Show HN: A fair, simple and free alternative to freelancing platforms | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A fair, simple and free alternative to freelancing platforms

freelancerprotocol.com

26 pointstollie9312 comments

I’d like to start by saying I find it completely normal freelancing platforms charge you as they do for the service of finding clients for freelancers.

Freelancer Protocol is for people who haven’t met on a platform and need a framework to engage in a standard deal. Deal finalisation (deliverable against money) is conditioned to the client accepting a demo (link or video) of the working code. The framework has basic features, like paperwork generation (invoice & contract) and communication (chat and file share).

I just integrate with Stripe for payment & invoice. After checking out a couple of APIs, decided to go with https://esignatures.io/ for online contracts/signatures. They charge per contract and have the features I need (Templates mgmt + Zapier integration).

Please let me know if you know a better way for me to integrate chat (right now I use the firebase db and messages load with a little lag, it’s not a meant for this use case). Feel free to reach out to hello@freelancerprotocol.com or in the comments.

I think the explanation you have above ("...for people who haven’t met on a platform and need a framework to engage in a standard deal") does not come across in your website copy. My impression from your website was that it was just an alternative to Upwork, etc.

Perhaps consider making it more clear what it is you do - something like "Contract and escrow service for freelancers" or something along that line, rather than the current "A fair, simple and free alternative...".

Also, the flow diagram under "How it works" is helpful, but please don't repeat the animation. I was still busy reading the part under what happens when the client rejects when the diagram was cleared and the animation started again. Even better would be if you don't animate it at all as I think it goes too fast for non-native English readers such as myself.

Best of luck with the platform!

thanks a ton for the much appreciated feedback... will make changes accordingly!

For anyone else that's having trouble reading the flow diagram because of the animation:

    +------------------------------------+
    |         Milestone starts           |
    |                                    |
    | when both parties accept its terms |
    +------------------------------------+
                      |
                      | Money is transferred
                      | into escrow account
                      V
  +-----------------------------------------+
  |           Freelancer uploads            |
  |                                         |
  | a demo (link or video) and deliverable. |
  |      Client only receives the demo      |
  +-----------------------------------------+
          |                             |
         / \                           / \
        /   \                         /   \
       /     \                       /     \
      /       \                     /       \
     < Accepts >                   < Rejects >
      \       /                     \       /
       \     /                       \     /
        \   /                         \   /
         \ /                           \ /
          |                             |
          V                             |
  +---------------------------------+   |
  |     Transaction gets made       |   |
  |                                 |   |
  | Freelancer receives the money,  |   |
  | Client receives the deliverable |   |
  +---------------------------------+   |
                                        V
   +-----------------------------------------+
   |               Lose-lose                 |
   |                                         |
   | Freelancer only receives a third of the |
   |    sum, rest is paid back to client.    |
   | Client doesn't receive the deliverable. |
   +-----------------------------------------+

many thanks!!! just lost the animation for readability

here's the picture: https://www.freelancerprotocol.com/howitworks.png

If the customers rejects the deliverable the freelancer gets 1/3 and the client gets 2/3 back...I'm not in the freelance world, but doesn't that incentive the freelancer not working at their best? If their deliverable is accepted, they got 100% of the money at less work, and if it's rejected, they get paid anyway.

I wonder if one can optimize that balance to abuse this structure.

Yeah totally, but that's the least worst system I can think of though.

We could exclude any freelancer that abuses this structure to just get the 'easy third' and any clients that repeatedly reject whatever freelancers do even when it corresponds to their requirements.

I'm always looking for a more fair and less hackable model though.

What if the freelancer does excellent work and the work is still rejected by the client for whatever reason? The client may have changed their mind about the whole body of work or completely changed spec. Why should the freelancer not get the full amount?

for each milestone, there's a thorough description of what's the end of the deliverable, the 'specs'. It can be changed during the project's lifetime by any party if the other agrees to the change.

A client that rejects the demo has to justify in what regards it doesn't respect these terms, if not, it's a breach (of freelancer protocol rules and of the contract).

Maybe I should make this more explicit on the landing page?

Could you elaborate more on business model? Commonlyfree projects which are hosted costs money. So eventually you need to charge money or sell data. I'm totally ok with flat fee, not so much with my data used for something.

Absolutely. I'm thinking of maybe charging for (optional) paid features: like arbitrage services (a 'judge' if things go wrong) or engaging in more complex contracts (like income share agreements, or company shares against deliverable)

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