Upwork
Freelance marketplace in Money & business
Freelance marketplace people use for scoped tasks and building a track record, though critics report spam, poor experience and flooded applicant pools.
Freelance marketplace people use for scoped tasks and building a track record, though critics report spam, poor experience and flooded applicant pools.
26 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 16
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Good for scoped, well-defined tasks
“I use it all the time, especially when I have well defined tasks.”
Comment from 12 Nov 2025 in “How I Hire Engineers for My Early Stage Startup – LinkedIn vs. Upwork” “Upwork for specific, scoped tasks (scrapers, APIs)”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 on Hacker News Established track record and many RFPs
“The biggest advantage of Upwork is I have a track record there and there are tons of RFPs.”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Qwen3.8-Max: A New Bar for Coding and Cowork” “Upwork, majority of them (i'm top ~40 freelancer there and at one point was top ~10)”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: Resources to get better at outbound sales?”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Poor, frustrating user experience
“Try getting something good out of fiverr or upwork. Even now it's terrible”
Comment from 13 Sep 2026 in “Don't be the out of touch Kung Fu master” “I once made an account on Upwork and it is absolutely ridiculous.”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Tell HN: Fiverr left customer files public and searchable” “The inbuilt Upwork alert system sucks.”
Comment from 9 May 2026 on Hacker News - Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “Ask HN: How did you land your first projects as a solo engineer/consultant?”
Spam and low-quality applicants flood it
“put offer, get 50 replies from people which jump for every penny without even being able to understand the task”
Comment from 27 Aug 2026 in “Mechanical Turk shutting down September 30” “Any tech contract worth doing gets 400+ applications on Upwork and 390+ won’t even be looked at.”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “Online employment platforms are misaligned with skilled late-career workers” “Upwork is trash and saturated by spammers from third-world countries.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: How to get client on upwork? (2025)” Verification and Cloudflare checks get in way
“Upwork puts CloudFlare over searching and applying for work”
Comment from 28 Jul 2026 in “Internet is no longer accessible?” “such as Upwork account verification”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “SmartTube Compromised”
What people recommend instead
The same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fiverr | 12 | 47 | 20% | 8 | 10 mo3 owners | — |
| UpworkThis page | 10 | 16 | 38% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
26 of the 27 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Any tech contract worth doing gets 400+ applications on Upwork and 390+ won’t even be looked at.”
“Try getting something good out of fiverr or upwork. Even now it's terrible”
“put offer, get 50 replies from people which jump for every penny without even being able to understand the task”
“The biggest advantage of Upwork is I have a track record there and there are tons of RFPs.”
“they don't pay well and that you don't have leverage”
“I know Upwork is bad but I have not had much success with other options on short notice.”
“Upwork puts CloudFlare over searching and applying for work”
“Google is not the first i've seen doing this (AWS, Upwork, Twilio)”
“The inbuilt Upwork alert system sucks.”
“Have a profile on Upwork/Fiverr/Contra.”
“Upwork is such a miserable platform.”
“Upwork struck me as a straight up scam or pyramid scheme or something.”
“I once made an account on Upwork and it is absolutely ridiculous.”
“Sometimes the mobile app experience is better than the mobile browser for me, though.”
“it can also discourage legitimate candidates or favor those who are simply willing to spend more”
“Upwork for specific, scoped tasks (scrapers, APIs)”
“It's dead. Noting to look at.”
“Upwork, majority of them (i'm top ~40 freelancer there and at one point was top ~10)”
“I've never even gotten replies on any other platform: not on LinkedIn, not on Indeed, not on Upwork”
“Stuck with low-end brand that will prevent them from winning this market.”
“spend your other time building skills, doing freelancing on Fiverr, Upwork”
“Upwork is trash and saturated by spammers from third-world countries.”
“such as Upwork account verification”
“expensive subscription services like Upwork/Hubstaff”
“Generic platforms treat music as a side category; the algorithm doesn't know/care about genre, scenes or long-term careers.”
“I use it all the time, especially when I have well defined tasks.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.