Using Upwork? Learn How to Save a Great Chunk of Your Budget

Are you going to launch a website in the nearest future? Just a hint: there are several ways to accomplish this.

• You can develop it yourself (requires profound web developing skills);
• You can launch a costly project on Upwork, hire a freelancer and wait for weeks for your website to be ready;
• Or you can buy a premium CMS or eCommerce template for one of the popular platforms (most of which are free, so you will only have to pay for the template) and set up your website in a matter of hours.

We have picked ten recent Upwork projects and paired each of them with a premium template that perfectly fits its conditions, but costs way less.

Why pay more?

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How you can save $820 on a small eCommerce store

What is this project about?

The online entrepreneur needs a simple eCommerce website that will be selling up to 4 products. The website must be able to integrate Visa, MasterCard and PayPal payments, have a minimalist design and basic functionality. All the artwork including logos will be provided. The client is willing to spend $1000 on the project, which is way too much and can be easily decreased using a professional ready-made template.

Estimated budget: $1,000

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A better solution: Magetique - Multipurpose Magento 2 Theme

Magentique is a multipurpose Magento 2 theme featuring multiple niche designs, rich layout options and beautiful visuals powered by parallax scrolling and background video effects. Jam-packed with exclusive extensions, it boasts unmatched functionality worthy of a top-notch eCommerce store. Its original price (without discounts) is just $179, which is less than 20% of the project’s budget.

Economy: $820

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How you save $175 on a website for a phone repair company

What is this project about?

The client looks to develop a business website for his phone repair company. The website must feature feedback forms, specific pages to display services, a gallery, and live chat; be scalable and dynamic. This is a quite simple task, as most modern WordPress themes and Joomla templates have such functionality.

Estimated budget: $250

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A better solution: Mobile Repair Service Joomla Template

This responsive Joomla template is specifically designed for tech-related websites and therefore, is one of the best choices for this Upwork project. It comes shipped with a plethora of pre-designed pages (even more than is required by the client), a conversion-optimized homepage, a blog, a gallery, and much more. Live chat functionality can be implemented for free (e.g. Olark).

Economy: $175

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How you can save $1425 on an online training WordPress website

What is this project about?

This client would like to update the design of his online training website. The example website features a calendar, an online store, and on-site courses: this functionality must be retained during the redesign.

Estimated budget: $1,500

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A better solution: IronMass – Monstroid 2 Skin

Monstroid 2 is a perfect, inexpensive and flexible solution able to handle this, and many other tasks. The color scheme of the IronMass skin is perfect for this very project introducing an energetic combination of white, red and black colors (just like in the original website). All the amazing features of Monstroid 2 such as mobile-friendliness, compatibility, and ease of customization allow for building a modern looking, responsive website.

Economy: $1425

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How you can save $185 on an eCommerce website selling digital products

What is this project about?

According to the description, the client needs a simple, conversion-optimized website with eCommerce functionality to sell his eBooks and audio books, and also provide access to online webinars. The topic of the website is not specified so that we will go with a multipurpose template.

Estimated budget: $300

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A better solution: Tech Gadget WooCommerce Theme

With a clean, techy look and a minimalist approach to design, this responsive WooCommerce theme can be easily applied to an eCommerce store selling eBooks. It’s not only because WooCommerce allows selling digital products out of the box, but also because the layout of the theme is product-first and will effectively highlight your goods. It is GPL-compatible, so you can use it to build an unlimited number of websites; freely redesign and modify them.

Economy: $185

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How you can save $325 on a corporate WordPress website

What is this project about?

A consulting company in the information management field needs a new corporate website built with WordPress, Joomla or Drupal to attract clients and streamline the working process. Now, let’s have a look at one of the truly business-focused solutions from our gallery, which could cut over 80% off the project cost.

Estimated budget: $400

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A better solution: Ascendio - Corporate & Business WordPress Theme

Ascendio is an exemplary corporate WordPress theme with a polished, lightweight design. It is supplied with a set of essential pages, multiple blog post formats, numerous layout components and a versatile portfolio (which can be used to display the services and achievements of your company). The theme is based on Power page builder, which allows you to assemble awesome pages in no time. Ascendio is ideal for a broad range of businesses.

Economy: $325

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How you can save $285 on a WooCommerce online store

What is this project about?

The customer wants to modernize his WooCommerce store to make it look more professional, which any contemporary WooCommerce theme is capable of. The saved money can be spent on creating a new logo, fine-tuning of the website structure and rearranging products and categories.

Estimated budget: $400

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A better solution: Mohican - Fashion Accessories WooCommerce Theme

Originally intended for online fashion stores, Mohican can be applied to any other eCommerce niche. It is fully GPL-compliant, designed according to the latest conversion studies, and professionally coded. This theme has been tested with Google PageSpeed showing high-performance metrics.

Economy: $285

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How you can save $885 on a WooCommerce store selling wine and liquor

What is this project about?

The client looks to update the design of an eCommerce store selling wine and liquor. The primary condition is to make it look beautiful and professional. No problem! There are plenty of ready-made WooCommerce themes on this topic, so let’s examine one of them.

Estimated budget: $1,000

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A better solution: Food And Wine Store WooCommerce Theme

This beautiful WooCommerce theme is a masterpiece among website designs for wine stores. Skillfully laid out and spiced up with wow-inducing visual effects it is sure to grab the attention of your visitors. It supports multiple languages and currencies, Ajax shopping cart and a sticky menu topbar.

Economy: $885

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How you can save $80 on a professional landing page for a real estate company

What is this project about?

$100 is too much for a landing page without the copy, but this client is ready to pay this price. He looks to create an effective conversion funnel for his real estate company, and we can help with this task, and save him over $80.

Estimated budget: $100

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A better solution: Real Estate Responsive Landing Page Template

This landing page template comes packed with a visual layout builder, which will allow you to modify it anytime. It’s not the same as having a static landing page: you will be able to fine-tune the layout on the fly according to your conversion metrics and run seamless A/B tests.

Economy: $80

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How you can save $175 on a business website for a power washing company

What is this project about?

Here we have a washing company, which needs a business with a modern design and some extra, niche-specific features. The client will provide all the logos, industry type photos and content for the website, so all the developer needs to do is to create a homepage and a couple of service pages. Why spend $250 on this?

Estimated budget: $250

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A better solution: Cleaning & Maid Service Company WordPress Theme

We recommend using Cleaning Pro WordPress theme for this project. It is compliant with the GPL license, meaning that you are not limited in the number of websites you can use it with. Colorful and carefully designed with attention to every pixel, this theme is a surefire way to improve a website of a maintenance company.

Economy: $175

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How you can save $2900+ on a fully-fledged travel portal

What is this project about?

This is the most massive and expensive project on our list. It has a budget of a whopping $3000 and requires the creation of a sophisticated travel portal with powerful filtering and booking options. The client wants to build the website with Magento, but honestly, it’s not the best choice. We recommend using a CMS like WordPress or Joomla with specific plugins installed. What’s great is that all this functionality is provided by just one inexpensive website template.

Estimated budget: $3,000

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A better solution: Modern Hotel – Monstroid 2 Skin

Let’s get back to Monstroid 2. As you already know, it comes with a choice of niche focused skins, one of which is designed with hotels and travel agencies in mind. It is supplied with all the necessary booking and schedule plugins and provides 100% responsiveness on both desktop and mobile browsing devices. Thus, using this theme, you can save a whopping $2900+ (over 95%) on your travel portal.

Economy: $2925

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Wrapping up

Creating a website with the help of a premium template is easier, faster and cheaper than building it from scratch. Many website owners who run projects on Upwork overpay ridiculous sums for no good reason. Don’t be one of them; use your money effectively. Take a glance at the showcase of website templates and see the difference for yourself.