I've experienced the same with Upwork/freelancer. Rating systems seem really broken too on Upwork especially. They're either game-able or the platform must like

I've experienced the same with Upwork/freelancer. Rating systems seem really broken too on Upwork especially. They're either game-able or the platform must like to inflate ratings rather. And I've tried cheap vs expensive and there seems to be no relationship to quality as you pay more. It's really frustrating as I know there must be really good guys out there but I suspect they establish 121 relationships quickly and move off a platform clipping their earnings. Or some guys start well for some jobs and then you can see they farm off work and the quality goes to hell. I've considered this problem myself. The best solution I can think of is for a platform with physical offices in likely cities for cheaper devs. People work for an 'in-house' projects a known project manager that has high QA standards, and after X time proving them-self they get clearance to 'freelance' from where-ever and bid for projects independently. Or simply not allowed on the platform. It would come at a cost of human management, but I imagine many would pay a premium for known quality. And given the amount of freelancer to jobs ratio there seems room to cull lower performers and maintain a stable of quality devs. I guess it would be something between Toptal and Freelancer.... Feel free to steal it. I really need something like this.