Joomlancers is a freelance marketplace aimed at those working with the Joomla! content management system. As such, Joomla related jobs account for 90% of the action. There were close to 100 open projects and 600 members online at the moment of writing this review. Jobs do get done here - but quality, knowledge and quotes vary wildly from provider to provider, so, buyer beware.
Site Fees
Posting projects is free for buyers.
As a STANDARD provider, you may join free of charge. This grants you 10 monthly bids, and you have to pay a commission of 10% on each project you are awarded (a minimum fee of $5 applies).
As a GOLD member, you pay $10 per month, and all your commissions are waived.
SPONSOR members pay $10 per month for the privilege of being able to post their contact info on bids. However, if they choose to get paid through the site, they still have to pay a 10% commission.
Buyer Tips
You can buy a featured option for your project for $20. When you do this, providers do not have to pay commission fees, then their bids can get lower. Additionally, they can share their contact info with you, and your project has a greater exposure on the site. The site does not allow an employer to close a listed opportunity prematurely, so those who find a provider elsewhere have to wait it out and let the bids keep rolling in, not good for buyers or providers as it essentially wastes peoples time while giving the impression the site is more active than it is.
Provider Tips
While the SPONSOR membership gives you a lot of freedom, in the way of contact info exchange; one of the reasons we are all using these sites is actually to be protected from bad buyers (or bad providers). By choosing to work outside the site, you save on commissions, but you might earn in headaches. This is coming from someone who once didn´t demand an escrow payment and suffered the consequences...
Our Verdict
This seems to be a cool site, if you are a joomla expert or similar. It also seems to be simple and reliable, and it is free to try, so, no harm in that. The interface is ok but an enhanced feedback and ratings system combined with some tweaks to the marketplace software would not go amiss.
