For what it's worth, I have a unique vantage point to comment on these three services. I just posted the identical job for an illustrator on all three services, and of the three, Elance came out ahead, oDesk next, and Guru last. I got 17 bids on Elance, 11 on oDesk, and 2 on Guru (I also got 6 from craigslist's Austin gigs section). On Elance, 5 people submitted samples directly related to my project, on oDesk just 1. I got one sample from Austin's craigslist, but it was crummy.
I've also been using Elance for hiring iPhone developers and their web tools are slick and polished. I also unexpectedly found an Ace of a developer there.
So Bottom Line, go with Elance.
And I wouldn't bother with Rentacoder or scriptlance, their sites look crummy and they have nowhere near the traffic as the other three.
Hi Philip, this is Nicole from Rent a Coder.
You may be pleased to know that we are upgrading our interface in the latter part of Spring. What's more important however, are the differences between our service and services like Elance, Guru, and oDesk since those differences could influence the success of an outsourced project.
Selection of workers:
The more bids you receive, the more bargaining power and selection you have, and the less you have to pay. However, some sites make money for themselves in ways that reduce the # of bids you receive.
Elance workers can't make more than 10 bids a month unless they pay a subscription fee ($10/month for 20, $20/month for 40 or $40/month for 60). This could reduce the number of qualified bids you receive.
Guru attaches a hefty subscription fee onto its workers who want to make more than 10 bids at a time. That not only limits qualified prospects, it increases the cost of your projects since workers may pass this fee onto you.
At Rentacoder, we do not place a bid limit on any of our workers for any reason.
Disputes/Arbitration:
Unfortunately, 10-20% of projects fail (and on some sites this # is higher). If your worker is a bum, it's important the site offers escrowing and arbitration so you are guaranteed to get your money back. However, some sites charge so much for arbitration or make it so time consuming that it becomes impractical.
Elance charges $66.66 or $133.33 for each arbitration, which may make it too expensive to be a legitimate option on your project. And its mandatory pre-arbitration processes allow an abusive worker to stall the start of arbitration (consequently preventing you from accessing your money for *weeks*... 21 business days in fact). Elance's arbitration process can be tricky too, with each part of the process elongated with 3 - 15 business days in-between. What can be particularly frustrating is that Elance doesn't publish the detailed rules of its arbitration process.
oDesk's limited arbitration on pay-for-time projects is not based on quality of work, but simply whether or not the worker committed fraud-based solely on screenshots, not an analysis of deliverables. As a result, you could end up paying for work that isn't satisfactory.
In addition, most of these types of sites let you pay a worker you have employed before by the hour, which is the most convenient and cheapest way. However, neither Elance nor Guru verifies the worker's timecard is accurate. On Rent a Coder, workers must punch in and out of a timeclock, and you can see a continuous record of their webcam and desktop, so you know the time is accurate.
There are other differences as well. I invite everyone to compare the 7 major services through this link to learn even more: http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/DotNet/misc/CompetitorInformation/WhyRentACoder_ForBuyers.aspx
If you have any questions, please let me know. You can also call in to talk to a facilitator 7 days a week, or email us (see http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/misc/Feedback.asp).
Nicole
www.rentacoder.com
Phil - funny that I'm also in Austin and ran across this post. I have a good iphone app idea and was researching which site to use to post the project. If you iphone developer is available I'd love to contact hime. Let me know. -J
HI guys, now trend is change best place is ODESK ,elance, gru are bullshit
thanks