Elance.com and oDesk.com both provide freelancers a great opportunity to showcase their skills and find work. The sites work as a marketplace for freelance work – allowing “buyers” to submit job openings and “providers” to bid (apply). Buyers can also find providers to fill their needs by searching their profiles to find the best match. Each site has no shortage of openings posted but, there are a few differences between each.

oDesk is free of charge and you may submit bids to any position in any category. Of course there is a limit to the number of bids you can place at any one time. Just like applying for traditional job – only apply to those you meet the qualifications for. There is a reason for the limit on amount of bids you can place:)

When you create an account with oDesk you are given access to download oDesk team. This allows you to keep track of your time worked by taking screen shots of your work and tracking activity. You must login to access and can always go back to edit time you may have mistakenly captured. This record of your work is accessible by the buyer and will be used on a weekly basis for payment. Payment for hourly jobs is quite simple. As long as you are logged in to the oDesk team while working at the end of the week your buyer will receive an invoice which is automatically paid. The difference comes with fixed rate jobs in which the buyer manually makes payments and these are not guaranteed payments by oDesk.

While Elance does offer a basic free membership, you cannot apply to jobs in all categories as you can with oDesk.  A basic membership allows you to bid (connect) on up to 10 openings at one time in one category. You may change the category you have chosen (such as Admin Support, Design & Multimedia, etc.) but only once a month.

For additional “connects” (opportunities to apply to openings) you must upgrade to a Professional Account. The cost is $9.95/month and allow up to 25 connects a month. You still are confined to one category unless you purchase additional categories at $4.95/month.

Tracking work and getting paid is slightly different through Elance. You will be able to keep track of your time via the Time Tracker but, screen shots are not taken. The tracker is more for the provider’s use as to know what to invoice for at the end of the week. Invoices are sent on a weekly basis but, manually (it only takes the push of a button). Payments are not automatic and the buyer must “pay” each invoice when they are received (unlike oDesk which the payment is automatically taken from a credit card). This difference is certainly better for the buyer who has more control over the payments.


As a user of  both sites I have been fortunate to find work through both. I feel oDesk is more “provider” friendly and Elance is more “buyer” friendly. As most do, I prefer “free” to having to pay as I do on Elance. I like the time keeping  and invoicing system better on oDesk. However, I have found better work and higher paying assignments on Elance. This of course could simply be because of the line of work I am looking for (HR/Admin) while, someone in Web Design or Development would probably find work on either site.  For those seeking freelance/work at home assignments I highly recommend registering with both and other freelance sites as well. You may find some overlap in positions posted but, each provides many different opportunities.