Comparison
The following is a list of freelancer's websites that I have used or considered. I am not too happy with some of them. Information about fees is notoriously difficult to find in most cases. The site "Freelancer.com" even produced a broken link (2011-09-01) - I am not impressed!
| Service | Cost to buyer | Cost to worker | Domicile | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| freelancer | 5\$ (refunded) + max(3\$,3%) | max(5$,10%) | AU | Bidding period cannot be extended. |
| twago | - | 7% + 3% for "Safe pay" | DE | |
| officecavalry | - | max(10£, 8.5%) or max(7.5£, 4.5%) | UK | |
| peopleperhour | - | 4.5% | UK | |
| elance | - | 6.75-8.75% | US | |
| guru | - | ~10-35$/month subscr. | US | |
| ifreelance | - | 4.69$/month basic subscr. | US | |
| guru | - | 4.95%-8.95% depending on membership | US | |
| odesk | - | 10% | US | There's no way to upload information in messages! |
| vworker | - | up to 15%! | US | Just too expensive! |
| 99designs | Obscure pricing. On contests the fee may go up to 40%. | US | Only design tasks | |
| lancewriter | max(3$, 3%) | US | Only writing | |
| freelancefree | free! | free! | ? | Not too much going on there. Has advertising. |
| projectspring | free! | free! | ? | |
| freelancerchina | ? | ? | US | ? |
| indiafreelance | ? | ? | ? | Dodgy |
Experience
Mixed. Unfortunately people of different background and social skills linger on these sites. I had some very bizarre conversations with people who became very unfriendly when challenged some of their BS. Also I noticed a marked increase in hacking activity since I posted jobs on these sites.
Note: Elance and odesk merged in December 2013. The two websites continue to operate independently and the fees also continue to differ.
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing is the outsourcing of a task to an large, anonymous crowd of people.
| Service | Cost to buyer | Cost to worker | Domicile | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| crowdflower | US | |||
| mturk | US | |||
| Zhubajie 猪八戒 | CN | |||
| TaskCn | CN |