Freelance marketplaces charge between five and twenty percent of what a freelancer earns. They usually justify that charge by pointing to trust. Somebody has to move first, and the platform says it is carrying the risk when that happens.
We think the trust problem is real. We also think commission is the wrong way to pay for it. A permanent deduction from somebody else’s labour is a poor fit for a problem that escrow can solve directly.
The trust problem starts when one side has to move first
Every freelance job has the same basic exposure at the start. One side has to act before the other side has fully delivered.
There are two ways that exposure can fall:
- The freelancer starts work on a promise that the client has the money and intends to pay.
- The client pays out on a promise that acceptable work will arrive.
Whoever moves first carries the risk. That is a real problem, and it deserves a real solution. The mistake is treating that risk as a reason to take between five and twenty percent of every job forever.
Escrow protects both sides without a charge per job
Escrow, a held account between the two sides, changes the order of events. Money is committed before work begins. It leaves the client account and sits in escrow, so the freelancer can see it exists rather than hoping the client will pay later.
The client has not paid the freelancer yet, so they are protected too. The money only releases when the client approves the work. Approval becomes the trigger, rather than an invoice that has to be chased after the job is finished.
Once the money moves first, neither party has to trust the other for the job to be safe. Guaranteeing that costs the platform nothing per transaction. That also means it costs nothing per job in the way commission does. We see no reason to fund it with a permanent deduction from somebody else’s labour.
Open Lance removes the deduction
Freelancers on Open Lance keep one hundred percent of what they earn.
Hiring is free in the specific ways that matter when a client is trying to find people and review options:
- no subscription
- no membership
- no fee to post a job or review proposals
Revenue comes from optional paid tiers, not from a share of the work.
Two smaller choices follow the same logic
The same thinking led to two smaller product decisions.
Approved work can be released without a clearance wait
The clearance wait most platforms impose after approval comes from a treasury decision rather than a technical limit. Where both parties agree to instant release, funds move on approval.
A proposal costs one flat bid
A proposal costs one flat bid whatever the contract is worth. When bidding credits scale with job value, the freelancers who can afford to compete for large work are the ones who already have money. Reputation should decide that, not budget.
We build software for clients for a living. Open Lance is what we do when the client is us, and it is the clearest statement we can make about how we think platforms should treat the people doing the work.
