Avoid Upwork fees and keep more of your money

Why it makes sense to leave Upwork and bring your best clients with you

‍

When Upwork launched, it solved a real problem. Finding qualified freelance talent used to mean scouring your network until someone connected you with “my neighbor’s best friend’s former college roommate who designs flyers for the kids’ school.” Suddenly there were thousands of vetted professionals in one place, ready to work. That was genuinely useful.

But somewhere along the way, Upwork built a business model that treats the people doing the work as its primary revenue source. Freelancers bring in the clients, develop the skills, do the selling, deliver the projects, and build the relationships. Upwork collects a percentage of every invoice.

For a first project with a new client, you could make a case for that fee. The platform made the introduction. But when that same client comes back six months later because your work was good? Upwork didn’t do anything. You built the relationship. You delivered. You earned the repeat hire. Upwork takes the same cut anyway.

‍

The walled garden of profit

The fee is only part of what Upwork keeps. The other part is the relationship itself.

Upwork’s terms have historically required that work with clients you met through the platform continues to run through Upwork for a defined period after the introduction. The mechanism exists to protect the fee stream, not to protect you or your client. A freelancer who tries to move a client relationship outside the platform before that window closes risks losing their account.

So you’re not just paying a fee. You’re locked into paying it, on a timeline Upwork controls, for a relationship you built through your own work. The platform made one introduction and structured its terms to collect on that introduction indefinitely.

‍

What your repeat clients are actually paying for

Run the numbers on a single good client relationship. Say they hire you four times a year at $500 a project. At Upwork’s 10% fee, that’s $200 a year handed to a platform that hasn’t done anything since the day you two first connected. At 20%, it’s $400. Across three or four repeat clients, you’re looking at real money leaving your pocket every year for a service you’ve already outgrown.

Your client isn’t getting a deal either. Freelancers on platforms price with the fee in mind. A rate of $100/hr on Upwork is often $80 to $90 of actual take-home, with the rest going straight to the platform. Your client pays the full $100. They just don’t see the $10 to $20 itemized anywhere. When you move the work somewhere that doesn’t take a cut, that money goes back into the project instead of funding a platform neither of you needs anymore.

‍

The work history you actually own

Here’s the part that doesn’t show up on your invoice. Every review a client has ever left you on Upwork lives in Upwork’s database. Your Job Success Score is calculated by their algorithm. Your Top Rated status, your completed project count, your entire professional track record on that platform: it’s theirs. You can see it while your account is active. You can’t take it with you.

Freelancers who’ve had their accounts shut off from their clients know exactly what that means. Five years of five-star reviews. Dozens of completed projects. Clients who would have hired them again. Gone. A new client who finds them through LinkedIn or a referral has no way to verify any of it, because the proof sits inside a system that has no reason to make it useful to anyone outside of it.

A verified completion record works differently. When a project closes through escrow, there’s a documented record tied to the actual transaction: the scope that was agreed to, the work that was delivered, the client’s confirmation that it was done. That record isn’t a score someone else calculated. It’s the project itself, documented. And it belongs to you regardless of what the future holds.

Ten years from now, every project you complete through escrow is still part of your record. It doesn’t reset when you change platforms. It doesn’t disappear if you take six months off. It doesn’t get recalculated by an algorithm on a Tuesday because Upwork adjusted how it weights response time. You built it. You keep it.

‍
You earned it. You keep it.

Makers on Lyriem keep 100% of their project earnings. Standard payouts are free. Every project runs through escrow-backed contracts, which means every completion generates a verified record tied to the actual transaction: what was agreed to, what was delivered, that the client confirmed it. That record is yours. It doesn’t live in a proprietary database you’d lose access to if you left. It doesn’t get recalculated by an algorithm. It compounds with every project you complete, whether that’s with a client you brought with you or one you found here.

When you bring an existing client to Lyriem, the only cost they see is a transparent payment processing fee of 3.3% + $4 per project payment, which covers transaction costs. No platform commission buried in your rate. No percentage collected on a relationship Lyriem had no part in building.

‍

Which clients are worth moving?

A one-time project with no follow-on potential, leave it where it is. The clients worth thinking about are the ones who come back: the quarterly retainer, the founder who keeps your number in their phone, the company that treats you like an extension of their team.

Those relationships exist because of your work. Moving them somewhere the math works in your favor isn’t a hard sell. Most clients who’ve hired you more than twice aren’t loyal to Upwork. They’re loyal to you.

You don’t have to leave Upwork entirely to start making this work. Move the relationships that make the most financial sense first. The math gets better with every one you bring over.

‍

FAQs

Can I move a client I originally met on Upwork to a different platform?

It depends on when the relationship started and how it’s evolved. Upwork’s terms restrict direct work with clients introduced through the platform for a defined period after that introduction, and taking work outside the platform before that window closes can get your account shut off from your clients. A client you originally connected with on Upwork years ago and have since built an independent working relationship with is a different situation than someone whose first message to you came through Upwork’s inbox last week. Read the current terms carefully before making any moves on a specific relationship.

What do I actually say to a client when I ask them to switch platforms?

Keep it honest and make it about what they get. Something like: “I’ve moved my work to a platform that doesn’t take a commission. That means your budget goes entirely toward the work instead of funding a platform fee neither of us is getting value from anymore. There’s a small payment processing fee on your end, but every dollar beyond that goes directly to the project.” Clients who’ve hired you multiple times aren’t attached to Upwork. They’re attached to your work. When the switch means more of their budget reaches you, most of them won’t need more convincing than that.

How does avoiding Upwork fees affect what I charge?

Your rate stays your rate. The difference is how much of it you actually keep. A freelancer billing $5,000 a month through Upwork at 10% takes home $4,500. At 20%, it’s $4,000. Move that same $5,000 in work to a zero-fee platform and the full amount is yours. You don’t need to renegotiate anything with your client. You just stop handing a cut to a platform that stopped earning it.

‍