{"id":3739,"date":"2021-01-07T23:48:40","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T22:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.axelkopp.com\/2021\/01\/fiverr-in-the-test-perfect-for-imperfectionists\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T11:52:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T10:52:46","slug":"fiverr-in-the-test-perfect-for-imperfectionists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.axelkopp.com\/en\/2021\/01\/fiverr-in-the-test-perfect-for-imperfectionists\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiverr in the test: Perfect for imperfectionists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

You can get many digital services very cheaply on Fiverr<\/a>. This is possible because the providers usually come from low-wage countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan or Bangladesh. But how good is the quality? <\/p>\n\n

As part of a self-centered Instagram advent calendar project<\/a>, I tested Fiverr. Specifically, I had 25 portraits taken of myself (I didn’t use one). Apart from the first and last portrait, which cost me around 11 euros, I only paid around 6.40 euros per picture (slight price fluctuations due to the dollar exchange rate). The providers received 10 and 5 US dollars respectively, and Fiverr received around 2 US dollars in service fees. <\/p>\n\n

Is Fiverr exploitation?<\/h2>\n\n

In Germany, it would be, especially since as a provider, including time for customer communication and any revisions, you probably have to assume 45 to 60 minutes of working time per order. But since, as mentioned, most of the providers come from low-wage countries, the situation is different. In my case, 13 illustrators came from Indonesia, where the average monthly salary of a graphic designer<\/a> is 400 dollars and the hourly wage is 2.50 dollars. Although freelancers there also need a higher hourly rate than employees (as they don’t have constant orders, have to factor in vacation and sick days, etc.), the bottom line is that an hourly wage of 5 dollars in Indonesia is at least a long way from exploitation. <\/p>\n\n

The quality varies greatly<\/h2>\n\n

Unfortunately, the customer reviews on Fiverr are absolutely meaningless, especially as almost all providers have an average of between 4.8 and 5.0 stars. Understandably, as a customer you don’t want to publicly pillory anyone and thus damage their business (I don’t do that either), but at the same time this cuddling of reviews doesn’t help anyone. In my case, there were five works that I found explicitly bad. The portraits in the style of South Park, The Simpsons and Chibi-Manga<\/a> simply don’t recognize me and in three other cases the execution was miserable. Since I assumed in advance that the portraits would have flaws at these prices and it was just a fun project, I could live with it. I only complained to one provider. He then refunded me the money. Since project cancellations have a negative impact on the Fiverr algorithm and ranking, he did this privately – and also paid the service fees (i.e. made a loss). Here are the six worst portraits: <\/p>\n\n