Pricing verified 2026-10-11
Post a job, compare proposals and agree your own terms, with a 14-day window to review work before a fixed-price payment releases itself.
Buy a packaged gig at a listed price with the revision count spelled out, and pay one flat 5.5% on top.
| Upwork | Fiverr | |
|---|---|---|
| What a $500 project costs you | Up to $554.94 by card: $500 + up to 7.99% ($39.95) + a contract initiation fee of up to $14.99. By US bank account at 3%: $515.99 to $529.99 | $527.50: $500 + 5.5% ($27.50). The $3.50 small-order fee only applies under $200edge |
| What a $150 job costs you | Up to about $176.98 by card: $150 + up to 7.99% (about $11.99) + up to $14.99 to start the contract. By US bank account at 3%: $155.49 to $169.49 | $161.75: $150 + 5.5% ($8.25) + $3.50 small-order fee |
| Client fee | Up to 7.99% of every payment on the free Basic plan, 3% for qualifying US clients paying by bank account. Business Plus charges 10%, or 8% by checking account | 5.5% of every payment, plus $3.50 on orders under $200. Extras and tips each carry their own 5.5% |
| Per-contract fee | $0.99 to $14.99 once per new contract, including rehires. Adding milestones to an existing contract doesn't trigger it again | None on fixed-price orders. Hourly orders carry a $5 order initiation feeedge |
| What the freelancer keeps | 85% to 100%. The freelancer fee ranges from 0% to 15% per contractedge | 80% of the order, including extras and tips |
| How you hire | Post a job and review proposals. Freelancers pay $0.15 per Connect to apply, which you never see | Browse gigs with prices up front, send a brief for custom offers, or hand the search to Mira |
| AI hiring help | Uma's Job Post Generator drafts the job post | Mira asks follow-up questions, writes the job description, sends it to suitable talent and returns a shortlist. Under a $500 budget you get a filtered list insteadedge |
| Time to review the work | 14 days after the freelancer clicks Submit Work for Payment, then the fixed-price milestone releases automaticallyedge | 3 days after delivery, then the order completes automatically |
| Revisions | Whatever you agree in the contract. Funded milestones wait for your approval or the end of the review period | Each gig package states its revision count. Reject a delivery and the order goes back to In Revisionedge |
| Who owns the work | Once the freelancer is paid in full, the IP is yours, except background technology they named upfrontedge | Commercial Use orders assign all IP to you unless the gig page says otherwise. Some gigs sell commercial use separately, or for 1 year only |
| Refunds and disputes | Unreleased funds can be disputed. After release, a refund is the freelancer's call within 180 days, with mediation if the last payment was in the past 30 days. Fees aren't refunded | Cancel an open order through the Resolution Center, or without approval once it's 24 hours late. Money lands in your Fiverr balance and can go back to your card within 10 days of a request |
| Premium tier | Business Plus: a 10% fee (8% by checking account) and up to $4.99 per contract under $100 | Fiverr Pro: Essential at no upfront cost if you're eligible, Advanced at $129/mo. Managed services carry a 14-day money-back guarantee, paid as Pro balance |
If you're a content marketer, you're probably on one of these sites for the same reason: a blog post, an edit pass, a set of social graphics or a cut-down video that your team doesn't have hours for this month. Both marketplaces will find you someone. They differ in how you buy, what you pay on top of the freelancer's price, and how long you get to look at the work before the money is gone.
The buying model is the first split. Fiverr sells packaged gigs: a writer lists a price, a delivery time and a number of revisions, and you check out like a shop. Upwork runs on job posts: you describe the work, freelancers spend Connects to send proposals, and you agree a fixed price or an hourly rate. Both now offer the other model too. Fiverr has hourly orders and Upwork has a Project Catalog, but each one's core flow still points the way it always has.
I read both help centres on 11 October 2026 and took every fee on this page from them, not from anyone's blog post. I haven't run the same brief through both sites, so treat this as a fees-and-terms read, not a hands-on test. The Fiverr link on this page is an affiliate link and the Upwork one isn't, which is why I've kept every row to what the two companies publish about themselves.
Pick Upwork when the work runs long or needs a real review. A content marketer commissioning a 3,000-word guide or a monthly retainer gets 14 days to read a submitted milestone before it pays out, against Fiverr's 3, and the IP is yours by default once you've paid in full. If you're in the US and can pay by bank account, the 3% fee also makes it the cheaper of the two on a $500 job, landing at $515.99 to $529.99. The cost is time up front: you write the brief, sort proposals and agree the terms yourself, and the contract initiation fee comes back on every new contract, even with a writer you've hired before.
Pick Fiverr when you know what you want and want the price before you start. A blog post, a set of thumbnails or a podcast edit is easy to buy as a package with the delivery date and revision count already fixed, and the fee is one number: 5.5%, plus $3.50 under $200. Paying by card, a $500 job costs $527.50 against up to $554.94 on Upwork. The thing to plan around is the 3-day review window. Block time to check the delivery the day it arrives, and read the gig page for commercial-use terms before you order anything you'll publish.
Full Fiverrreview →By card, Fiverr. A $500 order costs $527.50 on Fiverr, $500 plus 5.5%. On Upwork's Basic plan the same job costs up to $554.94: up to 7.99% ($39.95) plus a contract initiation fee of $0.99 to $14.99. The answer flips for qualifying US clients paying Upwork by bank account, where the fee drops to 3% and the job lands at $515.99 to $529.99. On a $150 job Fiverr costs $161.75, while Upwork by card can reach about $176.98 once the 7.99% and a $14.99 contract fee stack up.
5.5% of the purchase amount, plus $3.50 on any order under $200. Every payment carries its own fee, so an extra or a tip added later is charged 5.5% separately. In some regions Fiverr's Price upfront display folds the fee into the gig price you see while browsing, so the number on the gig card is what you pay. Hourly orders add a $5 order initiation fee when you accept the offer. On the other side, the freelancer keeps 80% of the order.
Two. A Client Marketplace Fee of up to 7.99% on every payment on the free Basic plan, or 3% if you're a qualifying US client paying by bank account. Then a Contract Initiation Fee of $0.99 to $14.99 once per new contract, rehires included. Business Plus raises the marketplace fee to 10%, or 8% by checking account, and charges up to $4.99 to start contracts under $100. Neither fee is refunded if a payment is reversed or refunded.
For a one-off post with a clear brief, Fiverr is faster: you can compare writers' packages, prices and revision counts without posting anything. For long-form work or an ongoing retainer, Upwork's terms suit the job better. You get 14 days to review a submitted milestone instead of 3, and its writers keep 85% to 100% of what you pay instead of a flat 80%, which leaves room for a lower quote. Whichever you use, put the word count, revision rounds and AI-use rules in the brief.
On Upwork, the IP becomes yours once the freelancer is paid in full, except any background technology they identified upfront. On Fiverr, an order with a Commercial Use license assigns all IP rights to you unless the gig page says otherwise. Some gigs sell commercial use as a paid extra or for 1 year only, so read the gig page before you order anything you plan to publish or put into an ad.
On Fiverr, you can cancel an open order through the Resolution Center, and you can cancel without the freelancer's approval once a delivery is 24 hours late. The money goes to your Fiverr balance by default, and you can request it back to your card, which takes up to 10 days. On Upwork, funds not yet released can be disputed. Once released, a refund is up to the freelancer within 180 days, with mediation available on fixed-price contracts if the last payment was in the previous 30 days.
No. Connects are what freelancers spend to send proposals, at $0.15 each, sold in bundles. As a client, posting a job costs nothing. You pay the marketplace fee on each payment and the contract initiation fee when a contract starts. On Fiverr the buyer side is the same idea: no cost to browse or post a brief, then 5.5% on each payment plus $3.50 under $200.