Upwork Vs Fiverr: Which is Best for Your Lead Gen Needs?

UpWork or Fiverr? Where should you hire your lead generation experts? To answer this question simply and fast: NEITHER. We will tell you why. 

UpWork and Fiverr are two of the most popular freelance platforms where you can hire freelancers for various services, including lead generation. 

These marketplaces offer an excellent avenue for locating top-tier freelancers, regardless of your location. Usually, finding the appropriate marketplace for a business hinges on a multitude of elements such as project requirements, financial resources, work style preferences, etc.

But before we discuss those, we need to get clear on what you should look for in a lead generation expert. 

When you are hiring for lead generation, it means that you somehow want to grow your business and thus want HOT leads to fill your pipeline for your sales team to sell to. 

Because of this, when you hire in the name of lead generation, you want:

• Experts who actually understand what lead generation is (inside out) and actually have the creative skills to make it happen. 
• Not just list builders; you want experts who understand what it takes and have proven systems and strategies to research prospects and generate leads.
• A team of professionals who have specialized knowledge and experience in different areas of lead generation, such as cold email marketing, sales copywriting, cold outreach campaign, email marketing, lead research, data enrichment, and more.
• Dependable experts with resources at their disposal, including the latest tools and software, databases, and technologies to generate leads effectively.
• Lead generation professionals who can devise a reliable strategy to attract and acquire leads continuously: That’s basically the expertise you’re lacking and part of the reasons you’re here. So, the agency needs to demonstrate a proven, systematic method for generating leads that will work consistently for your business. 
• Professionals who can do the work and deliver sales-ready leads fast. If you are looking to hire a lead generation agency, it means that you are not growing at the rate you wish, so you want to fill your sales pipeline and grow fast. Because of that, you want an agency that can deliver quality leads promptly. You don’t have months to wait and can’t afford it.
• Last but not least, the lead generation service should be cost-effective and able to grow with your business. More importantly, they should have a clear pricing structure or model with offers that detail what you can get or expect from the service. 

That said, we believe from the onset that you should hire neither UpWork nor Fiverr for lead generation — and the reason for this is very simple. Most of the acclaimed lead generation experts on there only do list building and call it lead generation. 

The second and most important reason is that they terribly fail to tick the boxes you care about when you need a freelancer or an agency to generate leads. And more. 

In this article, we will compare Upwork to Fiverr and discuss all their key offerings. By the end, you’ll have a clear idea of the company that’s best for you. But as well, we will tell you why these job marketplaces aren’t the best place to hire when you want to generate leads. 

Let’s get started.

Why UpWork and Fiverr can’t get you the leads you want 

Our thinking here is based on the principle that if you are hiring for lead generation, that means you want:

• To grow your customer base by fueling leads to your sales team
• To increase revenue
• Leads to sell to

But more importantly, you want leads without suffering through lead generation. You want a completely done-for-you lead generation service that guarantees consistent leads for your business or sales team to close.  

With that in mind, when you start looking at Fiverr and Upwork from these viewpoints, you’ll realize that they aren’t in any way fit to get you the professionals you need nor the outcomes you want for your business. We will elaborate more in the following sections. 

Lead generation experts on Upwork and Fiverr are mere list builders, not lead generation experts. They CAN’T generate SALES-READY leads.

Yes, you read that right.

We don’t believe you should hire on UpWork and Fiverr for lead generation because most individuals offering their services on the platform are not lead generation experts. In most cases, all they do is build and clean up email lists. 

Let’s take a look at an acclaimed lead generation expert from Fiverr, for example. 

Here is an example from UpWork. 

Surprisingly, all the profiles that pop up when you enter lead generation on both platforms are the same. They all claimed they are lead generation specialists, but all they do is build lists, collect email addresses, or enter data. We all know that’s only a single slice of the lead gen pie. 

They DON’T generate leads for your sales team, and they can’t. 

Somebody or a team that only knows its way around list building just can’t cut it. What we are saying is that hiring people from Fiverr or UpWork is only a good idea if you have an in-house lead generation team already working for you and want to unburden them with list building. 

It takes ICP identification, buyer persona development, lead research, list building, data enrichment, copywriting, outreach campaigns, leads scoring and validation, et, to generate high-quality leads that end up buying from you. 

That’s why you need REAL marketers, lead generators. People with the skillset to discuss and understand your ICP profile inside out, create sales emails and outreach messages that convert — basically DO THE WORK and GENERATE LEADS, and that’s where Nerdy Joe prevails.

Full-scale lead generation agencies provide consistent service and performance that can be difficult to maintain with an individual freelancer or a team on Upwork and Fiverr.

Another thing that happens with freelancers from platforms like Fiverr and Upwork is that even when they do promise some type of outcomes for the work they do, they can’t provide a consistent level of service and performance as a full-scale lead generation company would. 

Successful lead generation requires processes and systems to ensure that work is carried out consistently, proven strategies and workflows to ensure targeting and messaging are excellent, and the results are monitored and optimized regularly. 

That’s just something you can’t find on a freelance job marketplace. That’s because it takes experts to design it and a company to run it. Even if freelancers can promise or deliver these occasionally, they cannot be as reliable or consistent as a dedicated lead generation agency. 

Also, hiring a lead gen agency like Nerdy Joe provides a contract that details the scope of work, timelines, deliverables, and other expectations. This offers a sense of stability and predictability. A freelancer or a team juggling multiple clients can’t deliver consistent results.

Lead generation freelancers on UpWork and Fiverr can’t guarantee a steady stream of leads and the capacity for scalability.

One of the critical advantages of a full-scale agency is its inherent capacity and adaptability for scalability. And it’s something you can’t have with a freelancer from Fiverr or Upwork.

Let’s take our lead generation agency, Nerdy Joe, for example. We are composed of a diverse team of specialists. We possess the bandwidth to handle multiple projects simultaneously or scale up operations swiftly when required. 

So, as your business grows and imposes the need for more leads, we can comfortably accommodate this growth, given our larger team and resources. We can assign more team members to your project to ensure that the increased workload is managed effectively.

Contrarily, individual freelancers or small teams from Upwork and Fiverr will struggle to handle a significant increase in workload. They are limited by their individual capacities and may not be able to meet increased demands as quickly or efficiently. 

Scaling up with a freelancer means they have to bring in additional help, which can lead to consistency and quality control issues. Or, it might involve a learning curve and extra time for the new team members to familiarize themselves with your business and the project.

Upwork vs. Fiverr: How do the two work marketplaces’ services compare?

Upwork and Fiverr are both online platforms that connect freelancers with clients who require their services. These platforms provide a marketplace where businesses and individuals can hire professionals for various projects and tasks, including lead generation.

Let’s start the comparison with their UI design structure and what they mean for someone looking to hire. 

Platform structure and business model: Upwork is designed to encourage long-term relationships between freelancers and clients, while Fiverr’s structure is more geared towards one-off projects. 

Fiverr is primarily designed for one-off projects or “gigs”, with the site’s layout allowing users to browse and hire freelancers for specific tasks like lead generation or video editing. 

Each freelancer on Fiverr has individual gig pages detailing their experience, expertise, reviews, past work, job completion rate, how much it will cost to work with them, etc. 

You can even reach out to them directly from the page to further discuss with them via the pop-up message feature. 

While you can post jobs on Fiverr, the UI isn’t primarily designed to let you do that. They typically encourage their users to surf through the different services they freelancers sell and get them to choose from those. 

If you want to post a job application, you’ll have to search for the Request feature from the hidden menu and take it from there. Plus, the feature doesn’t allow you to add as many details to the application as Upwork allows you to.

Upwork, on the other hand, emphasizes long-term collaborations. And when searching on Upwork, you are directed to freelancer profiles, pretty much like LinkedIn pages, rather than specific gigs. 

Upwork, unlike Fiverr, lets you post your job and have the freelancers reach out to you in the most convenient way. You can add screening questions to the post, require certain specificities, and even ask applicants for cover letters.  

Upwork also offers the option to communicate directly with potential employees. You can provide them with job specifics or encourage them to apply for an already listed position. Moreover, the platform facilitates the interview process by letting you screen and interview potential hires right on the site.

Both platforms also offer mobile apps, each with slightly different features. Fiverr’s mobile app mirrors most features of the website, whereas Upwork has two separate apps for freelancers and clients. The client app lacks some features found on the website, such as the Reports section and timesheets.

In conclusion, the two platforms are pretty much the same here. We believe you should work with Fiverr if you only need a one-off lead generation gig, like someone to build a list or clean up the data. But if you need it on a regular basis, then you should head over to Upwork. 

Hiring process: Fiverr is more of a marketplace where you can browse gigs offered by freelancers, while Upwork is more convenient for posting jobs and recruiting based on your own terms.

As you read, Fiverr is more of a marketplace in the literal sense. The hiring process tends to be straightforward: you browse gigs offered by freelancers and filter gigs by price, delivery time, seller level, and more. 

The real problem with Fiverr is that the decision is generally based on what the seller offers in the gig and their reviews. 

So, you research freelancers based on a specific gig, you pay for the gig, detail your requirements, and the freelancer executes the task. Only when you approve the work does the freelancer receive payment, which is held in escrow by Fiverr to protect you, the client. 

On Upwork, you can also browse profiles of entire agencies to find suitable candidates based on various factors such as budget, expertise, and job completion rate. 

You can post a job listing describing the specifics of what you need, and freelancers will bid on your project. You can also browse through profiles and invite specific freelancers to bid. This allows for careful selection based on proposals, profiles, portfolios, and past reviews.

Pricing structure: On Upwork, you can choose between whether you want to pay hourly or fixed-price services. The same is not true for Fiverr.

Let’s get this out of the way before we discuss the pricings. 

Neither Fiverr nor Upwork provides financial benefits like discounts or bonuses for continued collaboration with a specific freelancer. They only facilitate the rehiring of previous providers. This can foster trust and consistency in results.

That cleared, Upwork’s pricing typically varies based on an hourly rate or a fixed price for the entire project, which is agreed upon before starting. The minimum hourly rate is $3. You also have the opportunity to negotiate the rates with the freelancers.

Upwork sometimes presents inexpensive services, albeit not as cheap as Fiverr, and many operate on an hourly basis. You need to keep in mind that this pricing model can quickly lead to unexpected costs if the project overruns. 

On the other hand, Fiverr’s services are generally offered as packaged deals (called “gigs”) with a fixed price, starting from $5, and can go up to several thousand depending on the complexity of the task, seller’s level, and add-ons. Also, you have less flexibility in negotiating prices.

In terms of fees, Upwork generally charges freelancers, with clients only needing to cover a 3% transaction fee. Also, note that freelancers on Upwork often factor these fees into their rates. 

On Fiverr, there’s a $2 fee for orders up to $40; beyond that, a 5% charge applies. This means for larger projects, like a $1,000 website design, Upwork could be slightly more economical.

Quality and freelancer verification standards: Upwork’s quality assurance and vetting system seems rock solid, but Fiverr’s community-based rating system generally performs better.

Fiverr and Upwork employ different strategies to vouch for the quality of freelancers on their platforms. 

We found that Fiverr does not validate all sellers. Unless it’s a pro freelancer, Fiverr doesn’t vet them. The Fiverr Pro is a special program that accepts highly skilled freelancers after a series of evaluations. 

The Pro freelancers have a “Pro Verified” label on their listings and tend to charge higher prices, but they are typically reliable and monitored closely by Fiverr. Non-Pro sellers’ quality is reliant on the community, with reviews and ratings they receive from clients after each gig.

Conversely, Upwork has an extensive vetting process. First of all, they only accept certain freelancers based on demand in specific fields. They make freelancers undergo various tests and meet specific standards. 

On the platform, the top-rated freelancers are denoted by a blue shield with a crown icon. Before getting there, they need to meet stringent requirements, like a 90% Job Success rate and monthly earnings of at least $1,000 USD. 

We can argue that given its more thorough vetting process, you are more likely to find high-end, professional freelancers with extensive lead generation experience. 

The issue with Upwork’s system is that it is often seen as a hindrance, as many skilled freelancers either can’t join the platform or opt not to due to the complicated process. Even more interesting, Upwork still struggles with fraudulent and exaggerated profiles.

Protection, guarantees, and dispute resolution: Both platforms strive to guarantee protection and ensure all disputes are resolved properly.

First thing, both platforms protect the payments through an escrow system until the job is confirmed as completed by the client. 

For hourly contracts, Upwork offers a Work Diary feature that provides visual evidence of work in progress. For fixed-price jobs, funds are usually deposited into escrow before the freelancer begins work and are released once the job is completed to the client’s satisfaction.

It’s almost the same with Fiverr. If you’re not satisfied with the work, Fiverr offers a resolution center where you can manage disputes. So, for disputes, Upwork and Fiverr both facilitate the direct resolution of issues between clients and freelancers. 

When problems arise, you can report unsatisfactory work. Fiverr handles disputes internally, deciding on the eligibility for a refund. On Upwork, a dispute specialist suggests a non-binding resolution. 

If you disagree, you can involve legal arbitrators, costing around $800, with your share nearly $300. The preferable platform depends on your budget, project cost, and preferred method of dispute resolution.

Hire Nerdy Joe and start generating leads today

In conclusion, if you need professional, high-end lead generation services and want to carefully evaluate proposals, Upwork might be your better choice. On the other hand, if you’re more price-sensitive and looking for quick, packaged services, Fiverr is a more suitable option. 

It’s worth mentioning that the quality of work you get depends heavily on the particular freelancer you end up working with, so carefully reviewing profiles, portfolios, and customer reviews is crucial on both platforms. 

But as we said in the introduction of this article, we don’t believe Upwork and Fiverr are the best places to hire for lead generation. If what you care about is to: 

• generate leads for your sales team, 
• fill your sales pipeline with sales-ready leads, 
• free up your sales team so they can focus more on closing deals and having meetings rather than doing research and suffering with lead attraction and acquisition, 

Both Upwork and Fiverr are not ideal for your needs. 

You need a full-scale lead generation with a team that has the right expertise and a full grasp of the marketing activities and workflows they need to run from top to bottom to research, reach out to or attract and get you leads you can sell to. 

You need a team of experts that demonstrates proven processes and systems that ensure that work is carried out consistently. Systems and strategies that guarantee a consistent flow of leads for your business or its sales team — that’s where Nerdy Joe comes in.

We are a dedicated lead generation agency. 

Freelancers on Upwork and Fiverr charging you $100 for the service just aren’t cut out for this. We believe Upwork and Fiverr are both great workplaces to hire freelancers to whom you can hand off one-off gigs that seem tedious to your lead generation team — so you can free them a little and facilitate the work for them.