Upwork Client Profiles: What You Need To Know

As a client on Upwork, maintaining a complete profile is essential to attracting qualified freelancers for your open roles. Your Upwork client profile can help you build trust and credibility by highlighting details related to your business, such as your company description, job history, and ratings and reviews. 

Learn more about creating your Upwork client profile, key differences between individual client and company accounts, what information is included in an Upwork client profile, and how to stand out to top freelancers. 

Creating your Upwork client profile

Signing up for an Upwork client account is simple and only takes a few minutes. The following steps can help you get started.

1. Go to www.upwork.com/signup
2. Select “I’m a client, hiring for a project” 
3. Click “Join as a Client”

4. Provide your first name, last name, valid work email address, and country 
5. Set a strong and unique password for your account
6. As an alternative to providing your email address, you can choose to sign up using an existing Google or Apple account
7. Read and agree to the Upwork Terms of Service, including the User Agreement and Privacy Policy
8. Click the "Create my account" button to complete the initial setup

9. Check your email for a verification link to verify your account

Individual client versus company account on Upwork 

You have two options to hire freelancers as a client on Upwork — either with an individual client profile or a company account. 

Option 1: Individual client profile

An individual client profile is beneficial if you’re a solopreneur or the only person responsible for hiring at your company. With this type of profile, you’re solely responsible for posting all jobs, inviting freelancers to submit proposals, and reviewing proposals and freelancer profiles. You also handle communicating with freelancers starting with the interview process and throughout the duration of the contract.

Option 2: Company account

If multiple individuals on your team are involved in engaging and collaborating with freelancers, you may want to create a company account. Through this option, you can link multiple individual client accounts together through one designated account — known as the team lead. Once the team is formed, members can access features to streamline collaboration and seamlessly engage freelancers. 

With a company account, each individual will continue to log in using their own Upwork client profile. You can use permissions settings to control how different members of your team use Upwork. You can also improve visibility by seeing the status of various hires and projects across team members, communicating updates using shared messages, and accessing combined reporting to track company spending.

Learn more about the step-by-step process to create a company account on Upwork — including how to choose a primary account, create teams, invite team members, set permissions, and transfer ongoing contracts to your company account. 

Other profile types

If you’re also interested in searching for projects on Upwork, users have the option to create multiple profile types and add or switch account types. Other profile types include:

• Freelancer profiles. Freelancers are individuals who want to offer their skills and services to clients on Upwork as an independent professional. 
• Agency profiles. Agencies consist of multiple freelancers offering different, complementary services on a larger scale than individual freelancers — such as digital marketing agencies or web development agencies. 

What information does an Upwork client profile include?

A complete Upwork client profile provides freelancers with valuable information about your business. An effective profile helps establish trust, set expectations, and enable freelancers to make informed decisions about potential projects. The profile includes key details that highlight a client’s hiring practices and business requirements.

Details on an Upwork client profile include:

• Company name, description, and tagline. Each client profile features details about your business, including company name, a brief description, tagline (optional), industry, number of employees, website, and other information. Completing these sections can help freelancers better understand your business needs. 
• Length of time on Upwork. Your profile will show how long you’ve been a member on Upwork. 
• Completed jobs, star rating, and reviews. Once you complete projects on Upwork, your client profile will show completed jobs, star ratings, and reviews from past projects — including the feedback you give freelancers and the feedback freelancers share about partnering with your business. If you or a freelancer don’t leave feedback for a specific project, your profile will still show the project title, hourly rate or fixed-price cost, and duration of the project, with “No feedback given.”  
• Total spend and average rate paid. Your profile will highlight how much you’ve spent as an individual client or company account since joining Upwork. The profile will also include an average hourly rate based on completed projects. 
• Total number of jobs posted, hires, active hires and hire rate on Upwork. In addition to total spend, your profile will also show the total number of jobs you’ve posted to date on Upwork, number of hires, and hire rate — meaning the percentage of open jobs you filled. Prospective freelancers can also see the current jobs you have in progress. 
• City, country, and time zone. Your location details can help freelancers determine how to effectively collaborate across time zones. In your profile, consider including whether you’re open to partnering with freelancers in different time zones and communicating via asynchronous communication.  
• Payment method verification. Upwork payments can’t be processed until a billing method is verified. Once you complete this step, your client profile will show “Payment method is verified,” which helps build trust with freelancers as they consider your open jobs.  

How to make your client profile stand out

The most qualified freelancers are in high demand. Because of this, creating a strong client profile and writing engaging job posts are important to standing out from other clients on Upwork and attracting top freelancers.

Here are some tips to make your client profile and jobs stand out:

• Research and offer competitive compensation. Before posting a job, review similar projects on Upwork to understand typical pay ranges for your industry and skill requirements. Competitive rates show freelancers you value their expertise and are serious about hiring. 
• Write engaging job posts. Your job posts are often the first impression freelancers have of your business before they see your client profile. Try to write engaging job posts that include your project requirements, desired skills, scope, and budget. Simplify the process by using Job Post Generator powered by Uma™, Upwork’s Mindful AI. All you need to do is share a sentence or two about what you’re looking for and Job Post Generator will create an AI-generated job post draft in seconds.
• Fill jobs in a timely manner.  An efficient hiring process can help you keep freelancers engaged and quickly begin projects. Upwork offers several features to streamline hiring, including integrated communication tools through Upwork Messages and candidate evaluations powered by Uma. Upwork Business Plus customers also have exclusive access to Uma Recruiter, an always-on hiring agent, which reviews freelancer profiles and delivers a shortlist of curated freelancer profiles that align with your specific needs within six hours.
• Build positive working relationships with freelancers. A clear project scope, effective communication, timely payments, and constructive feedback go a long way toward earning strong ratings and reviews on your client profile, as well retaining and building long-term relationships with freelancers. A strong reputation can help you continue attracting qualified freelancers for your future open jobs. 
• Leave ratings and reviews for completed projects. In addition to collecting feedback from freelancers, leaving ratings and reviews for completed projects can help show other prospective freelancers that you value quality work. If many of your completed projects show “No feedback given,” this may turn away top freelancers who are eager to learn and build credibility on Upwork. 

Upwork can help help you engage qualified freelancers 

Creating an Upwork client profile is an exciting first step toward finding and engaging freelancers with the skills you need. Once you have a complete profile, post a job and search for freelancers with more than 10,000 skills, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, graphic design, and finance. 

Also consider signing up for a Business Plus plan to reach the top 1% of freelancers on Upwork and shortlist top talent based on your specific business needs. Business Plus delivers instant access to pre-vetted talent and an AI-guided hiring experience, enabling teams to go from job post to project start  within hours.

Already have an Upwork account? Log in to your existing account to begin engaging qualified freelancers today. 

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