What: Peopleperhour is a broad employment platform to find freelance jobs in administration, design, writing, translation, photography, software development, business systems and more

Expected pay: $10 – $50 per hour

Husl$core: $$

Commissions & Fees: numerous and varied

Where: Nationwide (also worldwide)

Requirements: vary based on the job

Review:

Peopleperhour purports to find part-time gigs in a vast array of industries. Employers can post jobs for workers to bid on; workers can post “hourlies” stating the jobs they can do at a particular price.

If both buyer and seller agree to a job, the buyer puts the payment in escrow with the site. Peopleperhour releases the payment when the job is complete and the buyer is satisfied. Peopleperhour also says it has a “limited payment protection” plan, which is supposed to guarantee worker wages. However, there are numerous requirements for the protection plan to kick in.

Theoretically you can earn a good wage working through Peopleperhour. But, there’s a wide gulf between practice and theory here.

Workers say that there are too many low-value sellers to gain decent work on the site and that Peopleperhour’s fees are exorbitant. The site also finds imaginative ways to stiff workers even after their clients have paid.  

Our advice: Steer clear. There are better work platforms in every category in which Peopleperhour operates. 

Fees, fees and more fees

Indeed, what Peopleperhour may do best is find clever ways to charge fees.

Both buyers and sellers pay a commission, which ranges from 5% to 20% (depending on billings). But that’s just the start. You also need to consider the PPH point system. If you’re a worker, you get 15 points per month for free. You use those points to bid on jobs. However, some “high value jobs” require multiple points. If you run out of points, you have to buy more at a rate of roughly $9 per 5-point allotment. Buying points does not get you out of paying the commission.

If you have a payment dispute, PPH charges a “request for information” fee. There’s a “fast track” fee of $13, if you want a document reviewed quickly; a $15 “feature hourly” fee to promote the jobs you are willing to do; a “featured profile” fee (cost varies) to make listings more prominent; and a $10 monthly fee for inactive accounts.

On the “inactive account fee,” which might otherwise sound like stealing wages, the platform says users will be warned to take their cash before this fee is applied. If they ignore the warnings, the site will charge this fee until the account is completely drained. Unfortunately, your account might be considered “inactive” because the site has a painfully slow “verification” process of freelancer accounts –after jobs are done and payment has been made. 

In November of 2019, SideHusl editors noticed that review sites, such as Trust Pilot, were being flooded with positive PeopleperHour. These reviews contain no real information — i.e. “this site is awesome..the best…special.” We believe these are fake reviews aimed at undermining the tales of woe experienced by real freelancers. 

What their users say: (From Glassdoor)

We were told to deactivate clients accounts sometime as they have funds in accounts and they don’t purchase anything from PPH. Unethical system and everything designed to get more money from clients / freelancers and often we block their accounts by trap them. They steal freelancers’ money by deactivating their accounts without any reason. 

Very high number of freelancers and fierce competetion for each job. CEO with massive ego, thinks he is on heavenly mission to rip people off. (Sorry, connect people together.) 

From Workathomenoscams:

Freelancers only get 15 free bids per month. After that, you must purchase additional blocks of bids. The company does not clearly post how much these block costs on its website. The company charges a fee to freelance sellers for using the platform. The company deducts a 20% handling fee on the first approximate $600 received each month and then 5% thereafter.

From Trust Pilot:

You have to pay to send proposals, 30% of your charge out rate and then, in addition, you get charged for a feature profile but then get proposals sent to you that have absolutely nothing to do with your vocation. Either the people inviting you to propose are scammers or the website has no vetting structure. 

I am a top developer in the development category on PPH. I have had a great experience on PPH and never had any issue except with their payment withdrawal system. It states your funds will be transferred within 1 business day and I have requested the funds literally from 21 days ago to the current date and still not getting any tangible date from the support. 

Our established portfolio is already pretty significant, so we weren’t starting from scratch on PPH. Sadly our previous work counts for nothing, as there is an exclusive on-site review and awards system which seemingly overrules any other form of credential, qualification or accolade. Potential clients never get back to us, and always seem to pick a competitor who has fulfilled one of two unwavering criteria: 1 – International bidders massively undercut our fee to a point where no graphic designer in the UK could possibly compete and make a living. 2 – The chosen designer is in fact UK or USA-based, but is in the top 10 or 5 percent of sellers on PPH and have a gigantic track record of on-site work. PPH are asking £9.95 a month to renew our membership. I won’t be returning to PeoplePerHour as there are far better and fairer platforms out there for creatives to find freelance work from around the world.

Posted a request on their website to locate the money that was not put in my people per hour wallet and no one is replying to me on the platform. I earned £70 from a client and £18 was put in my account after. Where has the remaining £52? This is stealing and now no one is responding. 

A buyer hired me to organize some electronic documents, which I did. When raising an invoice for the work, he rejected it. First he said his pc had broken and then he had changed his mind and decided not to pay me anything. After raising a dispute with PPH, they suspended MY account giving a reason that I got paid outside of PPH! I most definitely have not and now I get paid zero. 

It’s a good idea and kinda works, but will be very much a last resort when I can’t get work by other means. Out of £485 earned, I get to receive £368.60. I make that a stonking 24% for them. However, I still haven’t received my cut because they’re constantly refusing to verify any of my bank accounts.

When you purchase services, they charge you more than is displayed. Even when you click on buy/pay, the final price is not displayed. Also, when withdrawing money and changing it to a different currency, there are always a few euros disappearing. Sometimes I have had 40-50 euros less than expected, which cannot be accounted for by any exchange rate or transaction fees displayed. These are hidden fees not justified in the terms and conditions.

Here is how peopleperhour really works now: 1. Register 2. Send proposals, win a project 3. Complete the project, raise the invoice 4. The buyer pays. The money are now in pph escrow. 5. Both seller and buyer are requested to upload documents to prove their identities. This takes up to 7 working days. For 13 USD, they say they will verify in 24 hours. I’m not sure what happens if the documents are rejected. I guess another 7 days or 13 USD. If the buyer wants the money back, they will apply a fee (10% I think)

From FitSmallBusiness:

They are stealing money. They will deactivate any account when it will has a big amount inside it.

Customer service is really bad. They never read emails or tickets properly before replying and so send you replies that have nothing to do with the question you asked. The fees are quite extortionate. They take 25% of everything I earn for doing literally nothing and on top of that charge the seller 10% transaction fee. If you are not earning them enough money, they will charging you a monthly fee to use their site as well.