Struggling to Hire Developers on Upwork? We Spent Two Years Building this Assessment Platform…Now It’s Helping Solo Entrepreneurs and 9-Figure Businesses

Struggling to hire a developer on Upwork?

I know how you feel.

Three years after hiring my first developer on Upwork, I’m still fixing bugs in their code. I’ve spent 5x the original project costs fixing the damage.

And after doing hours and hours of research…I realised I am not alone.

Common complaints about Upwork include: 

• Upwork is full of agencies masquerading as freelancers
• Your project is often handed to low-paid, overseas developers
• There are hundreds of ways to game Upwork’s systems

So, all is hope lost?

Not yet!

After my own Upwork nightmare, I spent two years building an automated tool that made hiring on Upwork not just possible…but easy.

I’ve had everyone from solo entrepreneurs to the CTO of a 9-figure business using it.

So if Upwork is driving you insane...

In this blog, I’m going to show you how to use Upwork to hire a good developer in minutes!

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4 Reasons Why Upwork Sucks for Hiring Freelance Developers

Upwork has become a popular platform for businesses seeking freelance developers. 

And it's easy to see why.

The things I like about Upwork are:

• There’s a large choice of talented developers
• The hiring process is quick and painless
• It’s easy to setup a profile and post jobs

BUT.

Many users have been driven insane with Upwork.

After spending a week delving into Reddit threads and tech forums, I’ve identified four primary reasons why hiring developers on Upwork is so difficult.

First, let me tell you my experience quickly.

My 40-Hour Upwork Disaster

About three years ago, I was on Upwork looking to hire a developer skilled in Symfony to help me build a web application.

You might wonder why I wanted to use Upwork. 

If you didn’t know…our company EliteBrains has helped companies like PwC and Novartis hire high-quality developers to build websites, web applications, CRMs, mobile apps and more…

(Our difference with Upwork is that we act as the intermediary for payments, we source the developer ourselves, and provide customer support along the way.)

But here’s the thing.

A few years ago, Symfony wasn’t a very popular PHP framework and we had a shortage of experienced Symfony developers in our own developer pool.

I usually used LinkedIN to acquire new full-time developers for EliteBrains…

But I just needed a short-term hire.

So I thought, “This is what Upwork is for, right?”

I was also curious to check out our competitors, so I tried to use Upwork properly by doing things like:

• Following some guides on best practices
• Checking the profiles of everyone who responded to my job offer
• Only selecting people who fit criteria (like 2,000 hours logged on Upwork, a top-rated badge, and over $50,000 in earnings)

After interviewing a few candidates I found a perfect fit.

He was ready to get started on my project in days.

Perfect!

And Then The Problems Started.

First, he missed the initial deadline.

Over the following weeks, I chased him down multiple times, only to receive further excuses. 

But the real kicker? 

It’s now been three years since he finally delivered, and my team is still struggling with bugs in the code he left behind.

I’ve spent at least five times the project costs just to fix his work.

That’s the real cost of hiring a bad developer on Upwork: you pay for a 40-hour project, only to end up with it costing you years of extra work.

It’s a nightmare. 

But after spending a week combing through Reddit forums and doing research, I realized my experience wasn’t unique. 

Similar horror stories from other users filled the threads.

Here’s the top 4 reasons I found:

1. Most Developers on Upwork Are Actually Agencies

One of the most common complaints about Upwork is that many “freelancers” on the platform are, actually, agencies. 

They look like a freelancer.

They talk like a freelancer.

But the person you speak with on Upwork is just an agency owner – someone who won’t touch a single line of code but outsources the actual work to someone else.

This is probably the biggest complaint about Upwork.

Here’s some of the complaints I found on a Reddit thread:

2. You Can’t Rely On Reviews

After my experience with that developer three years ago, I suspected something was weird about Upwork’s review system.

I left my Upwork developer a one-star review.

But when I checked back while researching for this article, my review was nowhere to be seen. 

In fact, the guy’s profile still has a perfect 5.0 rating.

What the hell, right?

It turns out Upwork had a feature that allowed Top Rated freelancers to remove feedback from their Job Success Score (JSS). 

They could manipulate their public-facing ratings and delete comments from their profile. 

But there’s another, even bigger issue. 

Over the years, a sub-industry has developed selling fake reviews on Upwork. 

HackerNoon did an exposé on this practice a few years back, uncovering businesses that were selling Upwork reviews. 

Of course, Upwork doesn’t condone this practice, and a few of the links from the original HackerNoon article are no longer active.

But it took me one Google search to find a site selling Upwork reviews for $0.80 each.

So…yeah.

It used to be possible to remove feedback from your Job Success Score. According to Upwork this feature isn’t available anymore…but it’s still possible to report feedback a freelancer wants to remove.

3. Fake Profiles

Agencies game the Upwork system all the time.

I found a Reddit post from a guy who hired a developer based in Houston, Texas. But the developer was actually in Russia.

Of course, there are skilled developers all over the world. 

But it shows people will exploit Upwork's systems.

4. Most Good Developers on Upwork Aren’t Looking for Work 

Here’s another insight.

I found a Reddit thread from an agency owner who had made $4 million on Upwork with a team of outsourced developers. 

I came across an interesting comment.

They said: “I’ve never picked a big client from submitting the proposal.”

A couple of developers replied saying that’s how they were finding work too:

I think this explains why finding developers is so hard on Upwork:

• (Usually) good developers are already busy with work
• So they won’t see your job offers 
• So you only get responses from lower-quality developers who don’t have any programing work on
• Or you get responses from agency owners who aren’t doing any programming work anyway

The reality is that the top freelancers—the ones you truly want to hire—are often too busy with ongoing work to actively hunt for new projects.

Just another reason why Upwork sucks!

The Secret to Hiring Good Developers on Upwork

A couple of years ago it hit me.

At EliteBrains, one of our core benefits is that we source freelancer developers on behalf of our clients.

But we have a pool of over 8,300 developers to choose from.

So how do we know which developer is best?

We built a series of interactive, real-world coding tests to help us screen our developers’ programming skills quickly and effectively. 

And That’s When I Had a Brainwave

“What if people could use our coding tests to quickly screen freelance developers on Upwork?”

It’s a perfect solution because:

• Agency owners wouldn’t be able to complete the tests
• You’d get instant feedback on a developer’s quality 
• No one would be able to game the system without you knowing it

Now.

You might be thinking, “But, aren’t there other coding test platforms already out there?” 

And you’re right.

But none of them are built to help you screen a developer on Upwork.

Here’s why.

Why Coding Test Platforms like HackerRank Aren’t a Good Fit to Hiring on Upwork 

When it comes to screening developers, there are plenty of coding test tools out there – HackerRank is probably the best known.

But HackerRank isn’t a good solution for Upwork.

Why?

For starters, HackerRank works with a monthly subscription plan. 

What if you literally only need to hire one developer?

You have to sign up for a subscription you don’t want.

And one other thing.

You’re looking at a $450 monthly Pro plan to screen 25 users…and if you want to test any more developers you have to engage with HackerRank’s sales team for custom options. 

In other words, HackerRank is built for helping businesses hire full-time developers on a permanent basis.

It’s not for hiring short-term freelance developers through Upwork.

So, what’s the solution? 

I ended up with the whole of EliteBrains’ software development team working on creating a coding test platform for a period of over two years…

We created coding tests that would give an analysis on the most important skills like:

• Code fixing
• Code writing
• Code knowledge

The idea was to make these challenges quick to create, quick to complete, and as close to real project requirements as possible.

Within minutes, you’d have results in your hands to see who was genuinely skilled and who was an agency owner masquerading as a freelancer.

Perfect for anyone hiring on Upwork.

Keep reading for a quick breakdown of how our coding tests work.

7 Steps to Using EliteBrains Coding Tests

Step 1: Use our free trial

Visit our Coding Tests page and click the button “Create Coding Test For Free”.

Step 2: Choose Your Technology

We currently have 34 technologies to choose from.

In 2025, this will be expanded to 120.

You can choose just one or multiple technologies from this screen.

Step 3: Select the Difficulty

Is your project simple or complex?

You can select the difficulty required on the next screen.

Step 4: Review the Test

Here you can check the number of questions prepared for you, the type of question, and the estimated time.

As you can see – most of the coding tests are really quick to complete.

Step 5: Add More Questions (Optional)

If you like, you can click the button “Add Questions from Library”.

Here you can see the other questions available we have and the level of difficulty. 

Click “Add to Test” to add more.

Step 6: Send to Candidate/s

You can then send the test to your candidate.

You need only their full name and email.

With the EliteBrains free trial, you get 3 free credits for you to test out the platform.

Step 7: Review Results

Once your candidate has completed the test, you’ll be able to see an automated breakdown of their results. 

It shows you a score out of 100% on how they performed.

4 Weeks After Launching Coding Tests on Our Website…the CTO of a Company doing $500 Million a Year Started Using it!

In 2023, I put our coding test platform on the website.

I offered a straightforward pricing model: pay-as-you-go credits. 

To make it easy for anyone to try, each new user gets a free trial with three credits, and after that, it’s just $14.90 per invitation. 

No monthly fee.

Just a simple, on-demand model that would work for someone hiring on Upwork.

And just four after launching our platform, I found the tech lead and the CTO of the national postal agency for a country in East Asia (and doing over $500 million in annual revenue) using the platform.

I was blown away!

When I reached out to follow up, they told me they were using the platform in exactly the way I intended:

• they received multiple responses to a job proposal
• they purchased the credits they needed
• they picked the best candidates for a quick interview

What they liked best was that there was no product tie-in.

They use our coding tests only when they need to hire a developer — which is exactly what they’ve been doing.

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10 Tips to Use EliteBrains Coding Tests to Hire Your Next Developer

Our EliteBrains Coding Tests help you solve the #1 problem with hiring developers on Upwork: agencies masquerading as freelancers and giving your work to low-paid, low-quality subcontractors.

But for best results you need to use it wisely.

Here are 10 tips I’ve gathered from people who have positive experiences from Upwork.

1. Use Freelancers, Not Agencies

When hiring on Upwork, work with freelancers rather than agencies. 

With freelancers you know who’s handling your project. 

Agencies can tell you everything you want to hear but you have no idea if your work is done to a good quality until it’s too late.

If you suspect a profile represents an agency, just ask: “Are you doing the work yourself or subcontracting it?”

In any case when you’re using EliteBrains Coding Tests you’ll need the candidates’ email address. 

So you will find out anyway if an agency owner is handing the work to someone else.

TIP: Only consider an agency if your project needs developers with different skills (like front-end and back-end). In this case, ask for the emails of everyone working on your project, and test each of them to check their skills. 

2. Check the Project History of Candidates

Don’t rely on Upwork reviews. 

Instead, check a freelancer’s project history and look for live projects.

3. Check Past Payments

Upwork allows freelancers to hide their earnings.

While it’s not an immediate red flag, it might mean they bought fake reviews and want to hide the $5 or $10 projects where they were just buying reviews. 

if you get a proposal, look for the freelancer’s full payment history.

4. Check If Their Work Is at a Consistent Rate

It’s positive when a freelancer has a steady history of working at the same hourly rate. 

If you see a high rate or a limited number of contracts, it may mean they’re inexperienced but trying to raise their earnings artificially. 

5. Offer a Good Rate

Like anything in life, you get what you pay for. 

Offering a good rate attracts experienced freelancers who can deliver quality work. 

A poor developer doesn’t just cost you the initial project fee—they can cost you three years of bug fixes (that happened to me!). 

6. Pay Per Project or Milestone

Paying per project or milestone allows you to keep control over the work (and find out early when a hire isn’t a good fit). 

Later, when you have an established relationship, you may want to change the payment structure, but it’s best to start with a milestone-based approach.

7. Start with a Small Project

Before handing over the main project, assign a smaller task to check the freelancer’s quality.

8. Request Source Code at Each Milestone

Request the source code at each milestone, along with an update on the timeline. 

Or ask them to use a GitHub repository, which allows you to review changes and track progress in real-time.

9. Find Good Developers and Send Invitations

The top developers on Upwork are busy with ongoing projects and rarely submit proposals.

There’s nothing wrong with posting a job listing, but to increase your chances of hiring great talent, take some time to search for developers with strong profiles and send direct invitations. 

10. Use EliteBrains Coding Tests to Screen Candidates

To make your hiring process more efficient and effective, consider my coding tests. 

With automated analysis, you’ll get a quick performance score without having to review every line of code. 

This lets you find developers who can genuinely deliver and gives you confidence that you’re hiring the right person for your project.

Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need to Go Crazy Hiring Developers on Upwork Anymore

Hiring freelance developers on Upwork can be a nightmare.

Unreliable reviews, fake profiles, agency-driven bait and switch…

It makes a great idea a totally unusable platform with expensive consequences, as I discovered myself.

I ended up building myself an automated tool that screens candidates using real-world coding tests. 

Unlike platforms like HackerRank with high monthly fees and product tie-in periods, our solution offers targeted coding challenges to instantly weed out unqualified applicants and identify decent freelancers. 

Shortly after launching EliteBrains Coding Tests on the website, I found both solo entrepreneurs and the CTO from a $500M company using it to streamline their hiring. 

They appreciated the realistic test scenarios and flexibility of only paying for what they needed. 

So if you’re tired of endless interviews and unreliable freelancers, try our coding tests.

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