Topic: How freelancing websites killed design and developement bussinesses ... (Read 730 times)

That is one side of it, but those living in first world countries can still charge their old wages as long as they offered something you cannot get from the cheapest option, for example for big jobs you could offer to met them in person from time to time instead of just doing online communication, many clients still prefer to sit down face to face with their employees and ask directly what they want from them, this is something that a person at the other side of the world cannot do and could be enough to get you the job over someone that is offering a cheap price, but the problem like always is that many do not want to adapt and want to still charge as much money as before without making any additional effort and that is truly not possible now.

this kind of freelancing job actually help a lot of unemployed programmers or coders. that is very right, they dont need to get work permit or any of that sort to be employed by foreign country as they can do their job at the comfort of their homes. employers can always choose, if that programmer is doing a shitty job, he can always hire a better one. so he has actually lots of options to choose from.
 i agree that some of these devs earned their degree in reputable universities paying thousands of dollars while there are some that only learned their programming skills via net or cheap school. but everyone has the privilege to hone his skills by experience. and sometimes those skills are not learned at the four corners of your school.
those hard core programmers will not be beaten by second-rate programmers as you can already see their work via their portfolio and feedback from their clients. so if you really want to pay cheap, you will also get substandard services. still the choice is from the employers.

I guess it didn't kill the design and development business because it's very wide, there's plenty of technology businesses out there where you can earn even more. Technology is developing day by day, and most of the people are now capable of doing things without even getting a degree.

I know that designers and programmers are capable of leveling up their skills in an instant because they've mastered the foundation of doing web platforms and it's their advantage to make things on their side.

When we become freelance workers like that, we must be diligent in looking for customers, because we have to be able to implement a ball-picking system, meaning that we as designers actively offer to several high-ranking companies with our own portfolio, what becomes difficult is for those who are new to the world. freelance designers and have no experience at all have to work with other designers.

Well, you might be right, but I still think that in some ways they have made things easier for us, the problem is with designers.
I have worked on freelance websites as a writer, and this was the same challenge I faced with some writers agreeing to charge way too less than what they are supposed to charge.

Some of them will even accept pennies from their clients just to get good ratings from them. It’s up to the client and the level of work they need, a big client with deep pockets wouldn’t want to mess around and hire writers that will provide them with a less than standard. With time you get to know good clients and you can start Business with them outside those platforms.

I don’t think this is something you should worry yourself much about, it’s best that you focus on making your job great. They might charge low prices but that doesn’t mean they will offer the same quality of work you will be able to offer (that’s if you really know what you’re doing).

I think another thing is the way your present yourself , just like some guys in my street would say – it’s all about packaging lol. As for the fees that these freelancing platforms are charging, maybe it’s best that you move your business to somewhere else, you can check out LinkedIn, there are lots of remote jobs that are being posted there, even freelancing jobs.

Yes, freelancing  website has killed design and development businesses in some part of the countries. Freelancing website also create more rooms for scammer to have access to some users private address because they didn't pay any fees to join the website to grow their business .
That's why I don't like to choose to operate with freelance website because they can just decide to charge you without you notice it. I think freelancing website has reduce so much design and development businesses during the lockdown.

Yes,  I have worked with a few Asian countries guys who work on cheaper rates because their wages are low and I am really happy with their work too so the work that was being done for a lot money is now being done by the Asian guys for cheaper and they also get more work so it is better for them as well and the guys here who used to charge much higher are now adjusting their charges to a reasonable amount. Until there is competition in the market the market will never improve and some people will take advantage and charge high.

At the other hand clients from Asian countries got foreign employers who pay better and also do not find mistakes in their work as the locals might do. I agree that freelancing platforms have only improved the overall business and the quality of the work for both employer and employee.

I would say they are doing the real job without proper renumeration. The companies no longer desire stationed people but profers easy and faster means of getting same optimal benefit .

I've met a lot of freelancers that don't depend to freelancing websites. They know their worth and if a client low balls them, they wouldn't accept the job. It's very simple as a freelancer to see your worth and you are the one to decide whether you'll accept the offer or not.
With too many platforms that we have, it's very easy to maintain one's reputation in such platforms and show your portfolio there if you don't to stay in any freelancing website.

You have to understand that working in a company means working and earning as a team, I gave an example;

an company offering services for $ 1k for the product clients need (can be any service) Incidentally, the job can be done by 1 or 2 people, it is impossible for the company to pay the salaries of employees who do $ 1k (based on service agreements with clients).  many things that companies think about that is paying all employees, marketing, company management, and bill costs (electricity, internet, building rent, taxes, and water).

I've seen how freelancers compete unfairly by making prices as low as possible for the cost of website creation and design services however, they are only able to generate 1 or 2 subscribers in 1 month, I thought it was a waste of time. it is better for them to work in a company, then develop their abilities while devising plans to create their own company when they are financially and mentally able..

This also helps those individuals that can't seem to find a job right now, it is like a training ground for them on what kind of clients they will see once they enter the companies, freelancing website is also a great way to find people who don't have a degree in the field of technology but has the skills to be a degree holder, I mean a person can be as good as a professional even without going to school but of course apply in a company needs a degree to be able to be hired so freelancing sites is a safe haven for them and plus there is more freedom in their but in my opinion freelancing doesn't really affect it that much because most people prefer being in a company and being a client of a company

Freelancing hasn't killed any business, they've enriched the people's life. Just think of a person working for an tech industry, he might get a pay of $1000/month, but what the company charges from his client will be much high for the work done by that specific employee.

This js the reality with every corporate network. In such case there should be fair pay, when that isn't happening people look to have direct dealing with the client making it profitable for the client and the developer eliminating the thridman who eats the entire profit.

Freelancing platforms just turned to the world in to a big country.

You don't even need to have a work permit to work for a company that operates in a foreign country. You pay your taxes to your own government but your employer is from some other country.

Employers are happy for being able to find cheap work force, Employees are happy because they can make more money than what they usually could from their shitty jobs in their own countries.

And who's getting fucked?

Like you described, those who paid tens of thousands of dollars to get a college degree in a developed country are.

In reality, you don't need a damn college degree to build web applications... Everybody can do that. And that's what everybody's doing right now. Being able to build mobile and web apps will be as common (and as worthless) as knowing MS Excel in the near future I believe.

Maybe people should spend their time on learning the real engineering stuff instead.

Freelancing websites didn't killed designing and development business, it killed it for high paid countries charging more for the same stuff, this is capitalist competition and there is no way it could have sustained.

Some American who studied in college and makes let's say level 50 websites (making up levels here) and there is some Asian dude who has worked on the same thing all his life and can do level 50 website as well, one lives in a nation that requires at least 30-40 thousand dollars a year to survive, probably more if possible while the other one needs like $10k at most, probably less as well, obviously that one will charge less for the same job. Why would anyone pick the American and pay more if they are getting the same level of service from someone much cheaper?

The only real option for those in those professions is to try Upwork for a time and then gain a reputation and clients that way and then try to get them out of the platform, this is without a doubt hard but if you can make a very good job many clients will follow you as there are many businesses that do not really care that much about the cost of the service as much as they care about the quality and the time it takes them to receive the service they want.

I think freelancing has a huge impact on many sectors, not only on design and development business. It increase competitiveness dramatically in an area because single employees are in direct competition with big companies. And the ones freelancing are saving on a lot of costs compared to a big company with a lot of department.
The corona pandemic just accelerated this trend, many people became unemployment and are looking for new ways to earn money. With most people working from home anyways these days offering your services independently is just the next step. I wouldn't say they are killing the jobs, it's just shifting in a new direction because demand is still there.

Also now that these websites exist we as a designer know the true value of our efforts, I am myself a part time designer and I was being hired by my local people for very cheap but now so many platforms are available I actually love to work for people outside my country because they pay better and they require less changes/complications. Plus when the employer knows that you need money they actually make you work more and pay less but when you work remotely for unknown clients they only need what they mention and don't harass you for more work even after the work is complete.

I am actually very thankful to freelancing sites like fiverr and others no matter how someone is at loss because of them like OP said, but I am positively influenced and actually people who hate them might be those who have low skill level and now insecure of their job as companies can hire new talent as cheaper prices.

While freelancing platforms might have reduced profits for some designers or coders because they take fees but at the other hand they actually opened a massive market for idle freelancers and companies that required workers might be overpaying because they did not had any platform to hire workers.

I understand that they are charging fees but they are not forcing you to join them or work through them but if you do, they have all the right to take their fees because they are providing their valuable platform to both seller and the buy and they also need to pay their team who work behind the smooth working platform and also maintenance fees,etc.

I understand the frustration from some users but more good is being created by them as compared to the minor harm to some developers.

You wont really have any choice but to deal with it and you're right that people would just deal with those deductions rather than losing up their job or spot, knowing that getting some freelance jobs online is really difficult due to competition thats why they do just swallow their pride and just accept into their pay even though they do know that deductions are too much.Do they had that options left? none. So they'll stay on what it is.
Actually this doesnt only killed design and dev business but on other skill-set as well.Is there any other way? theres none unless if there are freelancing platform would offer much more lower but as said that
majority of them are on monopoly side of things then you can expect these numbers.

Those sites have to take fees. They have to pay those operational costs from somewhere. And again, they have employers too who the have to pay! Secondly, they are arranging a deal between you and your client. They have made it easier for you to get work. Imagine how hard would it be for freelancers to look for people to employ them. They literally would have to be running around the internet looking for work. So i guess paying a premium fee of 10%-15% is totally worth it.
About Asians underbidding you. The issue is gone if you have a good reputation and a review. If you have strong and better reviews from your previous clients, chances are people will hire you for a premium price.

Websites like Upwork have a monopoly of the market and they know it, this is why they can exploit their workers for 20% of their pay and most just keep silent about the abuse because they want to keep the chance of making money on the platform but the truth is that is quite difficult, not only clients ask you to do something for cheap for the most part they do not even know what they want so it is almost impossible to make an effective proposal to try to gain the job.

Labor groups has proposed wage increase but our government is ignoring it.

you might see it that it is unethical but for Asian who accepts low rates especially from third world countries see it as a blessing.

You must charge more or ask your gov to increase your salaries ...

Here in Europe i could just simply use my portfolio and outsource to Asia ... Asian programmers will do all the work and i would  do what the rest do ,i would pay slave salary to asian people and i keep 90% and i do nothing ...

But that is unethical ... at the end of the day in life is not important how much money you made ... is how you lived ...

5$ per hour for cleaning toilet? in my country this is a huge amount lmao. The minimum wage of our country is 10 USD per day. No wonder, Asians like me will gladly accept low rates work from eu or American people because for us the low rate 50 USD said by OP is huge.

I don't do web development (but considering training to do some freelance) but yes that is the case, all these businesses wanting a site would opt to pay for cheaper services from Asia (quality is a different matter of course). I think one option is, aside from improving your portfolio, is to find a niche.


The same can be said for any industry, for example customer service. Processes/services would either get outsourced or automated if possible coz that's what businesses do, cut costs. I understand that it sucks that devs in US/EU wouldn't be able to afford to live on the rate that Asians charge but that can't be helped.

Exchanges that take 10% in fees? That's something new. Usually it's close to 2%.


You're talking like that's a fault of the site, or cryptocurrency. If you don't want to pay taxes, don't convert it to fiat and you'll have one less problem on your head.

But at least you keep your hands clean and don't even have to leave home. Would you rather clean toilets for $5 per hour? $4-6 is a minimum wage in many EU countries.

I can agree about high fees on freelance sites but with others..
Yes, Asiats are cheap but did you see their work quality? No one will choose someone from India if he want good work.
And if you are doing great sites then people will be ready to pay extra. You just need to be good at that you are doing

Having a portfolio is something that freelancers must have because they can get more customers or clients with that. Working at Upwork can be a good idea, and that will be the same as if you try to search for the client at Fivers.
The important is how we can improve our skills and give more portfolios in our profile, so before the customer or client hires us, they will see what kind of work we did before. Sooner or later, our payment will increase too because many clients trust our work.

Also, you need a good portfolio because it will convince your next customer or client. It's not just about skills, the customer also needs an assurance that will guarantee the quality work.

The portfolio that you have made will also serve as your ratings. It's just like the same process happening in Upwork, a freelance website. If you have a lot of projects and good ratings, money isn't a problem anymore.

If you want to become a freelancer, you need to have skills in a specific field to convince your client that you can work for them. You can give your portfolio to them to see what you already did in the past, which can be a positive point for you. If you search for the website that accepts freelancers, you will find many clients who need help from the freelancer. You don't have to bother with the payment because as long as you can get trust from your client, you will get more clients from them, which means you can increase your payment.

I think freelancing websites have killed the planning and development business because their skills are very low and there are not any employees within the client market there also are many employees who aren't ready to do as per the client's choice. as long as you're a freelancer but it'll not work if you're a freelancer but no client is hiring you then freelancing isn't for you during this age of data technology everything is moving forward.

The problem with the with companies is that they starve their employees and some of them see freelancing as a better option in utilizing their skills. Sure there are still companies that do not do it but they are outnumbered by the overwhelming presence of freelancers. If you were the employee and you are paid a minimum and you know that freelance has a greener pasture, will you still slave away with corporate life?

I agree freelancing websites have broken standard payments for programming / design business, they don't understand very hard
to build big projects. So it was really stressful with an offer of only $ 100, and usually third world countries peoples receive such low pay.
It makes it difficult for us to get projects, because clients must choose the lowest price. But fortunately there are some clients who choose
based on the programmers' abilities, even though there are not many clients like that.

You summarized the example of a world without restrictions, it will be competitive and anyone willing to do a job at a low wage wins the business or you need to have the reputation to complete the job with the price you are asking. I would like to see a free retail market like this and the end user wins all the time. If you are not willing to do the job someone else will be happily taking the job and that is what a competitive market looks like.

The basic is always easy but to design a detailed responsive website with a simple and powerful UX and UI is not skill everyone possess. For that you need to have the skills and imagination rather than just html/css.

Freelancing websites reduces the inequality in their earnings no matter what region they are from because skills matter more for someone to earn not the country of origin.If you accept it or not but you have to accept the reality and survive with what you make.

I think it's pretty useless for him to explain such basic truths as the difference in prices in different countries and why editing a couple of lines in a scss file can't cost 500 dollars.
As for the portfolio, this advice is always relevant. The only problem is that the TS portfolio I've seen is quite ordinary skills. I can at least make projects from his portfolio by spending just a little more time than he spent on them (although-who knows).

I understand when a person complains that he has issued a whole project of the level of a professional Studio (with heavy and time-consuming animations with unusual solutions and having at least some uniqueness) - then it's still okay. But just take and pull the psd on the site/make up 10 pages on the layout of figma and complain that you didn't get paid 20 thousand dollars for it BECAUSE YOU TRIED it's completely ridiculous. Usually people with 15 years of experience (like our TS) have a much stronger understanding of the market and are unlikely to have a stable medium-high income at their age and with such experience. Or even more - why not set up a Studio with your own skills? IT needs porfessionals and this is not a myth - but it is a requires for QUALIFIED and cool people.

It is good if you have any supporting documentation on this or how did you know the comperagble data.

It will still depend on your skills and how you negotiate. If you really wants to be on top of your field, then build your portfolio at its finest.
Instead of doing your freelance job online, why not offer your calling cards to the market that could give you cash fee to at least lessen the subtraction of your profit/service fee? If you're going to fight against asian with rates, you will lose and it might as well consider sticking to your rate and trust your service. People have a different perspectives view regarding this matter, you cant generalized the situation.

Apple manufactures Iphone in China because it's cheap to produce in this country. This isn't a business that would work in USA cause even if that happened, price would be hugely high. So, I don't care how much money they need for their daily living when you can get the same quality product in 10x less price. I've got a very professional website on wordpress for 200$ that would cost min 5000$ in US/EU if we consider it's functions, features and etc.

It's one of the most easiest thing, believe me. It's super easy to learn html/css, at least was for me but it isn't a thing that I am interested in.

WELL, let's sort it out

This is too local a problem. In some countries, you can easily register as a private entrepreneur/self-employed and your total tax will be at most 5-6%. The same applies to receiving money from customers - if you can't choose a normal payment service with normal conditions, this is a very private problem.

And also Indian, yeah. I am quite familiar with the market in the EU and neighboring countries, and I can confidently say that local people prefer to hire local / neighbors, rather than turn to Chinese / Indian freelancers - because the reputation for quality of work is ahead of them.

This is a payment for the fact that you work for yourself. If it is so difficult for you to monitor the space in search of orders, hire a Manager for 10-15% of the receipt from each order and forget about this headache. What is the problem?

Again, a local problem, prices are different everywhere. And even if you take America into account, it's not that much money, is it?

So do not take such projects what is the problem? The beauty of freelancing is that you can choose what to work with and your main task is just to sell yourself. Such customers either end up going to the Indians and spit on the quality or understand that they require the impossible and split the entire project into a bunch of small orders, then collecting everything together.

Again, don't take such orders. What does it have to do with the presence of freaks in the camp of customers and the fact that "the freelance market killed everything"? Does the price of $200 for creating a blockchain prevent you from sleeping?

So you are against the usual auction / tender system? This is quite normal-the customer wants to get the best price/quality ratio, and the contractor (you) wants money and knows how much it costs.

Well, there are no comments at all. And people wear the "wrong" clothes and eat the "wrong" food, so what? Yes, even if WID and js.brainfuck are asked to create a project, what do you need, again?

You can simply do not agree or you can name the appropriate price for such requests. Problems?

This is completely normal  phenomenon. The layout of a website or the design of another online store is no longer a super-complex task that requires extra effort. There are a lot of frameworks for which you can build another blog/landing page/showcase in a couple of days, spending more time on adaptability than on development. It is quite expected that the price of a man-hour has become lower in this area - because even a 15-16 student can master angular / react+scss+html and a couple of frameworks like Symphony and already go to work and gain experience. Many processes are already automated - syntax highlighting, tooltips for functions and classes, autocomplete and so on and so forth. Who are you trying to deceive?

The only question I have left is either you are not very knowledgeable in the field or you are spy100 and then there are no more questions.

It’s not just something that happens with only being a programmer. I have a friend who works as a freelance writer and they face the worse. Most clients look down on people who are writers, they usually think that writing is a simple job and some of them will tell you to write thousands of words for pennies. Sometimes he wants to quit from these freelance websites , but I advise him to chill and continue till he’s able to develop his own platform.

If you have noticed, most of the clients are making use of these freelance websites and that’s another problem. And like you have said; there are always people especially from Asia that are ready to accept those low rates, and they are a competition. That makes clients feel like they can get high demands for nothing.

Try to be checking out LinkedIn jobs, there are some interesting jobs that are being posted there, and jobs you will get from there will pay more than these freelance websites.

was i wrong ?  because i thought that its the freelance sites were got killed by design and development businesss / services . you know business that offers more than one service and are run by more than one people or they have like a team  .

they present them selves well and they look verry professional . its hard to compete on them if your only a single individual that have a limited skill  . to the hirer's , lets support freelance sites sometimes or free lance individuals

True enough. Most people are ignorant and require the weirdest ideas from developers, they take a look at the best programming language out there and ask to use that to create their system, yet they completely do not understand that what they want is most often not really needed or just makes making it a lot more complicated. It's almost pretty similar to how the artist's side goes on, artists go unpaid mostly because those that hire them to think that they just need a few hours to work on it, so why they should pay them more than $100 per work? It's pretty stupid.

Though I do think that Freelancing websites are actually helpful instead, not killing them. It's probably those that hire freelancers that are making life difficult for most, mostly due to ignorance. Though I do still think and agree that underpaid services are a thing, I don't really know if it regulated the price in the US, but it didn't really help in actually regulating in the Asian side, since most are rather ignorant and just accept businesses as is, and they basically let themselves get taken advantage of.

You can really expect those words from those people who do live on 1st world countries yet we know that living standards is really comparable to theirs which is totally in huge gap. $50 might not really be big for them but
already a good shot for those people who do live on 3rd world countries but you can really expect that the work wont really be the same compared to those who are experienced or veteran ones.This isnt something new
thats why competition is really high and employers do most likely to choose which is the lowest bid but there are still who dont care about being too expensive as long they would able to get an excellent work
from someone who are on expertise.

As a person living in an Asian country, I understand why most freelancer living in Asia accepts low rates. The 50 usd for 2 days work apparently is considered a huge amount. In addition, clients who go for low rates freelancers know that in a low rate work they will get a mediocre product but they are still settling for it because they don't need an expertly made, just a functioning one. Certainly, those clients who wants perfectly made product would for premium freelancers so i don't think you should blame Asians haha.

Upwork use to be good but they take 20% and people demand you to just 2 hours of hoops before they will hire you it's horrible. What an abuse. 

Someone needs to make a reasonable platform with 3 to 4% with little waste of time maybe short test project and they like you they give you more not waste 2 hours to give you 40 Euros of work that takes you a day to finish then they want 20 fixes.

This is the mentality, those places are not really meant to be used for the long term, they are a stepping stone, yes the pay is crap and those that post jobs on those platforms are looking for something to be done at an incredibly cheap price, but that is not the point, the point is to increase your experience and gain a few jobs, that way then when you are trying to get clients on your own you have in your portfolio your previous jobs and those that hired you before can recommend your job, it just the old idea of starting from the bottom of the food chain brought to the 21th century.

As I understood, it is not the competition he is complaining about (at least not completely), It is the fees.

When you do a $100 job and end up with $50 after everybody took their cut, that indeed sucks.

In reality, you got paid $50 for a $100 job.

(As I explained above, if those websites didn't exit, maybe the OP wouldn't have gotten any jobs at all so there is that.)

I somewhat agree to your points but not entirely. Freelancing websites are actually bringing more opportunities to the freelancers instead of killing it. What killing the market is high competition. If you look 10 years back, there was only a handful of freelancing websites with limited numbers of freelancers available. Nowadays, there are hundreds of them available at any point of time.

As per the rule of economy, the price always starts dropping whenever there is competition. That's exactly what is happening with freelancing economy as well. It worsened when Chinese and Indian people started entering this market, it dropped the price ever further because their cost of living is much cheaper than any western country.

It's all about competition nowadays which is killing the price. Websites are rather helping to bring more jobs to the freelancers. That's from my personal experience but you may have a different experience altogether.

i disagree and i'll give you one reason: they created competition and prevented big corporations from asking for ridiculous amount of money for doing a simple job.
now there are competing developers who are sometimes even more skilled and can do a much better job at a much more reasonable prices. funny enough that forced those big companies to lower their prices to realistic ones too.

now you shouldn't confuse freelancing with some newbies who know very little of some subject like website design trying to get a job and make some money. it is up to you to hire the ones who can do a good job by looking at their skills and checking their history.

See for most of the people websites like this provide them with job opportunities which are very few if we take everything into consideration. You can apply in numerous jobs and you can be overqualified , but the company due to the COVID are hiring person who is okay working with the lowest wage possible. 

This is online jobs that we are talking about but the offline ones are even worse. People are working 9-5 for even 100$.

If someone is available to earn this much online they think it's a blessing , but in reality they are being underpaid but they have nothing to compare it to.

People are desperate and these companies are using that. The upwork is a good option for sure but we need to understand that it's not good for the developing and underdeveloped countries , they are paid 1/2 of even 1/3rd of what they should be paid.

But looking at freelance website such as upwork, formerly known as odesk, freelancers are still making good money even if we are in a pandemic. But I would agree that there are nationalities lowering the pay because they want to get the job, but it is a disaster for some company to hire them because the service will be low grade as lousy as well. So if you are a company that are using freelancing websites to look for employee, then hire someone with good history and offer them competitive salaries.

IT sector, especially software development, is booming nearly any country, and there's absolutely no signs of freelancing outspacing it. Just open your local job hunting site and see how many job offers for programmers there is. Freelancers can't develop a big project in short timeframe, and assembling a team of freelancers is just not as efficient as just having a company to work on the product, who already have a well-managed team.

I don't get it.

Are the web devs work for free (like $5-10) or are they making a killing?

Because you all are telling a different story.

If editing a CSS file was that easy without breaking everything, then the client should do it himself/herself.

Those Indians work for dirt cheap for a reason and it is not because their country's economy suck. It is their product that sucks.


If a Euro webdev asks for $600 for completing the same task where the Indian dude charges $20, then either the Euro-dev or the Indian-dev is about to scam the client.

If the Indians are willing to work for free, then maybe It is time to leave that business and move to something else.

Do you ever take into account the cost of living in the respective countries? Web devs living in the US/EU ask for considerable amounts because that's the only way they can live in their society where cost of living is very high, this without taking in account the fact that when a dev charges 600$, he doesn't get 600$ in his pockets, there is taxes and a shitload of other expenses; ofcourse they are going to call devs from countries where cost of living is low "bad" because they are breaking the market by charging peanuts for their service...

They didn't kill anything, they just improved things. Once upon a time, in one country (Republic of Georgia) you had to pay 50$ for pirated windows installation, then after some years price become 15$. It just takes some clicks to install windows and drivers / needed software and people were charging so much. Average salary in this country is 170$.

Web developers are asking for huge amount of money for tiny html/css edits. Their prices aren't fair and now they blame freelancers from all over the world because Indian guy charges 20$ instead of 600$ and they are bad, ruining their "profitable" business.

It really sucks to lose 50% of your income right away but those websites are only good when you are a newbie worker while getting the hang of how things work in real life or getting to know what clients want or how to deal with them in general.

After you start completing a few jobs successfully, you should look for a more serious job (if that's your thing) or start building up your own network and find customers by your own.

If you can find 2 clients in one month and keep the fees to yourself and you find 5 clients through the freelancing website but lose 40% of your income to the fees, which one would you choose?

I'd say go for those 2 clients that you caught yourself because in the long run you are going to have to build your own network or else you'll work as a slave for that freelancing platform forever.

When you are not able to catch your own fish, you can always go back to the fish store.

You are also bitching about the low rate workers.

The only way to get out of that race to the bottom kind of situation is by increasing your work quality.

When your product is better than anyone else's, then you can set any price you want for your work.

I agree.

That's why it's more worthy to accept proper proposal foe this job. For example, if they are really willing to pay then they have to do it in a professional way, like by posting it on social media about the qualifications needed of a programmer they need to build their website and of course the rates must be paid per hour.

In reddit, the lowest rate that I've seen in making a website is $50 per hour, depends on a company I guess.

Have you noticed this days that there are are a lot of freelancing websites begging you to join their site as developer or begging people that need programming / design services to use their websites ( lot's of google ads )

Here is why i don't use freelancing websites as a programmer / designer:

Number 1 Reason :

High Fees ...
Example:
Let's say a client want's me to do a project for 100 usd ,that takes 1-2 days to do
10-20 % out of the 100 usd is lost as commissions
Then paypal or cryto exchange charges another 10% fee + withdraw fee etc
Then after bank wants it's cut also of 1-2%

And after you are left with 68 usd ,now you got to pay the tax man he takes another 10%-30% (depending on your country) out that 68 usd

Now you will be left with around 50 usd

So for 1 -2 day of work you get payed 50 usd

50 usd / 16 hours = 3.125 usd / hour

For european or north american standards  ...3.125 / hour is lower then even a cleaning toilets job salary ...

Number 2 Reason

Asian competition that is willing to accept rates like that

Number 3 Reason

You got to sign up on a lot of freelancing websites ,and to reach the minimum withdraw limit it takes time ...your money is stuck with them for a very very long time

Number 4 Reason
iOs 100 usd fee ,adobe monthly fee ,hosting fees ,annual domain fees,internet bill ,electricity bill and living costs

Number 5 Reason
People wants you to build projects that cost 100k - millions of USD for 100-500 usd ,as they don't understand how hard it is to build them

To build a big project you got to scale up

You start small and if project is successful you scale up and you add new feature .

Some people just want to build something like McDonalds with 100 usd ... that is impossible.

Number 6 reason

Some people think that it easy what we do as developer and A.I. ,blockchain development is a walk in the park ,as this days A.I. ,Quantum computers ,Blockchains are cool

Number 7 reason

Contests
Freelancing websites allow users to create contests for almost anything ...i even seen a contest asking people to build an online casino for 2000 usd  


Number 8 Reason

People want to build projects with the wrong technology / framework

They ask you to build platforms with wordpress or blogs with node.js/react etc ...

Number 9 Reason

People ask you  to manage/webmaster their project ,thinking that they are the only client and that doing webmaster work is included in price of project.

And many more reasons



Programming / Design Business has become a very low pay biz and very stressful ...