As a freelancer, it can be pretty difficult to find work. You can sometimes feel like a tiny fish in a massive pond; with hundreds of thousands of other freelancers competing for every single job, knowing where to start can be intimidating and off-putting. Thankfully, the internet has transformed the landscape of freelance work in much the same way as it has everything else, and so there are plenty of great websites out there for freelancers. Here are the 15 best freelance websites to find work in 2023.
Fiverr
It’s pretty much impossible to talk about great sites for freelancers to find work without mentioning Fiverr. This site is the definitive word in freelance work; if you’re a freelancer and you’re not on Fiverr, you’re missing out on a huge amount of potential employment. You can sign up to the site for free, build your portfolio, and advertise your services, setting your rates as you see fit. Employers will then contact you and engage you as a freelancer, with Fiverr taking a small commission. This site is pretty much foolproof for helping you find work.
Believe it or not, work-based social network LinkedIn is a great place for freelancers who want to facilitate connections with employers. After all, LinkedIn is all about building a business network, so why shouldn’t it also put businesses in touch with freelancers? All you need to do is build a profile, list the services you can provide, and wait for businesses to get in touch. Alternatively, you can reach out to the businesses using LinkedIn’s built-in messaging services.
Upwork
Describing itself as “the world’s work marketplace”, Upwork builds connections between freelancers looking for work and businesses who want to hire them. There’s also a board where you can look at jobs that are currently available and contact the company responsible for posting them if you feel qualified to do them. The user interface is clean and simple, and Upwork’s commission scales down the more work you do, so if you keep working with the site, you’ll gradually pay less in terms of fees.
Freelancer.com
As you might expect from a site with such a straightforward title, Freelancer.com lets businesses hire freelancers and also lets freelancers browse through jobs that are available to complete. If you can sift through the bots and fake clients that create listings on the site (and there are a few, unfortunately), then you’ll likely find robust clients that will pay well and give you jobs that will be creatively fulfilling. This might not be the easiest site in the world to use, but it does have plenty of work available.
Behance
Behance serves multiple purposes. On the one hand, it’s a creative portfolio site where you can showcase your creative work and build a network with other creatives. On the other hand, it’s a place where businesses can come to list work they need doing, and if you fit the bill, they may well reach out to you, especially if your portfolio is attractive. Behance isn’t a site for those who aren’t creatively inclined, but if your work is primarily in design, then this is definitely a service you need to sign up for.
Toptal
If you want to list your services as a freelancer with Toptal, you’re going to have to pass a fairly intensive test before you can do so. This is how Toptal is able to advertise itself as offering “the top 3% of freelance talent”; it doesn’t just let anyone join. That does, however, generally mean that you’ll find a higher calibre of client on Toptal as well. If you’re sick of getting spam applications from clients or you want to take your work to the next level, Toptal is a site you’ll want to check out.
Dribbble
Yes, that extra “b” is entirely intentional. Dribbble is a great site for designers; much like Behance, it’s built for creatives rather than those who are more administratively inclined. Everyone with an eye for design, from web designers to graphic illustrators and more, is welcome on Dribbble, and you can build a thorough portfolio to showcase to prospective clients as well. You will need to pay a little extra if you want access to the freelance boards where you can find work for yourself, though.
Guru
Unlike some of the other listings we’ve included here, Guru is an all-purpose freelance site, which means that you can find work no matter whether you’re a marketing executive, a designer, or even a tutor. Guru prides itself on making sure that it’s a secure, supportive, and credible environment for both freelancers and clients, so you’re likely to find better clients and better standards of work here than you might on sites with more permissive joining requirements.
Indeed
Not only is Indeed a great place for finding freelance work, but it’s also a good place to find jobs, full stop. Whether you want work on a shorter-term basis or you feel like you want to make the transition to long-term, full-time employment, Indeed has plenty of listings across multiple different disciplines and locations. The site’s quick application feature also makes it easy for you to apply for jobs without going through the rigmarole of uploading separate CVs and cover letters.
PeoplePerHour
With thousands of freelance jobs available and a robust matching algorithm that claims to facilitate high-quality matches between clients and freelancers, PeoplePerHour is another essential freelance site to sign up to. There are lots of different work categories available, including writing and translation, video and image work, and music and audio creation, so no matter where your specific talents lie, you’re likely to find work with PeoplePerHour’s many clients and job listings.
FlexJobs
FlexJobs’ friendly user interface and range of different kinds of work-from-home listings make it ideal for those who are just getting started in the world of freelance work. The site prides itself on its high-quality customer support and on vetting every job listing before it gets posted, theoretically separating the wheat from the chaff in a way that will be compelling if you’ve ever had to deal with low-quality clients. There is a subscription fee for finding freelance jobs on the site, but it’s worth paying for the quality of the service you receive.
Jooble
Like Indeed, Jooble is a general job listing site rather than one specifically built for freelancers, but you’re likely to find freelance postings here as well. You can search by region and type in keywords so you don’t see listings that don’t appeal to you, and you can set listings as favourites so that you can watch them more closely. Plenty of companies head to Jooble to list the work they need doing, so make sure you keep a close eye on this site on a regular basis if you’re looking for freelance work.
Designhill
Designhill promises to build connections between companies who need professional designers and the freelance designers themselves. One of the most innovative ways in which the site does this is to allow employers to host design competitions, wherein freelancers can compete to see who can create the most innovative and exciting design to a brief set by the employer. This adds a fun competitive element to proceedings, bringing out your best as you try to win over employers.
We Work Remotely
If you’re a company looking to create a listing on We Work Remotely, then the only way you can do so is to spend $299. This is intended to make sure that lower-quality companies or spambots can’t make listings, which, in turn, should mean that every listing you find on the site is completely above board. WWR is a simple, easy-to-use site that lets you search for jobs by time zone, location, and contract type, and you can even sign up for emails so that the site can send you listings as and when it gets them.
Contently
The jury’s out on whether or not content is still king, but most websites still consider it to be incredibly important to their overall strategy. If you’re a content marketing executive or a content creator, then Contently is a great way to build connections and find work. You can build a portfolio to show to employers, and Contently actually pays its writers upon submission of their work, preventing freelancers from needing to constantly chase up invoices or deal with companies who are reticent with payments.
If you’re a freelancer, you’ll likely find lots of other sites out there that you can use to get work, but these are, in our opinion, the cream of the crop. It’s not worth using lower-quality sites. You’ll only run into issues with the quality of the clients you’re working for, and the last thing you want to deal with as a freelancer, no matter your experience level, is an unpaid invoice and a client that doesn’t want to give you the money you deserve for services fairly rendered.
