Malt review: a marketplace where clients find you
Freelance project board
Malt is a European marketplace where clients find freelancers and send them project proposals. It publishes no project listings. You build a profile, and clients or Malt's matching come to you.
Who Malt is for
Malt suits freelancers in tech, data, marketing, design, consulting and engineering who would rather be approached than apply. You need a registered business to use it. Projects billed by the day suit engagements of several months.
What Malt offers
- Profile: skills, experience, day rate and availability that clients can search.
- Project proposals: clients send you their brief, picked by search or by Malt's matching.
- Quotes, contracts and invoices are all made on the platform.
- Time-based projects: you report the days worked each month and are paid monthly.
- Insurance on every project, and payment soon after the client approves the work.
- A mobile app to answer client proposals quickly.
Who pays for what
- Freelancers
- No fee to join. Malt keeps a service fee on each project you invoice, and the quote shows what you keep
- Clients
- Pay a service fee on top of each project. The fee depends on the plan, and large companies agree on their own terms
What speaks for Malt
- Clients come to you, so you write no applications.
- On eligible projects Malt pays you soon after the client approves the work, whatever the client's own payment terms.
- Insurance is included on every project.
What speaks against Malt
- There is no list of projects to browse. Work only comes when a client picks your profile.
- Malt keeps a fee on every project you invoice.
- Later projects with a client you met on Malt also have to run through Malt, with its fee.
- Without a registered business you cannot use Malt.
How to apply
There are no listings to apply to. You create a profile with your skills, rate and availability and keep it up to date. A client finds you in search or picks you from Malt's suggestions and sends you a brief in Malt's messages. You accept or decline, then send a quote through Malt. The project starts once the client accepts the quote.
Where the listings come from
All projects come from client companies that use Malt. A client describes the project, gets a shortlist of matching freelancers and sends the brief to the ones it picks. It can also ask Malt's team to choose for it. Malt publishes no project listings, so its projects do not show up on other boards. Clients who found you on Malt agree to book you only through Malt.
Alternatives to Malt
YunoJuno
On YunoJuno companies book vetted creative and tech freelancers at a day rate. Who it is for, what it offers, who pays and how you get booked.
Toptal
Toptal screens freelancers and matches the ones it accepts with clients. Who it is for, what it offers, who pays and how you get in.
LinkedIn
On LinkedIn employers post jobs and recruiters look for candidates. Who it is for, what is free, what costs money and how you apply.
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