Workana: What It Is, How It Works and What It Charges

What Is Workana?

Workana is a remote work marketplace founded in Buenos Aires in 2012. It brings together clients (companies, entrepreneurs and agencies) who post projects with freelancers who send proposals to complete them: programming, design, marketing, writing, translation, administrative support and more.

It works in Spanish, Portuguese and English, and its strength is Latin America: most of its freelancers live in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and the rest of the region, while clients come from all over the Americas, Spain and the United States.

How Workana Works, Step by Step

The flow is the same one almost every freelance platform uses:

• The client posts a project with a description, required skills and a budget (fixed price or hourly).
• Freelancers send proposals with their price, deadline and an explanation of how they would do the work.
• The client chats with the candidates, picks one and deposits the payment in escrow.
• The freelancer works and delivers; the client approves and the payment is released.
• Both rate each other, and those ratings build each person's reputation.

How Much Does Workana Charge?

According to publicly available information, Workana charges freelancers a tiered commission that depends on how much they have billed with each client: 20% of the first USD 300, 10% up to USD 3,000 and 5% beyond that. It adds a 4.5% service fee for the client.

Example: on a first USD 500 project with a new client, the freelancer pays USD 80 in commission and the client pays a USD 22.50 fee. The platform keeps USD 102.50 out of a USD 500 transaction.

Workana Paid Plans

On top of the commission, Workana offers monthly subscriptions for freelancers (Plus, Professional and Premium) that give you more proposals per week and more visibility. Without a plan, the number of proposals you can send is limited and also depends on your level on the platform.

The Free Alternative: WorkIsThere

WorkIsThere works with exactly the same flow (projects, proposals, real-time chat, workspace, deliveries and ratings), but it charges no commissions and has no paid plans. Every freelancer gets 4 proposals per week and earns 2 permanent proposals for each job they finish.

The main difference is that WorkIsThere does not handle the money: client and freelancer agree on payment directly (bank transfer, Mercado Pago, Pix, PayPal, Payoneer, etc.). That is why nobody takes a cut.