Guru.com is a marketplace to find freelance talent in whatever specialty you’re looking for. The Pittsburgh-based company is one of the original freelance sites, having been founded way back in 1997.
They claim to be the world’s largest online marketplace for freelancers. For what it’s worth, you should know that Elance, oDesk, and Freelancer.com all make similar claims. Regardless, Guru boasts 400,000 freelancers, or “gurus”, on their platform, so there should be plenty of selection for any job you need done.
I have a warm place in my heart for Guru.com, as it was my first introduction to outsourcing in 2005. I posted a web development project without really having any idea what the cost might be. I got several bids, and one was from a developer just a half hour away. We agreed to meet in person to discuss the details. Seven years later, we’re still working together!
Since then, Guru.com has of course made many improvements to their business. One interesting addition is called Guru Recommend, which is designed to make your hiring process faster, easier, and more successful. The system utilizes objective performance data like earnings, repeat customers, and the ratio of jobs bid to jobs won (a batting average, of sorts), in order to assign freelancers a rank order. I think it might be difficult to accurately assess a range of workers on such an objective basis, but it’s definitely better than nothing at all.
The company’s SafePay system is their secure way of transferring money to your workers. Like the escrow systems on other freelance sites, you only release the funds after you approve the work.
Guru also includes a robust user dashboard and project management system built into their site. This is helpful to organize all the documents, communications, and milestones to track progress, especially for larger projects. Of course, other freelance sites have their own similar systems as well.
One thing that separates Guru apart from industry giants Elance and oDesk is their reward program. Every dollar you spend in their system (via preferred payment methods) earns Guru Loyalty Dollars, which can then be applied to future Guru projects.
Have you worked with Guru.com? If so, please share a quick review of your experience below.
Their SafePay is a SCAM. I am being charged on Guru to verify my credit card. And they barely reply to you when you message them. It’s Frustrating.
I have no problem with the freelancer they are very decent, My issues lies with Guru. Their payment platform raises issue 2 times out of 3 , despite showing a message payment was not successful they still charge the money to your bank account as many times as you tries to pay them out. They received the money and cancel it out instead of paying it to the free lancer causing hefty bank charges. When asked about the customer service, it is non existing . They washed their hand of any situation, have no sort of customer service and act according to their own decision with total disregards for any furhter problem they may have, As client I suggest you stay away from them
I’ve used guru.com for several years. As with all freelancers, it’s hit & miss, always best to start with a small dollar amount and gauge the results.
However, I recently hired a freelancer using the SafePay option. I put 15 hours worth of $$ in SafePay and the next day my money was gone and so was the freelance. I never received and invoice or released the funds.
Guru.com is as equally responsive as the freelancer, no reply. I tried calling but that’s just a voicemail brick wall with no reply as well.
I’ve had much better results on other sites and will take my business there.
The guy above must be getting paid to write reviews. I’ve seen that review elsewhere. I recently hired a freelancer on guru.com and I will never use this site again. Unethical, unprofessional and it is very easy to get ripped off. The work turned in was horrible. I requested a refund and did not get the refund. Another slap in the face: freelancers have the ability to block negative feedback, so doesn’t this sort of defeat the entire purpose of having feedback? BTW, I hired Clicksy Creatives. Be careful about hiring anyone here. You aren’t seeing legitimate feedback.
I’ve been working with individuals and small organizations on guru since the beginning of 2011 and have never felt the need to switch over to a different freelance for hire site.
My one qualm with guru (and perhaps this is the same with other similar services) is that when I post a project I get what seem to be auto-generated bids. They look like the are using some generic template and that they haven’t had any human read through the job description. So I often have to wade through a bunch of those ‘auto-bids’ to find genuine individuals who have taken the time to read through my project.
In my opinion, there is some solid talent available on guru, but I would recommend starting with small projects until you find someone you’re really comfortable with before attempting to fulfill any major project.