Upwork Projects Analysis 2024

Welcome to the first report of the Freelance Market Analysis by Vollna. Since 2016, we have been gathering and analyzing data from the world's largest freelance marketplaces to provide actionable insights for freelancers and agencies.

In this report, we analyzed over five million projects published on Upwork over the past two years to identify current trends in the freelancer market, figure out which projects offer higher pay and which niches are the easiest to break into.

This report is the first in a series. We've also analyzed client personas, over 1 million freelancer profiles, and 130,000 agency profiles and will share these findings in upcoming articles. Stay tuned for more!

Key Insights

• Development and Design projects accounted for almost 50% of the market in 2024.
• Customer Service and IT & Networking categories saw the biggest YoY growth, while Legal, Writing, and Translation experienced sharp declines.
• Legal jobs are the best paid, especially for short-term projects.
• Half of all fixed-budget projects are expected to be completed within a month, with an average budget of $20-135.
• The Admin Support category has the most entry-level jobs.
• Legal projects have the lowest number of applications but the highest share of projects with invites.
• The average hire rate in 2024 is 38%, with Translation projects having the highest hire rate and Sales & Marketing the lowest.

AI is replacing copywriters and translators

In 2024 alone, freelancers on Upwork saw over 2.5 million new projects published, based on our data — a number that’s nearly identical to 2023. The Web, Mobile & Software Development category remains the most popular, making up more than a quarter of all projects. Design & Creative comes in second with a 23% share, followed by Sales & Marketing at 18%. All three categories have seen steady growth of around 3-4% year-over-year

Some categories performed better than others. Customer Service projects saw the biggest jump, growing almost 14% year-over-year. IT & Networking was close behind, up 12%, driven mainly by increased demand in Information Security and Database Management. Accounting & Consulting also grew by 10%.

While the Development category hasn’t shown much growth compared to last year, there’s one new specialization that’s taking off — AI and Integration. Another upward trend is in Project Management and Scrum, though the number of projects in this area is still relatively small.

On the flip side, some categories took a hit. The Legal category saw a 60% drop in projects YoY, mostly due to a steep decline in Corporate & Contract Law projects during summer 2023. We’re not entirely sure what caused this sharp drop, but the category has remained stable since.

Writing and Translation categories also saw significant declines, down 28% and 22% respectively. It seems these are some of the first types of jobs being impacted by AI.

Admin Support is down 7%, mainly due to fewer Data Entry and Transcription projects. These tasks appear to be in less demand, possibly because they’re easier to automate.

Finally, the drop in project numbers in December is nothing unusual — it’s a seasonal trend that impacts nearly all categories.

Legal jobs are the most well paid (at least hourly)

Hourly projects made up 57% of all projects in 2024, so let’s start there. Interestingly, Customer Service leads the way with the highest share of hourly paid projects — 74%. This makes sense, as many roles in this category require freelancers to be available for set periods of time. On the other hand, fixed-budget projects are most common in Translation, Writing, and Design, where more than half of the jobs fall into this payment structure.

When it comes to rates, Admin Support and Customer Service projects tend to be the cheapest, with median hourly rates ranging from $5-12 and $6-13, respectively.

At the other end of the spectrum, Legal jobs are the highest-paying category. Freelancers in this field can command up to $150 per hour at the expert level — and that’s just the median rate. In most other categories, top-level freelancers typically earn between $40 and $60 per hour.

Compared to the same period in 2023, proposed salaries on Upwork have generally remained stable. However, there are a few notable shifts. Legal jobs at the Intermediate level saw a significant drop, with hourly rates decreasing from $35-100 to $20-55. On the other hand, Entry-level Customer Service roles experienced growth, with rates rising from $5-10 to $7-15 per hour

An average budget for a one month project is $20-135

When it comes to fixed-budget projects, the price isn’t just about experience — the project’s length plays a key role as well. Half of all fixed-budget projects are expected to be completed in less than a month. Another 35% are set for 1-3 months, while only around 9% are longer-term engagements lasting more than six months.

As expected, longer projects are more common at the expert level. For entry-level freelancers, the timeline is much shorter — 70% of their fixed-budget projects are due within a month.

The average budget for a one-month project ranges from $20 to $135, but Engineering jobs typically pay between $30 and $200. For projects lasting 3 to 6 months, the median budget is between $50 and $800.

Among the categories, the highest-budget projects are in Development and Sales & Marketing, while Translation and Admin Support tend to have the lowest-paying jobs. Interestingly, Data Science & Analytics stands out as the most lucrative category for long-term engagements. Projects lasting three months or more in this field consistently offer higher pay.

Admin Support has the biggest share of entry-level jobs

Intermediate-level projects make up about 60% of both hourly and fixed-price projects, while expert-level projects account for around 25%.

Admin Support and Customer Service categories have the highest share of entry-level projects, with more than 20% of jobs falling into this bucket. In contrast, IT & Networking has only about 6% entry-level projects. This category, which includes roles like DevOps and network/database administrators, typically requires expert-level experience

Customer Service roles typically require a good command of English, with 16% of projects specifying at least fluent English as a requirement. Writing projects have the largest share of native English requirements. However, overall, English proficiency is rarely specified, as clients on Upwork generally assume freelancers will have a good enough command of the language.

Interestingly, 94% of projects do not include any specific requirements regarding freelancers’ JSS (Job Success Score). The highest percentage of projects with success score requirements is found in the most competitive categories: Admin Support, Writing, and Customer Service, where about 7% of projects have such conditions in 2024. In contrast, Engineering/Architecture and Legal categories have the lowest share of projects with success score requirements, with less than 4%.

About 50% of projects published in the last two months require 6 to 10 connects to apply, while 30% require between 11 and 15 connects. The highest share of low-cost projects (5 or fewer connects to apply) is found in the Design and IT/Networking categories (around 12%). Conversely, the highest share of expensive projects (more than 20 connects) is in Accounting and Legal, with over 20% of projects in these categories requiring a higher number of connects.

While hourly rates do not show a clear relationship with the cost of connects, fixed-budget projects do. On average, a project requiring more than 15 connects has a median budget of $1,200, while projects requiring fewer connects have a median budget of only $150, which is eight times less.

Legal projects have the fewest applications in 2024

The average number of applications per project on Upwork dropped by 14% in 2024 compared to the previous year. Writing projects saw the steepest decline, with applications down by 26%, while IT & Networking remained relatively stable, with only a 2% drop. Legal projects consistently is the least competitive category on the platform by far.

* While the exact number of applications is proprietary information to Upwork, our data reveals clear trends in freelancer engagement. For this analysis, we focused solely on filled projects — those where a freelancer was hired — to get a more accurate picture of application patterns.

Invites were sent to one third of projects, but 43% in Legal category

When publishing a project, clients on Upwork can proactively invite freelancers to apply. However, only about one-third of projects include invitations. Inviting more than 30 freelancers requires a premium project subscription, which is used in just 2% of projects.

The Legal category has the highest share of projects with invites (43%), suggesting that clients in this field are more likely to handpick freelancers. Customer Service projects, on the other hand, have the highest share of paid invites, with over 5% of projects using this feature — a reflection of growing demand in the category.

In 2024, the average number of invitations sent per project rose slightly to just under 10, compared to nearly 9 in 2023. The Customer Service category leads with the highest average number of invites at over 19 (though down from 21 the year before). Translation follows with an average of 15 invites per project, and Admin Support with 13. Legal projects saw the most significant growth in invites, rising from an average of 3 per project in 2023 to 9 in 2024.

Once a freelancer receives an invite, they can either accept and apply for the project or ignore it. In 2024, about 18% of invites went unanswered, a figure that has remained steady year over year. The highest share of ignored invites is found in the Translation and Customer Service categories, where over 30% of invites go unanswered. In contrast, the Development category sees the lowest share of ignored invites, indicating that projects in this field tend to attract more interest.

Translation projects have the highest hire rate

Not all projects on Upwork result in a successful hire, but the share of filled projects is steadily growing. In 2024, 38% of closed projects were successfully filled, compared to 36% in 2023.

Entry-level projects tend to be the easiest to fill, with a 42% hire rate in 2024. However, entry-level postings are relatively rare.

Translation projects lead the way in hire rates at the expert level, with 54% of projects resulting in a successful hire. Writing and Design categories follow closely behind. Interestingly, Data Science & Analytics projects have the highest hire rate at the entry level, suggesting low requirements to entry level professionally in this area.

On the other hand, Customer Service and Sales & Marketing projects have the lowest hire rates, with fewer than 30% of projects in these categories resulting in a hire. This trend indicates that clients in these fields may have more difficulty finding the right freelancer or are less likely to finalize hires.

Methodology & Glossary

We partnered with ScrapingLab.net to crawl and aggregate data from Upwork's public pages. The data was collected through structured parsing of project listings, freelancer profiles, and client information. Our analysis spans across all time periods to provide comprehensive insights into the freelance marketplace trends.

While our data might not cover 100% of the projects on Upwork, our estimate suggests it includes about 95% of them, providing a highly representative sample of the marketplace.

Glossary

YoY: Year over year

JSS (Job Success Score): A metric that measures client satisfaction with a freelancer's work on Upwork. A high JSS helps freelancers stand out in the marketplace and attract more clients. It's calculated based on factors like completed jobs, client feedback, and long-term client relationships.