In short: Fiverr and Upwork are general freelance platforms. You can buy UGC there, but you do the matching yourself: you pick a seller or freelancer, agree the scope and pay through the platform’s order or contract flow. On a standard Fiverr order you pay at checkout and review the delivery afterward. On Usicri the order is reversed: you post one campaign, creators send finished videos, and you pay only when you approve one. Pick the gig route when you want to choose a specific person; pick Usicri when you want finished fashion, beauty or personal care videos you can judge before paying.
How buying UGC on a gig platform works
Fiverr. According to Fiverr’s help center, a client chooses a package (Basic, Standard or Premium) or requests a custom offer, adds any Gig extras, reviews the total and clicks “Confirm & Pay”. When the freelancer delivers, you can accept the delivery, request revisions or ask for more time. If you take no action for 72 hours after delivery, the order completes automatically, and the freelancer is paid when the order is complete. For custom offers or packages with milestones, Fiverr charges each milestone separately as you approve it. The order guide says you can extend the review period by up to 5 days.
Upwork. You hire a freelancer into a contract, either hourly or fixed-price. Upwork’s help center says the client pays a one-time contract initiation fee, and that for a fixed-price contract the fee is charged when you fund the contract or the first milestone.
What the buyer fees look like
| Platform | Fee for the buyer |
|---|---|
| Fiverr | 5.5% service fee, plus $3.50 on orders under $200; extras and tips each carry a service fee of their own |
| Upwork | A one-time contract initiation fee of $0.99 to $14.99 per contract; its pricing page also lists a marketplace fee for clients, so check the current rate there |
| Usicri | 0% on videos approved through December 31, then 15% of the payout, added on top; the creator receives the full payout |
Fees change, and these figures are as published on the pages listed below when this article was checked. Compare the total you pay for the same number of usable videos, not the headline rate; how to calculate cost per usable video shows how.
Where gig platforms are strong
- You choose the person. If you have seen a creator’s work and want exactly them, a gig or contract lets you order from them.
- Custom scope. You can agree extras, such as scripting or editing, in one order.
- Breadth. The same account can buy design, copywriting or editing as well as video.
Where it gets heavy for UGC
- On a standard Fiverr order you pay before you see the video. The checkout comes first and the delivery second, so quality is something you recover through revisions rather than something you decide before paying. Milestone orders are charged one milestone at a time.
- A clock runs on your review. Fiverr completes an order automatically after 72 hours without action, so you need to check each delivery in time or extend the review.
- You run the search. Finding the right creator for your category, messaging, comparing quotes and repeating it for every video is work that grows with every video you want.
- Rights need their own check. The two ordering guides cited below do not cover usage rights. Check the platform’s terms and confirm in writing, before you order, that the video may be used in paid advertising; see UGC usage rights explained.
How the two models compare
| Question | Gig platform | Usicri |
|---|---|---|
| Who matches? | You choose a seller or freelancer | Creators choose your campaign; no creator search |
| When do you pay? | On Fiverr, when you place the order; milestone orders as you approve each milestone | When you approve a video |
| If the video misses | Request revisions | Reject at no cost; one corrected version may follow |
| Auto-completion | After 72 hours without action on Fiverr | None; you decide each video |
| Rights | Agree them with the seller | License for all media, including paid ads, with every approved video; whitelisting is agreed separately |
| Categories | Any | Fashion, beauty and personal care |
Which to use
Use a gig platform when you want one named creator, a custom package or services around the video. Use a UGC marketplace when you want many finished videos in one category and prefer to judge each one before you pay. You can also use both: a marketplace for volume, a gig for a specific creator. More options are compared in UGC agency vs marketplace vs freelancer and alternatives to Billo, JoinBrands, Collabstr and Insense.
On Usicri
Usicri is a marketplace for paid UGC video in fashion, beauty and personal care. You write one campaign, set the payout per approved video and the number of videos, and creators film and upload finished videos. You review each one. There is no deposit, no subscription and no minimum spend, and your card is charged only for the videos you approve, with no platform fee on videos approved through December 31 and a platform fee of 15% after that. The license for an approved, paid video covers advertising (section 5 of the Terms of Service); ads run through the creator’s own account, known as whitelisting, need a separate agreement. Creators choose your campaign, so you cannot pick them, and a campaign is not guaranteed to receive submissions. See how it works for brands or create a free brand account.