Fiverr has started gearing up for its second product release of 2024 (in July) with the announcement of a new hourly rate for gigs for Fiverr Pros. Finally, some good news from Fiverr HQ for freelancers!
2024 has, so far, been a disappointing year for sellers, thanks to unpopular changes to the levels and rating system and Fiverr’s continuing, self-destructive love affair with artificial intelligence. Still, it can’t all be bad news. Today, there was a small chink of hope for the platform’s Pro-Verified sellers.
Is Fiverr… doing something nice for once?
Is Fiverr doing something that people have actually asked for (albeit giving it only to a small segment of the marketplace)? From everything I’ve read about it so far, this seems like a pretty good feature and one that I’m definitely interested in using.
I’m just a little surprised that it hasn’t been added to Seller Plus Premium, especially its crazy 100% price increase announcement on April Fool’s Day.
No, that wasn’t a joke, it was just Fiverr being Fiverr. So, what’s cool about hourly contracts on Fiverr and how does it work?
TL:DR; What We Know So Far About Hourly Contracts 🤔
Fiverr’s new hourly rate feature will not be launched until July, so there aren’t many details about it. Pro-Verified sellers who don’t want to use the new hourly rate on Fiverr won’t have to, as this is optional.
For those that do, the system is highly reminiscent of Upwork’s hourly tracking systems:
- Freelancers can set their hourly rate, which will be shown to Pro clients
- Custom offers can use single payment or hourly rates
- A time-reporting feature keeps track of hours worked
- Clients can set limits to how many hours are paid per week
- There is still no retainer option in this beta version
- Sellers can only set one hourly rate on their profile (across all gigs)
- Payments are made automatically based on hours worked and tracked
- Payments are made 10 days after the weekly billing cycle ends
- A filter will be added to search, allowing clients to filter for fixed fee/hourly results
Fiverr does recommend that sellers interested in and eligible to set an hourly rate do it before the system goes live. Fiverr is also hosting two hourly work Q&A webinars, one on May 9th, the second on May 20th, which you can sign up for by clicking the link above.
If you’re not a Fiverr Pro-Verified seller, you won’t be able to use hourly payments. It also looks like hourly payments only work with Pro buyers, at least in beta.
Fiverr and Upwork Continue to Borrow From Each Other
From July, Pro-Verified sellers on Fiverr will have three different ways to get paid:
- Fixed-rate pricing
- Hourly rate pricing
- Combined pricing
This is nothing new to anyone who has been on Upwork for the past decade and counting: Upwork has always had an hourly work feature. It’s surprising that it has taken this long for Fiverr to tap into what can be a lucrative source of consistent and reliable long-term income. That’s good news for freelancers and Fiverr.
It’s Not Clear How Disputes Over Hourly Projects Are Handled
It’s not all good news. There is one major Fiverr problem that isn’t addressed about this new system: disputes. There are also other lingering questions:
- Tracking appears to be optional, and it’s not clear why
- No mention of cancellations and how they might impact success scores
- It’s not clear how Fiverr will handle disputes with and without tracking
- There’s no explanation of how feedback (reviews) is handled
- Fiverr hasn’t confirmed whether revisions would be eligible for hourly pay
- It’s unknown if hourly rates might be integrated with features like milestones
- It’s not known if hourly rates can be used by agencies as well as freelancers
Fiverr hasn’t addressed these important questions about hourly pay yet, but they should be answered in the upcoming webinars (but people may need to ask them!). Since the proposed hourly payment system is already very similar to Upwork’s, I imagine that answers will match those on Upwork.
Even if time tracking is optional with hourly payments on Fiverr, sellers would be wise to turn it on – Fiverr is generally pro-buyer in disputes, and having evidence can make all the difference between winning and losing.
Could Paid Disputes Be Coming to Fiverr in July?
Since hourly pay is coming as part of the July Product Release, there will be other features included. Upwork has a paid arbitration feature where users can pay for an independent third-party to resolve the issue. It’s not cheap, and it isn’t open to everyone – but it’s something that Fiverr could use to make money from its users even when a deal goes completely south.
Why Can’t Non-Pro Sellers Use Hourly Payments on Fiverr?
Why is the hourly rate only open to Pro-Verified sellers? Fiverr made it very clear in its August product release that it would be focusing on the Pro marketplace. The unpopular levels and ratings update is a lot more lenient on Pro sellers, and this new feature is more evidence that the freelance marketplace is quietly – and slowly – retiring its cheapest marketplace.
On the other hand, Fiverr is clear that this is a beta product. It’s possible that once all the kinks have been ironed out, everyone can use it. It’s certainly a useful feature that sellers of all levels have been asking for since 2013, when I first joined.
Fiverr may answer this question in the upcoming webinar. For now, we can only speculate.
Is Hourly Pricing a Good Idea For Fiverr?
Hourly payments don’t reward fast workers – a question that Fiverr sidestepped neatly, rather than explain to the audience that working very slowly to puff up payments is not, in general, a good idea.
It’s not so much whether hourly rates are good for Fiverr, it’s whether they are good for you. As a writer, I can see a clear benefit to hourly rates – I can get paid a set amount of hours each week for writing various pieces of content that aren’t easy to quantify as a monolithic gig offer.
It’s this long-term work that opens the door to new pricing strategies. If clients bring in a set amount every week (hello, financial stability!) for months or years, it makes sense to give them a discount, and not in the weird and restrictive way that Fiverr’s subscription feature works.
This alone makes me a fan of the hourly work update on Fiverr, especially if it is basically just Upwork’s hourly pay. I have always had success with long-term clients on Upwork – and I’d love for the same to happen on Fiverr.
So far, the reception to this news on r/Fiverr and the Fiverr Forum has been muted, with just one post.
Hourly Work May Lead to Lower Commissions on Fiverr
There’s just one question for me. If hourly payments on Fiverr takes off and gives Fiverr some consistent, long-term income that it can also come to rely on for predictability with their own revenues, does that mean that sellers might soon see a change to the 20% commissions?
I’m just speculating here, but it’s exciting to think about. With many freelancers getting tired of Upwork’s paid connects system, this new feature is a good way to tempt them to Fiverr despite the higher commissions – after all, on Fiverr, you don’t need to pay to play. The savings on Upwork connects could be enough to outweigh the 10% increase in commission on Fiverr, especially for pro-level Upwork freelancers who are tired of Upwork’s own greed. The phrase “out of the frying pan…” comes to mind.
Hourly Rates on Fiverr Are A Good Thing
Overall, I can’t find much to nitpick about, even with the little information currently available. Not being able to set different hourly rates for different kinds of projects is annoying, but Fiverr does acknowledge that as a limitation of the beta status of hourly rates. Not knowing how disputes will be handled isn’t a serious issue at this point, but it may be if Fiverr doesn’t provide clear guidelines soon.
Aside from these quibbles, which should be patched at some time in the future, this is a good move for the freelance marketplace. Does it make up for Fiverr’s terrible decision-making in the first quarter of 2024 or its ongoing inability to tackle scammers on the marketplace? No, not really – but I do have some hope that maybe July will bring some other innovations that help sellers and buyers.
There’s nothing new or sparkly about this new feature – hourly work on Fiverr should have been implemented a lot time ago. It’s good to see that it’s finally coming. I can only hope that the rest of Fiverr’s July Product Launch is as positive.
