Upwork vs. Guru: An In-Depth Comparison

Whether you run one of the many companies that rely on freelancers or you’re seeking new clients, work marketplaces are a valuable resource.

These marketplaces, like Upwork and Guru, are accessible around the world — and they offer a reliable way to find high-quality professionals and work opportunities in nearly every industry.

While Upwork and Guru have some similarities, the way each marketplace operates is different. The right choice for you will depend on your location, budget, skills, needs, and personal preferences. Here’s what you need to know.

How does Upwork work?

Upwork is free to join. You can create an account as a freelancer, a client, or both. (In fact, Upwork was named one of the most innovative companies of 2025 thanks to how easily the platform connects freelancers and clients!)

Freelancers on Upwork provide thousands of skills across 10 categories of work — everything from teaching language lessons to managing social media accounts or building machine learning applications. When working on Upwork as a freelancer, you can browse jobs, submit proposals, offer consultations, and enjoy payment protection that makes sure you’re paid for the work you do.

Clients on Upwork hail from a variety of different industries and may be companies of any size. As a client, you can browse freelancer profiles, invite freelancers to apply for jobs, create contracts, and even receive shortlists of qualified talent.

Both clients and freelancers on Upwork also benefit from access to Uma™, Upwork’s Mindful AI. Uma can help you write proposals, draft job posts, brainstorm ideas, and more.

When a client and a freelancer decide to work together on Upwork, the platform helps to facilitate successful execution of a project by providing options to create or use: 

• Contracts for hourly or fixed-price work
• Project milestones
• Direct messaging
• Audio calls
• Video calls
• Meeting scheduling
• Automatic time tracking
• Team collaboration resources
• Automatic invoicing
• Project funds
• Payment protection
• Bonus payments
• Freelancer profiles and portfolios
• Reviews and testimonials

Whether you use Upwork as a freelancer, or client, you can engage in one-time projects as well as ongoing contracts that build productive work relationships.

How does Guru work?

‍

Guru has no initial cost for creating an account. You can sign up as a freelancer or client.

Guru freelancers can respond to client job posts and inquiries with quotes that provide information about their rates and services.

‍Clients on Guru may post jobs, view freelancer profiles, and create lists of their favorite people to work with. They can also coordinate work with multiple freelancers in a dedicated online space, called a WorkRoom, for specific projects.

Guru doesn’t publicize details about their client-side users, but they do offer a service called Guru Enterprise for large companies.

‍

Upwork vs Guru: finding freelance work

Upwork and Guru allow freelancers to have control over how their work with clients is structured. Both freelance marketplaces allow you to set your rates and negotiate the terms of your contracts. That said, there are a few notable differences when it comes to finding freelance work on Upwork and Guru.

Finding work on Upwork

As a freelancer on Upwork, you can choose to work with clients in several ways. The common denominator between them? You always remain in control over who you work with, and on what terms.

Once your Upwork profile is created and approved, you can begin bidding on client jobs by using Connects to submit proposals. You can choose to purchase Connects, or if you subscribe to Freelancer Plus, you'll get 100 Connects per month. Freelancer Plus members also get unlimited access to Uma.

‍

Clients can also initiate a contract with you, but you have to approve the terms before any work begins. When a client makes an offer, you can accept, counteroffer, or decline. 

By continuing to work on Upwork, you’ll get a Job Success Score and may earn talent badges that give clients an overview of your experience and customer service:

• Rising talent: New Upwork freelancers with strong expertise and satisfied clients
• Top Rated: The top 10% rated talent on all of Upwork
• Top Rated Plus: The top 3% rated talent earning over $10,000 annually on Upwork
• Expert-Vetted: The top 1% rated talent on Upwork in specific skill areas

As a freelancer, you’ll see additional benefits related to your profile badge level. Regardless of status, though, Upwork gives freelancers access to the following:

• Automatic suggestions for jobs that might be a good fit
• Profile and portfolio features
• Profile and certification badges
• Availability Badges
• Text, audio, and video chatting
• Reviews from clients that act as social proof
• Payment protection
• Time tracking and invoicing tools
• Uma assistance for writing proposals and working more efficiently 
• Boosted Proposals and Profiles

Thousands of freelancers have found work on Upwork no matter their experience level — there are clients looking for the fresh take of a freelancing beginner as well as those seeking experienced industry consultants.

Finding work on Guru

If you’re interested in working on Guru, you’ll need to start by making an account and building your profile page. Once this is complete, you can begin submitting quotes in response to client job posts. Clients on Guru might also reach out to you and request a quote for their project.

In order to submit a quote on Guru, you’ll need to use Bids. One quote equals one Bid. Guru gives you 10 free Bids a month by default. You can also subscribe to a Guru freelancer plan to get 50 bids per month along with reduced job fees and other features. 

After sending a quote to a client, you’ll have the ability to add this client to your Guru watch list. Guru recommends keeping an eye on your watch list and following up with clients who don’t respond within 24 hours. 

Once a client gets in touch, you can come to terms about your agreement. This involves deciding how you’d like to be paid and how you and the client will share or allocate the service fees.

You can create a profile on Guru both as an individual and as an agency, depending on your preferred way to work. The process for receiving client requests and sending quotes is the same.

Finding work on Upwork and Guru, at a glance

Finding freelance work on Upwork is different from doing so on Guru, particularly in the following ways:

*Guru data sourced from Guru.com and other sources made available by Guru

Upwork vs Guru: hiring a freelancer

Clients using Upwork and Guru can work with freelancers specializing in a wide variety of skill sets. Each freelancing website offers different options for crafting your contracts and conducting work together.

Finding freelancers on Upwork

Upwork offers clients several different ways to find and work with talent. The first option is the open marketplace where clients can post jobs and freelancers can submit proposals.

‍

After you post a job, you’ll begin receiving proposals from freelancers. You don’t have to wait, though — you can also search for and invite freelancers to apply for jobs. Upwork will show you suggested freelancers who could be a good fit for your project. Customers can also receive one curated shortlist of talent for each job, making the process even easier.

Detailed freelancer profiles make it easy to see each professional’s skill sets, rate, availability, reviews, and prior projects.

‍

Upwork contracts may be paid per project, hourly, or on a weekly basis.

If you have a discrete need or aren’t sure where to start your work with a freelancer, you can also hire someone for a one-time consultation. If you’d like to work together after the consultation is over, you can propose an ongoing contract.

Regardless of the method you choose, you can be assured that you only pay for work that you approve. Upwork achieves this through the use of the project funds model. When you start a contract, you pay Upwork up front. 

This money is held by Upwork, and is released to the freelancer once their hours or deliverables are submitted and approved by you.

Finding talent on Guru

If you’d like to work with a freelancer on Guru, you’ll need to create and post a job description. Once you do so, freelancers may begin submitting quotes for you to review. Projects on Guru may be paid per hour, per task, as a flat rate, or through a retainer.

You can also find freelancers via Guru’s profile search feature and request a quote from any freelancers who interest you. Clients may learn more about each professional through profile pages that list the services freelancers provide, rates, and information about past projects and experience.

‍

Clients using Guru may opt to automatically pay freelancer invoices or use Guru’s SafePay feature that holds money in escrow until work is approved.

Differences when hiring freelancers, at a glance

Hiring freelancers on Upwork differs from hiring on Guru in the following ways:

*Guru data sourced from Guru.com and other sources made available by Guru

Other differences between Upwork and Guru

When evaluating the right platform for your freelance needs, you’ll want to also consider the following:

• Ease of use
• Flexibility
• Types of jobs
• Security

Your preferences in each of these areas will influence which platform is the best for you to use.

Ease of use

Upwork and Guru are both designed to be user-friendly and easy for new freelancers or clients to use.

Freelancers on Upwork can search every job using a wide range of filters, including:

• Category of work
• Required experience level
• Number of proposals received
• Client payment verification status
• Previous clients
• Job category
• Job type
• Project length
• Total hours per week
• Clients’ hiring history
• Client location and time zone
• Total Connects needed to apply

Clients using Upwork can search and sort freelancer profiles by any of the following criteria:

• Talent quality
• Job category
• Job subcategory
• Hourly rate
• Location
• Type of talent
• Consultation availability
• Job Success Score
• Total amount earned to date
• Total hours billed to date
• English fluency level
• Other languages

Guru allows freelancers to browse open job listings using the following filters:

• Payment terms
• Featured job status
• Client verification status
• Number of quotes received
• Location
• Total employer spend
• Job category

Guru clients can search freelancer profiles using the following criteria:

• All-time earnings
• Total number of clients
• Number of paid invoices
• Spend size of freelancers’ largest clients
• Portfolio content
• Membership status
• Location
• Job category

Flexibility

Upwork freelancers and clients can work together on any mix of one-time projects and ongoing contracts.

Some freelancers on Upwork work with one client at a time on large contracts, while others prefer to work on multiple contracts with more than one client at the same time. You can use Upwork to generate income, launch a side hustle, find help for your business, or get support for personal projects.

Upwork freelancers can also set their availability and hours on their profile page, which makes it easy for clients to see who is open to new work.

Guru allows clients and freelancers to work together on contracts of different lengths. You can find support for small and large projects on Guru and work however many hours you prefer.

Types of jobs

When using Upwork, you can find clients and freelancers offering more than 100 specializations across 10 categories of work. On Guru, you can find jobs and freelancers in over nine industries. Here’s how they compare:

*Guru data sourced from Guru.com and other sources made available by Guru

Security

Upwork is serious about security. In addition to secure contracts and payment protection, Upwork users benefit from:

• Multi-factor authentication to secure accounts
• Enterprise single sign-on (SSO) and session timeouts
• Encrypted user data
• Antivirus and anti-malware file and message scans
• Verified freelancer identities
• Verified client payment methods
• PCI DSS Level 2 compliant payment processing
• Adherence to GDPR and CCPA regulations
• Implementation of a robust anti-money laundering program
• Know Your Customer (KYC) checks

Upwork also has a dispute support team that can help to resolve any contract and payment issues or other concerns that arise between users. The dispute team can help with:

• Refunds
• Disputes over hours worked
• Project funds disputes
• Non-responsive parties

Guru offers some security features to its users as well. Guru users may benefit from:

• HTTPS encryption
• Account security questions
• Email and phone number verification
• Client identity verification
• Credit card and bank verification
• PCI payment processing compliance
• Secure payment transactions
• SafePay escrow

Guru does not provide services from an internal dispute team. Instead, disputes between clients and freelancers must be either worked out between the involved parties or escalated to arbitration.

Join the world’s largest human and AI-powered work marketplace

By evaluating and selecting the best freelancing platform for your needs, you can either create a rewarding freelance business or manage projects on your terms — all with confidence that you’re finding the right fit for your workflow.

As a freelancer on Upwork, you can set your rates, define your work hours, and get work done from just about anywhere with an internet connection. Sign up as a freelancer today to experience how Upwork can help you grow your career as an independent professional, whether you’re just starting out or are seeking to scale existing operations.

If you use Upwork as a client, you can quickly and easily find freelancers who deliver high-quality work on the timeframe and with a budget that works best for you. Create a client account today and start your first job post to see how access to the world’s best freelancers can help your business reach its goals.

‍

This analysis of services is provided for informational purposes only. Each reader and company should take the time needed to adequately analyze and determine the tools or services that would best fit their specific needs and situation.

Prices are current at the time of writing and may change over time based on each service’s offerings.

If you are communicating with a hiring manager for a job through the Upwork platform, please note that sharing your personal contact information, such as email address, phone number, or LinkedIn profile, is not permitted in cover letters or at any time prior to the start of a contract. Additionally, all pre-contract communication should take place through the Upwork Messages feature. Learn more about using Upwork Messages here, and see more details on sharing information on Upwork here.