How projects are shared

Post your project for free. After a quick review, we share it with up to 3 providers that offer the service you need and match your preferences. Each one that accepts sends a quote within a business day, and you compare them side by side: price, timeline, team and approach.

You can message each provider privately from your account. Your email and phone stay private until you reply to a provider, click "Share my contact details", or hire them. When you hire, the other providers are told politely, so nobody is left waiting. If you request a quote from a specific company, only that company receives it, unless you allow us to share it with similar agencies if they can't take it on.

• Only profiles that the company has claimed, so someone is there to respond.
• The company must offer the project's main service and match the buyer's location preference.
• Buyers choose who they want to work with: agencies, freelancers and freelance teams, or both. Projects only go to the types the buyer picked, so agencies and freelancers never compete for a project that wasn't meant for them.
• Of the 3 places on each project, 2 go to Pro agencies and 1 is always kept for a free agency. If fewer Pro agencies are available, free agencies get those places too, and the other way round.
• Pro agencies also take strict turns among themselves, and each receives at most 3 projects a day, so no single agency takes everything.
• The daily and weekly limits share projects fairly when there are enough providers. If nobody else who matches is available, they're waived (in the same rotation order) so the buyer still gets quotes.

Free agencies take strict turns. The free place on a project goes to the matching free agency that has waited longest, and agencies that have never received a project go first. After receiving one, you move to the back of the line, so nobody gets a second project until every other matching free agency has had one.

• Accepting a project, or not answering in time, uses your turn.
• Declining before the time is up, with a reason, keeps your place in line (up to 3 times a month). An honest, quick "not a fit" is always better than silence.
• After 3 missed projects in a row, your profile is paused from the rotation until you tell us you're available again.
• Free agencies receive up to 2 projects every 7 days. After that, the next free agency in line gets them.

Each provider has 1 hour of its own business hours to accept or decline, and then 1 business day to send its quote. You set your time zone, hours and working days, so a project that arrives at night starts counting when your day begins. If you decline, or the time runs out at either step, the place goes to the next provider in line.

A project stops looking for providers when 3 quotes have arrived, or after 48 hours. In categories with few providers, we invite more companies in daily waves for up to 4 days, and the project stays open up to 7 days so newly joined providers can quote.

100 leads for $199, with no expiry and no subscription. While you have leads left, you're in the Pro rotation and show the Pro badge.

• A lead is used only when you accept a project. Declined or missed offers cost nothing.
• If the buyer never opens your quote or writes to you within 7 days, the lead goes back into your pack automatically. You can also report a buyer who stops replying.
• If you accept but don't send a quote in time, the lead is returned and the place goes to the next provider.
• Direct quote requests, where a buyer picked you, never use a lead.

More about the Pro pack

• Verified: we've confirmed the company is who it says it is. It can't be bought.
• Identity verified: for freelancers and freelance teams, every person on the profile confirmed by email and was checked by our review team.
• Pro: the company has Pro pack leads.
• Usually responds within 1 hour: earned by answering projects quickly. Free and Pro agencies can both earn it.