What fees are charged to employers exactly?

Just to be clear, http://Guru.com does not add anything to a Freelancer's bid amount. The Freelancers are made aware, upfront, that they will be charged either 7.45% (subscribing members) or 11.95% (free members). The only other fees paid by Freelancers are optional membership fees and transfer fees. For example, they opt to receive funds via paper check, they are charged $3 for the processing of the check.

All of the fees are disclosed in the Help Center. Links to the information are also on the Submit Proposal pages and the Create Invoice and Create SafePay request pages.

Freelancers are free to breakdown their quote how they see fit or per the Employer's requirements as stated in the Project Description. We do not require them to eat the fees or pass the fees on. That is an individual's business decision. If a Freelancer surprised you with fees in the end, that's bad business and your feedback on him/her should reflect that. Additionally, if you contact us directly with the Freelancer's information, we will note their business practices to their account and if we see a pattern of Employers being negatively impacted, we'll take action.

All fees should be disclosed up front. If the scope of the project changes, a change order can be submitted describing the changes and the resulting change to compensation.

Help > Freelancer Help Center > Basics > Top Questions > How much does it cost?
Help > Freelancer Help Center > Get Paid > Transaction Fees
Help > Employer Help Center > Basics > Top Questions > How much does it cost?

None, the freelancer "eats" the fees associated with payment. You only pay the bid amount, nothing is added to it.

You have a valid point Starlight. I have encountered problems finding information on Guru regarding several issues including payment methods and all kinds of extra fees. Turns out an initial bid of $1200 went to $1500 then in the final proposal went to $1750 because the freelancer now wants 10% Guru Fees paid as well. I sure would rather have a solid bid “all in” then have to revise my budget for a project. I find it frustrating to have to look for information about how to complete a task (like paying with a credit card) instead of just getting on with it!

Dave,

Thanks for your reply. Tell me this. If you were given a chance to pay the freelancer's fees, let's say by means of a checkbox, would you click it? So if someone quoted you $1,000 and you were awarding the project and it had a checkbox that allowed you to pay the 10% extra (or whatever % it was), would you be inclined to check it?

I'm curious because I would like an option for employers to pay our fees, rather than have to mark up costs for no reason or even to state the reason! Plus the accounting is all off. If I quote $100 on a project, but charge $110, then guru takes $11, leaving me 99. How can I get my $100? The only way is to charge more than 10%, because if I add it to the bid, then they are taking 10% of the fees as well.

Since guru passes their merchant fees along to us, I think it's only fair that we have an accurate way of doing so ourselves, leaving the employer to make the final decision.

Hello again.

To tell you my honest opinion, I would be more inclined to use Guru again if freelancers were able (allowed) to submit a detailed bid (invoice). What I mean is, let’s say a freelancer looks over a project and decides to bid $1000.00. When a freelancer decides to bid they should be directed to an invoice where they can insert the following information.

1.) Total cost for development of project xyz.

2.) Total time it will take.

3.) Milestone payment dates based on #2 above. (I object to tying up 100% escrow for over a month).

4.) Additional charges such as Guru’s commission. (This should be flexible to allow 50% - 50% sharing or whatever creative financing can be agreed upon).

5.) Description of any additional costs or charges. (Guru needs to supply this information. All items such as credit card fees etc. Need to be disclosed here).

6.) Final bottom line overall cost of project.

Now, in answer to your question regarding a tick box, if all above were available to see with each bid I would definitely be inclined to either negotiate further or click the text box when I was satisfied.

An employer has no way of knowing if any bid is valid because he/she isn’t an expert in coding or software development. It becomes a matter of doing due diligence and some investigation to decide if the bid is fair value. Also, the freelancer’s profile and feedback is certainly a very critical part of choosing someone. I was, to say the least, disappointed at looking at a bid of $1200 go to $1500 and when asked for a final proposal – to $1700. I get the first bump because I gave the freelancer a lot more information with which to make his final bid.

If I can digress for a second, in Canada now it is law that advertisers must print total costs in large print for travel related products. We used to see things like “Vancouver to Germany $99.00 while seats last” in big bold print. In the smallest print available it also stated that $976.00 + $137.00 taxes and fees apply. So I guess what I’m inferring here is, if I’m advertising a project, please tell me up front right away how much you as a freelancer are going to charge me. Don’t make me wait 3 or more days emailing back and forth to get you to say there are additional charges.

In conclusion, I think Guru is doing both its clients a disservice by not advertising all related costs, fees and additional charges which will automatically be added to an employer’s project. I would like to see a system where freelancers have some latitude dealing with Guru Commissions and employers have the opportunity to see a complete cost of project immediately upon submission by the freelancer.

A little verbose but does this help?

Best Regards

Dave