How to Make a Freelance Website Like Fiverr: Valuable Hints and Tips

Freelancing is becoming increasingly popular, and it’s expected that freelancers will account for as much as 80% of the entire workforce worldwide by 2030. Although there are already outstanding marketplaces like Upwork, an online freelance platform is still a promising business idea. There’s a good chance to take a place in your niche and build a successful product that can rival Fiverr and TaskRabbit.

In this article, we’ll consider the popular freelance marketplace Fiverr. We’ll show you how to create an online marketplace like Fiverr from scratch and tell you what functionality is required. We’ll also give marketing tips and discuss how to make money with a freelance marketplace.

First, let’s start with a brief overview of the Fiverr concept.

About Fiverr

Fiverr is a freelance marketplace platform that helps employers find people for their projects. Fiverr helps employers hire freelancers in fields such as graphic design, digital marketing, and content creation.

What’s good about Fiverr is that the platform provides total transparency. Employers have access to freelancers’ profiles as well as reviews. This information allows employers to be confident in a freelancer’s skills.

We recommend beginning the development of an online marketplace like Fiverr from a minimum viable product (MVP). An MVP lets you validate your business idea at an early stage, get feedback from real users, and make improvements. Let’s define the essential features of an online freelance marketplace like Fiverr.

What are the essential features of a Fiverr-like marketplace?

Registration allows both freelancers and employers to start using the platform.

Verification confirms a user account via a verification email after a user completes registration.

Freelancer profiles provide employers with information on skills, location, qualifications, work experience, and other things.

An employer dashboard allows an employer to manage their information on the marketplace, edit details of their account, see project history and track progress, manage payments, and send and receive messages.

Search allows employers to choose from thousands of creative freelancers.

Work time tracking allows freelancers to provide employers with work status and results.

Messaging provides 24/7 communication between employers and freelancers.

Payment functionality handles all transactions between freelancers and employers.

Ratings and reviews provide employers with information on freelancers based on their output, such as overall satisfaction rate, etc.

How do online marketplaces like Fiverr make money?

Now that we’ve defined the core features, it’s vital to figure out how to monetize an online freelance marketplace like Fiverr. Let’s consider the most common revenue sources:

Buyer fees. Fiverr charges $0.50 for purchases up to $10. For purchases above $10, customers are charged 10% of the initial price.

Promoted profiles/jobs. Fiverr makes money from ads, namely from featured Gigs. Featuring a Gig brings more exposure, traffic, and credibility to a freelancer’s Gig.

Seller fees. Charging seller fees is common practice on marketplaces of any type. On Fiverr, freelancers are charged 20 percent commission for every sale.

Initial deposit. Platforms like TopTal charge initial deposits when employers hire a freelancer. If employers want to stop cooperation, the online marketplace refunds the deposit completely.

Payment processing fees. Upwork charges employers a payment processing fee of 2.75%.

Subscriptions. Upwork offers three types of subscriptions: free, Upwork Pro, and Upwork Enterprise. The price varies according to the level of service. Upwork Pro offers premium talent that’s vetted, and clients pay $500 per hire plus 10% of each invoice. Upwork Enterprise provides technology and services customized to fit an employer’s needs. For Enterprise pricing, clients should contact Upwork.

Business Model Canvas for a Fiverr-like marketplace

Now let’s consider a Business Model Canvas for a marketplace like Fiverr.

The Business Model Canvas is a strategic management tool that explains how your business will earn revenue and how to acquire investors and establish partnerships. Below, you can see a Business Model Canvas for a Fiverr-like marketplace. This canvas breaks the business model down into clear segments.

How to save time and money creating a freelance website like Fiverr

The development of a freelancer website from scratch can take up to $80,000 ‒ $120,000. The sum is huge for startups that are usually time and budget limited. 

The RubyGarage team works with many startups and understands their pain points. To help them, we've created a white-label solution that allows us to develop an MVP of a freelance platform starting with $40,000. 

Our solution efficiently cuts down development time and costs thanks to ready-made modules for fast and cost-efficient freelance website development. As well as that, we can also add unique features and a custom design to your website to make it stand out.

Things to bear in mind when developing a freelance marketplace like Fiverr

To build a successful marketplace like Fiverr, you should give careful thought to each product development move. Bear in mind the following:

Tools to attract users to the platform

Attracting the first users to the platform can be a real challenge. Referral programs can come in handy. Referral programs can attract new users, improve relationships with existing users, and improve revenue. A refer-a-friend program is one of the prominent types of referral programs, and statistics indicate that people are four times more likely to buy when referred by a friend.

Here’s how it can work: a user invites a friend to join the freelance platform and receives a certain amount of money for doing so. Referred users also get some discount for their first purchase on the freelance marketplace. Fiverr applies exactly this referral program.

User retention techniques

Your current user base is the best asset your marketplace has, since your existing users already know your product and appreciate the service you provide. Focusing on this group of users can help in boosting revenue for your marketplace, and loyalty programs are good at this.

Loyalty programs are an efficient method of motivating people to keep using the marketplace. Moreover, 84 percent of consumers say that a loyalty program makes them more likely to use a service. For example, Upwork allows freelancers to earn Top Rated status, building an impressive reputation on the marketplace.

Top Rated status allows freelancers to become even more successful on Fiverr. When a freelancer earns Top Rated status, they get a badge on their profile and are rewarded with exclusive perks like increased access to client projects.

Difficulties in communication

Communication between freelancers and employers often leads to inconveniences like:

• too much messaging
• slow responses
• miscommunication due to unclear messages.

Your platform should offer an alternative to traditional chat messaging, like Outsourcely did. Outsourcely has provided a great solution to solve difficulties in communication. See for yourself.

In addition to conventional chat messaging, the platform offers other ways to connect:

Video calls, which provide deeper insight into a freelancer’s personality, skills, etc. and help to avoid lots of messages.

Recorded voice messages, which can be helpful when people are busy or it’s inconvenient to write.

Live calls, allowing for direct and immediate contact with freelancers in one click to quickly discuss project details and clear things up faster than using messaging.

Ready to change the way people work?

If you’re interested in developing a freelance marketplace like Fiverr, contact us. Our experts will help you analyze your idea and business prospects and give you a detailed estimate.