The first step is for the client to select a freelancer with a track record of good work. Freelancers get a rating and a review every time they’re hired. Considering their previous feedback, their portfolios, and speaking to them before hiring should help a client find a freelancer they feel confident in.

All freelancers are incentivized to perform well, as future clients can see how many projects they’ve successfully completed and what their previous clients’ opinion of them was. Poor performers won’t get hired again, (and may be removed from the website).

The design of the projects also comes with protections for the client. Should a client decide he doesn’t like the quality of the work the freelancer is delivering in an hourly project, he can close the project before it goes further.

Likewise, in a project-based project, a client is only obligated to the milestones they’ve already agreed to, not the full completion budget. That is to say, when a client says he’ll pay $5,000 for a complete version of his project, but he doesn’t like the work that the freelancer did for the first $50 milestone, he can pay the $50 he committed to and end the project, not owing any more.

If the freelancer delivers work that is truly not what the client asked for, the client has the ability to file a dispute and be released from any obligation to pay for the work.