Clients can pay freelancers hourly or by milestone. Upwork offers a time tracker that measures the activity level of the freelancer during time tracking. It also periodically takes screenshots of the freelancer’s screen so the client can monitor the progress and ensure that the freelancer is actually working.

The Rise of Freelancing

In the year ending in June, the platform facilitated 2 million projects with freelancers for 475,000 clients. Upwork’s gross services value (GSV) was $1.56 billion. The company estimates that the total global GSV opportunity for its platform was $560 billion in 2017. This means there is significant room to grow for the company.

In fact, freelancing is expected to continue to grow. According to a 2017 survey conducted by independent research firm Edelman Intelligence, the number of U.S. freelancers increased by 8.1 percent from 2014 to 2017, while the total U.S. workforce grew just 2.6 percent during the same time frame. About 36 percent of the U.S. workforce freelanced in 2017. The survey also found that over half of the U.S. population will be freelancing by 2027, if current trends continue.