PeoplePerHour Reviews
Pros
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Large variety of services
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Hourly/fixed wages available
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Secured payment via downtime/escrow
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Clever Workstream feature
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Low service fees
Cons
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Lack of extra features
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Hidden service fees
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Lackluster customer support
Features
Freelancers
Employers
PeoplePerHour (PPH for short) is a community-curated freelance talent website, determined to break the conventions of big corporations. It allows people to fully make use of their skills and talents, while sellers can get a job done quickly by true professionals. PeoplePerHour’s system works the same way for both sides: you’ll get constant recommendations of open positions or available freelancers, but it’s also possible to search for an opportunity on your own. The site’s ace in the hole is Workstream, which is an in-site management interface that organizes everything from job assignments and payment deposits to live messaging under the same roof. To avoid disputes and cheating, PeoplePerHour puts all payments into an escrow (released only when the job is delivered) and, as a form of compensation, freelancers receive downtime before starting the work.
$25 for inviting friends
Recommend PeoplePerHour to your friends and you get $25 when your friend creates and posts a job offer.
Features
PeoplePerHour features a community of talented freelancers (known as Hourlies) willing to take any kind of assignment that can be done remotely from a computer. Despite the suggestive title, you don’t need to pay hourly rates to your workers: the site applies both fixed prices and hourly wages, which stay in escrow until the freelancer finishes the job. PeoplePerHour’s title was also inspired by the large variety of job selections, including smaller, 1-hour tasks too. Speaking of diversity, creative individuals put all kinds of services on sale: the most popular ones are design jobs, web development and writing/translation, but you also find offers for social media management, marketing and software development. For the sake of convenience, the search engine enables a variety of filters, thus you can find people by their individual skills, too.
Freelancers
Being a freelancer is a risky profession, so it’s more than welcome that PeoplePerHour does everything in its possession to protect freelancers’ rights. All employers must pay a downtime before you actually start working, thus PeoplePerHour members won’t be subjugated by clients who demand work but refuse to pay by alluding to (false) dissatisfaction. The site also works with fixed prices, so employers have no other choice but to hold their end of the bargain and pay the amount previously agreed on. PeoplePerHour eliminates delayed payments as well by deploying an escrow. In other words, clients deposit the full amount, which will be released when you deliver your work and it meets the client’s standards.
Freelancers are allowed to create their very own promotional pages where they inform possible agents about the service they provide. You can also add a short video, upload photos to your portfolio and determine a starting price in order to be more attractive to your future employers. Keep in mind that Hourlies are ranked according to the activity and the amount of work they’ve done so far, ergo new kids on the block have an equal chance to get on the top of the tower as well.
Employers
Those who are at the receiving end of the order have three options to get their work done. They can post a job request, whereupon they provide the details and expectations of the gig. After you set the relevant keywords, Hourlies who match your requirements will be notified and they can submit their proposal to you for further inspection. The second option is to browse manually for a freelancer: the menu allows deep customization, thus employers can sort the list according to price, country, delivery time or skills. The last option is to see for yourself what Hourlies offer, hoping to find an assignment that satisfies your needs.
Regardless of your choice, PeoplePerHour ensures you don’t need to pick blindly: your decision is guided by numerous information, such as how many other people ordered the services of the chosen freelancer and how many of them were satisfied with the results.
Usability
Creating an account at PeoplePerHour should be your first priority, as many of the site’s features are only accessible while signed in. Once you’re done with that, but you still aren’t sure whether to be a seller or buyer, don’t worry, as the account can be specified to be both at the same time. After making up your mind, you have nothing else to do but to start looking for jobs/Hourlies.
PeoplePerHour is very capable when it comes to managing your assignments, best proven by Workstream, which is a page that organizes all relevant information under separate threads, each serving various purposes. In these threads you can track past and present jobs, review and deposit payments, see the arrival of the escrowed money, initiate a live chat with your buyer/seller, share files and images between your workers and so on. Workstream is also the place where you can rate freelancers after the conclusion of a job or raise a dispute should you not be satisfied with what you got.
Pricing
As a freelancer website, PeoplePerHour doesn’t divide its contents and features into free and premium parts. In fact, the ranking of the Hourlies depends on their activity, thus you cannot climb the ladder by paying extra money. Also, the site doesn’t charge any processing fees on its own as it merely passes on the existing ones charged by credit card and e-wallet companies.
PeoplePerHour earns its living by withdrawing a service fee on the payment of the freelancers. Members face a 15% service fee on the first $565 they earn in their first month, after which the service fee is reduced to 5%. On a side note, PeoplePerHour provides a money back guarantee for buyers, but only if the seller provided his/her services poorly or did not perform at all.
Customer Service
We found PeoplePerHour a bit lackluster in terms of providing prompt assistance to their members. The company inserted a portable Q&A tab to the left side of the homepage, which can be opened up to make a quick search in the FAQ library. This is a nice touch indeed, but the rest of the helpdesk is available only after you registered and finished the profile customization. Contacting the company is especially tricky, since they don’t display any kind of contact info upfront. Despite having a forum section where people can post their own topics, finding relevant information is more than unsatisfying. It’s also a shame that PeoplePerHour hides the actual service fees from its own users, forcing you to dig deep into the terms and conditions to learn more about them.
Bottom Line
PeoplePerHour is a decent platform for freelancers and employers, although it’s a bit behind in the features department. Granted, PeoplePerHour doesn’t restrict your possibilities and allows all kinds of job offers to be posted, but it would be nice to see some extra tests that would allow Hourlies to put their talents on display. Although the clever Workstream serves as the hub to maintain your payments, manage current and past projects or chat with others, this feature is nothing more than renaming default options provided by other freelance websites. The escrow system and the presence of downtime do perfectly serve the needs of both sellers and buyers, and the service fees are more than reasonable compared to other freelance websites. All in all, PeoplePerHour is a fair site that treats its buyers and sellers equally for good pricing.
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Alternatives to PeoplePerHour
Tamás Ő.
Sander D.
The PeoplePerHour’s platform is a home for many scammers who list low-cost services and on most occasions do not respond and deliver what the client pays for. Upon request for a refund from the client, PeoplePerHour delays refund for weeks, requesting the client to send copies of IDs and creating various obstacles to prevent the refund, and often does not issue a refund at all. The buyer has to open a dispute and request the payment processor to reverse the transaction in order to receive their money back. PeoplePerHour’s customer service is horrible – the platform is a complete loss of time and money.