Envato Studio Review 2024: [Important Update]

A Vibrant Community of Freelancers

Arranging all the designs, audio, and editing for your project can quickly become overwhelming, not to mention expensive. You can hire talent on Envato Studio to handle the work for you, and at a reasonable price – but are its freelancers good enough?

I decided to find out, testing Envato Studio on its features, ease of use, and support. I also weighed the quality of its freelancers against its cost to determine whether it’s worth using.

Envato Studio can hook up small and medium businesses with top-tier freelancers, and provides all the tools you need to see your project through. With built-in messaging and file sharing, you can get timely revisions and keep everything running smoothly with your freelancer.

Since freelancers are handpicked specifically for their skills, you can be confident in the quality of work you’ll receive. The designs are often worth the higher pay rate.

Envato Studio Provides Everything You Need for Creative Projects

Envato Studio has a carefully selected range of freelancers available for hire. Your options are more limited than on bigger freelance websites, but you get access to passionate talent who pour a lot of creativity into their work.

Envato Studio can connect you with talented freelancers, and also provides advanced tools to make the process smoother.

Be it finding skilled talent or fine tuning the exact service you want, Envato Studio’s features could be exactly what you need to see your project take off.

A Pool of Scouted Professionals

Not just anyone can sign up on Envato Studio as a freelancer. Envato Studio operates on an invite-only model, meaning every freelancer has been scouted by its team.

This means that when you browse services on Envato, each listing is provided by a freelancer who’s been thoroughly screened for their high skill level and professionalism.

Does this screening process actually mean you get higher quality freelancers? In my experience, yes – Envato freelancers generally excel at their niche and provide good service and communication. You won’t find budget options, but you’ll work with excellent freelancers.

If you’re missing vetted freelancers now that Envato Studio is no more, I recommend you check out Fiverr Pro instead. To achieve the Pro Verified status, freelancers have to prove themselves to the Fiverr team, who assess applications based on higher education, industry experience, and work examples.

Comprehensive Service Packages

Services on Envato Studio come with free revisions and a delivery guarantee. Before you decide to order a service, you can check out a freelancer’s portfolio to get a good idea of their skills, style, and work experience. You can also contact them with any questions first.

Portfolios on Envato display a freelancer’s stats, such as jobs completed, overall rating, repeat client percentage, and reviews. Freelancers are rated on the quality of their work, turnaround, and communication, so it’s pretty easy to pick someone with a reliable track record.

Again, if you’re looking for an alternative, Fiverr shines here. Seller profiles outline a freelancer’s skills, languages, education, experience, and portfolio, while rankings – Top Rated, Level 2, and Level 1 – and reviews give you a better idea of what it’ll be like working with a specific freelancer.

Advanced Job Management Tools

Once you hire a freelancer, Envato Studio offers messaging and file sharing to keep the project going strong. It’s easy to stay in contact with your freelancer and review updates as they submit them.

You can also request revisions. Note that some services include more revisions than others, so be mindful of how many you get when you hire someone.

The only thing I feel is missing is a video chat function. The option to hold a meeting would be nice, especially if you hire multiple freelancers for one project and want to collaborate.

Envato Studio Features at a Glance

Envato Studio Helps You Hire Smart

I found hiring a freelancer on Envato Studio simple and fast. While it lacks a matchmaking tool or the ability to post your own job or crowdsource, it’s very easy to browse for the service you want. Plus, if you have any questions or unique needs, Envato Studio lets you contact freelancers and ask for additional services.

Advanced Search Filters

Envato Studio makes it pretty easy to find the type of service you’re looking for. You can search for freelancers by category, price, delivery, and location. Sorting by “recommended” as well. This will display freelancers who have been recommended by most (if not all) of their clients.

You can set the minimum and maximum budget range on Envato Studio’s search engine. This is useful if you’re on a tight budget or looking to spend more on a more complicated job.

If you like the search functionality of Envato Studio, you’ll be completely comfortable using Fiverr’s search tools. It’s an incredibly easy platform to use, and makes it simple to filter out the thousands of freelancers using the platform to find the perfect creative for your project.

On the other hand, if you were always frustrated by Envato’s lack of a crowdsourcing tool, now might be the time to try out DesignCrowd’s contests.

Contact Freelancers Before You Hire

If you have any concerns about hiring online, you can contact a freelancer on Envato Studio before hiring them. Include as much detail as you want in your enquiry, and attach files to help describe the service you need. I really like having this option, as it makes it so much easier to decide if a freelancer will be a good fit for what you need.

Fast Ordering Process

You can hire freelancers on Envato instantly, and get a turnaround as quickly as 1 day. The freelancer tells you exactly what they need to know to get to work. This is a great way to avoid wasted time or communication flubs, and allows both you and your freelancer to get straight to business.

When you order a service, you can also add on any extras you’d like. This is a great way to save if a freelancer offers a combo deal, or to get things like business cards for logo development. I like having these options, as it saves you the hassle of hiring another freelancer or searching elsewhere for additional services.

Yet again – you guessed it – Fiverr matches Envato Studio point for point here. Sellers will indicate on their profiles what their turnaround times are, and I’ve found plenty in the past who’ll deliver in a day if you’re under serious time pressure. You can also see any other add ons on sellers’ profiles, offering exactly the same benefits that Envato Studio does.

Helpful Support Agents but Limited Options

Now, no platform’s perfect. Here’s something I really didn’t like about Envato Studio: tickets and email are Envato Studio’s only form of support, which isn’t ideal. I much prefer live chat for how fast and easy it is to communicate with a support agent. So, when I tested ticket support, I went in thinking it had better be good.

I submitted a ticket, and was happily surprised to get a reply that same night, within 8 hours. Pretty snappy response time, Envato!

I inquired about the possibility of interviewing a freelancer before making a hiring decision. In response, the agent, Alex, provided a comprehensive answer to my query. He clarified that I could initiate an inquiry through a freelancer’s profile (please note that conducting actual interviews is not feasible).

I switched to email support to converse with the agent, and got a reply in 4 hours this time. I responded to his mention of custom jobs and asked how the price was decided. Alex explained the freelancer proposes a price based on the brief the buyer supplies, which you can negotiate.

This cleared up any uncertainty I had. Overall, I was happy with the ticket and email responses I got.

Envato Studio also has a resolution center, which is reliable in protecting the buyer during disputes (if you stay on the platform). You can also use the help center to read a lot of self-help articles about how to solve issues and best use the platform.

This and ticket support work great, but the lack of live chat is somewhat disappointing.

Big Pay Rates, Bigger Commission Fees

In my opinion, the quality you get with freelancers on Envato Studio is well worth their pay rate. Plus, signing up as a buyer is totally free. However, Envato Studio demands a pretty intense fee of 30% (yikes!) for each service you order. That’s steep!

If you’re looking to save money or want something super affordable, I recommend that you hire a freelancer on Fiverr. Fiverr also offers a pretty decent refund policy – if the seller is late and unresponsive for 24 hours you can cancel the order for a full refund. Or, if you’re not happy with the work you receive, Fiverr’s Resolution Center allows you to try to work things out with the freelancer.

Alternatively, if you don’t mind investing a bit more, opt for Fiverr Pro, which offers similarly high-quality creative freelancers thanks to its vetting process.