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A Brilliant Systems product
Open Lance: Hire for free. Earn 100%.
An escrow-protected marketplace where hiring costs nothing and freelancers keep everything.
0%
Freelancer commission
Free
To post and hire
100%
Escrow-protected
4
Ways to hire
The problem
What Open Lance fixes.
Four things are wrong with how freelance marketplaces work, and every one of them is a deliberate choice by the platform rather than a hard constraint.
-
01
The commission
The large marketplaces deduct a percentage of what a freelancer earns, on every job, for the life of the relationship. On a long engagement it becomes the single largest deduction they face, and it is charged whether or not the platform did anything.
-
02
Somebody has to trust first
Either the freelancer starts work on a promise that the money exists, or the client pays out on a promise that the work will arrive. Whoever moves first carries the risk, and the platform charges both of them for a dispute process they hope never to use.
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03
The clearance wait
Work is approved and the money still does not arrive for days. That delay is a treasury decision made by the platform, not a technical limit, and it is the freelancer who finances it.
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04
Pay to bid
When proposal credits scale with contract value, the people who can afford to bid on the largest jobs are the ones who already have money. New freelancers are priced out of exactly the work that would establish them.
What it is
A marketplace that takes nothing from the work.
Most freelance marketplaces take a percentage of every payment a freelancer receives. Open Lance takes none. Clients fund a milestone into escrow before work starts, the freelancer delivers knowing the money is committed rather than promised, and approval releases payment immediately. Neither side has to extend trust to a stranger.
How it works
How a milestone moves
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01
Funded
The client locks the milestone amount into escrow before any work begins.
-
02
In progress
The freelancer works knowing the budget is committed, not promised.
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03
Approved
The client reviews the delivery. Approval is what triggers payment.
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04
Released
Funds move to the freelancer’s wallet, instantly on the Ultra tier.
Ways to hire
Four contract types, one payment engine.
Most marketplaces support one shape of work and bolt the rest on. These four share the same escrow, the same reputation and the same dispute process.
Fixed price
Post a defined job with milestones agreed upfront, releasing payment as each one is approved.
Hourly
Hire by the hour against a transparent work diary. You review and approve the hours.
Dedicated hire
Bring someone on full-time for a monthly engagement. Your own dedicated team member.
Categories of work
- Development & IT
- Design & Creative
- Writing & Translation
- Sales & Marketing
- Data & Analytics
- Mobile & Web
What protects you
The protections, in plain terms.
Every marketplace claims to be safe. These are the specific mechanisms, and they are the same ones we would build into your system.
Fair bidding
One proposal costs one flat bid, whatever the project is worth. Budget does not buy visibility.
Neutral mediation
Disputes go to a neutral process rather than whichever side pays the platform more.
Verified reputation
Ratings attach to completed contracts, so a profile cannot be inflated.
256-bit SSL
Payments encrypted in transit, with major card networks supported.
What it took to build
The same engineering we would bring to your build.
- Escrow, split ledgers and dispute states. Money that is held, released or reversed has to reconcile to the cent, every time.
- A two-sided marketplace with reputation, search and matching that stays fair as both sides grow.
- Four distinct contract types sharing one payment engine, rather than four bolted-together products.
Next step
Building a marketplace or a payments platform?
The escrow, milestone and dispute logic behind Open Lance is the kind of work we do for clients. A senior engineer reads every enquiry and replies within one business day with an honest assessment.
