Looking for the best freelance graphic design websites?
While there are tons of freelance websites online, not all of them are great.
That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the top 11 freelance graphic design websites. We’ll highlight each platform’s unique features and walk you through the process of hiring someone from there.
We’ll also give you a few essential tips to keep in mind to further streamline the process!
Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:
(You can click on the links to jump to a specific section)
- The Top 11 Freelance Graphic Design Websites
(includes hiring process, features and pricing) - How To Ensure That Everything Proceeds Smoothly
Let’s dive in.
The top 11 freelance graphic design websites
Top 11 freelance graphic design websites in 2021 (Covering hiring processes, features and pricing):
1. Upwork
Upwork (formerly known as Elance oDesk) is one of the world’s most popular freelancing platforms. With over 300,000 graphic and web designers available, you’ll have no trouble finding freelancers for your graphic design jobs.
The process of hiring a graphic designer :
Upwork gives you two options to hire a graphic designer:
- You can post a job listing and have freelancers respond to it.
- You can go through their profiles manually and reach out to freelancers by yourself.
Key Upwork features
- Search filters to help you narrow down your graphic designer search quickly
- A built-in work diary that helps you track the hours freelancers spend on your projects
- Built-in online workspace to collaborate with your graphic designer and share feedback.
- Upwork also has powerful mobile apps for Android and iOS to help you manage freelancers on the move.
Upwork pricing
Upwork comes with three plans:
- Basic (Free) : 3 freelancers per job post + safe payment options + transaction reporting
- Plus ($49.99/month): 15 freelancers per posting + dedicated account management + advanced collaboration features
- Business ($499/month): unlimited invites to freelancers + premium customer support + advanced job post and talent sourcing tools
In addition to the membership fees, Upwork charges a flat 3% processing fee on all payments made to the designers.
2. Freelancer.com
Founded in 2009, Freelancer.com is a powerful freelancing website that’ll help you find your ideal candidates who are fit for your graphic design jobs. You can even hire them for a part-time or a full-time role.
The process of hiring a graphic designer
You can hire freelancers by:
- Using their search filters to identify freelancers that fit your job requirements and reaching out to them directly.
- Posting job listings and screening the freelancers that apply.
- Conducting contests where freelancers can pitch their ideas to you and you can select the one with the best concept.
Key Freelancer.com features
- The platform creates a detailed design portfolio for each freelancer – allowing you to carefully screen candidates.
- Freelancer.com conducts certification exams to verify each freelancer’s skillset.
- Streamlined dispute resolution system with active customer support.
Freelancer.com pricing
Freelancer.com has four membership plans:
- Intro Plan ($0.87/month): 15 bids per month + unlimited project bookmarks
- Basic Plan ($4.59/month): 50 bids per month + preferred freelancer + 3 highlighted contest entries
- Plus Plan ($10.18/month): 100 bids per month + daily withdrawal requests +5 highlighted contest
- Professional Plan ($27.91/month): 300 bids per month + 15 highlighted contest entries + premium freelancer insights
3. Fiverr
Fiverr is a popular platform used by small businesses to hire graphic and web designers. With a user-friendly interface and a plethora of visual design categories, you have everything you need here. From a business card design to Wordpress website design, Fiverr has freelancers for every design job.
The process of hiring a graphic designer:
Here’s how you hire a graphic designer in Fiverr:
- You can post job listing that freelancers respond to.
- You can go through a freelancer’s profile and reach out to them if their skill set meets your requirements.
Key Fiverr features
- Fiverr highlights each freelancer’s seller level to help you quickly identify the best-rated freelancers.
- Fiverr is extremely affordable as it has no membership fees and offers services at just $5 (which is where its name comes from)!
- It has multiple search filters to help you zero-in on the best designers for your freelance work.
Fiverr pricing
All purchases on Fiverr.com are subjected to a $2 service fee for work up to $40, and a 5% fee for services above $40.
4. 99designs
99designs is a graphic design platform that has freelancers for over 90 different types of design services like designing a business card, managing logo design, create a landing page with a website maker, helping with e-commerce website design and more.
The Process of Hiring a Graphic Designer:
- First, you submit a project brief of your requirements to the platform
- Later, the project brief is sent to the freelance designer who then submits their pitches
- You can then select the one that you like the most and hire them for your freelance work
Key 99designs features:
- 99designs also lets you conduct contests where you can select the freelancer with the best proposal.
- Every freelancer on 99designs has been thoroughly screened and vetted to ensure you’re only dealing with the best.
- 99designs boasts of a 24-48 hour resolution time for all complaints and disputes.
99designs pricing
You can browse through three fixed-price membership packages:
- Bronze ($199/month): for 30 design concepts
- Silver ($299/month): for 60 design concepts
- Gold ($599/month): for 90 design concepts
5. Toptal
Toptal is one of the best freelance marketplaces as they’re extremely selective with whom they allow on their platform.
The process of hiring a graphic designer
Here’s how easy it is to hire a freelancer from Toptal:
- You submit a job posting with all your requirements.
- Later, an expert from the Toptal team will get in touch with you.
- The team will then find a selection of freelancers that fit your job requirements.
- You can then select the ones that you like the most.
Key Toptal features
- As the Toptal team does all the work, you don’t have to waste time searching for and screening freelancers
- Toptal’s freelancers are well-versed with multiple tools like Google Apps and project management software – making it easy for them to adapt to your preferred workspaces
- Toptal has one of the strictest screening procedures in the world – resulting in only the top 3% featuring on their platform.
Toptal pricing
- Once you decide on a freelancer, you have to make a $500 deposit that will be refunded once the job is finished.
- In addition to the deposit, you’ll have to pay the freelancer their hourly rate.
6. Guru
Unlike some of the other platforms on this list, Guru.com isn’t limited to freelancers in the design space. You can use it to hire a freelance writer with SEO experience or even someone in digital marketing. With that being said, it’s also known for providing clients with everything they need for their graphic design projects.
The process of hiring a graphic designer
Guru gives you two ways to hire freelancers –
- Post a job listing on their job board and you’ll receive quotes from potential candidates
- Browse through a freelancers’ profiles and reach out to them directly for a quote
Key Guru.com features
- Guru conducts an extensive screening process to verify each freelancer before they’re featured on the platform.
- You even get a dedicated WorkRoom that lets you communicate and collaborate over your freelance jobs
- Guru.com is extremely affordable as there are no membership fees.
Guru.com pricing
- There are no membership fees to join Guru.com.
- They only levy a 2.9% fee on every payment you make via e-wallets and debit/credit cards.
7. PeoplePerHour
Started in 2007, PeoplePerHour is a UK-based company that has all the designers you need to manage your graphic design work.
The process of hiring a graphic designer
On PeoplePerHour, you can either:
- Submit a project brief and let the freelancers come to you with their quotes.
- Purchase pre-set packages (termed as “Offers”) from freelancers.
- Go through the platform and identify freelancers you’d like to hire and connect with them directly.
Key PeoplePerHour features
- Freelancers on PeoplePerHour can offer you pre-set packages – saving you the time of negotiating deliverables and project scope.
- Most of the designers here are required to be familiar with Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator – giving you all the design flexibility you need.
- There’s a dedicated project stream that allows you to easily communicate and collaborate with your freelancer.
PeoplePerHour pricing
PeoplePerHour doesn’t have any membership fees. You can instantly sign up with your social media accounts to get started. However, they do charge a service fee of $0.78 + 10% of the total payment made to the freelancer.
8. Dribbble
Like Behance, Dribbble is a platform that lets talented designers share their work to potential clients. It allows you to browse through a freelancer’s design portfolio and reach out to them for a project if their work impressed you.
The process of hiring a graphic designer
- Submit your project brief to the Dribbble team
- They’ll go through it and give you a list of freelancers who fit your requirements
- Reach out to freelancers with the project and receive a quote from them
Key Dribbble features
- Dribbble is extremely selective with who they let in as freelancer membership is solely on an invite-only basis
- Dribbble has a built-in communication channel that lets you interact with your freelancers over your projects
- Unlike other platforms, there’s no hassle of manually finding freelancers – submit your project brief and the platform does the work!
Dribbble pricing
Prices for Dribbble start at $99/month for basic support from the Dribbble team to help you find the right talent.
9. LinkedIn ProFinder
A new entry in the online freelancing space, LinkedIn ProFinder helps businesses and recruiters find the best freelancers. Launched in 2015, this platform is currently only available to U.S-based LinkedIn members.
The process of hiring a graphic designer
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- Submit your job request on LinkedIn ProFinder
- Within 24 hours, LinkedIn will notify you with a list of potential freelancers that are nearby.
- The list will begin with people in your network, then your mutual networks, and so on.
- You can then reach out to a freelancer you like for your project.
Key LinkedIn ProFinder features
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- As you don’t have to do the searching yourself, Linkedin ProFinder is a great way to quickly find freelancers to connect with.
- Linkedin ProFinder lets you directly message freelancers on the platform to help you build meaningful long-term connections.
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Pricing
A monthly membership to ProFinder costs $60.
10. DesignHill
DesignHill is another popular freelance graphic design website that helps you find talented graphic designers for your projects.
The process of hiring a graphic designer
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- DesignHill gives you three options to hire a graphic designer:
- You can run design contests and hire the designers who impressed you the most.
- You can select its built-in Graphic Design Services and get custom design services offered by the platform’s own designers.
- You can also opt for One to One Projects where you can directly contact a freelancer for a project.
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Key DesignHill features
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- DesignHill lets you conduct design contests where freelancers and respond with proposals and you can hire the one you like the most.
- As DesignHill has a built-in graphic design team, you can quickly get talented designers to work on your projects.
- DesignHill allows you to ask for as many revisions as you want without any additional fees. There’s also a 100% refund guarantee in case you’re unsatisfied with the work.
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DesignHill pricing
DesignHill has four membership packages:
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- Fast Track ($199/month): for 20-40 designs
- Standard ($399/month): for 40-60 designs
- Executive ($699/month): for 60-80 designs
- Premium ($999/month): for 80+ designs
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All plans come with 24/7 customer support.
11. Twine
Twine is a quality-focused marketplace that specialises in creative and digital freelancers. Businesses can browse freelancers before they hire and get the flexibility of the Twine Vault payment system to provide the assurance that all payments will be held securely until the client releases the money to the freelancer.
The process of hiring a graphic designer:
- You can post a job listing and have freelancers respond to it.
- You can go through their profiles manually and reach out to freelancers by yourself.
Key Twine features:
- Twine Pro: no pitch limit on any job, send more pitches than ever before to clients on the platform and absolutely NO transaction fees.
- No hidden/upfront cost: you only pay if and when you hire a freelancer, never before.
- Support: the customer support team at Twine work constantly to ensure you’re only getting the very best out of your freelancer. Need help with anything? They’re only a message away.
Twine pricing:
- Standard (Free): Free to post a job + unlimited freelancer pitches + safe payment options
How to ensure that everything proceeds smoothly
Here are a few helpful tips to streamline the process of hiring and managing a freelance graphic designer:
1. Before finding a designer
While the process of finding a designer can be time-consuming, there are a few things that can help you streamline the process:
A. Clearly define your objectives and timeline
Having clearly defined objectives is one of the easiest ways to streamline your hiring proces.
Why?
When you know what you want, it’ll be easier to identify people who are capable of delivering it for you!
Here’s how you do it:
I. Define your goals
What is the scope of your project?
Are you looking for a simple logo design that aligns with your brand identity, or are you looking for an entire set of marketing graphics?
This is going to help you zero-in on freelancers who are skilled in the tasks you need.
II. State your time constraints
How quickly do you want the work to be delivered?
Is it a week, a month – or more?
Keep this in mind when looking at a freelancer’s profile. Most mention their booking availability and usual time for delivery. Choosing one that aligns with your time constraints is a simple way to avoid confusion later on.
B. Clearly define your budget
Establishing your budget before-hand is one of the easiest ways to streamline your hiring process. As you have a set figure in mind, you can avoid platforms that charge high membership fees or commissions on transactions.
Similarly, it’ll help you narrow down your searches when looking for designers. As most of them highlight their usual hourly charges, you can estimate how much they’d charge for your entire project and proceed accordingly.
2. After finding a designer
You’ve finally found a designer you like!
But that doesn’t mean your job is done.
Here are a few things to keep in mind once you find a freelance designer:
A. Clearly define scope, deliverables and payment
Before letting a designer start work on your project, you need to be clear about a few things.
Clearly outline:
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- What their deadline is
- The standard of work you expect
- The hourly rate of payment
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This is going to give them a good idea of how to structure their workload and the amount of time and resources they’ll have to dedicate to your project.
It’s also a good idea to share a detailed project brief with them and if possible, an example of previous work that you’ve liked or published. This will give them a good baseline to build on.
B. Use a monitoring tool to verify quotes
What’s the one problem with hiring freelancers online?
There’s no way for you to verify their quotes!
As you’re not there in person, they could be billing you for time spent watching Netflix shows!
Luckily, performance monitoring tools like Time Doctor can help with this.
What’s Time Doctor?
Time Doctor is a performance monitoring tool used by companies to monitor their employee’s productivity at work. All you have to do is ask your freelancer to install it and run it whenever they work on your projects.
Here’s how it can help you:
1. Time Doctor has a built-in inactivity tracker that automatically pauses the timer after three minutes of inactivity. This guards against freelancers billing you for idle time.
2. Time Doctor auto-displays a pop-up asking the freelancer if they’re still working whenever they access unproductive websites like YouTube while working. This nudge usually gets them back to work.
Additionally, you’ll have a record of what apps and websites they accessed while working on your project and how long they spent there.
3. With Time Doctor’s projects report, you’ll get an accurate look at how long a project took the freelancer.
4. With Time Doctor’s Payroll feature, you can pay the freelancer directly (if the freelance platform allows you to) using PayPal, Payoneer or another platform of your choice.
Conclusion
Hiring high-quality graphic designers doesn’t have to be difficult.
Just use one of the platforms we listed here, and you’ll easily find a talented designer for your projects. Plus, if you follow the tips we listed here, you’ll have no issues managing your freelancers too!
