Fiverr says that its freelance rates are low, while Guru says its freelance experts are the best in the world. But which one can give you good freelance work that won’t break the bank?
A Hint: It’s Fiverr. Fiverr is the cheaper option, and its sellers offer professional-level services that are easier to look through and compare so you can find the best fit. Guru has plenty of expert freelancers, but it’s harder to find the right one, and you’ll pay a lot more for that expertise than you need to.
But if you need a certain kind of work done, like programming or development, or if you have a bigger budget, Guru could be a good choice. We compared Fiverr and Guru to the most important ways to find, hire, and manage freelancers to help you make the right choice.
Just A Quick Note: To be fair, we’re only looking at the categories that these two platforms have in common.
Table of Contents
Structure Of The Platform And Workflow
You can look at Gigs on Fiverr or ask for quotes on Guru.
As a buyer on Fiverr, you can look through “gigs,” which are packages of services that promise to do something specific. You might find work writing a 1,000-word article, writing a jingle for an ad, or making the cover art for your latest podcast. (This is only a little bit of a stretch.)
This system makes it easy to find a freelancer who is an expert in what you need. You don’t have to ask a bunch of graphic designers if they’ve made logos in the style you want because you can look for someone who makes logos in that style.
If you can’t find what you’re after, you can make a request detailing your requirements and receive quotes from vendors, or you can contact a seller you like and see if they’re willing to work with you on special orders. (Most sellers are.)
Guru Is The Opposite. Instead of looking through dozens of freelancers, you post a job and let the freelancers come to you by bidding on your project. They’ll send you quotes, and you’ll look over them to find the best match. In our Guru review, we tried out the system.
You can also look through the profiles of freelancers and ask them to give you a quote, but the profiles are hard to look through. If you need to identify a freelancer who has made over $50,000 from a single employer, you can do it by filtering profiles, but you can’t do so by service or fee. (It was not at all helpful to me.)
On the other hand, it’s a dream to look around Fiverr. Not only is the layout better—it reminds me of a Pinterest feed—but the search filters let you narrow your choices even more. You may narrow your search on Fiverr not only by region, language, and other typical requirements but also by price, processing times, and even specifics like design style or file format.
On both platforms, you can talk to sellers directly, and most communication occurs through direct messages on the website. This way, you don’t have to try to remember whether you first talked to your freelancer through your work or personal email.
Freelancers may post questions regarding your job opening in Guru’s “Job Q&A” section. This helps them learn more about the job and gives you a more accurate quote.
Both Fiverr and Guru have a workspace where you can keep track of your orders and manage them. Here you can request updates, put money in escrow, and approve milestones or complete projects.
On Guru, the place to track orders is called a “WorkRoom,” It lets you add more than one freelancer to a project if your needs are more complicated. You and the freelancer will also set up a work agreement in Guru’s WorkRooms. This agreement will describe the scope of the work, how it will be paid for, and any tools or processes that will be used.
Because sellers on Fiverr already specify the terms of their gigs, the site does not have a detailed agreement process. Why take the time to write this agreement when the seller can do it all for you? You can use your free time to paint your bedroom or feed the sourdough starter you haven’t been taking care of.
Even though the way they work is similar in some ways, I much prefer Fiverr to Guru. I like that I can search by project instead of looking at quotes and taking a chance that the freelancer can do the job. You can locate what you’re looking for quickly on Fiverr, and because sellers list their rates and turnaround times up front, you won’t waste time haggling over them.
Use Fiverr to find a freelancer.
Standards For Checking Out Freelancers
Both sites check ID, but only Fiverr checks skills.
Every time I try a new freelancer site, I’m amazed at how many ways they try to ensure their sellers are real people with the skills they say they have. Each network has a slightly different technique for verifying freelancers, and some of them aren’t very beneficial, but there seems like there should be a standard, simple process for verification.
On both Fiverr and Guru, you have to verify your identity. This helps you avoid spam by ensuring that everyone on the platform is who they say they are. That’s the end of Guru’s standardized processes. You’ll have to manually check freelancers based on their profile, transaction history, and feedback from previous employers.
Fiverr also uses these criteria, but it also has a few rules that make it much easier to figure out which freelancer is best for you. First, there’s the Fiverr Pro verification. First, there’s Fiverr Pro verification, where qualified freelancers can demonstrate their expertise and experience to have their profile marked as “Pro.”
A member of the Fiverr team has looked at a freelancer’s work history and samples of their work to ensure they are Pro-verified. It’s almost like a job application, and the video entry serves as an interview. Although a Pro-verified seller is among the top freelancers you can hire, you’ll find that there aren’t very many of them because just 1% of applicants receive the distinction.
The rating levels on Fiverr come into play here. When sellers meet specific criteria, like being active on the platform and completing orders with a high customer satisfaction rate, they automatically move up to the next level.
These levels, which are called Level 1, Level 2, and Top-Rated, are evaluated on a rolling basis, so when you look at a seller’s Fiverr profile, you can pretty much be sure that they can do what they say they can do. You won’t be left to wonder whether a seller’s high rating is based on work they produced three days ago or three years ago when you see it.
The Pro label and rating level are not mutually exclusive. Even if a seller hasn’t yet made a sale, they can apply for Pro and start earning their level as soon as they reach the minimum number of gigs sold. When it’s all written down, this seems like a lot of different names, but in practice, it’s easy to use and gives you all the information you need.
Guru also gives you information about a seller’s activity, earnings, and level of job satisfaction. Still, there are no levels or ratings to help you figure out what this information means.
The platform also thinks that high pay means good work. Even though there’s probably a strong link between the two, this way of thinking might make you think that you have to pay a lot of money to get professional freelance services online. Fiverr proves this is not the case, making them the clear winner.
Use Fiverr to find a freelancer.
Profiles Of Freelancers
Fiverr shows you jobs, while Guru shows you how to do them.
Since there isn’t much variety in the information that freelancers need to transmit to get employed, profiles on both Fiverr and Guru contain very similar information, such as statistics, ratings, services offered, and so on. Both show you the work a freelancer can do for you, though.
This information is presented, which makes Fiverr easier to use than Guru.
The ratings come first. Buyers on Fiverr rate sellers on a scale of one to five stars based on communication and how well the service was done. Each buyer’s rating for that seller and the seller’s ratings across all criteria and as a whole are aggregated here.
Comparatively, Fiverr’s system is superior to Guru’s, in which a customer’s need merely indicates whether or not they were satisfied with the task. This “Feedback Score” is shown as a percentage on a freelancer’s profile, with more weight given to jobs that pay more. In other words, a rating will affect their overall score more the more expensive a job is.
I don’t like the way Guru rates things. First, it’s not very helpful because almost every freelancer on Guru has a perfect score. (I looked at many profiles to find something lower, but all I could find were a few 97% ratings and one 75% rating.) So the Guru score might keep you from hiring someone who isn’t very good, but it won’t help you choose between two freelancers who seem about the same.
I also disagree with giving more weight to projects that cost more money. I can see why it’s done that way, but I don’t like the idea that a higher price means the work is more important or better quality.
All of the qualitative reviews on Guru have the same “meh” vibe. For some reason, Guru employers tend to write reviews like “This was great work” that aren’t very helpful. You can find reviews like this on Fiverr, but most reviews are a little more detailed because of the questions about how a seller did on various criteria.
Fiverr is also the winner in this category because, by default, it shows you the most helpful reviews instead of the most recent ones. (You can also sort by the most recent review and filter to see only positive or only negative reviews, which you can’t do on Guru.)
Use Fiverr to find a freelancer.
Pricing
Guru offers expert services at expert prices.
By now, you may believe Fiverr sounds like a good alternative, but the prices make you pause. $5 freelance services? Is that possible?
You can! Many $5 Fiverr gigs deliver as promised, according to reviews. Most Fiverr gigs cost $50 or less. (With Fiverr Pro, you’ll spend hundreds of dollars soon.)
Fiverr gigs generally list a basic, standard, and premium package with extras like more revisions or file kinds. This setup avoids hidden fees or uncomfortable situations like paying a freelancer by the hour and taking twice as long.
Guru Is Different. You can construct a unique agreement with your freelancer, and payment terms are flexible. Guru is flexible, but you can’t get stuff done for $5.
Freelancers on Guru publish their prices as a per-hour rate and a minimum job cost. Thus while some have $5 hourly rates, most have $25 or $50 minimums. Again, cheaper rates are rare.
The lowest tier for posting a job on Guru is $250, which quickly climbs into the thousands.
Guru’s transaction charge is another consideration. Handling costs 2.9% of each invoice. Guru claims this is the industry’s lowest transaction fee, but Fiverr charges the quoted price and nothing more. Guru offers rewards on eCheck and wire transfer transaction fees.
Fiverr, and Guru has provisions for holding funds in escrow while the freelancer works on your order. All communication should be done within the platform for security.
Credit, debit, and PayPal are accepted. Fiverr accepts ApplePay and Google Pay, while Guru accepts eCheck (the U.S. only) and wire transfers.
Fiverr lets you find a freelancer for $5.
Bottom Line:
Fiverr is the way to go for excellent freelancing work on a budget. Find a gig giving precisely what you need without negotiating rates or creating a personalized agreement. You may obtain professional work for as little as $5, and the Pro services can take you further.
While Guru has experienced freelancers, it’s challenging to discover the ideal fit. You will spend more time comparing quotations and pay more incredible rates. Use Guru if you have a large, complex project that requires numerous freelancers or if you want to employ a corporation for long-term labor rather than an individual.
In the end, Fiverr is superior. You can discover exceptional freelancers for the best rates anywhere for practically any task.
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