Fiverr vs Upwork Project Catalog

This article is my personal opinion and comparison of these two marketplaces.

Introˆ_ˆ

After my battle with Pavlo about Fiverr — and after writing that whole piece on Service Productization — I had another personal battle with him. Long story short: I finally gave up and took his Fiverr course.

Disclaimer: He allowed me to use the info from this course in this article. I didn't steal it:)

He explains Fiverr in such a simple, step-by-step way that even people who think "nah, Fiverr is not for me" suddenly think maybe it is.
(After that I am also going to implement many these tricks into Upwork project catalog too😈)

So what are the pros and cons?

Fees: The painful part

Upwork Project Catalog: keeps only 10%.

Fiverr: takes 20% (ouch). Pavlo says: "but here you pay only after!"

Round!

How many projects you can list

Upwork: you can publish up to 20 projects right away.

Fiverr: when you start, you only get 4 gigs. If you sell, your account levels up and you unlock more.

Round!

The algorithm (where Fiverr shines)

Here’s where things flip:

Fiverr: the algorithm actually helps. If buyers like you, Fiverr will show your gigs to more people. It’s like free promotion once you start building momentum. If you get traction on Fiverr, the platform pushes you forward.

Upwork: catalog visibility is weaker. Most clients still post jobs and wait for bids. The catalog algorithm is hard and changing. The full article about it is here.

...

Buyer experience

Fiverr: it's like a shop, the brand there is exactly to come and add things to your cart

Upwork: We still think that the client shouldn't buy catalog, right? You want him to write you a direct message.

So if you have any packages in your area, you need to look after it.

Extra points

• On Upwork, client also can review your profile, see your professional part
• on Fiverr - lower competition and you can grow step by step
• on Fiverr - easy to upsell as everything is strongly regulated
• On Upwork, clients often come for more long-term work. I think

Summary

I already told you a long time ago that you should try Fiverr here

However, if you are not sure, first check the algorithms of Fiverr:

• Ukrainian course from Pavlo
• for an English one write to: pavel@fiverrcode.com

For example, I got to know that title of gig is usually very different from the title on a gig's picture. It's important for algos.

I also recommend Clutch, Linkedin and emails but do things step by step.

Hugs,

Tamara

not only Upwork-minded