44 Best Freelancing Websites for Beginners in 2023

Freelancing has become an increasingly popular way for people to earn income on their own terms in recent years. The freelance economy is expected to continue growing, with some estimates predicting there could be 86.5 million freelancers in the U.S. by 2027, making up over 50% of the workforce. This growth presents a major opportunity, especially for beginners looking to get started with freelancing.

With so many freelancing websites now available, it can be overwhelming trying to determine which are the best options specifically for beginners. To help, we’ve put together this list of the 44 top freelancing websites for beginners in 2023 based on factors like ease of use, cost, job availability, and more. Whether you’re looking for short-term gigs or want to build a long-term freelance business, these websites offer new freelancers the tools and opportunities needed to succeed.

44 Best Freelance Websites to Find Work as a Beginner

Upwork

Once known as oDesk, Upwork has over 5 million registered clients and offers projects for all types of freelancer. Whether you are looking for something short or long term, a paid-per-project fee arrangement or hourly fees, you are sure to find something suited to your skills, whether you are an expert or just starting out.

If you are new to Upwork or unfamiliar with Upwork-specific jargon, you may need a quick refresher on what Connects are. To help freelancers and employers alike prepare for the transition, here is a comprehensive guide to the Upwork Connects pricing changes with everything you need to know.

Toptal

One of today’s most popular and best known freelancing sites, Toptal helps to connect freelance designers and developers all over the world with clients. Focusing on technical projects, this company has a policy of rigorously screening their freelancers for skill, English language and technical knowledge and only around 3% of applicants are ultimately accepted. Toptal is an entirely remote business with no real-world office.

Freelancer

Freelancer gives freelancers the opportunity to compete with each other in contests that demonstrate their skills as well as offering access to countless projects. If you want the chance to showcase your talents in order to attract clients, this is the site for you. Time Doctor recently wrote a comprehensive review about Freelancer.com

99designs

This platform is aimed at designers, giving freelancers the chance to participate in design contests, prove their skills and get helpful feedback.

Peopleperhour

For any freelance web developers, SEO specialists or designers, this platform offers opportunities for web projects.

Remote.Co

With the motto of growing remotely, this website offers jobs in varieties of areas like accounting, data entry, writing, marketing designing and it related gigs with good pay rate. Big companies hire remote workers through this website globally.

Founded in the 1990s this telecommuting site has over 50 million workers who claim to have job satisfaction.

Servicescape

It is a great website for startups. Launched in the early 2000s, this website offers a global platform for people with skills and knowledge in various sectors like designing, editing, writing and translating.

This site develops communication between customers and company for buying and selling of digital products and services.

Fiverr

Founded in 2010, the Israel based company provides an online marketplace for buying and selling of digital services. Freelancers with skills in areas like graphics designing, writing, video editing, programming and so on can earn liberally.

The initial pay rate for a gig is $5 which increases with the increase in your portfolio and work quality.

College Recruiter

If you are a recent graduate or student, this site offers not only excellent part time opportunities but also a handy way to get your career off a good start.

Freelanced.com

It is one of the fastest growing freelancing sites with high number of employers and freelancers around the world. Here, one can post about their job i.e. what jobs they want to do; choosing from areas like art, animating, accounting, architecture, graphic design, marketing and so on.

Every freelancer is rated according to their job quality. Increase in rates gradually increases the pay rate.

Simply Hired

The range of projects offered on this platform is wider than many others since it is a directory outlining many jobs as well as freelancing opportunities. This site covers 700,000 employers across 24 countries and lists 6 million opportunities within 974 different occupations.

FlexJobs

This site is unusual in that it vets jobs instead of freelancers. The freelancer pays the platform and receive, in return, access to around legitimate 30,000 jobs that they can apply for.

Guru

Since being founded in 2001, Guru has received payouts of $2 million and succeeded in completing a million jobs. The Guru platform has 1.5 million registered freelancers and clients can search for their perfect match by viewing portfolios that include details about experience, skills and previous earnings as well as client reviews. Freelancers can also check out the legitimacy of a client’s job by checking out the amounts that they have paid freelancers in previous projects.

Freelance Writing Gigs

If you are a blogger, publisher, writer or editor, this is the ideal site for you.

Craigslist

While Craigslist is often believed to be only for selling and buying, in fact it also offers lots of freelance opportunities too. Searching for local offerings will bring up in-office jobs while you could search for opportunities in major cities if you like to work remotely.

Hubstaff Talent

Hubstaff provides 100% free resource for companies looking to find remote talent & freelancers across the globe. There are no markups and no fees on either side (freelancer or business owner).

We Work Remotely

Best place to find remote jobs, For any web developers, designers or marketers this platform offers opportunities for web projects.

JustAnswer

It is a website where anyone can go and ask a question and get answered by experts. The freelance job opportunity here is to become an expert. The expert generally logs in and select answers s/he wants to answer. Expert is also able to see who else has answered and who wants to pay’ how much’ for an answer. Only accepted answers are paid.

Founded in 2003, this site has 11,990 registered experts and millions of users.

Mturk

Also known as Amazon Mechanical Turk is a crowdsourcing Internet marketplace that enables individuals and businesses to use human intelligence for works which are currently not possible through computers.

Workers are able to post jobs such as choosing best from storefronts, writing product descriptions, etc. Workers or turkers can also complete unfinished jobs and charge accordingly. The payment for the job varies.

Microworkers

It is an online platform where a large project is divided into series of microwork and Microworkers are hired to complete such small works. Works may include liking some YouTube videos, writing short articles, etc.

One can earn $300-$500 per month and the site pays through PayPal.

Rapidworkers

It is a micro job website that connects workers with employers who wants their job done at a low price. The jobs may include signing up for websites, liking on various social media, writing a short review of products, participating in surveys, etc.

Founded in 2009 by a company called UnikScripts.Inc, it has 100,000 workers. One can earn $3-$5 per day through this site. Payment is received via PayPal.

Tutor

It is an online platform that connects students with their possible tutors. The site hires tutors as contractors for students who need help via the secure online environment.

There are over 3,100 tutors with real-life experiences and degrees. One must be eligible for teaching any subject they like and must be either US or Canadian citizens. The payment varies from $10-$12 per hour.

Workhoppers

It is an online platform that matches companies with a right local professional for part-time help according to their skills. Freelancers can set up their profile and wait for companies to hire them or can simply browse the list of jobs posted online.

It pays approximately $11-$41 per hour according to jobs.

Yunojuno

The fairly new freelancing site offers high-quality jobs from high-quality clients/ companies. It offers jobs in front or back end development, web design, quality assurance, and other digital designing works with some managing and accounting jobs.

With the high number of 14000 freelancers, it has good pay rate which is £10-£11 per hour at a minimum.

Zeerk

It is an online site that connects employer and freelancers for temporary jobs like writing articles, translating, graphic designing, programming, sales and so on. Freelancers can create their profile, communicate with buyers and deliver their services to get paid daily.

The Texas-based site has thousands of users worldwide and pays $30-$200 as per your work.

Online writing jobs

It is a platform that hires writers to create well-written and well-informed articles, blogs, and web contents as demanded by their clients.

Only US citizens can apply to work here. Freelancers must apply with filling an application form, sample articles, and valid documents. It pays up to $50 per article.

Textbroker

This site works for business clients who wish to advertise their products and services. Freelancers are hired within the US to create content and blogs regarding the client’s company profile and their product description.

They hire writers at levels 2, 3, 4, and 5. At level 2 freelancers get 0.7ncents per word and at level 5 they get 5 cents per word. Payment is done via PayPal.

Writerbay

It is one of the best portals for academic writings worldwide. Here academic writers meet students and help them to write better for getting good grades. Freelancers must have first-rate academic qualifications-at least a bachelor’s degree in any field and must pass testimonials to enroll as writers.

Payment (which is pretty good) is done according to the subject and required the number of words.

Bloggingpro

It is where freelance writers can search for writing jobs like blogging, content writing, technical writing, proofreading, social media content writing, celebrity information writing, and others.

It pays $50-$75 per hour or pays according to articles.

Freelance writing

Helping freelance writers to get the job since 1997, Freelancewriting.com is one of the best writing sites that offer jobs in content writing, blog writing, web content, product descriptions, email newsletters writing, marketing content writing, SEO content writing, copywriting and many more. Freelancers must apply with resume and must pass testimonial of sample writing.

They pay $49-$300 per article via PayPal.

Hire writers

It is a site that acts as a medium between the companies and writers. The main job for writers is to write articles, social media contents, poetries, eBook as demanded by their clients. Freelancers don’t need to be skilled to apply here.

They pay $1.85-$460 per article whereas $80-$1250 for eBooks. The site founded in 2012 certainly pays less.

Publoft

It is a content marketing platform which hires writers and editors to produce a world-class written content for their clients. Freelancers must not necessarily be experienced in writing but must pass certain tests of writing skills, grammar as well as creativity while applying here.

Pay rates are set according to project and level of writing. Writers get paid every two weeks via PayPal.

Airtasker

Airtasker is a reputable community platform that connects people who need to outsource tasks and find local services with people who want to earn money and are willing to work. Airtasker offers a wide range of tasks, from deliveries, cleaning, gardening, and handyman work at home to office admin, promotional work, and computer & IT support for businesses. There are also a variety of creative tasks available, such as photography, graphic design, and website and blog support, that can help you earn money online.

Dice

Powered by DHI Group, Inc, Dice is a New York-based career website which carries its sales and development operations across Urbandale, Iowa, and Denver. Founded in 1990, the website offers to serve IT and engineering professionals with approximately 80,000 tech job listings.

Over 500+ employees associated with DHI Group, the career-based website garners about 3 Million registered technology professionals and 2.4 Million unique visitors each month.

Mediabistro

Launched in November 1999, the professional career website opts to serve media enthusiasts. It is the place where you can find the job listings in the editing, writing, and marketing categories which best suits for the journalists.

In addition, the platform also entertains with various courses and seminars for media-related professionals.

HireMyMom

It is a unique work from home website which aids women professionals to find reliable and flexible home-based work while helping out the small business firms hire capable and talented virtual team members and freelance workers. The motto of this website is to create a win-win situation for both women, who want to have a flexible job, and businesses, who are seeking for quality and affordable talents for the company’s growth.

Founded in 2007, the online employment outsourcing service aims to connect businesses that need assistance in the areas of bookkeeping, administrative assistance, graphic design, and editing with home-based qualified working moms.

Krop

With the motto of connecting creativity with great companies, it is one of the internet’s top creative industry job board and portfolio hosting website. Founded in 2000, the website aims to put creative job seekers and the companies looking to hire new talents in the same place.

If you are looking to hire quality and fresh talent, you can post a job and search for the database. Besides, if you are a job seeker, you can build your profile and get found by the great workplaces.

TaskRabbit

A uniquely-crafted website, TaskRabbit is the place where you can describe your task, choose whom you would want to complete it, and get the job done. Founded in 2008, the California-based site helps consumers to find instant help with cleaning, moving, delivery, and handyman tasks across 47 US cities, 4 UK cities, and 1 Canadian city.

The average monthly earning of the Tasker swirls around $110.

SkipTheDrive

An easy platform to track part-time and full-time jobs including telecommuting, online, remote, and home-based, SkipTheDrive was launched in 2012. The website offers job seekers with pre-filtered job listings displaying the highly relevant job results.

Listed as one of the better-performing brands in its category, the website is free for job seekers and needs no registration.

Rev

Founded in 2010, the San Francisco and Austin-based startup is a perfect platform for freelance work. It offers a wide range of home-based work for the freelancers including Transcriptionist, Captioner, Subtitler, and Translator.

You can work in your flexible hours and get paid weekly via PayPal account. A Transcriptionist can earn $0.36-$0.65 per audio minute while a Captioner can bag $0-45-$0.75 per video minute. Similarly, Subtitler’s per video minute earning ranges from $1.50-$3.00 while a translator can earn $0.05-$0.07 per word.

Unbabel

With over 148 employees, Unbabel is an artificial intelligence powered human translation platform which focuses on the translation of customer service communications. Founded in August 2013, the platform provides a wide variety of user-generated contents to the translators who get paid for editing the pre-translated text and making it understandable.

The payment from each task is directly posted to the translator’s Unbabel account with transfer to Paypal or Payoneer carried once a week.

Remotive

Launched in January 2015, the website offers job opportunities to a wide range of talents in education, engineering, human resources, marketing, products, sales, and support. Applying for the jobs at Remotive comes free; however, you need to pay $299 for posting any jobs. The posted jobs get featured on the board for 30 days.

Jobspresso

It is an online platform established to connect talented and creative job seekers with innovative and excellent companies, who offer with the relevant employment opportunities. Launched in 2009, the platform provides convenience to the workers to work from anywhere in the world.

It is absolutely free for the job seekers and also offers a money-back guarantee to the job posters, who are not completely satisfied with the service within 30 days of the job posting.

Design Contest

DesignContest® us the original freelance design platform since 2003 with more than 2.2 million shared designs. A trusted global platform with over 230,000 designers and a 95+% rating from customers.

As part of its efforts to help the next generation, the company has released a new program called Scholar. This enables all schools, colleges, and post-secondary institutions and students to freely create and share their own design contest and creativity with one another.

Some tips for working as a freelancer

• Complete your profile – Fill out all sections thoroughly, provide details on skills, experience, education, certifications etc. The more complete your profile, the more likely you are to be found by clients.
• Get verified – Go through any verification processes offered by the freelancing site. This could include interviews, assessments, background checks etc. Being verified gives you more credibility.
• Craft a strong title and overview – Use keywords clients would search for. Summarize your services clearly and concisely. This is one of the first things a potential client will see.
• Show past work – Display samples of your work directly on your profile – writing samples, design portfolios, completed projects etc. This allows clients to better evaluate your abilities.
• Highlight reviews/feedback – If you have past clients from the platform who left you positive feedback or reviews, feature this prominently on your profile. Testimonials help provide social proof.
• Bid competitively – When bidding on projects, balance providing a competitive rate with one that is still fair based on your skills and experience level. Don’t underbid significantly.
• Communicate professionally – When interacting with clients, maintain a courteous, professional tone. Be responsive, thoughtful and collaborative for best results.
• Offer revisions within reason – Aim to provide revisions or make reasonable changes the client requests. This flexibility leads to better ratings and reviews.
• Build up your portfolio – As you complete projects, add them to your profile portfolio to showcase a growing range of work samples for potential clients.

Starting out as a freelancer can be scary but incredibly rewarding. While it takes hard work and persistence, having the right online platforms to find clients and jobs makes a huge difference.

The freelance websites in this list are ideal for beginner freelancers in 2023 because they make it easy to create an attractive profile, connect with clients, and start building your business. They offer approachable marketplaces catered to first-time freelancers.

I hope this list of the best freelancing websites helps simplify your entry into freelancing this year. Don’t let analysis paralysis stop you from taking the first step! Create profiles on the sites that interest you most and start applying to jobs.

And if you have any other freelance websites you’d recommend for newbies, share them in the comments below!