r/Upwork

Hi, I'm looking for advice on how to handle the below situation.

I recently applied for a potentially lucrative job on Upwork. The client said they'd like to move forward with me and work together. Then they sent me a document asking me to review it. I opened it and the only thing in the doc is a message asking me to contact them via their personal phone number to work outside of Upwork so that both of us can save on fees.

This client has a 5-star rating on Upwork with quite a few reviews. I'm bummed about this because this feels like it could be a nice paycheck. I want to keep this on Upwork because I don't want to risk getting banned and prefer having the added security if anything goes wrong. But I've also seen stories on here about the people reporting this behavior getting banned anyway, because the client had spent quite a bit of money on Upwork.

What’s the best way to proceed in this situation?

i'm new to Upwork, I just hired a freelancer to fix up my website, he made three milestones, first one named "deposit", and he asked me to release it before starting any work, I released it. But now I realized , hold on , he didn't even start anything and I already released and approved the first milestone, which doesn't even have any description but is simply marked as "deposit".
he haven't even asked me for WordPress logins and everything. But he's pretty experienced, shows $20,000 plus earned and eight completed jobs, and three in progress.

So I actually just made a post asking about how I should bid a job invite on upwork… I am relatively new to the whole online freelance marketplace thing and I have good skills to make some money in graphic design and voice acting jobs, but as I started to scroll through this sub, I’m seeing a lot of… not so highly recommended posts about upwork. Can anyone kind of fill me in on what’s happening with them and if I would have a better chance with any other platform?

I am on a fresh account and have no reviews. I have tried searching for quick fixed price jobs and am offering to do them practically free just to try to get reviews. I have sent several applications where I already finished the job (creating an icon attached it to my cover letter, rebuilding a website and I hosted it on vercel and put the URL in the cover letter). They still get ignored.

Is the market just too saturated now to start fresh? Upwork also seems pay to win now with connects so I am just wasting time and money on applications.

Does anyone else have this problem? It took me so long to get there that I am now too careful despite getting job offers so I don’t ruin the top rated status

I've been working with two different clients on hourly contracts. Yesterday, one of the contracts suddenly paused, and when I asked the client about it, she said the credit card she used is expired, and they need to update the info. It was a new contract, so I became a little bit nervous, although the reviews for the client were really positive. Then, today the contract with an older client was also paused by Upwork for the same reason, apparently. They were an older client, and I completely trust them. We have a really good relationship, and I believe this is really an issue that can be solved. Still, it is a strange coincidence. Two hourly contracts are paused by Upwork because of a possible payment issue with a one-day interval. Did this happen to anybody else before? Is August a common card expiration/renewal day in the US? I checked my account health, and everything is OK. And when I was writing this message, the first client said she'll update the card this morning. I'd be really happy if you could share similar experiences. Thank you!

I do Marketing analytics( attribution, reporting, performance analysis, and MMM)... that side of marketing...

Clients used to approach me for projects lasting 6 to 9 months.. that stopped

so I started looking for full time remote jobs ( 2 months now) based in the US but I cannot seem to hear back

I never did outbound or cold reach and most clients used to reach out to me.

I feel frustrated and I can't seem to find the issue..

i customize CVs .. look into companies... selectively apply to jobs... money is reasonable considering i am off shore... I opt for contractor jobs...

I am legally established as an independent contractor (B2B invoicing) working fully remotely.. have C2 english with fluent accent. I don't live in the US but all was good for me..

what else could be wrong?? any tips???

So I've posted a really simple electronics task. It was my first-ever time interacting with this platform.

Nearly all the proposals were AI-written. How did I know? Well, other than the obvious em dashes, they all gave the same response that I got, which is what made me post the task in the first place.

Not only that, but I asked one of them a simple question. Would this IC work in my case or not? ChatGPT said no when I asked it, but in real life, it works well. Guess what the guy said? He said it wouldn't work and gave me the exact same ChatGPT answer lol.

Honestly, it's a joke. Imagine not getting hired because you're too lazy to do 2 minutes of ressearch and answer the question yourself.

Luckily, I found a few people who actually put some thought into their cover letters.

I moved to london and updated my profile location to accurately reflect my new address.

My profile is currently restricted while they review my new location. I’m incredibly nervous about them denying it for whatever crazy reason. Has anyone done this process? How long did it actually take?

I understand freelancers in different niches use their own way to grab attention. However, i still want to know what's the best hook (general rule) that helps you get your proposals opened?

I would appreciate any tips and guidance you could offer.

I possess over ten years of extensive real world experience in operations. Additionally, I am pretty good in developing Excel systems and now create websites (with Claude, though I have some knowledge of web developing, which helps to not make it look Ai-ish). I have also worked remotely with healthcare institutions and startups, assisting them in developing strategies, implementing functional systems and streamlining their disorganized setups, including CRMs, ERPs, and SharePoint.

Yet, I failed to secure a single client from Upwork, even though the proposals I create are accurate, to the point of task and within budget of the client.

I did a small analysis today. Checked the recent job posts I applied for it looks like almost all of those have received more than 50 proposals that too within a few hours. 0 job posts with less than 15 proposals, Only 20% has less than 50. No hiring decision in any. 100% of these have boosted bid of more than 40 connects. Every 6 out of 10 post have the 1st bid more than 100 connects. Overall view rate for me is 20%.

I only apply where the client has spent previously and the hire rate is above a certain threshold.

Even after handpicking the posts and ensuring the proposal is hyper-personalized to each post there is no satisfying response.

The competition has reached to a stage where you find cold outreach much more effective.

Even if you do Search Ads on Google, the cost of getting a click on your website will be much lesser than the cost of getting your profile viewed on Upwork.

My question is - how you are still surviving on Upwork?

Hi community!
I've been working hard on my UpWork journey and I finally reached $5k in the last year and a half. I work as a language professional and some of my projects are based on 1:1 language tutoring.

Now, I've just got a message from a new client asking me to teach her daughter, but asking me if she can have first a free trial lesson to see whether she likes it or not.

Does that violates UpWork's TOS? What should I do? I don't want to lose any potential client but I definitely want to always respect the platform's policies.

I'm a bit unsure about this specific case even after reading the guidelines and I will be massively thankful with your help!

I do software freelancing and have spent a good subscription on upwork for many months now. But man no contract till now. I think there are BOT posts in upwork not sure if by upwork themselves or third party. What’s the best alternative, especially for us not in US or South Asia?

Bit of a vent, also genuinely looking for advice.

I've been doing app dev (Flutter mostly) since 2020 and joined Upwork back in 2021. Had the Top Rated badge at one point. Then I got comfortable with a couple of long term clients and kind of drifted off the platform for a while. That eventually wrapped up, so now I'm back trying to build things up again.

And it feels like a completely different place this time. I've sent out a few proposals over the last few days, properly written, tailored to the job, not copy-paste, and 2-3 days later they haven't even been viewed. Not rejected, just nothing. Straight into a void.

On top of that, a lot of jobs now cost a stupid amount of Connects just to apply, so you're literally paying money to send proposals that never even get opened. And half the postings are "build me a full app for $100" type stuff, huge scope, tiny budget, race to the bottom. Between the Connects and the lowball budgets it feels rigged against actually making decent money.

Losing Top Rated stung and I know I'm starting from a weaker spot with no recent history. But watching Connects drain on proposals nobody opens, for jobs that pay peanuts anyway, is rough.

So, is this just how it is now, or am I doing something wrong? And honestly, what are the good alternatives to Upwork these days? Anyone moved to another platform (or off platforms entirely) and had better luck? Would love to hear what's actually working for people in 2026.