Changes to Upwork’s client membership plans

[Lena E]

Update: Upwork Business was retired In November of 2020

Recently, we announced our new client plans to the Community - Upwork Basic, Upwork Plus and Upwork Business. Our goal with these new plans is to help businesses on Upwork attract and hire top quality talent to get projects done successfully through plan offerings that fit their business needs. In the past, we offered a one-size-fits-all model, our old client plan, which didn’t cater well to businesses of different sizes using Upwork. Starting today, we are phasing out our old client plan and expanding our new client membership plans to existing clients. With this change, all clients now have the option to choose the best membership plan for their business needs.

All clients not already enrolled in Upwork Basic, Upwork Plus, Upwork Business or Upwork Enterprise will be asked to choose a new plan over the next two months (specific details will be sent to clients by email). If no plan has been selected, we will automatically move accounts to Upwork Basic. If you already have an Upwork Basic, Upwork Plus, Upwork Business or Upwork Enterprise account, you will not be affected by these changes.

Let’s review Upwork’s new client plan offerings:

• Upwork Basic for Clients: Basic is a free plan with no monthly fee and limited tools and services. There is a 3% payment processing and administration fee for any transactions. Basic includes the essentials for those who only hire occasionally. Clients will have access to basic reporting functions, a single payment method, one account admin, and the ability to send 3 invitations per job post. If an existing client selects the Basic plan, they will not lose any of their work, it will all be saved along with the structure they have already created. For example, if they have Teams enabled, they will not lose those Teams, but they will not be able to create new Teams going forward. Learn more about Upwork Basic here.
  
  
• Upwork Plus for Clients This plan is $49.99 per month. Upwork Plus is designed for teams who hire frequently and are looking to stand out to top talent and scale their hiring fast. With it, clients will receive dedicated support from an Upwork account manager and talent specialists, one free Featured Job post each month, 15 invitations per job post, and a Plus badge to help attract top talent. Additionally, Plus members will have the full suite of company reports, the ability to add multiple billing methods and admins, the ability to create Teams and more.
  
  The 3% payment processing and administration fee is included in the $49.99 monthly membership for all Plus clients paying with a U.S. bank account or supported foreign currency credit card. Other payment methods  will be charged 3%. Clients interested in trying Plus have access to a free trial. To start the  trial go to Settings> Membership >Change Plan. Learn more about Upwork Plus here.

• Upwork Business: This plan is $499 per month and offers a flexible talent solution designed for mid-to-large companies with multiple teams hiring across departments. Upwork Business scales with your business and gives you access to a team of dedicated advisors who can help you find quality talent faster and more affordably than traditional staffing providers. With Upwork Business, you get access to services like white-glove talent sourcing, support from Client Success Managers, consolidated billing and invoicing, detailed reporting and more. There is a 10% client fee on all invoices. Learn more about Upwork Business here.

Along with this announcement, existing clients will receive more details via email and in-product notifications.

[Wendy C]

Lena, please detail what "full suite of company reports" is comprised of.

Thanks

[Mary W]

Also, could you please differentitate between the payment processing fee and the client fee?

[Valeria K]

Hi Mary,

Payment processing fee refers to 3% fee clients on Upwork Basic and Upwork Plus Plans are charged per each payment. Clients on the Business Plan have net 30 day payment terms and consolidated monthly invoices. So the 10% fee they pay is called "client fee."

[Petra R]

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Valeria K wrote:

Clients on the Business Plan have net 30 day payment terms and consolidated monthly invoices.

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Wait...... what?

That's scary. So we have no idea for 30+ days if a client's payment method failed to pay for our work?

Does that include Escrow funds? Meaning that with clients on that plan there isn't actually any real money in Escrow?

[Valeria K]

Hi Wendy,

Upwork Plus will include all the aggregated company reporting such as Weekly summary, Budgets, Timesheets, Time by freelancer, Time by activity and of course Work Diary and Transactions. The Basic membership includes access to the Contract Workroom, which shows all the details about a contract, one contract at a time, and the Transaction List.

[Wendy C]

So Basic Client Plan continues to show full Work Diary and Transactions by individual FLer for a specific contract?

Sorry to sound dense Valeria, but your wording confused me ....

And echoing Petra's question as well.

[Daniel V]

> Upwork Plus will include all the aggregated company reporting such as Weekly summary, Budgets, Timesheets, Time by freelancer, Time by activity and of course Work Diary and Transactions. 

What about Custom Export. The only thing we use is export to CSV and do our own reporting on the back of this.

[Bojan S]

Hi Daniel,

Thank you for the question. Yes, Custom Export is included in Plus Plan!

[Maria T]

So the basic plan is left with only 3 invitations. Very scarce!
I do not know why I think all this is not going to be a good idea.
All those who wanted customers to pay, have got it. We'll see if they do not have to repent.