UPDATE: It appears Crew.co has changed to Dribbble.com. Please consider one of these alternatives.
Crew.co is a marketplace that provides a platform for freelancers, or “members” as they refer to them, to connect with business owners and entrepreneurs. They specialize in providing professional services of web designers and developers.
The company was founded in 2012 and their headquarters are based in Montreal, Canada. Through their platform they connect freelancer designers and developers to business owners from all over the globe.
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About Crew.co
The company is headed up by Mikael Cho, and they have been in operation for over three years. Crew is not a service company and does not carry out or oversee any of the work for their members or manage projects, rather they provide the platform for business owners to find designers and developers, and handle the contracts and financial transactions.
The company screens and vets the freelancers, and matches them to the best-suited projects for their skills. They also hire additional freelancers from around the globe to meet demand when required.
How it Works
When you post a project, the team at Crew matches you with 3 fully-vetted freelancers for you to choose between to complete your project within 48 hours. This is different than platforms like Upwork or Freelancer.com, where unlimited freelancers can bid for your project and you narrow down the applicants.
Anyone who have had a bad experience on an open marketplace may feel more comfortable with the way Crew are operating. With Crew manually selecting freelancers, you do not need to invest as much time vetting the applicants yourself.
Services
Unlike some other freelancing marketplaces, Crew focuses specifically on programming and graphic design projects.
They specialize in providing website development, app development, eCommerce support, logo design, branding, and custom graphic design work.
There is a three-step process when submitting a project to the Crew platform:
- You post your exact job, or “project” requirements
- You will receive an automatic budget recommendation to look over
- Three handpicked freelancers will contact you within 48 hours, you then decide who you want to work with
Because Crew use their own vetting process when taking on freelancers to join their platform there should be a higher level of consistency than open marketplaces.
Their target customers are busy business owners or entrepreneurs who do not have in-house web or graphic designers and need individual projects completed. If you’ve been thinking about a logo redesign or having an app developed, Crew is worth checking out.
Plans and Pricing
Because it’s a project-based platforms, pricing varies depending on the specific work you need done. Once you and your chosen contractor agree on the scope of the project, you pre-pay into Crew’s escrow account.
Crew holds the funds for the project until the work is completed and both parties are satisfied. The company takes a 15% fee from the total payment to cover processing, overhead, customer support, and of course, their profit.
The company uses a third-party payment system through their platform for safe and secure transactions.
Crew Alternatives
The biggest competitor to Crew is the giant freelance platform Upwork.com. The main difference is that they try to be a one-stop shop for all your outsourcing needs, instead of just focusing on only designers and developers.
If you’re looking for development help, you might consider Codeable (for WordPress projects) or TopTal (for a wider range).
For one-off graphics work, 99designs and DesignCrowd are popular choices.
Your Turn
Have you worked with Crew.co? If so, please leave a review of your experience below to help others with their decision.
Tried to join the crew.co. They requested to add 3 jobs. I added 3 Top Notch apps:
1. http://www.wayme.tours that has 3 awards, 10 reviews, joined Y Combinator Startup School. What is more has a lot of complicated features (iBeacon integration, geo-location, audio & video, managing app for creating new routs etc)
2. http://www.snorereport.com that become featured by American Sleep Association, took part in Kelly Ripa’s show, and has complicated features too (custom UI, audio recognition, and a lot of wearable device integrations).
3. http://www.mymp3pool.com has 3m downloads, and 500k subscriptions but has no any reviews.
But I was refused, with a comments “your apps are too week or have no reviews”. When I shared other works, the assistant mentioned: “All devs have the same rules and you can resubmit in 6 months”.
What is more, I know several dev that are working there, and I was teaching these guys how to code. There apps are not so popular, and don’t have such complicated UI. If the apps I shared are “too WEEK” for the CREW.CO than they are just cutting “idea owners” with a high-level skills. I’m very abused with “crew.co review managers” and would never suggest this service.
professional scam artists!! They’d nurture you to deposit your money and then scam the hell out of you. They never rate their developers publicly and they give you the impression they are experts at vetting them for you with money back guarantee if they don’t perform. You will never get your money back from these guys and your job will never get done over the internet if you are not resident in their home country, Canada or next door U.S.
Hey Freddie,
I have the exact same experience as you but I am a resident of Canada. Would you be interested in connecting?