# Upwork

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Upwork and 16 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Freelance marketplace people use for scoped tasks and building a track record, though critics report spam, poor experience and flooded applicant pools.

## Why people recommend it

- Good for scoped, well-defined tasks (2 comments): "I use it all the time, especially when I have well defined tasks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45897799)) "Upwork for specific, scoped tasks (scrapers, APIs)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47279732))
- Established track record and many RFPs (2 comments): "The biggest advantage of Upwork is I have a track record there and there are tons of RFPs." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49162635)) "Upwork, majority of them (i'm top ~40 freelancer there and at one point was top ~10)" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46410312))

## What people warn about

- Poor, frustrating user experience (4 comments): "Try getting something good out of fiverr or upwork. Even now it's terrible" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49684618)) "I once made an account on Upwork and it is absolutely ridiculous." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47774931)) "The inbuilt Upwork alert system sucks." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48073935))
- Spam and low-quality applicants flood it (3 comments): "put offer, get 50 replies from people which jump for every penny without even being able to understand the task" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49461667)) "Any tech contract worth doing gets 400+ applications on Upwork and 390+ won’t even be looked at." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49736593)) "Upwork is trash and saturated by spammers from third-world countries." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46133257))
- Verification and Cloudflare checks get in way (2 comments): "Upwork puts CloudFlare over searching and applying for work" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49078757)) "such as Upwork account verification" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46111102))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Fiverr](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fiverr.md): 12 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.upwork.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Upwork", https://hackerapproved.com/p/upwork/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).