🏁Starting price | Free to use. Freelancer rates vary |
💲Fees | 2.9% handling fee on each invoice |
🏆Top freelance categories | Design and art, writing and translation, programming and development |
🔎Freelancer screening process | No |
⚖️Dispute resolution | Yes |
💬Live chat support | No |
How is Guru Different?
Many freelancer platforms focus on providing as much choice as possible. Guru’s membership structure for its freelancers, on the other hand, tends to encourage more experienced professionals. It offers a number of different ways of commissioning work, including hourly and milestone-based contracts.
Guru’s flexibility can cause confusion, though. For example, Guru charges each seller a commission on their rate, a standard practice for freelancer platforms – plus a nominal handling fee of 2.9%. However, when quoting for a job, freelancers can opt to request that the buyer pay part of that commission fee for them. This is a detail that buyers can easily miss.
Guru’s membership structure tends to encourage freelancers to charge higher fees. If you need to hire a professional but you don’t have a huge budget, you should definitely give Fiverr a try. Simple jobs cost as little as $5, and you can choose from a huge variety of freelancers from all over the world.
Freelancers Cross the Borders
Guru has members around the world. Whether you need a local or someone on the other side of the globe, there’s a good chance you can find them on Guru. However, Guru’s popularity seems to have waned over the last few years. A lot of buyers and sellers who formerly used the platform have complained about its billing and arbitration processes.
Both long- and short-term contracts are possible on Guru. From single tasks to years-long collaborations, the platform can support whatever working relationship you need. It’s worthwhile reading up on SafePay, which is Guru’s escrow-style shared account for employers and freelancers, as most sellers will prefer to use it.
Guru has been in the market for more than 20 years, standing the test of time when it comes to connecting buyers and sellers.