Every one of these gets paid a different way, and that difference is the whole decision. An open marketplace takes a cut of what you earn but hands you a client pool on day one. A vetted network takes less or nothing, and asks you to pass an application first. A job board takes nothing at all, because the client becomes yours directly. Filter the fifteen below by what you are willing to trade.
15 tools compared, no affiliate links
The largest general marketplace, with both hourly contracts and fixed-price projects.
Best for: Building a client base from nothing
You publish packaged services at a set price and buyers order them without writing a brief.
Best for: Selling the same deliverable over and over
Freelancer.com (opens in a new tab)
Takes a commissionA large bidding marketplace that also runs paid contests for design work.
Best for: Volume bidding across many small projects
PeoplePerHour (opens in a new tab)
Takes a commissionA marketplace with a strong UK and European client base, priced on a sliding scale.
Best for: Reaching UK and EU clients in their own time zone
A general marketplace where a paid membership buys you a lower cut and more bids.
Best for: Working out whether a membership pays for itself
A vetted network that screens hard and then charges the client, not you.
Best for: Senior work at senior rates, if you pass
Braintrust (opens in a new tab)
No commissionA vetted network owned by the people who use it, which takes nothing from the talent side.
Best for: Keeping your whole rate on enterprise contracts
A vetted network for developers, matching remote contract and full-time roles.
Best for: Developers who would rather be matched than bid
A vetted network for WordPress work and nothing else.
Best for: WordPress developers who want pre-qualified briefs
We Work Remotely (opens in a new tab)
No commissionA remote job board where employers pay to post and you apply directly.
Best for: Finding longer remote contracts without a middleman
Remote OK (opens in a new tab)
No commissionA high-volume remote job board with salary ranges shown on most listings.
Best for: Scanning a lot of remote roles quickly
Wellfound (opens in a new tab)
No commissionA startup job board, formerly AngelList Talent, with contract and part-time roles alongside full-time.
Best for: Contract work with early-stage companies
A European marketplace with a strong base in France, Germany and Spain.
Best for: Working with European clients under European contracts
A US staffing company that places virtual assistants with clients on ongoing contracts.
Best for: Steady assistant work instead of chasing gigs
A virtual assistant company that matches experienced assistants to recurring client work.
Best for: Assistant work with a guaranteed hourly rate
No tool in this list matches that filter yet.
Outbound links are not affiliate links and no tool paid to be listed. Plans change often, so check the current pricing page before you commit.
If the problem is the fee, Guru and Freelancer.com sit at roughly half of what Fiverr takes, and Toptal and Braintrust take nothing from your side at all. If the problem is bidding against hundreds of people, the vetted networks solve that instead: you apply once, and work is matched to you. If the problem is Upwork itself holding the client relationship, the job boards are the real answer, because there the client is yours.
Fiverr takes one of the largest cuts here, so the useful comparison is what you get for it: buyers who order without a brief. Upwork and PeoplePerHour cost less but need proposals. Freelancer.com runs contests, which is closer to Fiverr in spirit and further in risk, because only the winner is paid. If you want the packaged-service model without the commission, the honest answer is your own site plus a way to invoice the buyer directly.
We Work Remotely, Remote OK and Wellfound are not marketplaces. Nobody holds the money, nobody takes a percentage and nobody rates you. You apply, and if it works out the client is your client. That is the upside and the catch in one sentence: no cut, but also no escrow, no dispute process and no invoice written for you.
Seven of these take nothing out of your rate, in three different ways. Three are job boards, where the client pays you directly and no platform sits in between. Two are vetted networks: Toptal and Braintrust both charge the client rather than the freelancer. Two are assistant companies, BELAY and Time Etc, which pay you an agreed rate instead of a share. The trade is always time: the networks screen hard before you see any work, and the boards hand you a list and nothing else. Filter the list by No commission to see them together.
BELAY and Time Etc place assistants on ongoing contracts rather than one-off tasks, and both pay you directly instead of taking a share. Both are US and UK based. On the general marketplaces, assistant work is one of the largest categories on Upwork and Fiverr, and it is also where the rates are pushed down hardest, so a specialism beats a general profile.
Before you commit
A 20% commission on $3,000 a month is $7,200 a year. Put the real number next to the value of the client pool before you decide the fee is worth it, and run it again once you have repeat clients, because that is when the same fee starts buying you nothing.
A marketplace keeps the relationship: the client is the platform's, you are a supplier on it. A job board hands the relationship to you. That is worth more over time and costs more up front, because you now handle the contract, the invoice and the chasing.
Marketplaces pay you through their own system, so you do not need anything of your own. Job boards and direct clients do not: they expect an invoice from a registered business. If you do not have a company, that is exactly where this stops being a paperwork problem and starts being a lost client, and it is the gap Ruul fills by letting you invoice without one.
A network that screens hard is filtering clients as much as freelancers: fewer applicants means they can promise a client a shortlist. If you pass, you skip bidding entirely. If you are early in your career, that door is closed for now and an open marketplace is the faster start.
Almost nobody stays on one platform. A common shape is an open marketplace for the first clients, a job board for the longer contracts, and direct work once people start referring you. Pick the one that fits where you are now, not where you want to be in two years.
Ruul lets you invoice clients without a registered company, in 190 countries, with payouts in 140+ currencies. You send the invoice, Ruul acts as the legal counterparty and collects the payment, and you get paid within one business day of the client paying. No setup cost and no monthly fee, just a 5% transaction commission.
