As intelligent, skilled or resourceful you are, you can’t do everything on your own. Sometimes you need help, and for some people, it’s hard to ask for help – even when you genuinely need it. And we’re not saying that just so you can attempt to do everything on your own and fail. What we mean is: unless you are brave enough to put your needs out there for the world to see (like a “Help Wanted” ad) or you know someone with the right skills to help solve your problem, you can OUTSOURCE – or contract your task – to someone else. Freelancing has its benefits for this.
Luckily, there are online networks which allow individuals talented in various skills to market them for a price. Additionally, there are companies – like our own – which deal primarily with outsourced tasks and projects of various types. However, one must be very careful in terms of what outsourcing provider to choose, especially with time-sensitive, project-important and costly projects. In this article, we will list the pros and cons of the leading freelance / outsourcing websites – with a surprise near the end – which should help you in your decision-making.
Now onto the top Freelancing sites we’ve found.
1. UPWORK – Upwork (formally Elance and O-desk now combined) may be one of the best freelance websites for finding work no matter what type of freelancing or outsourcing tasks you are looking for. From small businesses to huge corporations, many different types of companies are looking to hire freelance designers through Upwork.
PROS
- Potentially thousands of skilled freelancers to choose from
- Simplified interviewing and hiring
- Employ freelancers on a part-time or an as-needed basis to get work done
CONS
- Freelancers could get a more lucrative offer or find permanent work elsewhere — same risk as having employees
- Working outside of Upwork is discouraged and against its terms. You’ll have to pay 12% of the estimated annual income of your freelancer’s Upwork earnings to move outside the platform for billing and invoicing.
2. FREELANCER.COM – This is a site that connects employers with freelancers. Once you post a project to the site (which is free, and only takes a few minutes), you can hire a freelancer. Every freelancer who applies will send you a proposal. If you’re interested, you can view their profile and chat with them in real time before making a decision. After you’re satisfied with their work, you’ll pay securely through your Freelancer.com account.
PROS
- Upgrades can help increase the quality of proposals you receive.
- Payment protections ensure that you won’t have to pay for unsatisfactory work.
- Posting and hiring can take less than 10 minutes.
CONS
- It can be time-consuming to sift through the sheer number of proposals.
- Extremely low bids may be tempting, but can overshadow more qualified freelancers.
3. FIVERR – On Fiverr you’ll find freelancers who perform gigs in a wide range of categories, including business, digital marketing, graphics and design. There’s also an account type designed especially for businesses called Fiverr for Business. It’s essentially an interface that allows you to manage your activity, save your favorite freelancers and use one payment method consistently. You can invite other team members to access your Fiverr Business account as well.
PROS
- It’s possible to find and hire a freelancer within minutes
- Prices are set up front
- Payment is only released to the freelancer after you’ve approved the work
CONS
- Service fee is higher than competitors like Upwork and Freelancer.com, which charge only 3%
- It can be limiting if the task changes over time.
- Larger projects can become hard to manage with the platform focused on quick turnover.
- Due to the nature of the platform, full names and contact information are not provided. So if a freelancer leaves the platform, it becomes difficult to find and hire them again.
4. DESIGNHILL – Focused primarily on graphical design freelancing, for yourself or for your business, a great place to look for artists is Designhill. While they do offer both one-to-one design contracts and a ready-made logo store, their primary focus is their design contests, a feature which allows clients to submit a design request to the platform, and then receive proposals from multiple designers before making a decision. This method gives buyers a greater chance of getting the perfect design than the traditional method of hiring a single designer / agency.
PROS
- Ready-made logos are available for purchase for less than design contests or traditional one-to-one design
- There is real time interaction with designers and 24/7 chat support while on the site
- 100% “no questions asked” money back guarantee on most packages (unless waived in a “guaranteed contest”)
CONS
- The huge number of options on the site can make it overwhelming to get started
- Less designers means that you will get less responses on average than bigger sites
- Designers tend to favour larger corporations which can leave you without much attention or talent to get the designs you deserve.
- Limited to only graphical work.
And last but not least….
5. DF STUDIOS LIMITED – While we may not be world-renowned, DF Studios Limited has made its name in the production of apps and mobile games, in addition to handling digital marketing and advertising for Caribbean and non-Caribbean clients.
PROS
- Our services are great for companies that:
- require a dedicated marketing team but don’t have the resources for a large campaign
- Have a decent referral / word of mouth client base but would like to acquire more customers through advertising and digital asset creation.
- Not to mention, our services are great for professionals that rather focus on servicing customers (which is what they do best) while we create strategies to ensure new customers come through their doors
- We continually stay up-to-date on the ever-developing world of social media management, digital advertising and digital marketing.
CONS
- Our team, though dedicated, is quite small – meaning that we can only dedicate our time to a limited number of clients at a time.
- Chat support is limited in comparison to larger outsourcing sites.
If you’re looking for a worthwhile alternative to getting your digital advertising, marketing and social media management tasks professionally handled, then consider us at DF Studios Limited for your freelancing needs!
To learn more about our services, check out and order our DF Studios Express Services and fill out our form to get your quality digital content created, distributed and marketed effectively today.
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