Fiverr Review — Is It Legit or a Scam? Here’s the Truth [2021]

David John
9 min readApr 28, 2021

Is Fiverr Legit?

Sure, Fiverr hosts some of the best deals for freelance work in most industries, from copywriting to logo design, some for as little as $5! But with mixed reviews and no freelancer screening process, it’s understandable if you have some doubts.

Because we know how hard it can be to find professional freelancers, and how frustrating it is to hire someone who can’t fulfill their promises, we put Fiverr to the test. We analyzed its features, ease of use, customer support, and more.

In fact, we’ve looked at Fiverr closer than any other company. We used Fiverr as part of our quest to find the best logo design service. We tested Fiverr at three different price points — low, medium, and high — to understand truly if higher price meant higher quality. You can read about our test in our review of Fiverr’s logo design service.

Before you put your time and money on the line, read our in-depth review to know once and for all — is Fiverr a safe choice for your projects?

Are you looking to sell your services on Fiverr? This review is for buyers, but see our guide on how to create a successful gig on Fiverr to get set up! Follow these steps to make sure your gig will get the most clicks.

Try for FreeSee Pricing Plans

FEATURES

How Does Fiverr Work?

Fiverr makes contacting and hiring a freelancer pretty simple. While the massive pool of talent can feel overwhelming, the search functionality definitely simplifies the process (more on that later). And the review system helps remove any doubts about their ability to perform.

A funny thing happened after we wrote this review, we started to use Fiverr more and more for our own business. We realized you can find a freelancer for anything you may think of on Fiverr (this is one of the craziest in my opinion), and that can save you lots of time and money.

Minimize Risk with Easy-to-Read Seller Levels

On Fiverr, you can instantly size up a freelancer’s ability to perform. All you have to do is check the seller level that appears near their username. This can save time by helping you quickly eliminate anyone who hasn’t proven themselves on the platform. A seller level is based on delivery time, customer satisfaction, and service quality.

These are the four seller levels:

  • New Seller — This is where every freelancer starts. It’s a sign that a seller is relatively inexperienced.
  • Level One Seller — A seller can reach the first level after 60 days, but only if they’ve completed at least 10 gigs with a high level of satisfaction.
  • Level Two Seller — Only sellers who have been on Fiverr for 120 days and have delivered 50 highly-rated and on-time orders will reach this level.
  • Top-Rated Seller — If a seller’s Top Rated, it’s an excellent sign that they’ll be reliable. These freelancers have been on Fiverr for at least 180 days, and have delivered over 100 orders (earning at least $20,000), all while keeping their buyers satisfied.

Skills that Cover Every Niche

When it comes to the variety of skills and services, Fiverr is hard to beat. You can find sellers who’ll design a WordPress site for you, manage your social media marketing campaign, edit your promotional video, or even carve your name into a tree. If someone is willing to pay for it, it’s probably available here — as long as it’s legal, of course.

If Things Go Wrong, You Have Plenty of Options

While Fiverr is loaded with talented freelancers that won’t let you down, from time to time, you may encounter those that can’t deliver on their promises. Thankfully, if you pay for a gig and the seller turns out to be unreliable, you have several different ways to deal with it.

First, if a seller is late and unresponsive for 24 hours, you’re free to cancel the order and get a refund. If your freelancer delivers work that doesn’t meet the conditions that were agreed upon, you can turn to Fiverr’s Resolution Center and try to work things out. If you can’t come to an agreement with your seller, you can always turn to the Customer Support team to resolve things.

Work Done Fast

If you need a job done quickly, Fiverr could be the perfect solution. Most freelancers have turnaround times of 48 hours or less. Also, you usually have the option to pay a bit more to get your work done even faster. When you really need to get a project started as soon as possible, you can search for freelancers that are currently online and start the conversation immediately.

Finish your project with a freelancer from Fiverr

Find Freelancers on the Go

Fiverr offers a great app that’s available for iOS and Android, so you can find quality help no matter where you are. The apps are well-designed and easy to use.

Don’t Break the Bank

While some services can get pricey, it’s totally possible to get professional work done for as little as $5. One way to get cheap rates is to hire a new seller. While there is a bit more risk involved, new sellers will often undervalue their services while trying to establish themselves.

You can also contact any potential freelancers before you commit to anything. This way, you can get a sense of their professionalism and make sure you’re both comfortable with the project’s scope.See full list of features

EASE OF USE

Fiverr is an incredibly user-friendly platform. The site is super intuitive and offers several great tools to help you weed through the massive pool of talent. Below, you’ll find some of the more notable features that make hiring on Fiverr a breeze.

If you want to become a seller on Fiverr, it’s really easy to get started.

Filter Out Undesirables

Unlike other platforms, like Upwork or Freelancer.com, Fiverr offers customized search filters depending on the type of work you need done.

For example, if you’re looking for a writer, the filters will include a section for the tone, type, and topic of the piece you need. If you’re in need of a logo designer, the filters will let you choose the file format, the style you’re looking for, and more.

When looking for a logo designer, I put Fiverr’s filters to the test. Simply by limiting the results to sellers that were currently online, work in 3D, and can provide a JPEG, I was able to bring the number of freelancers down from 3,400+ to a far more manageable 71.

But don’t take our word for it. Watch as one of our reviewers tried buying logos at different price points on Fiverr. Which one did he like the most? Watch to find out.

Multiple Ways to Search the Site

On Fiverr, you can search through available gigs or post custom jobs so freelancers come to you. Just click the Post a Request button, and create a listing that freelancers can bid on. After that, you just need to choose the seller with the best proposal and price.

This is ideal if you’re in need of something super specific and are struggling to find the perfect gig offering. Posting a job costs nothing, and you only pay once a freelancer has been hired.

Profiles That Won’t Leave You Surprised

Thanks to the easy-to-read profile system, you can quickly eliminate underperformers. Fiverr profiles are loaded with useful info like reviews from previous clients, average response time, and a portfolio of past work. If you like a specific freelancer, you can also check out what other gigs they have on offer.

A poorly-written profile is a big red flag. By keeping an eye out for particularly bad spelling or a lack of details you can eliminate a lot of duds. It’s also a good idea to communicate with your potential freelancer before you start a contract. A lot of negative client reviews are simply a result of poor communication and a misunderstanding of expectations.

Find a freelancer for your project on Fiverr

See if Fiverr is Right for You

SUPPORT

Decent Support and an Awesome Help Center

In order to see just how good Fiverr’s customer support is, I put it to the test. Fiverr only gives you two options for contacting support:

  1. Email
  2. Submitting a request ticket through the Buyer Help Center

I submitted a few different questions through both available channels. While the responses were pretty quick, they weren’t always helpful. Some customer service representatives went out of their way to answer my questions, but others pretty much ignored me altogether.

Below are two responses, one that was helpful, and one that was completely useless:

Good Response from Fiverr

No Response from Fiverr

Of all the questions I asked, the support team only answered about half. It didn’t seem to matter what method of contact was used. Fortunately, if Fiverr’s representatives let you down, you still have options.

There’s a pretty awesome Help Center, where you’ll find blogs, step-by-step tutorials, advice, and instructional videos. These resources offer in-depth answers to the questions you are most likely to have. There’s also a forum where you can pose your question to other users, or search to see if it’s already been answered.

It’s a good idea to check these resources first. It will definitely be faster, and if you can’t find an answer to your question, you can always try to contact Customer Support as a last resort.

PRICING

Making an account and posting requests to hire freelancers is completely free. The only time you’ll pay any Fiverr fees is when you buy a service. The charge is pretty reasonable and is based on a percentage of the total job cost. You’ll rarely pay more than a few bucks.

The displayed cost of each gig is automatically adjusted to match your location’s currency, so there’s no math involved. Fiverr also gives you multiple payment methods. This includes all major credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay (through the mobile app).

All payments are made upfront and held in escrow. Fiverr will not release funds to your seller until after you’ve approved the work. If the work doesn’t meet your standards, you can give your freelancer the chance to resubmit or cancel the order. And if you run into any problems, you can always turn to Customer Service to help mediate.

Just keep in mind that once a seller has delivered your work, you only have three days (or 14 days for orders that need to be shipped) to accept or decline it. If you haven’t responded after the third day, your money will be automatically released.

Sign up to Fiverr now

--

--