for your business?
We’ve gone through some of the best websites to find freelancers online, and as you can see, there are lots to choose from. When you take a deeper look, you’ll find a huge variety of skills you probably didn’t even know existed, let alone needed.
Much like hiring anyone to work for your business, though, it’s always a good idea to read reviews of the candidates, check out some of their past work, and see if they are up to the challenge(s) you throw at them.
Hiring a freelancer might be as simple as posting a job and accepting a quote, but remember, cheap work can sometimes result in inferior results. That’s not to say paying top dollar for a freelancer will bring you the highest quality work.
Be vigilant, vet your new hires, and you might find a whole network of great assets that will help your small business grow online.
