Jobbers.io vs PeoplePerHour: European Freelancers’ Best Option?

Last updated: July 2026. This comparison is reviewed and refreshed periodically to reflect current platform terms.

PeoplePerHour was founded in London in 2007 by Xenios Thrasyvoulou and Simos Kitiris and is often described as one of the longest-running freelance marketplaces to come out of the UK. According to PeoplePerHour’s own official company page, the platform has connected more than 1 million clients with freelancers and paid out over £100 million to its freelancer community; third-party sources such as G2 put the registered freelancer count at more than 2 million.

Jobbers.io is a commission-free freelance marketplace operating internationally via jobbers.io and in Morocco via jobbers.ma, generating approximately 300,000 daily visits (roughly 9 million monthly, per internal analytics). Freelancers keep 100% of their earnings; clients pay exactly what they negotiate. Zero commission on either side.

Both platforms serve freelancers who work with European and international clients — but through fundamentally different economic models. PeoplePerHour charges a tiered commission that starts at 20% on your first lifetime billing with each new client, while Jobbers.io charges 0%. This article compares every dimension that matters: fees, features, market reach, tools, and which platform actually puts more money in your pocket.

Important — please verify before relying on any figure: Fee structures, thresholds, traffic estimates, and platform policies change without notice, and different sources (a platform’s own statements, analytics vendors, and user reviews) can disagree with one another at any given time. Nothing in this article is financial, legal, tax, or professional advice. Before making a pricing, business, or tax decision based on any number in this article, confirm the current, exact figure directly on PeoplePerHour’s own fee and terms pages, and on Jobbers.io’s own terms, since figures on both platforms are subject to change after publication.

Commission: 0% vs. 3.5–20% Tiered

PeoplePerHour uses a tiered commission structure, officially described as a service fee, that resets with every new client relationship. Per PeoplePerHour’s own freelancer commission fees documentation, here is how it works as of this writing:

• Below £250 lifetime billing with a given buyer: 20% service fee (excl. VAT)
• £250–£5,000 lifetime billing with that buyer: 7.5% service fee (excl. VAT)
• Above £5,000 lifetime billing with that buyer: 3.5% service fee (excl. VAT)
• Minimum service fee per invoice: £1 (excl. VAT)
• Minimum payment via AutoPay or hourly contracts: £6 (excl. VAT)

The critical detail is “lifetime billing per buyer.” Every time you start working with a new client, you start back at the 20% tier for that relationship. If you work with ten different clients on £200 projects each, you pay 20% on every single one — roughly £400 in commission on £2,000 earned, before VAT. The lower tiers only kick in once your cumulative billing with that one client crosses £250, then £5,000. This means freelancers who work with many different clients on smaller projects — which is the reality for most freelancers — stay in the 20% tier far more often than the headline “as low as 3.5%” figure suggests.

UK and EU-registered freelancers should also note that VAT is added on top of the service fee, and VAT-registered UK freelancers can reclaim it quarterly through HMRC.

Jobbers.io charges 0% commission. No tiered structure, no per-buyer reset, no VAT layered on top of a service fee. The only cost for freelancers is paid Connects for submitting proposals — Jobbers.io does not offer free proposal submission, similarly to how PeoplePerHour and most competing marketplaces monetize proposals. Client pays the agreed amount; freelancer receives the agreed amount.

What the Commission Difference Actually Costs You

PeoplePerHour’s tiered structure makes cost calculations dependent on your specific client mix and project sizes. The scenarios below are simplified, illustrative estimates — they ignore the £1 minimum per-invoice fee floor, VAT, and currency conversion, so treat them as a rough planning tool rather than an exact prediction. For precise numbers on your own earnings, use PeoplePerHour’s payments statement (available in your account) or its fee documentation directly.

Scenario 1 — Many small clients (common for newer freelancers): 10 clients × £500 each = £5,000 annual earnings. First £250 per client at 20% = £500. Remaining £250 per client at 7.5% = £187.50. Estimated total commission: £687.50 (≈13.75% effective rate, before VAT). On Jobbers.io: £0 commission.

Scenario 2 — Mixed client base (typical mid-career freelancer): £40,000 annual earnings across 15 clients, with roughly 60% of billing falling in the 7.5% tier, 25% in the 20% tier, and 15% in the 3.5% tier. Estimated effective commission: ~£3,200 (≈8% effective rate). On Jobbers.io: £0 commission.

Scenario 3 — Few large, long-term clients (best case for PeoplePerHour): £60,000 annual earnings across 3 long-term clients averaging £20,000 each, with most billing in the 3.5% tier. Estimated effective commission: ~£2,400 (≈4% effective rate). On Jobbers.io: £0 commission.

Over five years, Scenario 2’s effective rate would mean roughly £16,000 paid in PeoplePerHour commission versus £0 on Jobbers.io — a meaningful sum for equipment, professional development, or living costs. The pattern holds: PeoplePerHour’s lowest rate applies mainly to freelancers with a small number of high-value, long-term clients. Freelancers building a diversified client base, or working shorter projects, more often land in the 8–15% effective range once the per-buyer reset is accounted for.

The New-Client Tier

This is worth calling out on its own, because it’s the single most-underestimated element of PeoplePerHour’s fee structure. Every time you win a new client, you pay 20% on your first £250 of lifetime billing with that client — in effect, roughly a £50 cost attached to every new client relationship you form. For freelancers who prioritize growing and diversifying their client base — standard business-development advice — the highest tier applies disproportionately to exactly the activity that builds a resilient freelance business.

Consider a freelancer who completes 30 small projects a year with 30 different clients at a £300 average: 20% on the first £250 of each is £1,500 alone, plus 7.5% on the remaining £50 per project (£112.50) — roughly £1,612.50 on £9,000 earned, before VAT (about 17.9% effective). On Jobbers.io, the same £9,000 earns £9,000.

Whatever the platform’s own rationale (rewarding retention), the practical effect is that diversifying your client base carries a real cost on PeoplePerHour, whereas it carries none on Jobbers.io.

Proposal Credits: How Both Platforms Handle Applications

PeoplePerHour gives every freelancer 15 free proposal credits each calendar month, per its own Terms & Conditions; unused free credits do not roll over. Beyond that allotment, additional credits can be purchased in packs — pricing has varied over time and by region, so check the current price list in your PeoplePerHour account before budgeting around it. Multiple G2 reviews mention frustration with credits spent on job postings that stay open a long time without ever being awarded; PeoplePerHour does not refund credits for jobs that go unawarded.

Jobbers.io uses paid Connects for proposal submission. There is no free monthly allocation, but there’s also no subscription-style monthly cap — freelancers invest per proposal as needed.

The key structural difference: on PeoplePerHour, the credit system sits on top of the tiered commission — you pay for the chance to apply, then pay 3.5–20% if you win the work. On Jobbers.io, you pay for the chance to apply and keep 100% of what you earn if you win.

The CERT Ranking Algorithm

PeoplePerHour uses a proprietary ranking system called CERT. According to PeoplePerHour’s own support documentation, CERT currently stands for Content, Engagement, Repeat Usage, and Trust (note: some older third-party write-ups still describe the “C” as “Community” — PeoplePerHour’s own current help articles use “Content”). CERT levels run from 1 (starting) to 5, plus a “Top CERT” tier reserved for the top-scoring freelancers on a rolling basis.

How it affects your business: higher CERT levels mean more exposure to buyers in search and matching. Per PeoplePerHour’s own explanation, Level 1 requires no earnings and simply signals a promising new profile; Levels 2–3 require actual earnings through the platform; Levels 4–5 require continued earnings plus a high quality score; Top CERT is limited to a small top percentage of scored freelancers. This creates a compounding relationship between how much you’ve billed (and therefore paid in commission) and how visible you become.

The cold-start implication for new freelancers: you begin at CERT Level 1, and advancing requires platform earnings you don’t yet have — a structural disadvantage familiar to freelancers on many bid-based marketplaces, not unique to PeoplePerHour, but worth planning around.

Jobbers.io does not use an algorithmic tier system that gates visibility behind historical platform earnings; opportunities are accessible through the standard proposal system without a earnings-based ranking layer.

Offers (formerly “Hourlies”): Productized Services

PeoplePerHour’s pre-packaged service feature — historically branded “Hourlies” and now generally referred to as “Offers” — lets freelancers create fixed-price service packages that clients can purchase instantly, similar in spirit to gig-style marketplaces. This is a genuinely useful feature worth acknowledging on its merits.

Advantages: no need to wait for a matching project post; clients can buy on impulse, reducing negotiation friction; repeat purchases can create a steadier income stream; and, per G2 reviewer comments, Offers let freelancers apply without using their monthly proposal-credit allotment.

The limitation: Offers still carry the same tiered commission as proposal-won work, so a £200 Offer purchased by a new client is still subject to the 20%-tier commission on the first £250 of that relationship. Optional paid visibility boosts (sometimes called Featured Offer placement) are also available at an extra cost — check current pricing in your account, since third-party figures for this fee vary and we could not confirm a single current number from PeoplePerHour’s own documentation.

Jobbers.io does not currently offer a pre-packaged, buy-instantly service feature equivalent to Offers; all work flows through the proposal-project model.

Payment Protection and Escrow

PeoplePerHour uses an escrow-based system, run through what it calls WorkStream: when a client hires a freelancer or buys an Offer, funds are paid into escrow (the full price for an Offer, or the agreed deposit for a custom project) and released to the freelancer after the client confirms the work is complete, with a dispute-resolution process available if something goes wrong.

The cost and timing of that protection: per PeoplePerHour’s own withdrawal documentation, a withdrawal request is typically processed within about 2 working days, but funds only become available for withdrawal after a clearing period of roughly 14 working days. Once approved, transfer speed depends on method: UK bank transfers usually land within 24 hours, SEPA/local transfers in 1–3 working days, and international transfers in 3–7 working days (longer for certain “slow-to-pay” countries).

PeoplePerHour’s terms generally require payments to be made through the platform rather than arranged directly between client and freelancer once a relationship starts there — arranging payment off-platform can put your account at risk under PeoplePerHour’s terms, so if this matters to you, read the current Terms & Conditions in full rather than relying on a summary.

Jobbers.io uses direct payment between freelancer and client, with no platform-managed escrow. Payment terms, methods, and timing are negotiated directly, which gives freelancers flexibility (deposits, milestones, any structure both parties agree to) but places payment-security responsibility on the freelancer rather than the platform. There’s also no off-platform payment restriction, since there’s no “on-platform” payment flow to begin with — client relationships are the freelancer’s to manage.

Market Reach: What the Traffic Data Actually Shows

PeoplePerHour was founded in London and built its early reputation serving UK and European clients. Third-party analytics tell a more nuanced story today. According to Similarweb’s estimated traffic data (most recent available snapshot at the time of writing), peopleperhour.com receives roughly 1.2–1.3 million estimated monthly visits, with its largest sources of desktop traffic being Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the UK, and the US, in that order — a noticeably more South Asian-weighted audience than the platform’s “European freelance marketplace” positioning might suggest, though the UK and US together still represent a meaningful share.

Two caveats worth stating plainly: first, Similarweb’s numbers are a third-party model, not PeoplePerHour’s own disclosed analytics, and estimates like this can shift materially month to month and differ from other analytics tools; second, “where traffic comes from” doesn’t necessarily equal “where paying clients are,” since buyers and freelancers browse from different geographies. If PeoplePerHour’s current regional footprint matters to your decision, it’s worth checking a live analytics snapshot yourself rather than relying on any single historical figure — including this one.

Jobbers.io’s own internal analytics put its traffic at approximately 9 million monthly visits (~300,000 daily), across jobbers.io internationally and jobbers.ma for the Moroccan market, with multilingual support in English, French, and Arabic. For freelancers targeting French-speaking European, North African, or Arabic-speaking markets specifically, Jobbers.io’s multilingual infrastructure and dedicated Moroccan marketplace offer a more localized fit than a general-purpose English-language platform.

Profile Review and Onboarding

PeoplePerHour reviews new freelancer applications before approval. Per PeoplePerHour’s own application process documentation, standard review takes up to 7 working days, or applicants can pay for a Fast-Track option that reduces this to 1 working day. Several third-party reviews also describe an initial period after acceptance during which new accounts have limited visibility while they build up CERT and reputation — treat any specific duration you see quoted elsewhere with caution, and confirm current onboarding expectations directly with PeoplePerHour if this affects your planning.

Jobbers.io does not impose an application-vetting or fast-track-fee process; freelancers can create a profile and begin submitting proposals immediately, relying on client reviews and proposal quality rather than platform-gate moderation for quality signaling.

AI-Powered Matching

PeoplePerHour uses an automated matching system that surfaces relevant freelancers to clients when a project is posted, based on profile, skills, and activity. This can genuinely surface opportunities a freelancer might not find by browsing manually, particularly in high-demand categories. The trade-off: matching quality varies, freelancers in niche specializations report more mixed results, and — per PeoplePerHour’s own CERT documentation — CERT level factors into how matching prioritizes freelancers, which reinforces the visibility advantage of established, higher-earning accounts.

Jobbers.io relies on standard marketplace browsing and proposal submission rather than a proprietary matching algorithm; opportunities are equally browsable by all freelancers.

The Inactive Account Administration Fee

One PeoplePerHour policy that surprises many freelancers: per PeoplePerHour’s own published admin-fee policy, if you have funds sitting in your PeoplePerHour account and haven’t logged in for six months or more, PeoplePerHour begins charging a monthly administration fee of £6.70 / €9.33 / $9.95 (excl. VAT) starting from the seventh month of inactivity, automatically deducted from your balance until you log back in or the balance reaches zero. (Some older PeoplePerHour community threads reference a shorter, 30-day “dormant balance” provision in the Terms & Conditions — the two references aren’t perfectly consistent with each other, which is exactly why we’d encourage you to check the current Terms & Conditions yourself rather than relying on any secondhand description, including ours.)

Jobbers.io does not charge inactivity fees, balance-holding fees, or penalties for delayed withdrawal.

Who Should Choose PeoplePerHour

• You have a small number of high-value, long-term clients. If your business model centers on 2–5 clients each billing £5,000+/year, PeoplePerHour’s rate drops to 3.5% on most of your earnings with them — genuinely competitive, if still above Jobbers.io’s 0%.
• You want productized service packages. If fixed-price Offers that clients can buy instantly are central to your sales strategy, PeoplePerHour provides a dedicated channel Jobbers.io doesn’t currently replicate.
• You value platform-managed escrow. If working with unfamiliar clients and having a formal deposit-and-release system matters to you, PeoplePerHour’s WorkStream/escrow setup provides structure.
• You benefit from AI-assisted matching in a high-demand category where the algorithm tends to perform well.
• You already have a high CERT level. Established PeoplePerHour freelancers with Level 4–5 or Top CERT status have built platform-specific capital that would take time to rebuild elsewhere.

Who Should Choose Jobbers.io

• You want to keep 100% of your earnings, regardless of project size or client — the commission gap is 3.5–20% on PeoplePerHour versus 0% on Jobbers.io at every tier.
• You work with many different clients. If diverse, multi-client work is your normal pattern — true for most freelancers — PeoplePerHour’s per-buyer reset means you land in the 20% tier more often than the “as low as 3.5%” headline implies. Client diversity carries no commission penalty on Jobbers.io.
• You’re a newer freelancer. PeoplePerHour’s cold-start dynamics (CERT Level 1, an onboarding/review period, the highest commission tier on every new relationship, and matching that tends to favor established earners) are real headwinds. On Jobbers.io, new and established freelancers access the same opportunities and keep 100% of early earnings, when every euro or pound matters most.
• You want simple, transparent pricing instead of tracking a tiered commission, a minimum per-invoice fee, proposal-credit costs, optional Fast-Track and Featured-placement fees, and an inactivity administration fee.
• You want to own your client relationships without a platform’s off-platform-payment restriction hanging over long-term engagements.
• You want reach into French- and Arabic-speaking markets, via Jobbers.io’s multilingual support and its dedicated jobbers.ma marketplace for Morocco.

The Dual-Platform Strategy

Many freelancers use both platforms deliberately rather than picking one:

Use PeoplePerHour for Offers-based productized services or specific engagements where you want formal escrow protection — treat the commission as the price of those particular features.

Use Jobbers.io for direct project work and custom proposals where you don’t need escrow or Offers, to keep 100% of those earnings. As trust builds with a client, some freelancers gradually shift more volume toward the commission-free side of their business.

Illustrative math: a freelancer earning £40,000/year at an 8% effective PeoplePerHour commission pays roughly £3,200/year in fees. Shifting half of that work to a 0%-commission platform would cut the effective commission to roughly £1,600/year; shifting three-quarters would bring it to roughly £800/year. These are simplified, illustrative figures for planning purposes only, not a guarantee of any particular outcome.

Feature-by-Feature Summary

*Traffic figures come from different sources (third-party estimate vs. first-party analytics) and are not directly comparable on a like-for-like methodology basis; treat this row as directional, not precise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is PeoplePerHour a European freelance platform?

PeoplePerHour was founded in London in 2007 and built its early reputation serving UK and European clients. Current third-party traffic estimates from Similarweb show its largest audience segments now coming from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, the UK, and the US, in that order — a more geographically mixed picture than a purely “European platform” label suggests, though UK and US traffic remains significant. Jobbers.io operates internationally with English, French, and Arabic support and approximately 9 million monthly visits per its own analytics.

How much commission does PeoplePerHour actually charge?

PeoplePerHour uses a tiered structure that resets per buyer: 20% on the first £250 of lifetime billing with a client, 7.5% on £250–£5,000, and 3.5% above £5,000 (all excl. VAT), plus a £1 minimum fee per invoice. For freelancers with many smaller-project clients, the effective rate is often in the 10–18% range; for freelancers with a few large, long-term clients, it can fall to 4–5%. Jobbers.io charges 0% commission — the only cost is paid Connects for proposals.

What is CERT and how does it affect my visibility?

CERT (Content, Engagement, Repeat Usage, Trust, per PeoplePerHour’s current documentation) is PeoplePerHour’s proprietary ranking algorithm. It assigns freelancers a level from 1 to 5, plus a “Top CERT” tier for top performers. Higher CERT levels get more visibility in search and AI-assisted matching. Advancing past Level 1 requires earnings through the platform, which favors established freelancers and creates a cold-start disadvantage for newcomers. Jobbers.io does not use an earnings-gated ranking algorithm.

Are PeoplePerHour’s Offers (formerly Hourlies) worth using?

Offers can work well for freelancers with clearly defined, repeatable services — design packages, blog posts, social media bundles, and similar. Clients can purchase instantly, and Offers don’t use up your monthly proposal-credit allotment. However, Offers still carry PeoplePerHour’s tiered commission, and optional paid visibility placement is available at extra cost. Freelancers with more custom, project-based work may find the standard proposal model a better fit.

Which platform is better for new freelancers?

PeoplePerHour presents real early hurdles: CERT Level 1 (lowest visibility), an application review period (up to 7 working days, or a paid Fast-Track option), the 20% tier on every new client relationship, and AI matching that tends to favor established earners. Jobbers.io offers immediate access, 0% commission from your first project, and no earnings-gated ranking disadvantage — which matters most in the early period when every euro of income counts.

Can I use both platforms at the same time?

Yes — many freelancers do. A common approach is using PeoplePerHour for Offers-based or escrow-protected work, and Jobbers.io for commission-free project work and direct client relationships, shifting volume toward Jobbers.io over time as trust with clients builds.

Why does PeoplePerHour charge 20% on new client relationships?

The tiered, per-buyer structure is designed to reward long-term client retention — the more you bill a single client over time, the lower your rate with them. The trade-off is that every new client relationship starts at the highest tier, which can discourage the kind of client diversification that many freelance-business advisors recommend. On Jobbers.io, winning a new client carries no commission cost.

What happens to my money if I don’t withdraw it on PeoplePerHour?

Per PeoplePerHour’s own admin-fee policy, if you hold a balance and haven’t logged in for six months or more, PeoplePerHour begins charging a monthly administration fee (£6.70 / €9.33 / $9.95, excl. VAT) starting in the seventh month, deducted automatically from your balance. Jobbers.io does not charge inactivity or balance-holding fees.

Does PeoplePerHour allow payments outside the platform?

PeoplePerHour’s terms are generally understood to require payment through the platform once a client relationship is established there, and arranging payment off-platform can put an account at risk under those terms — read the current Terms & Conditions directly if this matters to your decision. Jobbers.io uses direct payment between freelancer and client with no platform-imposed payment restriction.

Which platform has more project opportunities?

By internal analytics, Jobbers.io receives roughly 9 million monthly visits versus PeoplePerHour’s roughly 1.2–1.3 million estimated by Similarweb — though the two figures come from different measurement methods and aren’t perfectly comparable. Higher traffic generally correlates with more active listings and client activity. For freelancers targeting French- or Arabic-speaking markets, Jobbers.io’s multilingual support and Moroccan marketplace (jobbers.ma) offer additional reach that PeoplePerHour does not specifically target.

Is PeoplePerHour legit?

Yes — PeoplePerHour is an established marketplace operating since 2007, with a verifiable review history on sites like G2 and a functioning escrow and dispute system. “Legit” and “cheapest” are different questions, though: PeoplePerHour is a real, working platform, but its tiered commission means it is rarely the lowest-cost option for freelancers who work with many different clients.

What’s the single biggest thing to check before choosing a platform?

Your own client pattern. If most of your income will come from a handful of long-term clients billing £5,000+/year each, PeoplePerHour’s best-case 3.5% rate is genuinely competitive. If your income comes from many smaller or shorter-term engagements — the more common pattern — the per-buyer reset means you’ll likely sit in PeoplePerHour’s higher tiers more often, which is where a 0%-commission platform like Jobbers.io has the clearest financial edge.

Important notice: This article is intended for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Jobbers.io is the publisher of this article; readers should factor in this affiliation when weighing the comparison. All PeoplePerHour data is drawn from PeoplePerHour’s own published documentation (support.peopleperhour.com, peopleperhour.com), Similarweb’s estimated analytics, and G2’s verified reviews, believed accurate as of July 2026, and is subject to change at any time without notice. Platform features, pricing, policies, and statistics may differ from what’s described here by the time you read it — please verify all figures directly with each platform before making a business, pricing, or financial decision. Neither platform is guaranteed to suit every freelancer’s situation.

This article was written and fact-checked by the editorial team at Jobbers.io, a commission-free freelance marketplace where freelancers keep 100% of their earnings and clients pay exactly what they negotiate, with zero platform commission on either side. Sources last checked and figures last verified: July 2026.