Malt
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if you regularly hire freelance devs, designers, or marketers in Europe and want contracts, payments, and admin handled for a published 10% fee.
Comparison
Malt vs Upwork
Malt and Upwork both land on Depends.
Upwork
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Good fit if you occasionally need freelance help and can stomach the fee stack; poor fit for full-time hires or freelancers who can find work elsewhere.
| Compare | Malt | Upwork |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Depends |
| Best for | European teams hiring freelance tech/creative talent | Occasional freelance hires |
| Who it's not for | US-only or non-European hiring | Full-time, long-term hires |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.11 | Runs a HackerOne bug bounty and enterprise security program; one alleged, unconfirmed recruiter/freelancer database leak circulated. |
| Support quality | No user-facing support evidence | PissedConsumer and Trustpilot complaint volume; dispute stories |
| Public sentiment | Reddit freelancers are testing Malt on first projects, but truncated snippets reveal little settled sentiment.⁷ | Sentiment splits: clients still find talent easily, but many freelancers and some clients say fees, Connects, and support have eroded the value.16 |
| Biggest gotcha | The 10% fee excludes VAT . real cost runs higher² | Freelancers buy Connects per bid; spend adds up before earning anything |
Pick Malt when
- European teams hiring freelance tech/creative talent
- Firms wanting contracts and payments offloaded
- Freelancers building an EU client base
When Malt is not a fit
- US-only or non-European hiring
- Recruiting permanent full-time employees
- Teams demanding pre-vetted, managed talent pods
- Buyers needing published security certifications upfront
Pick Upwork when
- Occasional freelance hires
- One-off projects without payroll
- Solo founders needing specialists fast
- Enterprises with managed freelance programs
When Upwork is not a fit
- Full-time, long-term hires
- Freelancers unwilling to pay for every bid
- Micro-budget jobs . fees swallow the project
- Buyers expecting hands-on dispute help
Sources
news
- What are Malt service fees and offers?help.malt.comofficial
official
review
- Malt Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of malt.frtrustpilot.comreview
- Anyone used Malt before? : r/freelancereddit.comreview
- Has anyone used Malt? : r/editorsreddit.comreview
review
- Any feedback on malt? : r/BEFreelancereddit.comreview
- Malt security pagemalt.frsecurity
news
review
review