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StanG
Community Manager
Community Manager

Announcing new, simpler fees on Upwork

Today we introduced two key pricing changes: on May 3, 2023, we are retiring our sliding scale fee structure and introducing a 10% service fee for all freelancers, and on April 26, 2023, we are implementing a one-time contract initiation fee for clients of up to $4.95 per contract. Click here for the full announcement.

 

Please share your questions and feedback in the thread below.

2,017 REPLIES 2,017

Yeah.

So the rationale for this is that you think freelancers are incapable of basic arithmetic? Or that they object to it? 

This isn't even trying to sell it as a good idea.

They think we are dumb, apparently. They are just trying to balance their budget and they are doing it in the  most contraproductive way. What they really need to do it's to improve their marketing and sales strategies to offer more and better quality projects to freelancers.

I know that all things in the world become expensive from year to year, and Upwork has to survive somehow, but just to rise up the fees double - it’s too much, I think.

So the solution to this absolutely atrocious fee raise is for us to charge clients more - during an economic downturn - when 95% of the clients on Upwork do not want to pay our rates in the first place? All while filling Upwork's pockets because they saw their numbers during tax season and got scared? 

All of the legitimate freelancers on this site will be taking their clients elsewhere, most likely. This is not okay. 

Truly, this is how they reward loyalty. The amount of times I have turned down going off the platform, to stay loyal... you best believe the tables have just turned. 

Oh believe me, I'm out before this year ends. There's no way I will go back to 10% fees when 5% is already a huge chunk of my earnings. Upwork doesn't know what loyalty means.

Agreed. This is ridiculous. They are going to lose a TON of their best freelancers. What a slap in the face to the top performers who have helped build this platform.

They don't care a about it, by simple math even if they loose half of existing contracts. they will stay on the same place.

but the worst part for them, they damage their reputation with this increase. double increase is insane.

"Wwill be continuing the 5% service fee through the end of 2023 on contracts that are already eligible, in order to give freelancers like you time to adjust to this new fee structure and to adjust their own rates, work strategies, and contract selections accordingly."

So it gives us time to take these clients off the platform after the two-year duration ends and we pay our dollar. Got it.

100%. Nothing else to add.

Valeria, if the fee structure was changed to simplify bookkeeping, why not allow freelancers a choice between the new structure versus the old, at minimum for existing contracts? After all, if they've managed to this point with a complicated structure, they might actually prefer it? They could always close the contract and ask the client to rehire them if they change their mind. 

__________________________________________________
"No good deed goes unpunished." -- Clare Boothe Luce

Because the new fee structure is not done to simplify bookkeeping. It is done to increase Upwork's revenue and they are trying to figure out a way to sell it to freelancers, without much success as per usual.

 

They are "very excited to announce" - as they said in the notification email. What a sleazy wording! **edited for Community Guidelines** "We are very excited to announce that we want you to be paying us twice as much." Of course, they are excited. And they are still honest because they do not say "you will be excited, too". The great shame. 

Me and my 2+ year contracts on a 5% rate are about to leave the platform. 

Reasoning this by "simplify bookkeeping & calculation" shows that they had a hard time finding a convenient message instead of saying "raising fees for loyal freelancers and customers".

Guney

  • Freelancers won’t have to track tiers on contracts to determine how much they will earn each week

This was not an issue.

 

  • Freelancers won’t have to calculate fees for multiple tiers when determining pricing for a contract.

Only high-paying contracts were worth that level of granular quoting, and at that point it was simple enough to assume something like (10% + $100).

 

  • Calculating year-end revenue and expenses may be easier to do once all contracts have the same freelancer service fee percentage

......Why would anybody focus on the service fee tier for that? You already supply a Billings & Earnings by Client report, filter-able by year, which breaks down billing, service fee expense, and sales tax.

Is there any way to opt out of the simplified fee structure?  I really don't want to pay $5K a year just so I don't have to think about how to do the maths, and would be happy to forego that simplicity.

This is pure greed on their part, nothing else. 

Exactly what I thought when I'm reading their lame execuse. Like....come on, they make it sounds like it's impossible to do a 5% calculating.


Valeria K wrote:

The new fee structure will also simplify freelancer processes:

  • Freelancers won’t have to track tiers on contracts to determine how much they will earn each week
  • Freelancers won’t have to calculate fees for multiple tiers when determining pricing for a contract.
  • Calculating year-end revenue and expenses may be easier to do once all contracts have the same freelancer service fee percentage

Valeria, I built my own app to calculate all those. If you are having troubles, let me know and I can teach you.

Truly.


Valeria K wrote:
  • Calculating year-end revenue and expenses may be easier to do once all contracts have the same freelancer service fee percentage

I was just trying to figure out how to adapt my bookkeeping to these changes and I noticed that if that sentence were true, you'd have made this change on 1st January. Lying is a very difficult art you don't master.


Marc C wrote:

Valeria K wrote:
  • Calculating year-end revenue and expenses may be easier to do once all contracts have the same freelancer service fee percentage

I was just trying to figure out how to adapt my bookkeeping to these changes and I noticed that if that sentence were true, you'd have made this change on 1st January. Lying is a very difficult art you don't master.


Note: "Calculating...may be easier". That's why they're implementing this in May.

Exactly! My thought precisely!

It would be less annoying and more trustworthy if they had worded their intent honestly.

Guney

I can do math, so it's not a hardship for me to determine how much I will make each week.

 

I can do math, so I know exactly how much I'll be losing on my 5% contracts when this change takes effect.

 

I can do math (and so can my clients), so we will be taking those 5% contracts off-platform as soon as they hit the two-year mark, and will know exactly how much we both will be saving when we do. 

100%. And I've been on the platform for almost 7 years, so imagine what I'm taking with me now. I can't believe I was actually loyal for this long, keeping everything on here despite having the option not to, only to be "rewarded" to this. They might have just dug their own (online) grave for a few more bucks this year. 

in order to give freelancers like you time to adjust to this new fee structure and to adjust their own rates, work strategies, and contract selections accordingly.

 

Thanks for the ample time to figure out how we can get off of Upwork. Nobody is willing to pay 5% more and it's not easy to ask for a raise! You could've just applied that change to new contracts and retain the 5% service fee for freelancers like us who have worked hard to retain a client on Upwork for years. 

10% fee means that 1 month per year I should work only for Upwork fees? It's to much!

Way too much!

omar_vector
Community Member

This is underrated comment

Not to mention that in some countries, we pay 20% VAT on this fee, which makes it actually 12.5% and not 10%.

and 10% of 12 months is not 1 month, it is 5 weeks, so the real number would be around 1.5 months for Upwork fees (and without any paid vacation because it's an hourly contract)
I'm going to go to the office 🙂 

a6ffe88f
Community Member

Hello. I'm new-ish here. I have 1 main contract to where I'll be hitting the 10k earning mark right around the time that this changes to a flat 10% fee. I was looking forward to the 5% change as I crossed over. I agree with it being 10%, especially for the new contracts but I'm conflicted with the change given the fact that I'm about to take a loss lol. I'd be willing to bet that many of the upper earners would be thinking about jumping off of the platform and using other means to continue contract work. Talk to me people! 

celgins
Community Member

There are a lot of comments in the Feedback forum discussion regarding the simpler fee structure.

rmeske
Community Member

zo0m
Community Member

Hello, yes, it's very sad because +5% is +2.5 weeks of free work per year, it's my vacation 😕 

Holly cow!

 

We already suffered the initial 20%, then 10% for firat $10K to finally get only 5% and now "to simplify"?

IMHO you should honor those long running projects 5% as long as they live.

 

I feel betrayed!

 

Stabbed in the back, literally. 

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