Fiverr has a reputation for being a place to buy cheap, low-quality services.
I regularly use Fiverr and completely understand why people feel this way, these fears are not unfounded!
There are many reasons why you should be wary of Fiverr both as a seller and a buyer;
1. Fiverr Is Only As Good As The Gigs People List On There
Fiverr started life as a place where you could get basic jobs done for no more than $5, these days gigs on the platform sell from anywhere between $5 to $1,000+.
Anyone can post a gig on Fiverr, this means that it attracts a lot of low-quality sellers who put as little effort into delivering the gig as they can get away with in order to get the payment.
That said there are plenty of high-quality gigs available on the platform, you just have to do your due diligence, ask about their past work and check that the reviews and ratings they have received are believable.
2. Unreasonable Seller Rules Which Prioritise Speed Over Quality
In order for a gig to rank well on Fiverr there are a number of things you need to do.
Two of the most important things are:
- responding promptly to buyer messages
- completing gigs on time
Sellers have just 24 hours to respond to a buyer message before it can negatively impact their gig ranking.
Also if a seller encounters problems with the gig for example they run into technical difficulties while working on a site which causes the job to run over the agreed time scale then a buyer can claim most of their fees back even if the work has been completed.
This means that sellers are forced to prioritize speed over high-quality work.
3. High Levels Of Competition Incentivises Scamming
Getting plenty of 5-star reviews is also important when it comes to ranking your Fiverr gig.
If your seller rating drops below 4.9 your ranking is likely to drop and your gig will attract far fewer buyers.
This can, unfortunately, incentivize cheating with sellers doing things like exchanging gig reviews or getting family members to review their gigs in order to rank their gig higher and give it more visibility.
This can then lead to Fiverr promoting gigs which shouldn’t naturally be appearing at the top of the search results so buyers are likely to end up with a lower quality end product.
4. Relatively High Fees
Fiverr takes 20% of every sale regardless of the total cost.
Other competing platforms typically start at 20% but the fee drops as the total spend increases:
| Platform | Seller Fees |
|---|---|
| Fiverr | 20% |
| Upwork | 20% for the first $500 per buyer. 10% per buyer with orders between $500.01 and $10,000. 5% for totals over $10,000 per buyer. |
| People Per Hour | 20% for the first $350 per buyer. 7.5% from $350–$6,500 per buyer. 3.5% on orders over 6,500 pounds per buyer. |
| Freelancer | 10% for hourly projects. For set price projects the fees is either 10% or $5, whichever is greater. |
If you’re thinking of using Fiverr as a seller then use our Fiverr fees calculator to work out exactly how much you will earn after their fees are taken off.
Use Fiverr But Don’t Rely Exclusively On It
As you can see Fiverr certainly has its drawbacks, it is by no means the perfect platform for an aspiring freelancer to build their career on.
There are countless threads of people who were making significant incomes on Fiverr ($100,000+/year) losing most of their income because they fell foul of some of Fiverr’s rules.
There are also plenty of anecdotes of people being less than pleased with the quality of work they have received from Fiverr’s top sellers.
I use Fiverr regularly for SEO-related purposes, specifically, I use it for creating visuals and videos to improve the overall usefulness of my content.
My advice to buyers is to do your due diligence, ask sellers plenty of questions before sending them any money.
To sellers my advice is to make sure that you have established profiles on alternative marketplaces too as building your entire career around one marketplace is a very risky strategy!