Being stuck in an office and adhering to a 9-5 schedule is quickly going out of fashion.
On the one hand, there’s job security. On the other, there’s the freedom of choosing your own clients, controlling your workload, and working from wherever you want.
Yeah, it’s no wonder the freelancing industry is growing as much as it is.
Currently, the most popular sites to post and find projects are Fiverr, Upwork, PeoplePerHour, and Freelancer.com.
Choosing between those options can be tough, so we thought we’d help you out by compiling this set of Freelancer.com statistics.
Check them out and see if self-employment is the golden ticket that’ll get you traveling the world.
Fascinating Freelancer.com Stats (Editor’s Choice)
- There are 50 million users registered on Freelancer.com.
- Freelancer.com has 6.7 million visits per month.
- The average project size on Freelancer.com is $178.
- Freelancer.com is a 12-time winner of the Webby award.
- In 2022, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Freelancer.com collaborated on a $1-million challenge.
- About 69% of the companies that use Freelancer.com have under 50 employees.
- Nearly all of Freelancer.com’s traffic (92.3%) is direct.
What Is Freelancer.com?
Is Freelancer.com a legitimate site?
Absolutely.
The history of this website takes us back to 2009.
Matt Barrie had hired a freelancer online and was amazed by the efficiency of the service. He saw a lot of potential in the industry and was determined to create an even better website for self-employed entrepreneurs.
And this is how Freelancer.com came into existence.
Let’s take a look at some key statistics about the platform.
1. Freelancer.com is most popular in India.
(Source: Similar Web)
India accounts for 16.32% of the website’s traffic. The US comes in second place with 10%, followed by Bangladesh (8%), Pakistan (6%), and Mali (3%).
The fact that the top five countries account for less than half of the site’s audience means Freelancer.com is quite popular all around the world.
It’s especially popular among the younger generations: 64% of the platform’s audience is younger than 35, whereas those older than 65 represent only 3% of users.
Fun fact: The average age of independent professionals is 37 years old.
2. In 2020, there were 2.1 million jobs on Freelancer.com.
(Source: Staffing Industry Analysts)
It’s no secret that COVID-19 played a major part in boosting all things remote. That includes freelancing gigs.
There were only 1.8 million jobs posted on Freelancer.com throughout 2019. Then 2020 came along, and the platform had a pandemic-induced 17% YoY growth, surpassing two million projects.
3. Most of Freelancer.com’s job postings get their first bid in under 60 seconds.
(Source: Freelancer Group)
This is kind of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, you want people to be interested in doing your project and respond to your post quickly. On the other hand, 60 seconds is a bit too quick, isn’t it? It hardly gives the freelancer enough time to read your project description, let alone ensure it’s a good fit for them or prepare a thought-out proposal.
In 2019, 83% of projects got their first bid on minute one. In 2020, only 68% did. We’ll let you decide whether that’s a good thing or not.
Fun fact: On average, a project on Freelancer.com gets 26 bids.
Highest Paying Freelance Skills in 2022
For the last couple of years, people have been taking a more proactive approach to controlling their sources of income. More people are either becoming freelancers or establishing businesses and hiring freelancers to help them with certain tasks.
Why do they hire freelancers?
Well, it’s often the optimal solution. Let’s say you just opened a small bakery, and you need a logo. You could either contact a design company (high-quality but expensive), give it a try yourself with an online logo maker (budget-friendly but time-consuming), or simply hire the freelance graphic designer of your choice (high-quality and budget-friendly).
Yeah, we see the appeal, too.
Let’s see what types of gigs are driving the freelancer economy nowadays.
4. Back in 2009, the overwhelming majority of projects on Freelancer.com were IT-related.
(Source: Yahoo! Finance)
As the years went by, however, other branches started becoming more popular. Don’t get us wrong, “Websites, IT & Software” is still the biggest category on the site, but it only accounts for about 30% of all job postings now. Specifically, as of June 2022, there are 15,687 projects under that category.
According to Freelancer.com stats, other popular categories include “Design, Media & Architecture” (13,926 projects), “Writing & Content,” (4,002 projects) and “Data Entry & Admin” (1,551 projects).
5. Projects related to Ethereum are up by 335% on Freelancer.com.
(Source: Website Planet)
Blockchain and crypto have been trending for quite a while, so it’s not surprising that projects related to these topics are on the rise, too.
Specifically, Bitcoin projects experienced a 134% YoY increase in 2021, blockchain projects were up 269%, and Ethereum projects rose by 335%.
In other words, if you want to become a freelancer on Freelancer.com, you might want to read up on blockchain technology.
6. On average, a freelancer earns $42,898 a year.
(Source: Zippia)
How much you earn as a self-employed individual depends on how many hours you work, your skillset, your experience in the field, and the type of projects you take. That’s understandable.
However, even those doing freelance work in the US have to deal with a racial wage gap. For instance, statistics show that Asian American freelancers earn the most annually ($48,541/year on average), whereas African Americans earn approximately $42,361 per year.
As for the gender wage gap, there’s still a 5% disparity to tackle among freelancers.
Fun fact: Being among the top 10% earners in the freelancing world means making at least $60,000 a year. If you’re just starting, though, the average annual income falls at around $30,000.
The Most Popular Freelance Sites in 2022
Nowadays, there are plenty of freelancing sites available. Depending on what you’re looking for, some might be better than others.
For instance, 99designs is one of the best freelancing markets if you’re looking for a creative professional. If, however, you need a WordPress expert, you’ll have better luck with Codeable.
The thing is that these are specialized marketplaces. So, while they may be pretty good, they don’t rank as the top sites in the freelance industry precisely because of how niche they are.
Let’s check out a few stats about the top contenders worldwide.
7. Freelancer.com reached 50 million registered users in 2022.
(Source: Freelancer.com)
The site markets itself as “the world’s largest freelancing marketplace” by the number of users and projects posted. Back in 2019, approximately 38 million people had registered on the website, but the pandemic made the platform hit an unprecedented growth spurt, quickly hitting the 50-million mark.
For comparison, Upwork confirmed it had 16 million freelancers and 105,500 core clients back in 2018. Alas, it’s yet to reveal how much it’s grown over the last few years.
What about Fiverr vs Freelancer.com?
Well, the former had 5.5 million buyers and 830,000+ sellers in 2019. That’s seven times fewer users than Freelancer.com in that same period. However, this doesn’t mean Fiverr isn’t at the top of its game. In fact…
8. Fiverr is the most visited freelancer platform in the world.
(Source: Similar Web)
Every month, close to 60 million people visit Fiverr’s website, making it the top freelance site worldwide in terms of monthly visits. Upwork is the only platform that comes close, boasting over 40 million monthly visitors.
Freelancer.com and Toptal fall behind with 6+ million visitors each. Flexjobs, for comparison, only manages half as much monthly traffic.
9. Upwork generated $373.6 million in 2020.
(Source: The Motley Fool)
Although Fiverr gets more traffic, Upwork boasts the largest revenue among freelancing platforms.
Upwork’s clients and freelance workforce spent a combined $2.5 billion on the platform just in 2020, boosting the site’s revenue up to $373.6 million. That’s a 24% increase YoY.
Fiverr, on the other hand, had a much more impressive surge in revenue (77%). Alas, the resulting number is about half of what Upwork made ($189.5 million).
Now, as for Upwork vs Freelancer.com…
10. Matt Barrie reported a loss of $1.9 million for 2021.
(Source: Business News Australia)
Freelancer Group has two sides: Freelancer.com and Escrow.com. The latter is an online payment company that basically holds the money in trust until certain conditions are met, guaranteeing that buyers get the product or service they purchased and that sellers get their due payment.
By the end of 2021, the online escrow platform boasted $5.5 billion in payment volume and $11.3 million in gross revenue—Escrow.com is doing well. It’s Freelancer.com that’s not doing as well as Barrie had hoped.
Freelancer.com statistics reveal a 5.2% drop in revenue in 2021 as the company underwent structural changes, leaving it at $43.3 million (which is about a quarter of Fiverr’s revenue).
11. The global freelance platforms market size was $3.39 billion in 2019.
(Source: Globe Newswire)
Projections suggest the industry will continue growing at a 15.3% CAGR over the next few years, surpassing $9 billion by 2026.
The United States is one of the biggest drivers behind the market’s growth. Currently, 36% of the country’s working population is self-employed, which means there are about 59 million freelancers in America.
Other countries with a sizable freelance market are the UK, Brazil, and Pakistan. Each of them experienced around a 50% YoY increase in freelance revenue in 2019.
Freelance Demographics
There are several reasons why people choose to go down the freelancing route; most revolve around having more control over one’s time and money.
The thing is that going independent is no easy thing. Most freelancers don’t have a steady income, as they make money on a project-to-project basis. Furthermore, competition is tough, and—if freelancing statistics are to be believed—you might get stuck working only low-paying gigs for a while.
Anyway, let’s talk a bit about the people who were brave enough to become their own bosses.
12. 52.3% of all freelancers are women.
(Source: Zippia)
In the US, specifically, the most common ethnicity among self-employed individuals is White (76.1%), followed by Hispanic (10.2%), Asian (7.6%), and Black or African American (3.5%).
Furthermore, most freelancers (69%) have graduated from college. Only 11% have a Master’s degree, too, though.
Fun fact: According to freelancer statistics, 12% of independent professionals in the country identify as LGBT+.
13. In the US, most freelancers work part time.
(Source: Statista)
One of the best things about freelancing is that you get to choose the projects you work on and how much time you want to dedicate to them. And, as long as you deliver the project on time, you get to set your schedule, too.
How many freelancers in the US would you say work 40 hours a week?
If your guess is “about a quarter,” you’d be correct.
Statistics show that only 25% of independent professionals work full time on their projects. The majority (51%) take advantage of the flexibility freelancing affords them and take it as a part-time job. What about the rest?
Well, the rest are very hardworking people—19% have full-time jobs and work on freelancing projects in their free time.
Wrap Up
As you see, freelancing continues to grow by leaps and bounds, and there’s no sign it will slow down anytime soon.
We at Web Tribunal are excited to see where the freelancing journey is heading and what the future holds for us.
Did any of our Freelancer.com statistics surprise you?
We bet you didn’t think “this freelancing thing” was quite this big.
Sources
Unaware that life beyond the internet exists, Nick is poking servers and control panels, playing with WordPress add-ons, and helping people get the hosting that suits them.
