I analysed dev earnings on UpWork to see if its worth it

I'm working on my software engineer search engine while doing contract work to keep the lights on. One option I considered was UpWork. It's popular, but is it a good option?

I decided to look at how much web devs like me actually earn there.

I ran a search on UpWork for devs with a stack similar to mine and analysed the earnings of the top 100 results.

It confirmed my suspicion that there is a better deal elsewhere. The best you can hope for is just over $100k a year. It didn't look like many freelancers used it as their main source of income either:

• 1/3 quit before earning $1,000
• 1/4 quit before earning $10,000

One hardworking web-dev made a million dollars there!!! Yes, $1,000,000, but that's over 10 years.

I put all the numbers together in a blog post, if you want to know more. https://dev.to/rimutaka/how-much-can-you-earn-on-upwork-before-you-give-up-3mha