Hiring cost calculator

Put in what you plan to pay over a year and see the total on each platform, fees and subscriptions included. The second view shows the half that usually goes unmentioned: what the freelancer is left with.

What you pay a freelancer in a year

$12,000

$2,000$12,000$60,000

What it costs to hireWhat the freelancer keeps

RemoteHire.ph$12,468
OnlineJobs.ph$12,299
VirtualStaff.ph$13,188
HireTalent.ph$13,056
Upwork$12,608
Fiverr$12,660
Freelancer.com$12,360

Figures last checked 24 Aug 2026. Assumptions are below, in full.

Where every number comes from

RemoteHire.ph: $39 a month, assumed for all twelve. Hiring often takes fewer months than that, so this is the most expensive way to count our own price. The freelancer keeps everything, because we never take a cut of what you pay them.

OnlineJobs.ph: Job board and worker database, Philippines only.

Pro, paid annually. Monthly is $69; Premium is $99 a month or $349 a year. source
“No salary markups or ongoing fees.” Their jobseeker pages describe no charge, though no page says “workers pay nothing” in those words. source
Their own FAQ says the subscription is only needed while you are recruiting, so a single month at $69 is a real option once you have hired.
Pro includes 3 job posts and 75 worker contacts a month; Premium is $349 a year for 10 and 500. Those are capacity limits, not fees.

VirtualStaff.ph: Hiring platform with payroll and compliance admin.

$99 a month per person hired. One seat assumed here. source
“Zero markups: staff receive 100% of the monthly pay.” source
The price is per seat: hiring a second person doubles it, which is the opposite shape to a flat fee.
Payment runs through their invoice, so the platform sits in the middle of the relationship rather than beside it.

HireTalent.ph: Direct-hire platform with a payroll add-on, Philippines.

Employer at $88 a month. The Free plan is real: full search, with job posts at $48 each. source
“No markups on contractor pay.” No talent-facing fee is stated anywhere on their site. source
On the Free plan a job post is $48 and contact is applicants-only; the $88 Employer plan caps outreach at 10 candidates a day.
Their homepage advertises “24+ tool certifications”; their own certifications page and FAQ say 14 are live today.

Upwork: General freelance marketplace.

Marketplace plan. 3% for eligible US clients paying by bank account; Business Plus is 10%. source
One-off contract initiation fee, non-refundable. source
Set per contract and fixed for that contract's life. The old flat 10% no longer exists. source
The freelancer's fee is a range set per contract, so it is drawn as a band. Anyone showing you one Upwork number for this is showing you a number they chose.
Taking the relationship off-platform inside two years requires a conversion fee of 13.5% of the freelancer's annualised rate: their own worked example is $8,424 for a $30/hr freelancer.

Fiverr: Gig marketplace.

Buyer service fee on every transaction, tips included. source
The seller keeps 80%, on gig extras and tips as well. source
Orders under $200 carry a further $3.50 each, so a year made of small orders costs the buyer noticeably more than the percentage suggests.
The buyer fee applies to every transaction separately, including tips.

Freelancer.com: Bid and contest marketplace.

3% or $3, whichever is greater, on fixed-price projects; 3% on each hourly payment. source
10% or $5, whichever is greater, on projects; 15% on Recruiter projects. source
The headline percentages sit on a long tail of smaller fees: deposit transaction fees, withdrawal fees, a dormancy fee, paid NDAs, and paid dispute arbitration.
Identity verification is a paid badge, not a default: most profiles have not been through it.

One hire a year is assumed, which is what the per-contract fees are counted against. Payment-method surcharges, currency conversion and anything either side negotiates are excluded on all rows, ours included. If you find one of these wrong, it is wrong in one file and we would rather fix it than keep it.

Compare what the platforms do →See what Premium includes →

Questions

Do you take a cut of what I pay the freelancer?: No. RemoteHire.ph charges a flat $39/month to the hiring side, or $199/year, and nothing else. Money moves directly between you and the person you hire; we never hold it, never route it and never take a percentage of it.
Does the freelancer pay anything?: No, and there is no plan under which they will. That is why the second view on this page exists: on a marketplace that charges the freelancer, what you pay and what they receive are two different numbers, and only one of them usually gets advertised.
Why is Upwork drawn as a range?: Because their freelancer fee is set per contract and can be anywhere from 0% to 15%. Any single number would be a number we picked, and picking the worst one on a page that competes with them would make this page not worth reading.
How current are these figures?: Every one was checked on 24 Aug 2026 against the company's own pricing or help pages, and each carries a link to where it was read. Where a figure is widely repeated but not on their own site, it says so and is left out of the arithmetic.
Why are the managed agencies not on the chart?: Their monthly figures include the worker's pay, so adding them to a chart of fees on top of pay would compare two different kinds of number. They are on the comparison page instead, with what their own sites say.

Hire the person, not the platform

RemoteHire.ph is a directory of ID-verified Filipino freelancers. Searching is free; Premium is $39/month or $199/year flat to reach out, and we never take a cut of what you pay.

Browse talent See the plans

Where every number comes from

OnlineJobs.ph: Job board and worker database, Philippines only.

Pro, paid annually. Monthly is $69; Premium is $99 a month or $349 a year. source
“No salary markups or ongoing fees.” Their jobseeker pages describe no charge, though no page says “workers pay nothing” in those words. source
Their own FAQ says the subscription is only needed while you are recruiting, so a single month at $69 is a real option once you have hired.
Pro includes 3 job posts and 75 worker contacts a month; Premium is $349 a year for 10 and 500. Those are capacity limits, not fees.

VirtualStaff.ph: Hiring platform with payroll and compliance admin.

$99 a month per person hired. One seat assumed here. source
“Zero markups: staff receive 100% of the monthly pay.” source
The price is per seat: hiring a second person doubles it, which is the opposite shape to a flat fee.
Payment runs through their invoice, so the platform sits in the middle of the relationship rather than beside it.

HireTalent.ph: Direct-hire platform with a payroll add-on, Philippines.

Employer at $88 a month. The Free plan is real: full search, with job posts at $48 each. source
“No markups on contractor pay.” No talent-facing fee is stated anywhere on their site. source
On the Free plan a job post is $48 and contact is applicants-only; the $88 Employer plan caps outreach at 10 candidates a day.
Their homepage advertises “24+ tool certifications”; their own certifications page and FAQ say 14 are live today.

Upwork: General freelance marketplace.

Marketplace plan. 3% for eligible US clients paying by bank account; Business Plus is 10%. source
One-off contract initiation fee, non-refundable. source
Set per contract and fixed for that contract's life. The old flat 10% no longer exists. source
The freelancer's fee is a range set per contract, so it is drawn as a band. Anyone showing you one Upwork number for this is showing you a number they chose.
Taking the relationship off-platform inside two years requires a conversion fee of 13.5% of the freelancer's annualised rate: their own worked example is $8,424 for a $30/hr freelancer.

Fiverr: Gig marketplace.

Buyer service fee on every transaction, tips included. source
The seller keeps 80%, on gig extras and tips as well. source
Orders under $200 carry a further $3.50 each, so a year made of small orders costs the buyer noticeably more than the percentage suggests.
The buyer fee applies to every transaction separately, including tips.

Freelancer.com: Bid and contest marketplace.

3% or $3, whichever is greater, on fixed-price projects; 3% on each hourly payment. source
10% or $5, whichever is greater, on projects; 15% on Recruiter projects. source
The headline percentages sit on a long tail of smaller fees: deposit transaction fees, withdrawal fees, a dormancy fee, paid NDAs, and paid dispute arbitration.
Identity verification is a paid badge, not a default: most profiles have not been through it.

Questions

Do you take a cut of what I pay the freelancer?

No. RemoteHire.ph charges a flat $39/month to the hiring side, or $199/year, and nothing else. Money moves directly between you and the person you hire; we never hold it, never route it and never take a percentage of it.

Does the freelancer pay anything?

No, and there is no plan under which they will. That is why the second view on this page exists: on a marketplace that charges the freelancer, what you pay and what they receive are two different numbers, and only one of them usually gets advertised.

Why is Upwork drawn as a range?

Because their freelancer fee is set per contract and can be anywhere from 0% to 15%. Any single number would be a number we picked, and picking the worst one on a page that competes with them would make this page not worth reading.

How current are these figures?

Every one was checked on 24 Aug 2026 against the company's own pricing or help pages, and each carries a link to where it was read. Where a figure is widely repeated but not on their own site, it says so and is left out of the arithmetic.

Why are the managed agencies not on the chart?

Their monthly figures include the worker's pay, so adding them to a chart of fees on top of pay would compare two different kinds of number. They are on the comparison page instead, with what their own sites say.