Potential businesses and freelancers are in good company with over 500,000 business and 2 million freelancers. In addition, Elance has one of the lowest fees in the market only taking 8.75% of bill rates. In 2012 Elance expanded with 345,000 new businesses who posted over 80,000 jobs each month. In addition, over 780,000 new Elancers joined to find work, with annual Elancer earnings surpassing $200 million for the first time. In other words Elance has continued to explode with success during the last two-years.

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The Bad

Navigation

Elance can be pretty difficult to navigate and use. The user dashboards are robust; however, finding specific jobs and people can be pretty tedious. In addition, users should be prepared to spend some time setting up an account, verifying information, and linking bank accounts. Like other platforms, Elance does not have effective hedges in place to reduce low ball offers. A quick search on the web surfaces hundreds of unhappy freelancers complaining about having to compete with other freelancers at $1 to $2 an hour. Approving legal contracts and other proposals can also be a tedious process through the Elance system.

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The Bottom Line

Elance is a great choice for both freelancers and businesses. The 8.75% fee is relatively low to competitors and ELance offers a host of tools and resources to help provide the best experience for its members. It's important to note that 67% of Elancers found 10% or more of income from Elance with over $169M of total income last year. When selecting Elance you're in good company.

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User Reviews

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7 Reviews

Review Breakdown

5 grade

14%

4 grade

29%

3 grade

2 grade

14%

1 grade

43%

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Rob Thueller Santa Cruz, CA

Definitely benefited from my Elance experience - they are great to work with and provide all of the assistance that one needs -- rate them with a A+

12 years ago

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UnCetateanScarbit DeTot

They canceled my account for an employer has felt been offended because I warned him that the I did not pay me the performed service for him. Can you believe this??? Lack of respect for workers from Elance! Take extra care with them, better avoid them because they are thieves!

10 years ago

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Mariusz

Well it WAS the best freelancing site, but not existing now, swallowed by Upwork, which is total garbage, almost as bad as Freelancer

10 years ago

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Kristen Pleasant Grove, UT

I like Elance but I have been frustrated with ever completing anything. Anybody wanting or offering a job plays lots of games wanting to get somebody who works for free. I have better luck through word of mouth. Not the best place for accomplished professionals.

12 years ago

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James Larson Pleasant Grove, UT

I found some contract work on eLance, but the person never delivered the promised work. I tried to get eLance to step in and mediate, but they dropped the ball. I haven't used them since.

8 years ago

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Mary Graybeal

I've been very pleased with Elance.

12 years ago

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Joe Las Vegas, NV

A lot of unscrupulous traders pretebding ti be customers who lowball and make profits to third parties.

12 years ago