The potential of Freelancing in South Africa is underestimated. Finding people to join your team has never been simpler.
Whether you’re a startup or a well-established company, hiring a freelancer from South Africa would benefit both the company and the freelancer.
Here are the seven best sites to find freelancers from South Africa, but first let us tell you what freelancing is all about.
What is freelancing?
Freelancers are self-employed and while building their own personal brand they can still be employed part-time, full-time or on a contract basis.
Freelancers are often in charge of a variety of tasks that typical employers are not, including scheduling their own job hours, keeping track of time spent on various due dates and tasks, billing customers, and paying their own company or income taxes.
Benefits of freelancing include that work hours are flexible, for instance, meetings that can be scheduled according to a mutual agreement, contracts are customizable and you don’t have to pay for your employee’s work-related resources such as Wi-Fi, office stationery and equipment.
A Freelancing platform also allows you to view possible candidate’s reviews, recommendation and referrals from past work thus, the decision to hire a particular individual will be easier since you’ll be aware of the quality you will receive.
The best freelancing platform for you will depend on your requirements, budget and resources.
But where to find a Freelancer from South Africa? Start here:
Fiverr
This platform is specifically designed for small once-off task jobs, such as editing a video or setting up a WordPress website, assisting with SEO or reviewing a marketing plan.
To find a freelancer from South Africa you simply have to use the location filter in the search function. You can also post a buyer request with all the necessary job details and specify the location.
The most popular jobs on Fiverr is content marketing related jobs. We highly recommend Fiverr if you’re looking for a freelance blog/article writer, copywriter or social media content creator.
A great feature Fiverr offers is that it provides buyers with the option to ‘pay per milestone” which allows the buyer to pay in small settlements as work is completed.
Additionally, orders can be cancelled or revised if you are not satisfied. Fiverr makes it easy to create customizable and personalized job offers. In this way, you will not pay extra for what you don’t use or need.
Upwork
Upwork’s aim is to connect businesses of all sizes to any skilled individual they might need.
Finding a freelancer from South Africa is as simple as creating a job offer and adjusting the settings to be visible only to freelancers from South Africa.
Freelancers will get the chance to submit their proposals and cover letters. You can expect a response in less than 24 hours.
According to your preferences, you can choose the best candidates and schedule meetings with the qualified respondents making use of the Upwork in-site function that allows for real-time face to face meetings.
You can also draw up a written questionnaire in the job offer beforehand if you do not have time for multiple interviews to decide which candidate best fit the position.
Since Upwork offers contract, full-time and part-time jobs it is very beneficial when you’re looking for a temporary replacement for an open position, also when you’re looking for employees that are flexible and can work remotely.
South African Freelancers Association (SAFREA)
SAFREA is a non-profit organisation that aims to empower the workforce of South Africa and provide them with more opportunity to find work and providing employers with a platform to sourced qualified media-related freelancers online.
On SAFREA you will find the best freelance content writers, graphic designers, translators, editors and photographers (to name a few) from South Africa.
We recommend SAFREA if you’re looking for people that understand the South African culture, are natives from South Africa and familiar with the spoken languages especially for any translation work required.
SAFREA is a great place to source freelancers to assist with marketing or communication-related tasks.
NoSweat Work
If you don’t have time to actively search for qualified freelancers, NoSweat Work has the solution. Get value for your money. They’ll do the work for you and provide you with the top-tier talent from South Africa to assist with your marketing needs.
NoSweat Work currently also specialises in marketing media, advertising, film, IT and software development. We recommend this platform if you have a fast-growing business and looking to expand. Opting for NoSweat Work will benefit you in many ways, being both cost-effective and time-efficient.
People per hour
An alternative for Upwork and Fiverr is People per hour. These are project-based jobs and people get paid per hour, hence the name “people per hour”.
We definitely recommend this platform if you’re looking for a freelancer who is specialised in the particular skill set you require for a specific project. Such as writing a custom code for a website or developing a business plan in a certain industry.
An excellent feature of people per hour is their Artificial Intelligence automation system that will match your project description with the best freelancers available and skilled for the job.
This feature is also location-based, so if you require a freelancer from South Africa they will match the best with your project description.
Linkedin is more official and authentic than any other platform. Since via the other platforms people can choose to work for you anonymously. A LinkedIn profile will display the person’s name, experience, background, location and their personal contact details.
If you’re looking for professional people or with a lot of experience, LinkedIn is probably the better option.
There you can also source people for any job and are not limited to the job categories provided by a freelance platform. Another benefit is that if you decide to employ someone, there is no service fee you have to pay.
Facebook is not the conventional way to find freelancers but it offers a great deal of opportunity. There are multiple groups and communities on Facebook you can join, post a job and acquire freelancers. However, you will have to do all the work yourself and there is also no buyers protection like the other platforms provide.
Despite the fact that you are not required to pay service fees or adhere to the terms and conditions of a traditional freelancing website, finding freelancers on Facebook will take more time.
Facebook is great if you’re looking to build a long term relationship with the person your employing and it is usually used if you’re looking for volunteers, or “easy to do jobs” such as admin or data entry, media influencer and a personal or virtual assistant.
The benefits
Hiring a freelancer from South Africa has many benefits. For instance, the cost of work is cheaper due to the exchange rates, it allows for easier tax compliances when your company is registered or situated in South Africa. With freelancing comes flexible work hours and workforce diversification.
Your business will also contribute to the country’s economy by creating job opportunities, especially for people that lost their job during Covid-19.
Remote working is the way forward; you will save a lot of money by hiring freelancers. Cut cost by saving money on office space rentals, utilities, internet cost, office stationery and equipment.
Well there you have it, the 7 best places to find freelancers from South Africa.
