Guru.com Review 2019: Legit or Scam

Guru.com is a marketplace very similar to Freelancer and UpWork. Back in 1998, the site was opened up in Pittsburgh, PA as “eMoonlighter.com”. Over the years, this company has faced tough competition and changed their name to Guru.com. The CEO of the company Inderpal Guglani and he is well-known in the business world. Like many online businesses they face negative reviews about their company and many people use “word scam to try and destroy a company. Unfortunately, this company doesn’t respond to these negative reviews with the BBB and therefore, they have an F rating. This company is still holding its own and is a strong company despite the scammers who try to about the company. One problem with Guru.com is that they don’t do the best job of keeping the scammers out of their company.

How Does This Work?

The registration is open to anyone who is 18 years of age or older.
When you first register with the company, you’ll set up your account username and password.
Select if you want to join as a freelancer or employer. Each one has multiple options for you to choose from.
The site has a free or paid membership, you can join.
As a freelancer, if you choose the free membership, you are allowed to bid on 10 jobs per month. It is possible you can purchase other bids during the month if there are other jobs you’re interested in bidding on.
1. 20 bids = $10
2. 40 bids = $20
3. 60 bids = $30
4. 125 bids = $50
5. 250 bids = $100
The bids that you receive on your free membership won’t roll over to the next month if they aren’t used. However, if you purchase your bids and don’t use all the bids in the month they will roll over to the next month.
The company has different membership plans you can join:
1. Basic – Free membership – 120 bids per year and 8.95% job fee.
2. Basic + plan – $11.95 per month or $8.95 if paid annually. This gives you 600 bids per year and 8.95% job fee.
3. Professional – $21.95 per month or $15.95 if paid annually. This gives you 600 bids per year and 6.95% job fee.
4. Business – $33.95 per month or $24.95 if paid annually. This gives you 600 bids per year and 5.95% job fee.
5. Executive – $49.95 per month or $39.95 if paid annually. This gives you 600 bids per year and 4.95% job fee.
6. If you need more bids you can purchase the bids at all levels.
Once you’ve finished registering and choosing your membership package, you’ll need to set up your personal profile. This is the most important part if you want to be considered for jobs. Setting up a professional profile will take a bit of time. Make sure you include all your skill and if you have any references.

Additional Costs:

Freelance will pay the company a job fee for each job they’ve completed. The fee that is charged will depend on your membership package. The job fees range from 4.95% to 8.95% per job.
The company also charged a 2.5% handling fee for the employer’s invoice.
The company also has a different cost for skill tests. Once the test has been taken, it will be added to your profile. This will help to land higher paying jobs if you opt to take any of the skill tests.
1. Basic Members Skill Test = $4.95
2. Basic+ Members Skill Test = $2.95
3. All other memberships = Free
The company offers a controversial fee to freelancers to remove negative feedback from their profile. If a freelancer feels that the person they worked for rated them unfairly, they can pay the company to have this rating removed from their profile.

Calculating Your Fees:

This is an open marketplace and there are no set rates that a freelancer can charger. The pay you receive for a job that has been completed is determined by your bid, the competition, and the amount the person is willing to pay you for the job.
There are 4 ways for a freelancer to negotiate their pay:
1. Milestones – this is normally used for longer jobs and allows the freelancer to break the pay down into smaller segments.
2. Tasks – if you are working on a smaller job or multiple small projects, you can charge a person when one of the tasks has been completed.
3. Hourly – this normally works best if you have an established client you’ve been working with for a long period of time.
4. Recurring Payment – if you are working on a long term project, multiple projects, or a client hires you for an extended period of time, you can use this to negotiate a weekly payment or a monthly payment.

How Are You Paid?

The site has set up a Safe Pay system which they use to make sure the person funds the project before the freelancer begins.
The employer can fund the projects in one of four ways:
1. Direct deposit – only for US banks
2. PayPal
3. Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard
4. Wire Transfer – for non-US residences
The jobs are funded before the work begins. Once the work has been completed it is up to the employer to release the funds.
Before the freelancer is paid, the company will deduct their percentage and the invoice charges before they are paid.

Conclusion:

This is a legitimate marketplace, you can join as a freelancer to locate and bid on different jobs. The company does have a basic free account you can use to test the site. However, the paid accounts are rather expensive and don’t really offer you a lot of benefits. If you actually need to bid on more jobs in a month it is cheaper to just buy extra bids. When you are paid for your work the processing fees are a bit high. The site has a rating system that seems a bit unfair, especially if you can pay to have a negative review removed from your profile. This seems a bit unfair to other freelancers who work hard to complete the work and earn an honest rating for the jobs they do The site has been around for years and it is a good alternative to UpWork or Freelancer. You can join the site for free and check out the jobs that are available.