whildebrand

I wasn't aware of that. If there is 0 sales, there is no invoice. If you have no invoices you have a non-issue. I was highlighting the situation as it could present itself to freelancers on the platform if they live in the EU and are only invoicing one company. I think we all agree that we want to be independent freelancers and also strive to make it work for us. I cannot speak on behalf of Fiverr as I am not a lawyer and that is also not my concern.

Regarding your statement "It's just like Uber or Bolt, or any other similar apps/services." Actually, remember when the UK banned Uber in London? They came to some form of license agreement in the meantime, which is valid for 18 months as I recall. But it hasn't been as straightforward as you suggest. Ubers legal team is definitely a very big department within the company and I am sure they are hard at work to exploit any loophole they can find.

Let's agree that we disagree on the employment status. But I can tell you, that I had to learn the hard way.

@donnovan86 - Regarding employment status. The employment status is not dependent on a contract. There may be some jurisdictions where contracts override employment law, but in most European countries and jurisdictions, employment law takes precedence over any contracts. In Europe, the employment status is not decided by Fiverr, a contract, or what you as a freelancer belief your status to be. It is determined by the tax authorities when they examine your invoices and the overall nature of your work relationship. The United Kingdom and Ireland may be different, as they have a highly contract-based legal system, and their employment laws are some of the more liberal and deregulated in the Western world. Many EU countries have very high employment costs. As a result, many companies have decided not to employ workers directly but instead engage them as freelancers. This is a well-known practice. However, since this has been abused in the past, employment laws have become stricter in Europe, and most countries have precisely regulated when an individual is considered a "freelancer" and when they are deemed an employee. This determination is not made by a company contract (though it can carry some weight) but is evaluated during tax audits. I know this from experience, because I have been in a similar situation before. It is especially risky if you, as a freelancer, only invoice one company, say Fiverr. If there is a tax audit, that is when alarms could go off, and they will scrutinize your invoice history and then determine whether you were employed or genuinely freelancing. Again, in Europe you do not determine or control this situation, nor does the company. The government does. This, of course, will then have tax implications, among other consequences. The situation becomes more complicated when you are living in an EU country and are working for a company residing in a non-EU jurisdiction. I suppose the first question would be your status, the second who has jurisdiction, the third question would be how your status will impact your tax situation. Also keep in mind, that the government doesn't really care if you interact with many clients. They only look at who you send invoices too. So you may be working with many clients on Fiverr, but at the end of the year, after you receive your Statement of Earnings from Fiverr, you only send one invoice to Fiverr. How many clients you have, is not determined by who you interact with, but who you send invoices too. So for the government, you only have one client not many clients. And if you only have one client over a period of many years, the government may suspect your freelance work relationship is an attempt to bypass employment laws. Since every country has different laws, it is best to consult your tax advisor and ensure you are not operating in any grey zones that could come back to haunt you later. If you live in an EU country and want to play it safe, ensure you invoice more than one client and avoid working for just one company. You could also contact Fiverr support for more insights, but my guess is, they would refer you back to your tax advisor. I would recommend one that has experience with international jurisdictions.

1.) Your idea: "If buyers don't spend a cent on Fiverr, the platform and its sellers would become useless." That is correct. However, if sellers don't offer any services, any money spent by buyers would be useless just the same. Hence, both parties, sellers and buyers alike, are equally important. So I'm not sure why you keep coming back to this one-sided notion that only buyers are important. It's simply not true. 2.) Your statement: "Well, we are not hired by Fiverr." I'm afraid you haven't thought this through properly. You are, in fact, working for Fiverr. Maybe you want to hold onto the idea of being a freelancer, which is understandable, but you are not really a freelancer on this platform. Let me break it down for you (and, I may add, this in fact closely aligns to how most western legal frameworks define employment): a) You get paid by Fiverr! b) You invoice Fiverr at the end of the year after receiving a statement of earnings. You don't get paid by clients but by Fiverr! c) You don't "own" any of the clients; Fiverr does! d) Fiverr has a time tracking system, and you are expected to work regular hours. Fiverr lets you know exactly which tasks you have to complete and when. People who spend more time on the platform get promoted, while those who spend less time get demoted. e) Fiverr has a bonus/penalty system to ensure you behave appropriately towards their clients. f) There is even a clause in Fiverr's Terms of Service preventing you from advertising your freelance services on Google Ads for any similar services you offer on Fiverr. So you may not "freelance" outside of Fiverr in the proper sense of the term, similar to what any employer would demand of you. You can look it up in Fiverr's Terms of Service. g) Most "Freelancers" on the platform actually have one major client only, which is Fiverr. There is a difference though, as other employers typically don't ask you to refund 20% of your wage to them. Perhaps you could argue that it is part-time or irregular employment, but Fiverr is certainly not a freelancer platform in the classic sense of the term. Instead, it's more like a giant agency that has a lot of irregular or part-time employees engaged with Fiverr's clients in a competitive work environment. You can leave the platform any time, but you can also end any other employment at any given time. If you look at how the EU (to name an example) differentiates freelancing from employment, the characteristics listed above from point a) to point f) are all major markers that point to what your status legally seen really is. I won't go into more details, but to say "You are not hired by Fiverr" is false on many levels. 3.) Reviews. Many of the things you mention regarding reviews may hold true for gigs that are small and have a high transaction rate. For instance, if you offer copyediting for $15 per order, and you complete 10 orders per day, then one bad review or one more revision is not a big deal. However, if you have a major business website with e-commerce integration and possibly a significant website migration worth over $1,500, an order that may take a week or longer to complete, the situation quickly changes drastically. In such a case, the transaction rate is much lower, and every client weighs much more than in smaller gigs. Just do the math: One out of four reviews a month as opposed to one out of potentially 100 reviews a month. One bad review can be irrelevant in the latter case, while one bad review can completely destroy the performance of your gig in the former case. It remains to be seen if the new system will actually bring an improvement here (judging from what people have stated above this could be the case). 4.) Difficult clients. Fiverr knows exactly which clients are difficult and which ones are easy to deal with. They measure metrics such as the number of revisions a buyer demands, certain keywords that come up in the message thread, and, of course, the very obvious buyer-side cancellations and refunds (to mention just a few metrics). Should these clients be weighted differently when they post negative reviews? Let's spin this further: What happens if Fiverr sees in your seller metrics that you are especially patient and good with difficult clients? Does the algorithm then shower you with tough clients? This is just one of many "fairness" related considerations that Fiverr will decide in their algorithmic alignment. These algorithmic decisions are made by Fiverr on a daily basis and should to be aligned with moral, ethical, and safety considerations (= AI Safety). If these principles are not transparent or made public to all parties involved, it is difficult to determine whether the system is fair. These principles also need to be balanced equitably, ensuring that the interests of both sellers and buyers are considered equally because both are equally important on the platform. I hope Fiverr succeeds and it is my firm believe that only a fair system will be sustainably and successful in the long-run.

"Just do your best and try to keep people happy. There's nothing else to do at this point." Interesting point you make and Fiverr support keeps making exactly that same point. But keep in mind that any economic transaction is based on a system of give and take. We are not in the business of philanthropy. It is not a one-sided transaction as you seem to imply. We are not in the business of making people happy. We are selling a service. We provide services, for which we expect to get paid by the buyer. We don't work for free. We never signed up to work for free. If you want to make people happy (which is an honorably thing to do if you can afford it), the salvation army is the place to be. We pay Fiverr 20% of every transaction in return for a fair and balanced work environment. That is a service that Fiverr owes to us. Sellers pay Fiverr a lot more than buyers do btw, yet we get treated a lot harder by the algorithm. Judging from the many comments in this thread, sellers are feeling overly burdened by the system. I appreciate that you want to explain how the system works, but the concern on this thread does not seem to be how the system works but why it works the way it does. Why is there such a bias towards buyers at the expense of sellers? The algorithm and system is aligned by Fiverr's management team. It can be changed and many of us believe it should be. I, as I am sure many of you, have worked extremely hard for Fiverr in the past years (at 120% performance) and I have always been loyal to the company. I have always paid my fees to Fiverr and in return expect that I and you as sellers and freelancers on the platform are treated on equal terms with buyers. But that does not seem to be the case. If the system only values freelancers that give away free services to make buyers happy, then the system is seriously flawed, unbalanced and biased in a very big way. To expect newcomers on the platform to offer more for less is one thing, but to make that into the prevalent business model for all, is a whole different ball game. It is the path that ultimately leads to workforce extortion and I really hope that this is not the goal of the leadership at Fiverr.

I couldn't agree more. My main reason for choosing Fiverr as a seller was efficiency. I won't get into the value for sellers in terms of monetary gain, because for many that was never the real reason to be on the platform. But without efficiency, what are we left with? Some weird algorithms no one understands (including Fiverr support) that keep increasing the burden on sellers?

In fact, the review in question is for one of my relatively new gig offering of mine, not the best-selling one that has consistently received excellent feedback and which suddenly dropped in performance. I've been in contact with Fiverr for several months now, and the introduction of the new rating system hasn't helped but made things worse. I usually get a cut and paste answer from Fiverr support, not really anything I can work with. Concerning the one 3-star review among many hundred 5-star reviews: The client was initially pleased with the website I delivered. However, the client then continued to request additional features post-completion. I accommodated these requests for a while, adding services worth 800 Euros in total as a gesture of goodwill many days and weeks after completion, before informing the client that further work would necessitate a new order. Subsequently, the client left a negative review out of spite, only to later express regret and a desire to revert their feedback. I told the client to contact support (which I also did), but unfortunately, Fiverr declined to alter the review, despite it being a clear case of retaliatory criticism unrelated to the quality of the work delivered. It appears that clients from continental Europe, without referring to any specific country, may not fully grasp the gig-based model. They are more accustomed to traditional, contractually obligated web design and IT services, expecting ongoing revisions even after project completion. The review you mentioned was posted long after the order was marked as completed by the client (I believe a significant 20 days after finalizing the order), which was surprising as I was under the impression that the review period was limited to 10 days. It seems Fiverr frequently implements changes without notification, but I may be wrong and may have misunderstood the review process. Many clients are attracted to Fiverr's competitive pricing but still anticipate comprehensive agency-level support, including continuous updates, long after a project is concluded. This expectation is particularly prevalent in web design and markets unfamiliar with the gig economy. I find myself dedicating hours each day to responding to support inquiries, with Fiverr offering little in the way of protection. This lack of support from Fiverr is remarkably unfair and inefficient for sellers. I've noticed that clients from the US and the UK have a better understanding of the gig model and for this reason, I'm considering removing my second language proficiency from my profile in hopes of attracting my original US-based clientele. The current situation is far from fair. Navigating these new markets for Fiverr feels like I am used as an icebreaker vessel cutting through hard and dense ice, especially as I educate customers from newly targeted EU regions about the platform's operations, personally absorbing the hits when they are in fact unhappy not with my service but with how the Fiverr system operates. Also, these clients often expect multiple Zoom calls even before placing an order. For those working with German-speaking clients, a more forgiving rating system would be beneficial, given the increased difficulty and time investment required. If I were given a choice, I would simply opt out of such regions all together. If there is a way to do that, please let me know!

I was top rated seller (plus Fiverr Choice) with 5 star reviews for many years now, but with the new rating system all my gig performances have dropped to zero. I haven't received any orders from new clients for many weeks now. Zero. Occasionally I get some jobs from existing clients, which isn't enough to sustain my presence here on Fiverr. If this continues and nothing changes, I will have to migrate all my primary selling offerings elsewhere.

It seems that Fiverr has silently introduced a new price display (some time back) and is now "hiding" its own buyers fee's directly in the seller's offer price instead of showing them only in the checkout process. As a result, I have had some complaints from my clients, that after we agree on an offer price the actual price on my offer is now higher than what we have agreed upon. After sending screenshots back and forth and investigating the matter further, we found that Fiverr is not being transparent about its own fees in the first impression the client has. Fiverr Fees should be visible & transparent immediately, not just at checkout. Why? If Fiverr "hides" its own buyers fees in this manner, it makes the seller look like he/she is overcharging in their custom offers. But that is not all. When you are selling to Euro Market (or any non-dollar market), there are 4.5% extra fees. Fiverr charges hidden currency conversion fees that are not transparently displayed as such to the buying client. These are not shown at all. Example: 1370 USD (agreed offer price / seller price) 1386 EUR (offer as seen by buyer) At todays currency conversion rate, 1370 USD should be 1259 Euro. Yet Fiverr is asking for 127 Euro more. 72 of which are buyers fee. 55 Euros are (probably) currency conversion fees that Fiverr does not display as such in any way (that's a whopping 4.5 % conversion fee). All these fees are displayed in such a way, as to give the impression that the amount was part of the clients offer (again, it looks as if the seller is overcharging). Also, since I live in the Euro Zone and the client lives in the Euro zone, why is there any conversion from EUR > USD > EUR going on in the first place? Apart from the fact that Fiverr fees of almost 30% on the total transaction are very high compared to other platforms, the fact that these fees are not transparently shown to the buyer and then tugged away into the sellers offer is a bit disturbing. Fiverr should be transparent about ALL the fees it charges and it should not "hide" them in the buyers offer. What do you think?

It would be great, if we as sellers could have an A.I. driven SDC chatbot that uses an LLM, our orders and client conversation as a dataset from which it can then answer questions about previous client messages / orders (not to be confused with a seller rep chatbot for buyers). Example: As a seller, I remember that I had a conversation with a buyer previously regarding solar calculators. Another client is asking the same question. I already answered all the same questions, but I have no idea where the information is. If you have many clients and threads, it is hard to find. With an AI chatbot that falls back on my client's messages and order information, all I would have to do is ask the bot a question: "Find all my conversations relating to solar calculators and create a summary". It would save us sellers a lot of time and I am sure most of us would be willing to pay a monthly fee for it. Fiverr could probably implement a SDC beta version with the help of the API from OpenAI in a couple of days. The newly released developer API from OpenAI offers advanced functionality including some enterprise features that offer custom training and privacy for datasets, so implementing this feature technically should'nt be a problem - scaling is of course a different issue). If Fiverr is looking into it and needs a beta tester, please consider me. I would also provide and help with valuable feedback. Cheers

@smashradio PayPal and Payoneer present significant drawbacks: 1.) Payoneer's debit card requires a minimum top-up of 500 USD (to the best of my recollection). In contrast, other banks and payment providers like PayPal automatically deduct the transaction amount from the available main currency balance, making it far more convenient for freelancers. However, 2.) PayPal imposes exorbitant USD to EURO conversion rates that can climb as high as 3.5%. For EU residents, this effectively results in a loss of around 13.5% (comprising fees and exchange rate differentials). 3.) While PayPal supports instant transfers, the same functionality is not as effective in Payoneer (at least in my personal experience). 4.) My attempt to employ Payoneer as an intermediary for transferring funds to my local bank or Revolut proved less than ideal. To start with, Payoneer lacks support for instant transfers, causing delays of several days (this after a two-week wait on Fiverr). Furthermore, free transfers are confined to the currency of your country of residence. Any attempt to transfer USD to a European bank or services like Revolut incurs a 2% charge from Payoneer. 5.) The well-remembered Payoneer incident during the Wirecard collapse (a company Payoneer relied upon) when our funds where frozen, significantly damaged my trust and was a shocking experience. Trust is paramount in the banking sector and trust has eroded as a result of the incident. In essence, the existing transfer framework ensures that either PayPal, Payoneer, or Fiverr profit from currency exchange. There's no cost-free avenue to channel your PayPal USD funds to a European bank. This central issue affects all Europeans or individuals residing in countries with non-dollar denominated currencies. Superior fintech banks like Revolut or Wise are more tailored towards freelancers in many regards. Take Revolut, which offers great interbank rates for currency conversion (surpassing the exchange options on Fiverr, PayPal, or Payoneer by far). Additionally, they grant the flexibility to choose the local ATM currency for your debit card — a feature valued by digital nomads. Comparatively, companies like Payoneer and PayPal appear antiquated and restrictive. Wise is also a good option. I personally speculate why Fiverr confines transfers to PayPal and Payoneer as exclusive options; there may be some kickback deal agreements in place, or it helps sustain their currency exchange business's competitiveness. Incorporating Revolut would likely diminish the reliance on Fiverr, PayPal, or Payoneer for currency exchange, as Revolut's xchange rates are very, very good. Since this is our hard-earned money, the notion of begging for the ability to transfer funds to our own banks seems unreasonably. Such discussion shouldn't even be necessary. In some countries it is even unlawfull to restrict transfer options (from employer to employee). An urgent solution is needed to directly channel USD to our banks (be it Revolut, Wise, or local banks in our country of residence) without incurring excessive fees. Fiverr already profits from each transaction, charging buyer and seller fees, alongside benefiting from the unfavorable exchange rates. It's uncertain if they also receive incentives from Payoneer and PayPal, but that is really not the issue here. They deserve it, but they should'nt restrict our transfer option as a result of it. Once approved, the funds are supposedly ours, but this really only holds true if we can independently decide our own preferred bank for transfers—eliminating the burdensome cycle of recurring fees. Personally I don't think Fiverr will ever act or make any changes to its current fund transfer policies (sorry to disappoint), as they are subject to profitability and share-holder scrutiny. Things will probably only change if there are laws in place that warrant that "employees" are allowed to tranfer to their bank of choosing directly. But that also seems very unlikely, because there are complicated jurisdiction issues: Both Fiverr and Payoneer are companies with HQs in Israel, so US or EU laws most certainly don't apply. I guess that is one of the drawbacks of working with a non-US or non-EU platform.

For your average European seller, a $100 Fiverr earning equals €33 real income. How is this possible? - 20% Fiverr fees - 2% Deduction Payoneer for Transfer or Exchange or 3.5% Paypal fee for USD / EUR conversion - USD / EUR arbitrage loss aprox. 10% 33.5 % is lost by the time funds arrive at the local bank account. Of what is left, aprox. 50% is deducted by social security and income tax. By the time we Europeans go shopping, 100 USD Fiverr earnings has been reduced to 33 Euros. That's about 1/3 of what we make as freelancers and amounts to a 66% effective deduction. $100 Fiverr Earnings = €33 real income Certain deductions cannot be changed. But I think its time that Fiverr give us a better way to transfer money, so at least we are not burdened by excessive currency conversion fees. Paypal has the worst currency rates in the industry. Payoneer gets you when you convert or when you transfer USD to USD (as then they charge a fee). Fiverr could introduce a currency hedging and arbitrage system that would fairly spread currency risk across all parties including buyers, sellers and Fiverr. Since Fiverr is not a financial institution with arbitrage expertise, we can assume this will not happen in the near future... ...but please at least add the Freelancer Bank Revolut as a possible withdrawal bank directly in Fiverr - at least do so for EU citizens; it would greatly benefit most of us EU Freelancers, as we are dealing with very hard and burdensome USD > EUR conversion losses. Most other international countries (like the Asian or American continent) have no issues, because their currency is either denominated in or pegged to the dollar. Not so Europe / UK. We carry the full burden as a result of conversion loss. Thanks.

Thanks, I appreciate your time!

As a seller, I find myself spending an excessive amount of time explaining to my clients how they can add extras and upgrade their orders. The list containing these options is incredibly hidden within the sales pipeline. Seriously, there's just a "Show more Extras" link? I have never come across a sales pipeline where upsell items are concealed from the buyer's view. It's comparable to walking into a store with empty shelves and instead finding a note saying, "Please call the manager to see what you can buy." Clearly, this aspect was not well thought out. When clients place an order, most of them are completely unaware that they can enhance their orders with extras (upsells). Consequently, I often have to manually explain to each client: - That there is an availability of extras for their order. - Which ones are necessary. - How to add the extras to their order. This situation is frustrating for both buyers and sellers. Moreover, the inability to include images with upgrade options is highly disappointing. Additionally, the character count for optional item descriptions is severely limited. While this might suffice for smaller gigs, it is inadequate for large web projects. Consequently, I find myself repeatedly explaining each optional item, over and over again. Why? I kindly request that you make upsell items visible, just as they are in any proper sales funnel on other platforms. If I can add a proper image and description then I dont have to re-explain optional items continuosly. It may be beneficial to send the Fiverr UI/UX team to a workshop that focuses on implementing best practices for sales funnels and emphasizes how UI/UX experience can either hinder or drive deal velocity and upsells. Both buyers and sellers are wasting valuable time. Many upsells opportunities go unfullfilled, because order options are hidden from view or there is not enough space or attractive real estate in the UI to explain them properly. As a result, Fiverr and its sellers are losing revenues. It's a classic lose-lose situation. Cheers!