Terms of Service

Version 1.0 · Effective 25 October 2026

1. About these Terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") are an agreement between you and Fairlancers ("Fairlancers", "we", "us") for your use of fairlancers.com and our related services (the "Service"). By creating an account or using the Service, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy. If you don't agree, please don't use the Service.

"Employer" means anyone who posts a job or hires through Fairlancers. "Freelancer" means anyone who offers services through Fairlancers. One account can act as both.

2. Your account

• You must be at least 18 and able to enter into a binding contract. If you use Fairlancers for a company, you confirm you're allowed to accept these Terms on its behalf.
• Give accurate, current information and keep it up to date. One account per person; don't share, sell or transfer your account.
• Keep your password safe. You're responsible for activity on your account, and you should tell us straight away if you think someone else has used it.
• We may ask you to verify your email, phone, identity, payment method or business before you can use certain features, such as publishing a profile, posting a job or withdrawing money.

3. Our role

• Fairlancers provides the platform where employers and freelancers find each other, agree on work, communicate and handle payments. Unless we say otherwise for a specific project, the contract for the work is between the employer and the freelancer.
• Freelancers are independent businesses, not employees or agents of Fairlancers or of employers. Each freelancer is responsible for their own taxes, insurance, licences and equipment.
• For some projects, Fairlancers may itself deliver the service to the employer, with the work carried out by a freelancer we engage ("Fairlancers-managed projects"). We'll tell you clearly when this applies, and the price and terms shown for that project apply.
• We check profiles and jobs, but we don't guarantee the quality, safety or legality of any job, freelancer or work, or that you'll find work or a suitable freelancer.

4. Jobs, proposals and contracts

• Employers must describe jobs honestly, including the scope, budget and the goals ("acceptance criteria") the work will be checked against.
• Employers must pass a card check before their first job goes live. This is a temporary authorisation hold, not a charge.
• The number of jobs an employer can have open at once depends on their history: 3 to start, 5 after their first hire or approved hiring history, and no limit after US$5,000 spent.
• A contract starts when the employer hires a freelancer and funds the first milestone (or first period for hourly or ongoing work).

5. Fees

• Posting jobs, applying for review and creating an account are free.
• Employers pay a transaction fee on each payment: 3% by bank transfer or 5% by card. There's no contract fee or subscription.
• Freelancers pay a 5% service fee on earnings. It drops to 3% on further earnings with the same employer once they've earned US$5,000 together. Freelancers pay 0% on work for employers they bring to Fairlancers, when that employer joins through their referral.
• Payouts: 1% (minimum US$1) per withdrawal; instant payouts 2% (minimum US$2); minimum withdrawal US$20. Currency conversion uses our provider's rate plus up to 0.5%.
• Any sales tax, VAT or similar taxes and bank charges that apply are added on top. The total is always shown before you pay.
• We may change fees with at least 30 days' notice. Changes don't affect contracts that are already funded.

6. Bids and Boosts

• Freelancers use Bids to apply for jobs. Each account gets 10 free Bids a month. More can be bought: 200 Bids for US$10 or 500 Bids for US$25 (prices may change, as in section 5).
• Bids have no cash value, can only be used on Fairlancers, and can't be transferred, sold or exchanged for money. Bought Bids aren't refundable except as described below or where the law requires.
• Bids back. If a job is fake or removed, the employer never reviews applications, or the employer decides no one was suitable, all Bids spent on that application are returned. If someone else is hired, half are returned.
• Boosts. Freelancers who match a job's requirements can spend extra Bids to appear in one of up to five places marked "Promoted". Boost Bids are fully returned if the job is fake or removed, and half are returned if the freelancer is pushed out of the promoted places (they still rank above non-boosted applicants) or isn't hired. No Bids are returned when the freelancer is hired.
• Returned Bids go back into your Bids balance. We may decide that Bids won't be returned where an application or boost broke these Terms.

7. Payments, milestones and approval

• Employers fund each milestone (or period) before work starts. Funds are held by Fairlancers or our payment provider until they're released. Holding funds doesn't make us a bank, and no interest is paid.
• When a freelancer submits work, the employer can approve it, or ask for changes up to two times per milestone, explaining what doesn't meet the agreed acceptance criteria.
• If the employer doesn't approve, ask for changes or open a dispute within 14 days of submission, the funds are released to the freelancer automatically.
• If work isn't delivered, unreleased funds are returned to the employer. Transaction fees that a payment provider doesn't give back (for example on card payments) may not be refundable.
• Employers must not reverse card payments or charge them back for work they approved or that was released under these Terms. If a chargeback happens, we may recover the amount and suspend the account.
• Payments and payouts are processed by our payment providers and may be subject to their terms and identity checks. Freelancers must complete identity and tax checks before their first withdrawal.

8. Disputes between users

• Try to resolve disagreements directly first. If you can't, either side can open a dispute about funds held for a milestone before they're released.
• We'll review the job description, the agreed acceptance criteria, messages and submitted work, and decide how the held funds are split. Our decision about held funds is final as far as Fairlancers is concerned, but doesn't stop either party taking separate legal action against the other.
• We don't decide disputes about money already released or paid outside Fairlancers.

9. Working with people you meet on Fairlancers

• When you find a client or freelancer through Fairlancers, please keep working with them through Fairlancers for the first 12 months. This keeps every payment protected by milestones, the 14-day release and our dispute help, and it's how we keep our fees low. After 12 months, you're free to work together however you like.
• Before a contract starts, please keep contact details (email, phone, messaging apps) and payment details within Fairlancers messages.
• If work or payments are moved off Fairlancers within those 12 months without our written permission, we may suspend the accounts involved and charge the fees that would have applied.

10. Things you must not do

• Post fake, misleading or "ghost" jobs, or jobs designed to collect free work, personal data or money.
• Scam, defraud, impersonate anyone, or misrepresent your skills, identity, history or reviews.
• Offer or request illegal, harmful or adult services, or anything that breaks someone else's rights (such as copying their work).
• Harass, threaten, discriminate against or abuse anyone.
• Create multiple accounts, manipulate reviews or rankings, or misuse Bids, Boosts or refunds.
• Send spam, use bots or scrapers, or try to break, overload or get around the security of the Service.
• Use Fairlancers in a way that breaks any law, including sanctions, anti-money-laundering and tax laws.

11. Imported history and verification

• You may only import work or hiring history from accounts that belong to you, using the verification code we give you. Imported history is shown with its source and the date we checked it, and may count for less than history earned on Fairlancers.
• Badges such as "Payment verified", "ID verified" or "Verified history" mean we completed that specific check. They aren't a guarantee about the person or their work.
• We may remove imported history or badges, or suspend an account, if information turns out to be false.

12. Content and work ownership

• You keep ownership of what you post (profiles, portfolios, job posts, messages). You give Fairlancers permission to host, display and use it to run and promote the Service.
• Unless the employer and freelancer agree otherwise in writing, ownership of the finished work passes to the employer once it's been paid for in full. Freelancers may show the work in their portfolio unless the employer asks them not to.
• Only post content you have the right to share. We may remove content that breaks these Terms.
• Reviews must be honest and based on real work through Fairlancers.

13. Suspension and closing accounts

• You can close your account at any time, once open contracts are finished and any funds are settled.
• We may limit, suspend or close an account, remove content or hold funds while we investigate, if we reasonably believe it breaks these Terms or the law, or puts other users or Fairlancers at risk. Where we can, we'll tell you why and how to fix it.

14. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". As far as the law allows, we make no promises about it beyond those in these Terms, including that it will always be available, error-free or meet your needs. Nothing in these Terms limits rights you have under consumer protection laws that can't be excluded.

15. Limits on our liability

• As far as the law allows, Fairlancers isn't liable for indirect or consequential losses, lost profits, lost data, or for anything users do, say or deliver.
• Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the greater of the fees you paid to Fairlancers in the 12 months before the claim, or US$100.
• These limits don't apply to liability that can't be limited by law, such as for fraud.

16. Your responsibility to us

If someone makes a claim against Fairlancers because of your content, your work, how you used the Service, or your breach of these Terms or the law, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and losses from that claim.

17. Disputes with Fairlancers

If you have a problem with us, email fairlancers@gmail.com first, and we'll try to resolve it informally within 30 days. If we can't, the dispute will be decided under the laws of the US state where Fairlancers is registered, unless the laws of your country give you the right to bring it in your local courts.

18. Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms as Fairlancers grows. We'll change the version and date at the top and, for important changes, tell you by email or on the site at least 30 days before they apply. If you keep using Fairlancers after that, the new Terms apply. If you don't agree, you can close your account.

19. Other things

• If part of these Terms can't be enforced, the rest still applies. If we don't enforce something straight away, we haven't given up the right to do so later.
• You can't transfer your rights under these Terms. We may transfer ours, for example if Fairlancers is reorganised or sold.
• These Terms, the Privacy Policy and the pricing shown on the site are the whole agreement between you and Fairlancers about the Service.

20. Contact us

Questions about these Terms: fairlancers@gmail.com.