As a freelancer, you have several options, including using Elance.com for all of your business or applying for short projects on Sologig.com. Which one is better? Are there advantages or disadvantages for either that would help you make your decision? Below, we’ll explore whether Elance or a Sologig is the better platform to use.

Commission: The first thing you have to consider is that Elance does take a part of the profits as their commission for helping you find the job. The rate is about 6% of the total project cost. As a freelancer, with Solo Gig you wouldn’t have to worry about this commission however, you would have to find time sorting through the projects on sologig , applying for them, interviewing and then waiting to see if you get hired. With Elance, the process is much easier – project posters post projects, you submit proposals, you win the project and you get paid. Easy peasy, right?

Security: With Elance, there is the option to use the Elance escrow, so you can be sure your money is waiting for you after the project is finished. However, there’s no 100% guarantee that the client will pay you when you use sologig. With solo gig, you take a huge risk that the company hiring you is legitimate and that they will pay you when you complete the work. With sologig, there are no safeguards like Elance escrow or feedback verification to verify whether the person is reputable. Therefore, when it comes to security and peace of mind, Elance outranks Sologig by a landslide.

Finding Work: It’s obviously going to be much easier to find work through Elance, who actually lines up the clients and projects for you to submit proposals on. As a solo freelancer applying for projects on solo gig, it can be very difficult to sort through the garbage projects to find the gold. Drumming up legitimate work isn’t easy and can take a tremendous amount of time and there is a great risk that the person who hires you is a scam artist. With this aspect, Elance certainly gets the upper hand.

Ease: All around, it’s easier to get clients through Elance because all of your accomplishments are documented in your profile – your feedback, the amount of money you’ve made, your certifications and testimonials. On your own, you’d need a website to display all of these things and even then, clients may not trust them. Elance is definitely an easy platform to utilize in order to get freelance work.

So – with all of the details above, it’s up to you to decide whether you’d rather use Elance or do solo gig however I vote for Elance.

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