Platform that connected freelancers and businesses

One of the key challenges in freelancing is that specialists struggle to find projects, while businesses face difficulties in finding skilled professionals they can trust. Led by a Product Owner, an effective team of 2 full-stack Developers and 1 UX/UI designer, developed a freelance marketplace platform to help our client solve this problem. Within just five months, from April to the end of August, we brought the project to the MMP phase, integrating advanced search and filtering to speed up hiring, project management tools to keep work organized, real-time messaging for easier communication, and a secure multi-gateway payment system to protect both parties from fraud.

Starting point

Even with a clear vision of what the platform should be, we still had some moments for improvement, on the way to turning it into reality:

1. We needed an advanced search and filtering system to help clients quickly find specialists and allow freelancers to access more job opportunities.
2. The platform needed built-in project management tools, such as task assignments, deadlines, and progress tracking, to enable collaboration without the need for switching to additional software.
3. The goal was to design a fault-tolerant, multi-gateway system with escrow, refunds, and fraud prevention.
4. Clearly, implementing efficient real-time communication tools that can scale with user demand was important to avoid miscommunications at work.
5. A freelance marketplace stores lots of connected data, yet we had to manage to keep data fast and organized when the original database wasn’t suited for it.
6. It needed to be not only visually engaging but also a single-page application that balanced simplicity with the needs of two different user groups, such as freelancers and clients.

Solutions

• Payment security is essential for the platform’s success. Since neither businesses nor specialists want to risk it, our developers built a reliable system with multiple gateways, escrow, refunds, and fraud protection, so users can focus on their work instead of worrying about money. Along with it, payments were powered by Stripe, Paypal, and Braintree, and everything is hosted on AWS for smooth performance.
• We added real-time chat powered by Socket.io, allowing freelancers and clients to exchange messages instantly, without delays or disruptions, even when thousands of users are online.
• Reviews, ratings, and dispute resolution tools, supported by admin oversight, made hiring decisions for clients easier and encouraged trust.
• An intuitive dashboard that allows users to create, assign, and manage tasks is helpful for project management.
• To make the platform visually engaging and easy to navigate, our UX/UI designer created a user-friendly interface that balances simplicity with functionality. Apart from this, platform’s frontend was built with Next.js and React 19, using TypeScript for better code quality and reliability. This combination allowed us to create a fast and convenient interface.

Results

The platform made communication easier and opened access to a diverse talent pool for businesses. As a result, their work became faster and more efficient. For freelancers, the platform created new opportunities to manage multiple projects at once, increasing their productivity by 35%. With our professionals’ experience in building complex digital platforms, Mifort team delivered more than just a marketplace: we created a space where freelancers and businesses could easily find each other and work without problems.