Overall Impressions
GetAFreelancer(GAF) is a bit newer than the mastodons Scriptlance and RentACoder, but it managed to take a large pie in the market very fast. The site is very nice and easy to use. You can see all projects at a glance, just like in Scriptlance (the layouts of both sites are similar). You will find more than 100 new projects posted every day.
GetAFreelancer takes higher commission – 10% of the project amount or $5 (whichever is higher). The Gold members pay NO commission fee though and you can be a Gold member very easy – just pay $12 per month. If you do a lot of work there, it is pretty small fee. There is a minimum bid amount of $20, which takes out the $5-per-project guys.
GetAFreelancer really takes care about your money and will allow you to withdraw in six ways – PayPal, E-Gold, Bank Wire, Check, Moneybookers and Western Union.
Positives
- Very easy to use, excellent navigation and explanations
- You can work without paying commission fees as a Gold member – for just $12 per month
- Very popular – a lot of new projects posted every day
- Many withdrawal options, including MoneyBookers and E-gold
- RSS feeds with the projects available
- $20 minimum bid – no cheap competitors who work for $5
Negatives
- Too much competition, just like in Scriptlance
- Higher fees unless you are Gold member
- Not very good protection against malicious buyers
Additional Information
GetAFreelancer just recently implemented some interesting new features. The free members are now allowed to place only 15 bids per month and Gold members – 150 bids per month. Don’t think this is bad. I think it is quite good. Are you serious about building a freelance career? I am sure you are, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this site.
Limiting the bids is good thing, because it limits the low quality bids and cheap workers. It limits your competition and increases the chances for your bid to win. Yes, you will have to be more careful when choosing a project to bid on, but this can be only positive for you. This way you will rarely end up winning a project which you can’t complete. And if 15 bids per month are not enough, for only $12 your limit will be raised to 150 bids monthly.
In general I like GetAFreelancer a lot and think that they will be one of the biggest players in the future.
Update October 6th, 2009:
GetaFreelancer.com becomes Freelancer.com
GetaFreelancer.com announced that it had acquired Freelancer.com and will be changing it’s name to the later.
No other major changes were made at that time.
