Upwork’s Market Suffering Due to Underpriced Freelancers

I've been working on Upwork for more than three years now. Anyone in the 3D animation niche knows how expensive these projects can be, given the complexity, the amount of time needed, multiple steps involved, and the high rendering costs.

Lately, I've been losing most of my clients because their budgets are completely unreasonable for the quality they expect.

Today, after a full discussion with a client on Upwork, he asked me to provide a quote for a high-quality 30-second 3D animation project. After carefully estimating the cost, he told me he would go with another freelancer who offered the same project for just $300 for a week of full time job. ( it means around $5/h—1/10 of my rate which is an average rate in this field and the minimum rate I could offer ) This included everything including modeling the product.

Anyone familiar with this industry knows that a high-quality 30-second 3D product animation should cost a couple of thousands. I can't understand how some freelancers can accept such ridiculously low rates and accept to be slave considering the Tax rates and the Upwork fee.

If the same client reaches out to a company based in his county they will offer him at least 5k for that project and this is why they are trying freelancing sites. But $300? it's unbelievable.

A few years ago, Indian freelancers were often blamed for undercutting prices, but now many others are doing the same, turning this into a race to the bottom. At these rates, they're practically working for free.