Freelancers contributed $1.3 trillion to the U.S. economy in 2021 and continue to be in high demand. While you can find successful freelancers in a wide variety of industries, highly skilled professionals providing art, design, marketing, and computer development services make up a large portion of the workforce. So where are all of these freelancers finding work?
For many, the answer is a working marketplace. Freelance platforms like Upwork and Toptal make it easy for professionals to connect with clients all around the world—and vice versa. Every freelance marketplace offers different features, with some focused on specific industries.
If you’re considering launching a freelance career or finding independent professionals on Upwork or Toptal, it’s important to understand the differences between the two. This guide will dive into how Upwork and Toptal function, what industries they serve, what kind of work you may find, and more.
How does Upwork work?
There’s no cost to join Upwork. You can use the platform as a client, a freelancer, or both. All freelancers and clients must apply to create an account on the platform and be approved before beginning work.
When using Upwork as a client, you can:
- Search for professionals offering more than 90 services in 12 industries
- Post job descriptions in Talent Marketplace™
- Buy services in Project Catalog™
- Create contracts, hire, and pay talented freelancers
- Get help from a professional Upwork Talent Scout™ recruiter
Upwork clients at large companies are also able to use Upwork as an alternative to traditional staffing models. Upwork Enterprise helps corporate clients get more work done quickly thanks to features like:
- Account managers
- Program success managers
- Hand-picked, Expert-Vetted Talent
- Talent Clouds of trusted freelancers
- Work history verification
- Global worker classification
- Unlimited account users
- Custom contracts with independent contractors or agencies
When using Upwork as a freelancer, you can:
- Highlight your professional achievements on your Upwork profile
- Set your services and rates
- Submit proposals for jobs in Talent Marketplace
- Offer paid consultations
- List services for sale in Project Catalog
- Enjoy Upwork Payment Protection on hourly contracts
- Work securely on fixed-price contracts with milestones and escrow payments
As freelancers complete projects on the Upwork platform, they receive a Job Success Score and talent badges that provide a quick snapshot of their experience and customer satisfaction. Talent badges include:
- Rising Talent: new Upwork freelancers with strong expertise and satisfied clients
- Top Rated: the top 10% rate of all talent on Upwork
- Top Rated Plus: the top 3% rate of all talent on Upwork
- Expert-Vetted Talent: the top 1% of talent on Upwork in specific skills areas
Many freelancers at all levels have found success building part- and full-time careers on our platform.
How does Toptal work?
Toptal, which stands for top talent, is a work marketplace platform that states it works with the “top 3%” of freelance developers, designers, finance experts, project managers, and product managers.
When using Toptal as a freelancer, you can:
- Set your rates and availability
- Browse and apply to client projects
- Accept project matches from Toptal recruiters
- Customize your Toptal profile
It’s important to note that as a freelancer, you can’t begin working on Toptal until you’ve completed the skills review process. This may take up to five weeks.
Clients using Toptal can:
- Develop project and job descriptions
- Work with Toptal recruiters to find a match
- Review freelancer profiles
Clients are also vetted before they can begin working with freelancers on Toptal. The platform says that it reviews all client applications and accepts only those that “have the right expectations, skills, and intent to engage our talent members.”
Upwork vs. Toptal: hiring a freelancer
You can use Upwork and Toptal to find talented professionals offering freelance services.
Finding talent on Upwork
As soon as you sign up for Upwork, you’re able to quickly begin browsing talent profiles and Project Catalog or posting jobs in Talent Marketplace.
If you post a job in Talent Marketplace, the Upwork platform will begin to show you quality freelancers who could be a good fit for the project. And if you’d like help finding just the right person or team, Upwork’s Talent Scout recruiters will produce a short list of qualified candidates in two days. Most Upwork clients find the right fit in just three days.
Finding talent on Toptal
Locating the right fit may take up to three weeks on Toptal. After speaking with the client, Toptal’s internal team will review talent profiles and assign one or more freelancers to the client project. At this time, the client can review the freelancer’s profile and give the go-ahead to proceed.
Once work begins, Toptal offers a trial period window in which the client can decide to cease working with the freelancer and either leave the platform or attempt another match.
Differences when hiring freelancers, at a glance
Upwork and Toptal differ in notable ways, including:
*Data sourced from Toptal.com and other public sources made available by Toptal.
Upwork vs. Toptal: finding freelance work
While there is some overlap between available work on Toptal and Upwork, the two platforms target slightly different industries and use unique workflows.
Finding work on Upwork
Once you sign up for Upwork as a freelancer and are approved, you are immediately able to begin submitting proposals for freelance jobs. You can also create Project Catalog listings, offer consultations, and respond to invitations from clients or Talent Scout recruiters.
As you begin to do more work on the platform, we’ll show you jobs that could be a good fit for your skills and interests.
Once you and a client decide you’d like to work together, agreeing is simple thanks to Upwork’s many features, including:
- Proposals
- Portfolio tools
- Hourly contracts
- Fixed-price contracts
- Packaged services
- Testimonials
- Appointment scheduling tools
- Direct messages
- In-app audio and video calls
- File-sharing tools
- A desktop time tracker app
- Invoices
- Payment processing
- Payment protection
- Escrow accounts
- Team collaboration tools
- Virtual Talent Bench™
Finding work on Toptal
When you sign up for Toptal, you’ll need to go through several weeks of screening before entering the talent pool. Toptal says they receive thousands of applications from freelance talent every month and about 3% of applicants get accepted to the platform. Your Toptal vetting process might include:
- English fluency assessments
- Verbal interviews
- Industry-specific knowledge tests
- Portfolio reviews
- Coding challenges
- Research projects
- Business case development
- Live problem-solving sessions
- Test projects
You are allowed to begin working through the platform only after you pass the screening process.
Finding work on Upwork and Toptal, at a glance
Key differences between working as a freelancer on Upwork and Toptal include:
*Data sourced from Toptal.com and other public sources made available by Toptal.
Other differences between Upwork and Toptal
Several additional differences should be considered when trying to decide on the right platform for your needs. These include:
- Ease of use
- Flexibility
- Types of jobs
- Security
The way you prefer to work and the types of jobs you want to find can be factors in determining where you should look for freelancers or freelance opportunities.
Ease of use
Upwork is set up in a way that makes it easy for freelancers and clients to connect. You can search for jobs and freelancer profiles across Talent Marketplace and Project Catalog.
If you’re a freelancer looking for work, you’re able to filter job listings by:
- Required experience level
- Hourly billing or fixed-price payments
- Client budget
- Total number of proposals received to date
- Client payment verification status
- Client hiring history
- Project length
- Project hours per week
- Client location (U.S. or international)
- Requested skills
Clients seeking freelancers can sort profiles by:
- Talent rating
- Diversity certifications
- Location
- Type of talent
- Hourly rate
- Job Success Score
- Total amount earned to date
- Total hours billed to date
- Languages
- English fluency level
Clients can also save their favorite freelancers’ profiles as part of their Virtual Talent Bench, which makes it very easy to work together again in the future.
Toptal clients can view freelancer profiles, and for freelancers to view projects; however, Toptal places significant emphasis on its manual matching process. While Toptal says this feature provides strong freelancer and client relationships, some users may feel that it slows them down.
Flexibility
As a freelancer on Upwork, you can work on a mix of one-time projects and ongoing contracts. Some Upwork freelancers work full-time hours for one client, while others work on multiple contracts at once. It’s entirely up to you how you’d like to structure your workload and client relationships. Take on more projects as your schedule allows or drop down to a lighter workload at other times. As a result, Upwork is great for anyone interested in working:
- Extended hours and projects for all or part of the year
- Part-time hours and projects for all or part of the year
- On an as-needed basis
- On occasional projects
Toptal allows freelancers to set their availability between zero and 50 hours per week; however, the platform’s pre-application “talent assessment” for developers encourages freelancers to have part- or full-time availability (20 to 40+ hours per week)
Once accepted to the Toptal platform, though, you may move between hourly, part-time, and full-time contracts.
Types of jobs
More than 90 categories of work in 12 industry verticals are available on Upwork. Toptal’s available freelance services cover five categories and are primarily limited to tech-based roles. Both platforms have a strong focus on remote work.
Your industry may have a large bearing on which freelance website is best for you. It’s possible to find jobs and experts in the following categories on each platform:
*Data sourced from Toptal.com and other public sources made available by Toptal.
Security
Upwork takes users’ security very seriously. In addition to offering secure contracts and payment protection, the platform also:
- Uses multi-factor authentication to secure accounts
- Supports Enterprise single sign-on (SSO) and session timeouts
- Encrypts user data
- Scans messages and files for viruses or malware
- Verifies freelancer identities
- Verifies client payment methods
- Maintains PCI DSS Level 2 compliance for payment processing
- Adheres to GDPR and CCPA regulations
- Administers a robust anti-money laundering program
- Conducts Know Your Customer (KYC) checks
Upwork also has a dispute team on hand to resolve any contract and payment issues or concerns that arise between clients and freelancers. This can include:
- Refund requests
- Disputes over hours worked
- Escrow disputes
- Unresponsive parties
Toptal does not provide much information about its security practices. At the time of writing, Toptal’s website indicated the company is GDPR compliant and takes steps to verify the identities of all users.
Join the world’s work marketplace
By choosing the right freelancing site for your needs, you can create a career or manage projects on your terms—whether you’re providing services or getting help for your business.
Freelancers on Upwork set their rates, define their hours, and work from just about anywhere with an internet connection. Sign up as a freelancer today and see how Upwork can help you grow your career independently.
If you use Upwork to hire freelancers, you can be confident that you’re receiving high-quality work in a price range that fits your budget. Sign up as a client and start your first job post to see how independent experts can help your business reach its goals.
