If you have ever used Upwork or Guru.com, you know that they are excellent ways in which to find and hire freelance workers. Both sites have millions of freelancers available in lots of different categories.
We’re often being asked, “how can I build a similar site?” Well, it turns out, that’s pretty easy, since all you need is WordPress and one single plugin. That plugin is called FreelanceEngine, and it’s built purely for this purpose.
What is FreelanceEngine?
FreelanceEngine is a combination of a theme and plugins that includes everything you need to build your Upwork or Guru.com clone.
It has all of the features you expect from Upwork and Guru:
- You can create project categories and projects
- Freelancers can go on the site, create profiles, post information including resumes and previous work
- Users can hire freelancers, create projects, and have freelancers bid for jobs
- A complete search function is built in
- All functionality is supported on mobile
- There is a built in review system
- The system manages escrows and payments, and available plugins for payment processors mean everything is seamless
- Dispute management and other advanced functionality are built in
In addition, FreelanceEngine includes plugins, provides built in search, supports Adsense, has many customization options, is SEO optimized, has map integration, supports WooCommerce, offers multiple color choices, is skinable, integrates with social media, offers free suppport, and includes multiple layouts.
FreelanceEngine enjoys a large user base, so it is simple to get help and support. Included with this theme are icons, background images, fonts, a slider plugin, custom widgets, and AJAX functionality. FreelanceEngine works well on tablets and mobile devices. It is also multilingual.
Building an Upwork of Guru.com with FreelanceEngine
So how do you build an Upwork or Guru.com like site using FreelanceEngine? It’s pretty easy.
- Install WordPress. We have plenty of articles on this site on how to get a clean and secure installation of WordPress up and running quickly. But if you’re in doubt, you can always get it done cheap on Fiverr.
- Pick a FreelanceEngine package. The basic package is fine for most people, but if you want additional functionality, like built in payment plugins, milestone tracking, and more, you can choose the Pro version.
- Download FreelanceEngine, and then follow the instructions to install it. Again, if you need help, you can get it done for you here.
Once you have done that, you will need to configure FreelanceEngine. This is actually really simple, since much of the hard work is automatically done by their smart setup process.
After you have entered your basic site information, you can automatically import data, using the built in importer. Then you just create project types, and you’re ready to run.
The only complicated part is signing up for a payment processor to handle your credit card transactions.