Compare — ProDevs vs Upwork
An Upwork alternative for hiring vetted African developers.
Upwork is the biggest open freelance marketplace, and for many jobs it is the right tool. ProDevs is narrower: a vetted network of developers, data specialists and designers, mostly across Africa, matched to your project brief. Here is an honest comparison.
01 Side by side
Curated matching versus an open marketplace.
Both platforms protect milestone payments with escrow. The main differences are who can propose on your project, and how much screening is left to you.
Who can work on your project
- ProDevs
- A vetted network: talent is assessed by the ProDevs technical team, including skills assessments on Evalia, before they can work on client projects.
- Upwork
- An open marketplace: freelancers create a profile and can propose on public jobs. Profiles show reviews, earnings history and Upwork’s own success scores; checking actual skills is largely up to you.
How you find people
- ProDevs
- Describe the project; we turn it into a brief and invite vetted talent whose skills match. Proposals typically arrive within 48 hours.
- Upwork
- Post a job and receive proposals from any freelancer who applies, or search profiles and invite people yourself.
Breadth of the talent pool
- ProDevs
- Focused: software engineering, data, AI, infrastructure, QA, design and product, with a network concentrated across Africa.
- Upwork
- Very broad: freelancers worldwide across technology, design, writing, marketing, admin and many other categories.
Payment protection
- ProDevs
- Each milestone is funded into escrow when you hire and released only when you approve the work.
- Upwork
- Fixed-price milestones are funded into escrow and released on approval; hourly contracts have Upwork’s own protection terms.
Client fees
- ProDevs
- Free to post. A flat 5% client fee on each payment, and nothing else.
- Upwork
- A marketplace fee on payments plus a contract fee; the rates depend on your plan and payment method and have changed over time. Check Upwork’s pricing page for current numbers.
If the project becomes a job
- ProDevs
- The same team can recruit a full-time hire, employ and pay staff in Africa for you, or build a dedicated product team.
- Upwork
- Upwork offers paid business plans and an enterprise offering for larger teams.
Upwork details reflect publicly available information about Upwork at the time of writing and may change. Upwork is a trademark of Upwork Inc.; ProDevs is not affiliated with Upwork.
02 Which to use
When Upwork is still the better choice.
We would rather you use the right tool than the wrong one. If any of these describe your job, Upwork is probably a better fit.
Use Upwork when…
- You need non-technical work — writing, marketing, admin, translation — which ProDevs does not cover.
- The job is tiny (an hour or two) and not worth writing a brief for.
- You want to review many profiles and interview candidates yourself, and have the time to screen them.
- You need someone in a specific country or time zone outside the markets ProDevs recruits in.
- You already have freelancers on Upwork with a track record you trust.
Use ProDevs when…
- You are building or fixing software, data or AI, and want people who have already been assessed.
- You would rather receive a handful of matched proposals than screen a long list of bids.
- You want to work with developers in Africa, often with good time-zone overlap with the UK and Europe.
- The project might turn into a full-time role or a team, and you want one partner for both.
03 Fees
One fee, stated plainly.
Posting a project on ProDevs is free. When you pay a milestone, a 5% client fee is added on top of the amount agreed with the freelancer. There is no subscription and no fee to receive proposals.
- to post a project
- Free
- client fee on each payment
- 5%
04 Questions
ProDevs and Upwork, answered.
-
Is ProDevs cheaper than Upwork?
It depends on your Upwork plan and payment method, which set Upwork’s fees. ProDevs charges clients a flat 5% on payments and nothing to post. On both platforms the freelancer’s own rate is usually a bigger part of the cost than the platform fee, so compare the proposals you receive.
-
Does ProDevs use open bidding?
Not open to everyone. Your project is shown to vetted talent whose skills match the brief, and they send proposals with a price and an approach. You still choose between proposals, but every one comes from someone who has passed our assessment.
-
Do I get escrow like on Upwork?
Yes. You fund each milestone into escrow when you hire, and the payment is released only when you approve that milestone’s work.
-
Is ProDevs only for hiring developers in Africa?
Our network is concentrated across Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa, and our clients are in the UK, Europe, North America and Africa. The work is remote.
-
What kinds of projects fit ProDevs best?
Defined software, data, AI and design work: an MVP, a new feature or integration, a dashboard or data pipeline, an upgrade or a set of fixes, or designs for a product flow.
-
Is ProDevs affiliated with Upwork?
No. Upwork is a trademark of Upwork Inc. This page compares the two services based on publicly available information at the time of writing.
Post a project
Describe the project. Get vetted proposals.
Free to post. Proposals from vetted freelance developers within 48 hours, and escrow on every milestone.