Why Pact
The secure, low-fee marketplace.
The traditional freelancing and peer-to-peer marketplace models are broken: giant cuts, mandatory holding periods, unpredictable platform fees. Pact combines escrow routing powered directly by Trustap with flat, transparent fees, security and payout speed first.
Why choose Pact?
Funds skip our business accounts entirely and sit in escrow managed by Trustap the moment an agreement is locked.
No 5-to-14 day "clearing" blocks. Once an agreement is confirmed complete, Trustap holds funds for a brief 24-hour dispute window, then releases, typically arriving within 2-3 business days, not weeks.
No hidden administrative surcharges or surprise statement markups. Just a clean, split framework where everyone wins.
Pricing
Simple, fair fees. Free to post and browse. You only pay when a deal completes. Pact charges the same flat 5.5% + $0.40 to the buyer and the seller. Drag the slider or type a price to see the full cost and payout at any amount.
Excludes sales tax, which is calculated at checkout based on your location. The seller's fee is collected through Trustap's standard escrow rates and may vary slightly. Free pacts (agreed price of $0) skip escrow entirely.
The real cost breakdown: $100 project
When you look at a standard $100 job across major platforms, the financial differences are staggering. All competitor pricing figures are as of May 2026 and sourced from each platform's publicly available fee disclosures. Fees are subject to change.
| Platform | Buyer pays | Seller takes home | Total fees | Payout speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pact | $105.90 | $94.10 | $11.80 | 24h hold + 2-3 days |
| Freelancer | $103.00 | $90.00 | $13.00 | Within 24h (PayPal/Skrill) · 2-5 days (wire) |
| Upwork | $105.99-$119.99 | $85-$100 | $5.99-$34.99 | 14-day review + 5-day hold |
| Fiverr | $109.00 | $80.00 | $29.00 | 14-day hold |
| Mercari | $103.60 | $90.00 | $13.60 | 5 business days |
| eBay | $100.00 | $86.00 | $14.00 | 2 business days (after delivery) |
| Craigslist | $100 | $100 | $0, no escrow, no protection | Cash in person |
| Facebook Marketplace | $100 | $100 | $0, no escrow, no protection | Cash in person |
Pact vs. the competition
1. Pact vs. Craigslist & Facebook Marketplace
The appeal is obvious: no platform fees at all. But free comes with real costs. There is no escrow: payment is collected in cash or via a personal transfer app after the job, with no binding commitment from either party beforehand. There is no dispute process if something goes wrong. There is no verification of who you are meeting; the person showing up to your home or job site is an anonymous stranger with no accountability to any platform. If a job is abandoned halfway through, or payment is withheld after work is done, there is no recourse.
Pact charges a small fee in exchange for a structured agreement: payment is locked in escrow before work begins, both parties are registered account holders, and a formal dispute process exists if something goes wrong. The fee is the cost of that structure, and for most jobs, it is worth it.
2. Pact vs. Upwork
Upwork claims to be the industry standard, but their fees are steep and unpredictable. Clients pay a 5% marketplace fee plus a $0.99-$14.99 contract initiation fee on every new contract. Freelancers pay a variable 0-15% service fee on all earnings. Even after you finish the work, Upwork locks your money away in a 14-day client review period, followed by a separate 5-day security hold, up to 19 days before you can touch your earnings.
On Pact, your funds are held securely in Trustap escrow. Pact is cheaper for buyers at checkout, lets sellers keep an extra $4.05 per $100 earned, and releases funds within 2-3 business days after a brief 24-hour dispute window.
3. Pact vs. Fiverr
Fiverr operates as an expensive corporate middleman. They penalize service providers by taking a flat 20% cut straight out of their paycheck. On top of that, buyers pay a 5.5% service fee plus a $3.50 small order fee on any job under $200. Then Fiverr makes freelancers wait a 14-day safety clearance period before earnings can be withdrawn.
Sellers using Pact take home $14.05 more per $100 job compared to Fiverr, buyers pay $3.05 less, and funds clear within 2-3 business days, not after a mandatory two-week hold.
4. Pact vs. Freelancer
Freelancer is a bidding-based marketplace where buyers post projects and freelancers compete for them. Buyers pay a 3% project fee, and freelancers pay a flat 10% service fee on every payment received. A $100 job costs the buyer $103 and nets the freelancer just $90.
Pact sellers take home $4.05 more per $100 job compared to Freelancer, and buyers get structured escrow protection that Freelancer's milestone system does not include by default.
5. Pact vs. Mercari
Mercari charges buyers a 3.6% buyer protection fee and sellers a 10% seller fee on every transaction. After the buyer confirms receipt, Mercari holds the payout for 5 business days.
Pact sellers take home $4.05 more per $100 job compared to Mercari. Pact is purpose-built for service agreements with binding escrow from the moment the deal is locked, and funds clear within 2-3 business days after the 24-hour dispute window.
6. Pact vs. eBay
eBay charges a 13.6% final value fee plus a $0.40 per-order fee in most categories. On a $100 sale the buyer pays nothing extra but the seller takes home only $86.00.
Pact distributes fees across both sides of the agreement rather than front-loading everything onto the seller. A Pact seller takes home $8.05 more per $100 job compared to eBay.
The truth behind the holds
When you finish a job on Upwork or Fiverr, your money doesn't go into your pocket. It sits in a mandatory holding state for up to 19 days on Upwork or 14 days on Fiverr.
They earn millions on the "float." When a platform holds earned income in its own corporate bank accounts for 14 days across millions of transactions, that balance generates interest income for the platform, not the workers who earned it. Pact never takes custody of your funds: they route directly via Trustap's independent escrow and release as soon as an agreement is approved.
They're fighting legacy credit-card fraud. Upwork's holding periods are a stacked double-wait: a 14-day client review window followed by a separate 5-day security hold explicitly protecting against fraud and chargebacks. Pact's escrow model ensures funds are confirmed and locked before any work begins. Once completion is confirmed: a brief 24-hour dispute window, then payout in 2-3 business days.
They use financial friction to keep you in their system. Platforms with long holding periods create friction that keeps your earnings locked inside their ecosystem longer. Pact is an infrastructure utility, not a walled garden. Once your work is done, the money belongs to you.
Each side of a Pact pays a highly optimized fee of just 5.5% + $0.40: the buyer covers Pact's platform fee, and the seller covers a small platform fee plus the secure Trustap escrow fee.
This allows us to maintain a secure, low-overhead pipeline that keeps costs down for both sides of every agreement.
Stop losing your margins to corporate gatekeepers. Lock in your next agreement with a Pact.