How Upwork Business Plus Helps You Hire
Upwork Business Plus makes it easy for small businesses to hire Expert-Vetted talent immediately. No sales call or subscription fee required.
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Business Plus is Upwork’s membership plan for companies looking to scale rapidly and efficiently by accessing specialized skills on-demand. It has no subscription fee and gives your business additional hiring support, flexible billing, and immediate access to Expert-Vetted freelancers — the top 1% of talent on the platform.
With an Upwork Business Plus account, you can view and hire the top freelancers on Upwork for a range of jobs right now. Or, you can request a curated shortlist of qualified professionals who meet your project needs and budget in just a few hours with Uma Recruiter.
What is Business Plus?
- Upwork Business Plus is a membership tier without a subscription fee, designed to meet the needs of businesses like yours that want to find the top professionals, fast.
- You can sign up for Business Plus or upgrade your existing account today to get immediate access to Expert-Vetteed freelancers.
- Upgrading to Business Plus gives you access to additional insights and priority support from the Upwork team, and recruiting tools powered by Uma™, Upwork’s Mindful AI.
- Instant access to freelancers on Upwork can help your business become less fragile by incorporating AI, enabling innovation, and introducing specialized skills into your talent pool.
Other small and medium-sized businesses like yours are using Upwork Business Plus to hire freelance talent, manage projects, improve customer service, develop new products, and get the most out of AI technologies.
According to the Upwork In-Demand Skills 2026 report, 77% of business leaders agree their workforce is becoming more fractional. With a Business Plus account, you can tap into top talent right away for in-demand skills like data annotation and labeling, data analytics, and virtual assistance.
Who is a Business Plus account for?
Upwork Business Plus is designed for teams that want access to top talent and hands-on hiring support without a lengthy procurement process. You can sign up or upgrade your existing account today with no subscription fee.
Once you're on Business Plus, you'll get access to Uma Recruiter, Upwork's AI-powered hiring agent that delivers curated shortlists of qualified freelancers in hours. You'll also get improved reporting, priority support from the Upwork team, and the ability to filter for Expert-Vetted talent across applicable skill categories. We also provide plenty of Business Plus tips to support you along the way.
How does Upwork Business Plus work?
You can sign up for Upwork Business Plus right now, no sales call required. New clients will need to create a free Upwork account; existing Basic plan users can upgrade in their account settings.
This makes Upwork Business Plus a great option for teams that need to move fast. You can create or upgrade your account and hire a skilled professional quickly, so that hiring becomes an effortless process … not something that slows down your progress.
The benefits of Upwork Business Plus for hiring
Upwork Business Plus gives you instant access to the top 1% of talent on Upwork, as well as additional support and features that help you find just the right fit for a project in hours, not weeks.
1. Expert-Vetted talent
Once you’re registered for Business Plus, you’ll start seeing the Expert-Vetted talent badge on select freelancer profiles. It appears as a small yellow icon and label on vetted profiles:
When you see this badge, you know that a member of the Upwork team has assessed this freelancer or agency’s technical expertise, hard skills (like web development or copywriting), and soft skills (such as communication and reliability). These professionals represent the top 1% of all talent on Upwork.
You can even filter Upwork talent search results to only view Expert-Vetted talent if you prefer:
2. Hiring support
Upwork Business Plus gives you access to Uma Recruiter, our purpose-built AI hiring agent that delivers curated shortlists of freelance talent (one list per job post) within hours of your request. This isn’t a generic list of profiles, either — Uma Recruiter sources proposals up front and evaluates candidates based on factors like:
- Skills
- Seniority and experience
- Upwork reputation
- Timezone overlap
- Proposed rate alignment
- Language proficiency
- Cover letter quality
- QA answer quality
The final hiring decision is always yours, but Uma Recruiter helps you get there faster. With 92% of business leaders planning to expand their use of AI agents this year, tools like Uma Recruiter are built for how businesses are already working.
You’ll also benefit from 24/7 premium Upwork support that connects you with a member of the Upwork team in two hours or less.
"I’m really enjoying the Business Plus service — it gives me access to top-tier talent. Plus, the added support gives me peace of mind throughout the process."
—Benn Ward, Regional Franchiser, Jim's Mowing
3. Team management
As an Upwork Business Plus customer, you’ll get enhanced reporting options that show exactly how your internal team is using Upwork — and how much you’re spending. You can see details like:
- Team hiring activity and spend
- Active contracts and job posts
- Use of on-demand services like shortlist creation
You can also communicate with your team about ongoing projects via the Upwork platform. There’s no need to bounce between Upwork and your email or Slack channel.
4. Flexible billing
Upwork Basic plan users have to pay for work as it’s completed — but qualifying Business Plus customers in the U.S. can enjoy the flexibility of simplified billing and flexible payment terms. You still have the freedom to work with professionals on an hourly basis; they’ll be paid as usual, while you settle your accounts monthly.
Whether you’re running your business on your own or you have an accounting team that’s busy with other tasks, simplified billing takes one more “thing to do” off of your plate so you can focus on what matters most: driving key projects forward.
Please note, though, that Upwork users in the U.S. must apply for access to flexible payment terms through their administrator account. You’ll need to provide us with banking documentation and trade references as part of this process. If you’re not eligible for this enhanced form of billing, that’s OK! You’ll continue to pay freelancers on a standard weekly or per-milestone basis.
5. Direct contracts
Business Plus also lets you work with and pay freelancers you’ve connected with outside of the Upwork platform. If you meet a great freelancer through someone in your network, but you manage the rest of your billing through Upwork, there’s no need to handle two payment streams. Direct contracts allow you to invite these freelancers to the Upwork platform, where you can come to an agreement, set milestones, and issue payments. (Note that direct contracts don’t include Upwork’s standard payment protection.)
You’ll pay a client marketplace fee of up to 7.99% on all direct contract payments.
6. No monthly subscription
There are no up-front costs to sign up for Upwork Business Plus, and no monthly subscription fee.
You’ll simply pay a service fee of up to 10% on each payment made to a freelancer. Qualified U.S. customers who opt to use ACH payments will pay a reduced fee of just 8%. (Contracts with a value under $100 may also incur an initiation fee of up to $14.99.)
How is Upwork Business Plus different?
Whether you use Upwork Business Plus or Upwork Basic, you’re always in control of reviewing and selecting the best freelancer for your project.
"Upwork Business Plus allows our team to focus on our many tasks while enjoying the convenience of outsourcing certain tasks…we love the vast array of contractor options available."
- Chelsea Beyer, Digital Growth Manager, Mutual of Omaha Mortgage
If your small business is growing rapidly, you may prefer the additional freelancer access and support that comes with a Business Plus plan versus the Basic plan.
Customers with the Basic plan can easily upgrade to Business Plus at any time by accessing their account settings.
Hire the top 1% of freelancers with Business Plus
By signing up for or upgrading to Business Plus now, you can have a qualified list of the top freelancers for any job in your hands within hours. Stop stretching yourself thin across hiring, administration, project management, and more — let Uma Recruiter handle sourcing and enjoy smooth, streamlined communication and billing through Upwork.
Log in to upgrade or create an Upwork account today and select the Business Plus plan to get started.
Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.
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Frequently asked questions
No, you don’t need an Upwork Business Plus plan to hire on Upwork. Any client with a free Upwork account can post jobs, review proposals, and hire freelancers. Business Plus is an upgrade for teams that want faster access to top talent, AI-powered recruiting support, and more control over team permissions and billing.
Business Plus adds Expert-Vetted talent filters, Uma Recruiter for curated shortlists, improved team reporting, flexible billing options, and 24/7 premium support. Basic includes standard support, Top Rated and Rising Talent filters, and a lower fee. Both plans give you access to Upwork's global talent marketplace.
There's no subscription fee or upfront cost to sign up for Business Plus. You pay a Business Plus fee on each payment made to a freelancer, which is up to 10%, or as low as 8% for qualifying U.S. customers using ACH payments. Contracts under $100 may also include an initiation fee of up to $14.99.
If your team hires frequently or needs access to highly vetted professionals, Business Plus can save significant time. Uma Recruiter delivers qualified shortlists in hours rather than days, and the team management tools give you visibility into spending and hiring activity across your organization.
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