Freelance services marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr have grown to be a very popular business model among website and platform owners because they provide a convenient, dependable, and simple way to access worldwide freelance skills. The demand for freelance services has grown significantly over the last ten years, and it is anticipated that this trend will continue. By 2030, it is expected that freelancers would make up as much as 80% of the global workforce due to this development.

Hundreds of millions of freelancers with expertise in many fields and categories are accessible through these websites. There is always a Freelancer available to be hired, so you may practically discover a solution for whatever kind of concept you have. These websites assist millions of users every day in finding acceptable employment opportunities, which generates enormous profits for its owners. Prior to today, freelancing was only considered to be a secondary source of income.

What is the difference of using between a Theme and Plugin?

WordPress themes are made to drastically alter the appearance of your website. This comprises the overall aesthetic of the website, including the design, layout, colors, and navigation. One theme can be active on your WordPress site at a time, but you can use as many plugins as you like.

Plugins are designed to offer new features and functionalities, whereas themes change the appearance of your website. In plainer terms, plugins affect what your site can do, whereas themes affect how it looks. Because there are solutions for almost any functionality you can think of, plugins can’t be as simply explained.

It’s usually simple to determine whether you should look for a theme or a plugin. A new theme is what you need if you want to alter the appearance and organization of your website. On the other hand, plugins are often your best option if you require a specific feature.

But what should you do if you ever find yourself in a scenario similar to the ones we just discussed? You have a decision to make if what you require may theoretically be fulfilled by either a theme or a plugin.

Fortunately, this decision is typically quite straightforward. Themes have a more significant overall impact on your website, and changing them can be a chore that you won’t want to go through too frequently. In order to choose your theme wisely, focus more on the style and layout you want than the functionality it offers. Then, you may use plugins to add any extra functionality you need.

So basically, a good way to go is to use a plugin, instead of a theme, so you can focus with the functionality the plugin will offer, instead of using a theme that locks you down to a layout that you might not want to use.

Without further ado, here to give you the top 10 freelancer marketplace plugin for WordPress in 2023:

Freelancer Marketplace Plugin
EDD Sell Services
Private Workrooms
Taskbot
WP Job Manager
WP Jobster
FreelanceEngine
HivePress
Workreap

Freelancer Marketplace Plugin

This Freelancer Marketplace plugin will help you build a freelancer marketplace in WordPress for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads webstores. This plugin will be your starting point to start selling Freelancer Services via your WordPress webstore using the ultimate Freelancer Marketplace Plugin.

Freelancer Marketplace Plugin will transform your Easy Digital Downloads store into a freelancer marketplace. It allows customers to submit projects and freelancers to find and be hired for them. The plugin includes a bidding system, workflows for file uploads, messaging, and various other features to operate a freelancer marketplace.

EDD Sell Services

EDD Sell Services is a plugin for WordPress that adds features to the Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) plugin. Users can produce and market services in addition to digital goods using this plugin. Users of the plugin can create a page for listing services, receive money for services, and handle service orders.

In essence, it gives users the ability to produce and market services in addition to digital goods. A service listing page, the capability to collect payments for services, and tools for handling service orders are just a few of the capabilities offered by the plugin. Users can increase the selection of goods and services they provide on their WordPress website with EDD Sell Services, which makes it simpler to increase revenue.

Private Workrooms

Instead of relying on third-party systems, a business owner or freelancer can now easily and quickly receive payments online from their website. a WordPress plugin that gets you up and running quickly and easily. Getting work done and getting paid has never been easier. The fact that you have complete control over everything also contributes to how comfortable the entire process is. You and other proprietors of service-shopping websites were kept in mind when developing the Private Workrooms plugin.

The free version of the plugin allows you and your client to complete each stage of selling services and obtaining payment, but the PRO edition comes with many improvements and extra benefits.

Taskbot

To advertise services and gigs on the Freelancer marketplace, a TaskBot WordPress plugin is employed. Vendors and customers could easily create their profiles and register using this method. Sellers who give gigs or services can publicize a task and take online orders. It has been thoughtfully designed to satisfy the requirements of those who are interested in starting sellers’ marketplaces or other projects of a similar nature.

You may always make your own with Taskbot for WordPress. You may create an online marketplace to connect job searchers with independent contractors with this premium WooCommerce plugin. Its powerhouse is Elementor.

WP Job Manager

WP Job Manager is a freemium plugin for job boards. And for the majority of individuals, it works. Additionally, you can buy high-end add-ons to expand its functionalities. Shortcode is mostly used by this plugin. Jobs, expiration dates, and many other well-known job board characteristics can all be listed.

For visitors and registered users, WP Job Manager provides a few forms, although their features are constrained. The forms won’t draw much attention but they’re fine for basic use.

The employer dashboard of WP Job Manager is one intriguing feature. Users that are logged in can manage all of their job ads and information from this single location. It is among the top WordPress job manager plugins because of its feature.

WP Jobster

Another WordPress theme for micro jobs is Jobster, which could be an excellent choice if you want to start your own WordPress-based Fiverr. The website appears fantastic out of the box because the theme has a current style. However, in addition to having a Jobster-like appearance and feel, it is brimming with practical marketplace features like service requests, messages, a notification system, support for many currencies, etc.

By establishing commissions depending on the user status and/or total transaction value, Jobster enables you to monetize your micro jobs marketplace. Along with PayPal, Stripe, and bank payments, the theme offers tens of fully integrated payment gateways that make it simple to process and accept payments on your site.

FreelanceEngine

A strong project bidding-based theme for freelance websites is called FreelanceEngine. The theme’s layout is simple and content-focused. It wisely steers clear of minor graphic tricks for a positive user experience. Additionally, this theme is pretty quick and responsive. The front and back ends are both properly implemented, giving you the same performance response on mobile and PC.

The dashboard, planning page, settings panel, and job posting modules that come with the theme will help you build a successful marketplace portal once you’ve installed it. You may receive payments on the move thanks to Freelance Engine’s integration with a number of payment channels. The available payment gateways are Stripe, 2Checkout, and PayPal, among others. You can submit tasks here, find freelancers to work on them, and even register as a freelancer by creating a profile.

HivePress

Using the HvePress free WordPress listing and directory plugin, beginners can quickly build and launch their service listing or company directory website. If you like, you may even monetize the website by charging for listings on your directory website.

You may simply expand the main functionality with the plugin’s free and paid extensions. You can build real estate, service marketplaces, job boards, business directories, and other listing and directory sites using HivePress.

There is a free ListingHive theme for building directories, a RentalHive theme for building booking sites, and the ExpertHive theme is an excellent complement for building on-demand marketplaces like TaskRabbit. There is a TaskHive theme for a freelance marketplace like Fiverr, and JobHive is a terrific theme for a job board website.

Workreap

Workreap is an intriguing WordPress theme for a freelance marketplace with top-notch coding. It has been carefully planned and created to meet the needs of those who are interested in developing freelance marketplaces or other comparable ventures. The design is cutting-edge, but it also places a strong emphasis on usability, visual hierarchy, and aesthetics to make it simple for people to navigate.

One of the top WordPress themes available for freelancing marketplaces and job boards is called Workreap. It offers project postings, project bidding, the ability to sell services, listings for employers and freelancers, and could be an excellent option for creating a freelance market place.

Conclusion: The Ultimate Freelancer Marketplace Solution

It will never be easy to start your own Freelancer marketplace with WordPress without the right resources and software, to begin with. You may have thought it would be difficult today to create your own online marketplace for freelance services, but what you really need is to be completely prepared and ready with the right tool, skills, and knowledge.

That is why we recommend you to check the Freelancer Marketplace plugin. This plugin will help you build a freelancer marketplace for Woocommerce and Easy Digital Downloads. This plugin offers a comprehensive collection of settings and configurations to give you total control over your own freelancer marketplace, allowing you to configure it any way you want. This will be your starting point in creating your dream freelancer marketplace using the ultimate freelancer marketplace solution.

Just make sure that these features are well integrated and incorporated on your Freelance Marketplace, as well as the correct marketing and management, your marketplace will soon be up and running together with many clients and freelancers working with you.

Introduction

Freelance services have expanded exponentially in the past decade and are projected to increase further in the coming years. With such growth, it is predicted that freelancers will account for as much as 80% of the entire workforce worldwide by 2030. The so-called “gig economy” is not just another buzzword anymore. With 57.3 million freelancers in the US alone (which makes around 36% of the total country’s workforce), there is no denying the fact that it is now the reality we live in.

These online professional services marketplaces serve as mediators between employers and workers to help them establish business relationships with each other. Each day, these websites help millions of their users find suitable jobs or staff, thereby earning their owners tremendous income. Freelance work, previously seen as pure side gigs and extra jobs, has now become a big job choice.

Using a WordPress Freelancer Marketplace Plugin

When you want to optimize your Freelance Marketplace’s strengths and functionality, using a WordPress Plugin is the perfect way to do that. Below are some of the reasons why you should use WordPress Freelance Marketplace Plugin to build your own Platform for Freelancer.

Freelance Marketplace Plugins are specifically designed and built to meet the needs of people interested in creating a freelance marketplace or other related ventures, after extensive study. Therefore, providing you with a Freelance Platform with the best framework possible would include all the necessary features and capabilities.
There is a rich eco-system available with WordPress plugins and codes that can help you develop and customize your WordPress Freelance Marketplace in whatever way you wish.
WordPress plugins have the potential to help you focus more on SEO and content marketing. They are two really effective tactics that will in no time draw clients and visitors to your website.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a problem with WordPress integrating with other tools and plugins. If required, you can use multiple WordPress solutions altogether to help you develop and automate your website on the Freelance Services Marketplace.

How to Find a Suitable WordPress Plugin for a Freelancer Marketplace

You’ll need to study and compare what plugins are better suited for your WordPress website. Below are several parameters that could be used:

Design: You need to get the template tested. A Freelancer Marketplace website uses many complex workflows, which is why it is critical that the plugin offers a great design and user-friendly features.

Payment Gateways: For a freelancer marketplace the processing of payments is crucial. It’s not really a problem, to begin with but later you do need a solution to essentially automate all payments. Therefore you will need to test which payment gateways are supported and you can use your WordPress plugin to enforce this. However, bear in mind, many payment gateways only allow businesses in some countries and many businesses in other countries than the US and Western Europe still have trouble getting accepted by other payment gateways.

Scalability: You’ll need to test the plugin’s backend structure in terms of technical scalability but also administrative ease here. It is vital that the backend has all the information at hand so that the website operator can easily find out what is going on and have all the details at hand in case of conflicts or demands for refunds.

Eco-System: Does the plugin come with an ecosystem of other great plugins, which can be easily added later in a cost-effective way? Here you want to start with a simple configuration to test your idea first but then you want to have access to a rich ecosystem with other plugins where you can easily add additional functionality to make your platform very awesome and where you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. So, you can verify whether your Freelancer Marketplace plugins are compatible with other applications or plugins.

Familiarity: You may also need to bear in mind that it is easier to find cost-effective developers for technical assistance when choosing a plugin that is compatible with other applications such as WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads because they have already worked on similar projects.

Must-have Features of an Excellent Freelancer Marketplace

In my opinion, if you want a perfect freelance marketplace, it must have the following features available:

1. Easy Onboarding Process – The platform must also offer a quick and easy onboarding process that will benefit both the customer and freelancer. The best feature for this one is that the customer can hire the freelancer right on his profile, or right on the Freelancer List.

2. Freelancer List – Customers must easily locate each of the available Freelancers, along with their profiles to check and see whether they fit the criteria that the customer is looking for.

3. Excellent Bidding Process with the option to Create Project Milestones – It is a must-have for a Freelancer Marketplace to have an excellent bidding flow and process. It must contain necessary and clear information about the Freelancer’s Bid, and also the option to create project Milestones(either by the Customer or the Freelancer).

4. Rating Procedure – The platform should enable the parties to rate each other depending on their performance as a party involved in the project.

5. Social Login – Since many people will register to your platform, we must give them an easy and quick registration process, by enabling them to register using their Social Accounts.

6. Manage Disputes and Settlements among the Parties – Different problems, issues and misunderstandings may arise during Project Execution among the parties, so because of that, there must be a way for the parties to report any disputes to the Site Administrators. They should have the capacity to submit disputes or claims against the party and the whole process needs to be managed.

7. Ability to scale up the Freelancer Marketplace – Besides offering Freelance Services to your customer, it is a great strategy if you are able to offer other products or services right on your Freelancer Marketplace. You can either sell digital downloads, website themes and designs, documents, and others. There’s always an opportunity to let more revenue flow in so we don’t want to waste it.

8. Payment Gateways – Freelancer Marketplace must have the ability to collect payments early on and hold them back until the projects are closed. Preferably, customers can pay with different payment methods such as Credit Cards, PayPal Balance and many more options.

These are just a few suggestions I have in mind if we are to talk about an efficient and effective Freelance Marketplace platform to service customers. Of course, there would be a lot more, but I hope you keep in mind these important features.

In order to achieve the above features on your Freelancer Marketplace Platform. You might want to check out this Freelancer Marketplace Plugin for WordPress.This plugin will help you build a freelancer marketplace for WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads. It also offers a comprehensive collection of settings and configurations to give you total control over your own freelancer marketplace, allowing you to configure it any way you want.

Top 9 Freelancer Marketplace Themes and Plugins for WordPress