Is Upwork Premium Worth It?

I’ve been on Upwork since 2012. During the first couple of years on the platform, I made over $150,000 and worked for clients from all over the world.

In recent years, I’ve naturally migrated away from Upwork - recurring work and referrals from existing clients keep me more than busy enough.

But, I still pay for Upwork Premium (Freelancer Plus) even when I’m not actively using the platform. In this article, I will discuss the benefits of paying for a premium account on Upwork and it can make a huge difference in your freelance career.

The benefits of Upwork Premium

As of June 2023, the Freelancer Plus plan costs $14.99/month and comes with the following benefits:

Guaranteed visibility. Upwork will never disable your profile.
Insights. Upwork will show you your competitors’ bids.
More Connects. Connects are the currency that you use to bid on projects. With Freelancer Plus, you get more every month.
Customized profile URL. Replace random strings with something personal and memorable.
Privacy. You can make your earnings private if you wish.

Let’s examine each one of those more closely. I will illustrate using examples from my own Upwork career where applicable.

Remain visible even when inactive

As I said in the intro, I haven’t been very active on Upwork for the last couple of years. Due to this inactivity, I’ve lost all my Upwork badges, including the coveted Top Rated badge.

Yet, this whole time, I’ve been paying for Freelancer Plus. Over the course of three years, I spent a total of about $540 on a premium account on a platform I barely use. Why?

Simple: I want to keep my Upwork account active. If you’re not a Premium user, Upwork is likely to disable your account after a period of inactivity. My Upwork profile is far too valuable for me to allow that to happen. You never know when you will decide to use the platform again.

Recently, I took on a fun little side project on Upwork after a long hiatus. Billing $80/hour, I recouped three years of Freelancer Plus expenses within seven hours.

Scout the competition

Now let’s talk about the benefits that are more useful to most new and up-and-coming freelancers.

Knowledge is power. When you apply to projects, knowing the range of your competitors' bids is priceless. It can help you with positioning and help you price your freelance services.

Comparing the value you can provide with the price you can charge is a lot easier within the context of your competitors’ prices.

Many times, I intentionally bid higher than the highest current bid on projects. There's no money in being the second-most expensive option.

More shots on goal

More Connects means more shots on goal. As simple as that.

A free Upwork user gets 10 Connects per month. You get an extra 70 Connects per month with Freelancer Plus. For context, bidding on most Upwork projects costs around 8 Connects these days.

That means you can bid on about 10 projects per month with a premium Upwork account, and only about one project per month with a basic account.

Everything else being equal, 10 proposals are ten times as likely to land you a client than one proposal. This alone makes Freelancer Plus a no-brainer if you’re serious about Upwork.

You can also buy additional Connects directly, for $0.15 per Connect. But you should only consider this after you’ve bought Freelancer Plus, if needed.

Custom URL

If you take a look at my Upwork profile, you’ll notice the URL has my name in it. This helps with personal branding - and maybe even SEO.

It’s hard to quantify the value of this, but it’s a nice add-on to the premium account.

Privacy

You may not want to make your earnings visible for a multitude of reasons. Maybe you care about privacy. Maybe you don’t want your broke cousins to know how much money you make. Maybe you don’t want tax authorities snooping around your profile. Maybe you’ve recently raised your rates and you don’t want potential clients to see your previous earnings.

If any of this applies to you, then Freelancer Plus is definitely worth the investment. Spending $14.99/month on peace of mind is a no-brainer.

Summing up the advantages of Upwork Premium

The maths of Freelancer Plus are simple.

You are more likely to get projects, less likely to be removed, more likely to set the right price for your services, more likely to be remembered, and less likely to get into trouble.

You’re probably more likely to get quick support, too.

It all compounds into a great investment for any freelancer serious about Upwork.