Looking for Alternatives to Fiverr? Here are 7 of the Best Places to Find Freelance Talent in 2023
If you run a small business with any kind of online presence in 2023, you’ll be keenly aware of how many skills you need to perfect in order to keep leads flowing and customers happy.
Whether it’s social media management, SEO tweaks, graphic design or a WordPress overhaul, it can be a tough task to keep all of those digital plates spinning.
At some point in that process, you’re going to need to hire some freelance help to deal with the heavy lifting and allow you the time to actually run your business effectively.
Fiverr to the Rescue?
If you’re new to the world of outsourced work, then it won’t be long before you stumble across Fiverr.
Fiverr is an online marketplace for freelancers. It’s the gig economy’s own eBay, where budding digital creators post freelance gigs that they are willing to undertake for set fees, often at bargain basement prices.
We have a great Fiverr overview here if you’d like a bit more background: What is Fiverr and how does it work? 2023 Overview
If you’ve never used Fiverr, there are two things to keep in mind:
- The site attracts some fantastic talent for really affordable prices.
- The site also attracts plenty of terrible freelancers and scam artists.
If you’re reading this article, you’ve almost certainly had less experiences with the former type, and plenty more with the latter!
If that’s the case, and you’re unsure where to head next to find some freelance talent, we’re here to guide you though some of the biggest and best alternatives to Fiverr that offer a more professional experience for your outsourced work needs.
Alternatives to Fiverr – The Main Contenders…
If You Need Design Work – try 99Designs
Using Fiverr for design services can be painful.
It’s very hard to get a feel for a freelancer’s talents, and even harder to convey what style or look you’re trying to achieve.
In the main, this is down to two key factors:
Firstly, business owners on Fiverr tend to underestimate the cost of good design services. Paying $5 for a logo that represents your business isn’t good marketing practice, and you tend to get what you pay for!
Secondly, because the business owner has paid up-front, they usually feel the need to press the freelancer into making multiple alterations until they’re happy with the result. This leaves both parties frustrated with the final outcome.
But there is a better way…
99Designs has become the de-facto place to go for quick, great value designs from trusted freelancers.
The site’s premise is simple: A user posts a design brief, describing in detail the look and feel they’re trying to achieve, as well as choosing from a list of sample logos that suit the style they are looking for.
Once that process is complete, freelancers on the 99Designs platform each submit their own logo design. The business owner then gets to chose which one they prefer.
As you can imagine, the competitive element of this process means designs are usually high quality, original and delivered promptly. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to slogging it out on Fiverr.
Pricing on 99Designs is tiered, so a buyer pays a fixed price up-front that reflects the skill level of the designers they get to choose between.
It’s a fantastic concept, and yields great results for the average business owner looking for quality design work at a fair price.
Alternatives to Fiverr – For The Best All Round Option, try Upwork
Upwork is the gold standard in freelancing platforms. The site has been around in various guises since 1999, so brings a high element of trust and a massive user base to the table.
Upwork has many advantages over Fiverr for those looking to commission digital work. The main benefit is Upwork’s pitching system, where freelancers submit their own proposals and the buyer picks the one that best suits the job at hand.
This proposal-based system often yields a higher quality of freelancer than Fiverr’s gig listings arrangement, and saves massive amounts of time in the process.
In addition, Upwork rewards freelancers that receive repeat business by lowering their fees on a sliding scale. This sends strong signals that Upwork is a platform aiming for stability and professionalism, giving it a distinct edge over Fiverr’s snatch-and-grab ethos.
If all that wasn’t enough, Upwork has a much more robust vetting system for new users, and more helpful support to boot.
UpWork is definitely recommended as a great all-round choice.
Alternatives to Fiverr – The High Quality Winner is Toptal
If your main bugbear with Fiverr is quality, and you’re not put off by cost, then Toptal is a solid choice.
Toptal will give you a slick, professional experience with freelance creators that will deliver on quality and won’t miss tight deadlines. The drawback? You’ll need to pay for it.
With all that being said, we still feel that the talent on offer at Toptal is great value for money when compared to the traditional route of hiring an agency or private freelancer.
Toptal is a kind of halfway house between Fiverr’s gig system and a full-blown talent recruiting agency. The Toptal platform assigns a recruiting agent to your project, and then pre-selects the right freelancer for the job.
The payoff for investing in a higher quality platform like this soon becomes obvious when your project is matched to a boutique pool of talented designers, writers, coders and more.
Definitely one for the well-heeled employer!
Alternatives to Fiverr – Looking for High Quality at Hourly Rates, then go with PeoplePerHour
“Hire in Minutes, Pay by the Hour”
As you’ve probably gathered from the site’s tagline, PeoplePerHour’s unique selling point is the way your money is spent on a freelancer’s time.
That’s not the only thing on offer here though.
PeoplePerHour is much like Toptal in that the site’s users are heavily vetted for quality before being allowed to join.
From a business owner’s perspective, the site holds money in deposit until 100% satisfaction is achieved, and the service and support are impeccable.
PeoplePerHour is a fantastic site, but it’s tough to recommend it over Toptal, or vice versa for that matter.
Both these sites ooze quality, although PeoplePerHour might be a better choice for those planning a visual project such as an infographic or logo design, or those looking to commission something smaller, where an hourly rate might be more beneficial to both parties.
Alternatives to Fiverr – If You Need a Website then try CodeAble.io
With WordPress powering 30% of the internet, there’s a good chance your site runs on the ubiquitous CMS as well.
If you’re planning a site redesign or a simple upgrade, it makes sense to go to a niche platform that’s full of freelancers that specialise in WordPress design and coding.
If that’s what you’re looking for, then CodeAble is the site for you. It has high quality customer service, a pool of talented freelancers, and a slick modern interface that’s a pleasure to use.
Coadeable.io is definitely the best option on this list for web design and WordPress development.
Alternatives to Fiverr – The Best for Search Engine Optimisation is SEOClerks
Looking for digital marketing expertise?
Maybe you need improved Google rankings? Or an email marketing campaign?
…Then SEOClerks is the platform for you.
Founded in 2011, SEOClerks attracts a huge amount of freelancers that specialise in all manner of digital marketing niches. The platform has more of an entrepreneurial feel to it than some of the others listed here, with various options to trade services with other users or become an affiliate partner.
That wheeling-and-dealing vibe means that the site might be a better fit for those business owners with a decent working knowledge of digital marketing and SEO, and those entrepreneurial types willing to make deals.
If you’re a novice and looking for a bespoke solution, one of the bigger (or more boutique) platforms might be a better option for you.
Alternatives to Fiverr – The Best Option for Group (Team) Management? That would be Guru
If you’re expecting to need a team of Freelancers to help deliver a project – then Guru might be the best option for you…
Guru is similar to the other marketplaces in operation, has a good reputation for quality, and boasts 1.5 million users. Where it differs to sites like Fiverr and Upwork is in its handling of group projects.
Guru’s “Work Room” feature makes it easy for larger businesses to manage multiple freelancers at once and organise them into projects, set milestones, share group messages and delegate work to different team members.
If you’re a one-person business or an online entrepreneur looking to assemble a part-time team, Guru is a solid choice.
Alternatives to Fiverr – Looking for a Small Step Up From Fiverr? Then go with Freelancer.com
If you’re worried that the options listed above are a little high-end for your small business needs, you could try Freelancer.com
The site, like Upwork, has been around a long time and boasts a massive user base. Unlike Upwork however, the site does not vet freelancers before they join, which can lead to some of the similar frustrations encountered on platforms like Fiverr.
In some ways, finding talent on Freelancer.com can be even more laborious than Fiverr, in part due to the site’s massive database of users.
With all that being said, the site is still a useful stepping stone into the world of quality freelance talent, especially if you have a limited budget available.
In Conclusion – What are the Best Alternatives to Fiverr?
There’s no easy answer to the question of which platform is best for the business owner who has become frustrated with Fiverr.
It takes time and effort to develop close working relationships with quality freelancers, and selecting the right platform is only a small piece of that puzzle.
If we were pressed to make a concrete recommendation, then it would be to head over to Upwork for a well rounded, generic alternative to Fiverr with a greater focus on quality.
If you need graphic design skills, think about giving 99Designs a test run.
And for those with larger budgets? Toptal gets our vote for a boutique service with a high quality of freelance talent.
For a second opinion, whichfreelancer.walshsamuel.com has this great post on Best Alternatives to Fiverr in 2023