Top-Rated Plus Software Developer with $450K Earnings Struggling on Upwork

Zeke Xanders · 2025-01-07T02:54:53+00:00

I started working on Upwork in 2021, offering software development services, and quickly achieved great success, earning $400K in just three years. I’m a Top...

Urjack

Petra I agree, and I also think this is a global issue, as it seems many parts of the world are experiencing some level of economic recession. Over the past year, all my clients have had tighter budgets and are looking to cut costs, whereas before, I had no trouble selling my higher-priced packages.
Reading through the old Upwork forum, I can’t understand why seasoned professionals like Zeke or myself seem to have been hit so hard. I’ve seen many posts from freelancers with years of experience on Upwork and earnings of $3/400K or more who have faced significant declines.
I don’t think AI is having such a strong impact on this segment. Clients seeking high-quality, top-tier services are unlikely to rely on AI. I understand that many people turned to freelancing after COVID, which may have saturated the market, but it still feels strange that the higher-end tier of freelancers has been hit so hard.

Ravi

Urjack I don’t think AI is having such a strong impact on this segment. Clients seeking high-quality, top-tier services are unlikely to rely on AI.

Right, AI can't replace humans in this segment.

AI can augment a professional's output but cannot replace it.

One needs to be a professional to use AI to produce meaningful and reliable code.

Mark

Ravi

Right, AI can't replace humans in this segment.
Um, although I agree with you, in fact I am not sure AI, as presently constituted, can replace humans in any segment.

But...that doesn't mean people, more relevantly clients, don't think that it can. They have been marketed to and sold that it can. Salesforce just announced it isn't going to hire any mid-level devs anymore because of AI. Is that complete marketing bullshit I am sure, but, I am sure, lots of people believe it's true. There aren't the only ones.

Ravi

Mark
People will learn the hard way.

Mark

Ravi They do, very slowly, and they forget what they learned and then repeat the same mistakes in an endless cycle.

If it is good, it is unlikely to be cheap. If it is cheap, it is unlikely to be good.

I think AI is going to prove out to be both expensive and not good which is the hidden option in my statement. But, I am a skeptic.

alex-vasenin

Zeke Xanders I feel your pain. I started in 2014 and over the years (on and off) I managed to earn 500k with 100% JSS. I lost my Top Rated status though, because my last contract was closed more than 24 months ago. In 2019 I got a contract in just 1 month (that lasted 3 years). Now, I'm trying to get anything for 4 month without much success. I see you are in "Mobile App Development". What do you do specifically, iOS native, Android native or cross-platform? I only do iOS native and I would say 3/4 of jobs are cross-platform now.

TopRatedTroll

My lowkey theories are that Upwork changed its search, it now marks everyone as best match (people have reported over 10 best matches now so you don't stand out anymore), and they've changed the importance of certain aspects of profiles. One of these days I will change my profile, but these are my conspiracy theories!

Robin

It very much seems like clients are not using Talent Search, or are not being directed to it during the job-creation process as much as they were (again, guesses, as I do not hire on the platform).

But something is really, really up (well, down).

I score in the top page or two for my skillset in Europe, and am no.1 or no.2 in the UK depending on just text search or text search + obvious category.

Top Rated with 100% JSS. And very few invites.

It doesn't make any sense.

anovikov

I made almost $4M and still have a trouble getting hired now... Although clients see and reply to my proposals, just won't hire :/ I guess it's just a general market downturn.

TopRatedTroll

anovikov Do you find that they think you farm out? I feel like once I crossed the $1m mark, people think I'm farming out. I get asked somewhat often or they approach it in a way where they talk about freelancers not doing their own work and feel like they got scammed, prompting me to tell them I don't farm out.

rlatief

anovikov

There was a lot of discussions in the previous forum about whether it's a market downturn or not.

I agree with those who say, "It's only on Upwork" (or maybe other marketplaces as well), not the entire freelancing universe. I again haven't bid on Upwork for a few months already now as I have pending jobs from outside and I'm not a "manager" (or farmer).

As for why it's a downturn in Upwork, it's because of their change of vision which is entirely understandable to me. In short, they're allowed to milk their users instead of making them happy, when the latter only brought them losses for nearly a decade.

Milked users can still happy (profit) if they are willing to join the game and know what they're doing.

And talking about the freelancing universe; my cousin (45 y.o.), who is in a completely different field than me, just decided to go freelance after calculating that it would be better in many aspects.

TopRatedTroll Do you find that they think you farm out?

Some tasks cannot be done alone. I have a strong feeling his clients already knew that. I recall seeing them refer to him as "team" in their reviews.

anovikov

TopRatedTroll I never pretended to do the work alone. I'm not hiding we are a company and i have a company account. Only work fixed price, never using hours or tracker, so it's according to the ToS: if you are doing fixed price, and tell clients in advance that this is a company not individual, you can take projects in the name of the agency owner (myself). That's how i work all the time.

anovikov

rlatief What else is it there in the "entire freelancer universe" except marketplaces?

TopRatedTroll

anovikov oh my bad. I feel like I'm the only person on Upwork who does their own work. lol

rlatief

anovikov I got my first "online client" from a local discussion forum. I joined online "marketplaces" only about two years after I started freelancing.

Most of my current clients are repeat clients, some of whom I've worked with for over a decade.

My cousin whom I mentioned earlier, is going to focus on clients within his offline network. I just met him a few days ago, where I told him to, carefully, try Upwork and the likes.

I can say that my current clients (over the past few years, during the "changes of Upwork") are quite diverse. Individuals, businesses, nonprofits, mostly from the U.S., where I haven’t noticed a downturn within their economy.

anovikov

rlatief I only ever had a repeat client once in my career. And once a client by introduction. The rest appear to be "one off" in the biggest sense ever: my project is their first, and last, project in the coding space. They literally churn forever, not just for me...

rlatief

anovikov yeah, I understand. different experiences, maybe because of the nature of the jobs. Yours seem to be one-time big projects, where I work alone, to handle smaller tasks, a helper, so clients sticks.

alex-vasenin

TopRatedTroll You aren't. There are at least two of us.

Mark

TopRatedTroll I do my own work…eventually

BetterDeadThanAlien

Hi everyone,

I'm in a similar situation and wanted to share my experience.

I'm a web developer, on the platform since the Elance days, 100% Job Success Score, all 5-star feedback, Top Rated Plus. I've had a steady stream of work from regular clients for the past four years and rarely needed to search for new projects. Recently the work has started drying up. I've noticed that clients are very hesitant to invest in new features. Most are only maintaining their current systems.

I had accumulated 1000 connects over past year and applied to around 40 jobs over the past few weeks, carefully picked only those that align with my niche and past jobs. I never had problems landing jobs, I think I know how to write a good proposal.

10 proposals were viewed by clients, 7 clients reached out to me, 1 job was awarded to someone else, 1 job turned out to be technically impossible.
With the remaining 5, I had detailed discussions with two clients, agreed on specs and budget (both small projects), but then they disappeared. So 40 proposals, zero hires.

I still have about 700 connects left, and I'll keep trying until I run out. Maybe it just takes more applications, 80, 100? It is crazy because it sometimes takes an hour to write a good proposal. Not worth the investment.

I feel the market is overcrowded and the best clients are gone. And AI: Upwork job feed is 90% agency bots using AI to apply to job posts written by AI. AI talking to AI and Upwork collecting connects.

alex-vasenin

BetterDeadThanAlien I sent 136 proposals over the last 4 months and I wasn't hired once. Only about 1/3 or my proposals are viewed, and only about 1/3 of the viewed ones did contact me. About half of them aren't hiring at all (various kind of scams or tire kicking). What really bothers me is that not even once I had a technical or skill interview. It looks like serious companies are gone and no-one really bothers how good you are. I've got exactly 1 (one) invite over 4 month despite availability badge (I applied and the client is not reponding).

All in all, only 1/3 of all jobs I applied did eventually hire someone on Upwork. Half from all hires are ended up with <$40/hr rates, even though I skip obvious cheapskates and don't apply on jobs <$50/hr. It looks like Upwork is running a race to the bottom where good freelancers are vastly outnumbered by cheap ones. At least in native iOS development.

To all: what are yours statistics?

P.S. The situation might be slightly different if you are in the US, since there is substantial amount of US-only jobs with higher rates. They aren’t supposed to be visible to freelancers outside US, however I see them from time to time due to the glitch (though I can’t apply).