Founded in 2010 in Tel Aviv as a way to connect talented freelancers with customers who need their unique skills, Fiverr has grown into one of the largest freelancing platforms globally.
Although its name originated from its earliest form, in which freelancers offered small (usually online) tasks that all cost $5, Fiverr has expanded and changed to meet the demand of its sellers and buyers, with freelancers now being allowed to set their own prices.
TL;DR Summary
- Fiverr takes a 20% cut of all fees earned on its platform. That means that if you list your fee for a project as $10, you’ll receive $8.
- To make up for this, be sure to factor in the 20% loss when pricing your work.
How Much Does Fiverr Take From Sellers?
Luckily for newcomers, Fiverr is totally free to sign up. There are no fees at the beginning, and you can set up an account and start advertising your services to Fiverr’s huge customer base without paying anything upfront.
Of course, there’s no such thing as a free lunch: Fiverr offers a service, and they expect to get paid for it.
To earn money, Fiverr takes a cut out of every transaction you make. So, how much does Fiverr take out?
As they explain on their website, “You keep 80% of each transaction.” This is a nicer-sounding way of saying that Fiverr takes 20% out of every transaction you make.
In other words, if a customer hires you as a Fiverr freelancer and pays $100 for your services, the payment gets processed through Fiverr, and you receive $80.
When you look at it this way, it can seem a little steep.
How much Fiverr takes from sellers is one of the biggest complaints sellers have about the platform, but many argue that the benefits outweigh the cost and that they are making more money by advertising on Fiverr than they would if they chose to advertise differently.
Plus, with many other freelancing sites taking a larger percentage, Fiverr’s 20% cut is really not such a bad deal.
Now you may be wondering how much does Fiverr take from buyers? The answer is $0. That’s right – the full 20% transaction fee comes out of your side rather than your clients’.
This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it encourages clients to return and makes it so that they don’t feel nickel-and-dimed (there’s a small fee for clients on processing the actual transaction itself, but this is negligible).
If Fiverr taking a cut of 20% still seems hard to swallow, simply adjust the price of your labor to make up for the loss.
For example, let’s say you’re planning to follow Fiverr’s original style and charge $5 for simple webmaster tasks. Once Fiverr takes its 20% cut, you’re left with $4. To get around this, simply charge $6 for the task.
Sure, the difference here is mostly psychological since Fiverr is still its 20% share either way, but adjusting your fees to reflect Fiverr’s tax does technically put more money in your pocket at the end of the day.
FAQs
The Bottom Line: What’s The Deal With Fiverr’s Cut?
If you want to offer your services as a freelancer on Fiverr, you have to be okay with their terms of service, which include taking a 20% transaction fee on all payments you receive from clients through the site.
While this may seem a bit steep at first glance, it’s pretty standard in the industry: Upwork and British-based freelancing platform PeoplePerHour also take a 20% cut.
Of course, you could always opt to forego using a freelancing platform altogether and advertise your services on social media instead. This has an obvious benefit – you get to keep 100% of your profits.
However, you’d be giving up the huge, global customer base that Fiverr and other freelancing platforms connect you with – and when you look at it that way, 20% might not seem too bad.
References
Fiverr’s sales cut policy – https://www.fiverr.com/start_selling
