Compare · Holdy vs Upwork

No 24-month clause on your client.

Upwork's 10% fee comes with a non-circumvention clause that rents you your own clients for two years. Holdy is 5–8%, no lock-in, scope hashed at funding, payouts the same day.

The fine print

The clause nobody reads

Upwork's Terms of Service include a 24-month non-circumvention clause. If you find a client on Upwork, or a client finds you there, you cannot work with them outside Upwork for 24 months after your last contract ends.

Even if that client is someone you already knew. Even if they found your website through Google and just happened to message you on Upwork first. The moment a relationship touches Upwork, it belongs to Upwork for two years.

This means you're effectively renting your client relationship from Upwork. You do the work, build the trust, deliver great results, but you can't take that relationship with you without waiting two years or continuing to pay Upwork's fee.

Holdy has no such clause. Your clients are yours. Always.

The real cost

Side by side on a €1,000 deal

Upwork

€100 fee

10% flat rate. You keep €900.

But if the client wants to work with you directly next time, you can't for 24 months. Or you keep paying Upwork anyway.

Holdy

€65 fee

6.5% at this deal size. You keep €935.

The client is yours forever. Next deal can be on Holdy again, or not. Your choice.

€350

saved over 10 deals

€4,200

saved over a year at 10 deals/month

Honest take

Who should use what

Stay on Upwork if:

  • You need Upwork to find clients for you

  • You rely on the Upwork algorithm and JSS score

  • You're building a profile from scratch with no existing network

Switch to Holdy if:

  • You already have clients who contact you directly

  • You're tired of the 24-month lock-in

  • You want scope locked upfront instead of negotiating milestones

  • You want faster payouts without the clearance period

Feature by feature

The boring details, on one page

  Upwork Holdy
Platform commission 10% flat 5–8% (tiered)
Non-circumvention clause 24 months None
Client relationship Owned by Upwork Yours
Scope locked at funding No (renegotiated per milestone) SHA-256 hashed brief
Payout speed 5–10 day security hold Same day on approval
Auto-settle Manual milestones 7 days after delivery
Dispute review Trust & Safety queue Hashed brief as evidence
Algorithm dependence JSS score & profile rank None, you bring the client
Anonymized switcher

A Berlin dev who got out of the queue

JSS 96

Upwork score before leaving

3

Clients moved off-platform

€7,820

Saved in 12 months

0

Days in payout hold

A Berlin-based backend dev had three long-running Upwork clients on retainer at €3,200–€5,500/mo each. The 10% cut plus the 5-day clearance was bleeding cashflow. He waited out the 24-month clause on his oldest contract, then onboarded all three to Holdy. Same scope, same retainer cadence, but priced as a single Commit Link per month with the brief hashed at funding. Net effect: €7,820 kept over the year, no more JSS anxiety, and clients paid on a card they were already using.

Keep the client. Lose the clause.

Move your existing clients to Holdy in five minutes. Lower fees, same-day payouts, and a hashed brief instead of a JSS score.

Create your first Commit Link

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