Freelance marketplaces charge between five and twenty percent of what a freelancer earns. The justification is that the platform carries the trust problem: somebody has to move first, and the platform underwrites the risk of that. We think the trust problem is real and that commission is the wrong way to pay for it.
The problem is that somebody has to go first
Either the freelancer starts work on a promise that the client has the money and intends to pay, or the client pays out on a promise that acceptable work will arrive. Whoever moves first carries the exposure. That is a genuine problem and it deserves a genuine solution.
Escrow solves it, and costs nothing per job
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 has not paid anyone yet, so they are equally protected. Release happens when the client approves, and approval is the trigger rather than an invoice that has to be chased.
Once the money moves first, neither party has to trust the other for the job to be safe. And guaranteeing that costs the platform nothing per transaction, which means there is no reason to fund it with a permanent deduction from somebody else’s labour.
So we removed the deduction
Freelancers on Open Lance keep one hundred percent of what they earn. Hiring is free: 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 decisions that follow from the same logic
The clearance wait most platforms impose after approval is a treasury decision, not a technical limit. Where both parties agree to instant release, funds move on approval.
And 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.
