Is upgrading to the Plus membership really worth it?

[dfee8c25]

I have been on Upwork for a little less than a month now. I have worked multiple small jobs and one big one. I was wondering if it's really necessary/worth it to upgrade my membership to plus in order to grow as a freelancer? The only benifits I feel are worth it are 80 bids/month and viewing competing freelancer bids on jobs. I would love your opinions on this! 

Thanks,

Giovanna 

[luqman_mak]

You dont see competiting bigs but rather a 'range' of the lowest and highest bids.
As for the connects, its cheaper to buy them separately.
There is one more feature and that is the ability to hide earnings on your profle.

Most people say that the plus membership as it currently stands - is not worth it.

[ericaandrews]

No. It's a complete waste of money and doesn't give you any real "advantages" over any other freelancers. Just another. Money Grab

[25005175]

For a while, I thought it wasn't. A few weeks ago, I re-assessed the situation in light of the Boosting scene. I determined that increasing the chance of my proposal being viewed was critical, because I was at a 35% view rate. To do that, I needed more Connects.

The membership comes with 70 additional Connects: 70 x $0.15 = $10.50. That means that the ability to view the bid range, hide earnings on profile (but not on proposals) and the vanity URL costs $15.00 - $10.50 = $4.50.

For me, I've decided that the membership is worth it, since I'm going to buy the Connects regardless.

[feed_my_eyes]

The ability to view the bid range isn't much use from what I've seen - somebody always bids really low, somebody always bids really high. It would be useful if I could see what people with the same skills and experience as me are bidding, but that's not possible.

And why is a custom URL necessary? Serious question.

[25005175]

Easier to type out. Easier to remember. Looks far cleaner/professional than a random string of numbers and letters.

I usually post a link to my profile in my proposals. Looks way better, IMO, to have my name as the URL

[feed_my_eyes]

Hmmm. Clients can just click on your name to go to your profile, so I've never included a link in my proposals, and I've never wanted to give my profile link to any clients outside of Upwork. But I guess it's worth it if you don't have a profile or portfolio anywhere else; cheaper than getting your own website.

[b1a675e1]

SO TRUE!

The ability to hide earnings is awesome, "Earning 0 $" looks so weird while viewing a proposal as a client and also plays a very crucial role in diverting clients' minds.

[williamtcooper]

Giovanna,

Yes, if you are a professional freelancer you absolutely need the Plus Membership. In addition to the connects, a custom URL can be picked. Other goodies come once you have completed more Jobs. Have a great day!

[feed_my_eyes]

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William T C wrote:

Other goodies come once you have completed more Jobs. 

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What "other goodies"? AFAIK, you get the same "perks" from the plus membership (such as they are) regardless of how many jobs you've completed.

[6bfcdaf8]

I thought "you can't go to the nearest supermarket and ask them how much they make, why am i sharing my earnings with all members?" and upgraded. 

[feed_my_eyes]

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Alper D wrote:

I thought "you can't go to the nearest supermarket and ask them how much they make, why am i sharing my earnings with all members?" and upgraded. 

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Clients can still see your past earnings when you bid on their projects. Hiding your earnings will also exclude you from the search results if clients are looking for freelancers in a certain price range. There's nothing to be gained from it.

[6bfcdaf8]

"price range" i don't think so, i believe it hides your past earnings and not your hourly rate. Am i incorrect on that?

[25005175]

There is a filter for amount earned.

[6bfcdaf8]

I think i can live without that. Goes up to 10K anyways. I take most of my jobs by actively applying

[feed_my_eyes]

Okay, but when you actively apply, clients can still see what you charged for previous projects, so you're not hiding anything.

[8960819c]

I did it for a month. Don't think it's a necessity. I liked seeing the bid range. Most times it's very low and very high but it still gives me an idea of what others were bidding. Sometimes it was very narrow though. It's helpful especially for beginners when the client doesn't give a rate. But is it still possible to see the range? I use to see a recommendation to upgrade to view the range but I don't see that anymore.

[elisa_b]

I did not find it useful for my areas of specialisation. It does not tell you the country of other people applying to a job.

[najum98]

I was about to buy plus membership but decided to search online for reviews, thank you to this thread 🙂 I thought we could see the whole proposal of bidders by plus membership but no its just the bid price and so yeah then plus membership seems useless to me.

Upwork should work on it, like including the ability to see other's proposals would be a good addition to plus.

[PradeepH]

Hi Najam,

Thank you for your suggestion. If you are referring to displaying full content of other freelancer's proposals, this may lead to spamming and submitting a copy pasted proposals. Check out this help page to know more about other benefits of upgrading to the Freelancer Plus plan.

Thank you,

Pradeep

[8960819c]

I disagree with seeing others' proposals. That's a privacy issue, why would you want to see someone's letter? No one should ever do that, if they do it should be considered unethical.

Seeing individual bid prices (without names) would be good though. Sometimes the ranges are just too broad to be very helpful. Ex $3-$300

[harisfaisal1]

Giovanna, 

    I believe that having the ability a custom url that you can use independantly as well as a reasonable amount of connects and the ability to see competitor bids and hide your earning are worth the $15 price tag. Thanks.

Best 

Haris

[495a4934]

 Personally tried it today and I must say that I am deeply disappointed. It is not what I expected!!!!