Navigating Online Voiceover Marketplaces: A Comprehensive Guide
- melissachambersvoi
- Jul 18
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 5
Finding the perfect voiceover talent online can feel overwhelming. This is primarily due to their monstrous marketing budgets and impressive SEO strategies. A quick Google search on this subject will usually yield online VoiceOver marketplaces within the first five results.
I’m referring to platforms like:
Voices.com
Fiverr.com
Voice123
The Voice Realm
Bodalgo
And at the bottom of the list:
Voicebunny.com
The Voice Crew
...and the list goes on.
Understanding Online Voiceover Marketplaces
In this post, I will share my insights and experiences regarding a few online voiceover marketplaces. I will discuss their pros and cons and whether you should use them for your next VoiceOver project. Depending on the platform, there are two ways to view these marketplaces:
As a useful directory to find VO talent and listen to demos.
As a platform to host the actual transaction.
If you read no further, here is my main piece of advice: If you use these sites as a searchable database for different voices and feel confident that the VO you have chosen has the track record and business structure to manage the hire seamlessly, then ALWAYS offer your direct contact details in the chat.
Anyone working in online VO who maintains a professional standard will have a website and a transparent contracting system. Almost all of them would prefer to be contacted directly, mainly due to the enormous commission that the marketplaces take. But we’ll delve into that later.
My Journey into Online Voiceover Marketplaces
I have been in VoiceOver since 2002, the year I graduated from drama school. Back then, I had a Motorola flip phone, an agent who sent me audition material via fax, and I listened to the radio on a device with an antenna. Just four years prior, I had learned about ‘email.’ If you had told me that almost 100% of my income in 20 years would come from online VoiceOver, I would have paused my MP3 player in disbelief.
Initially, I walked into a studio or radio station every time I recorded a voice job. By around 2010, while working in downtown theatre groups in New York and eager to innovate my income, a clever theatre colleague introduced me to two online VoiceOver marketplaces: Upwork and Elance.
If you are a media creative who has been in the business for over ten years, you’ll remember these platforms. They were the beta versions of the giants we see today. The setup was straightforward: people looking to hire would post on a job board, you’d respond with an audition recorded in a home studio, they’d hire you, and the site would provide a secure platform for the transaction. In 2010, I bought my first condenser mic, crawled into a cupboard, and a career in online VoiceOver was born.
The Ongoing Challenges with Online VO Marketplaces
Let’s pause here to discuss a crucial feature of these two sites, which remains a significant issue for VO talents using any of the marketplaces today.
Upwork and Elance encouraged underbidding and were not beholden to any trade laws, unions, or minimum pay requirements. They also did not provide resources for what professional VO rates should be. (For a detailed exploration of real VO rates, check out my other post about what professional voiceover should cost.)
Fast forward to today, and the online VO market is dominated by sites like these. They look appealing and claim to be a haven for freelancers and clients alike. However, behind the scenes, they take a massive cut of the fee—often 20% on the talent side—and can sidestep trade laws. Overall, they are driving down the price of VO worldwide. Speaking of driving, I have one word for you: UBER. Now you understand my point.
Let’s explore the three different marketplaces I have worked with and discuss their pros and cons.
Should I Use FIVERR.COM to Cast My VO Project?
Fiverr has, in my opinion, outperformed everything else over the past five years. This Tel Aviv-based tech company platforms all sorts of freelancers, from web designers and VOs to online energy healers. They now have physical offices in New York and London (I’ve met them).
Fiverr is founded on the idea that you can hire someone ‘for a Fiverr.’ This is your first clue as to why it might be suboptimal for professionals, and the reason I avoided it until 2020. When I finally created a profile (in a moment of pandemic-induced income panic), they had just launched the ‘pro-verified’ section of their operation. This was meant to distinguish hobbyists from professionals with track records, and it does achieve that to some extent. I now charge fairly normal rates on the platform, but I still have reservations.
The verdict: Use it to search for talent. If you want to hire them, ensure your research shows they have a track record elsewhere online, then offer your direct contact details in the chat. (Note: Fiverr's Ts&Cs prohibit talent from offering their own direct details.) The talent may still want to use the platform for the hire, but it’s good to offer the option of a direct hire. If you do engage through the platform, be prepared for the talent to add the Fiverr commission to their fee.
The Fiverr Pros and Cons
The Fiverr Cons:
They take a massive 20% cut from talent.
Their algorithm is unreliable. I’ve seen the visibility of my gigs disappear for no known reason.
They sidestep unions. Equity UK regularly meets with them to protect the value of VO work, but their business model disagrees with setting minimum rates. They operate in the international waters of the internet and aren’t beholden to any laws.
Except for the Pro certified pool, there is no quality control. Anyone with a laptop can upload a gig to Fiverr, leading to a high risk of exhausting yourself trying to find someone with a solid resume.
The Fiverr Pros:
They offer a massive (and free) searchable database of genuinely good VO talent, as long as you click on the Pro verified tab. If you find someone you want to work with, Google them or offer your direct contact in the initial chat; they’ll often take you up on it.
They provide a secure escrow service. You must enter payment details to initiate the hire, and the talent gets paid within a few days of confirming the finished work. This quick payment is a key reason why I sometimes choose to engage through the platform.
The workflow is intuitive, well-designed, and runs smoothly.
The client and VO talent can negotiate directly, allowing for bespoke and creative job designs.
Should I Use VOICES.COM to Cast My VO Project?
Voices, a Canadian-run platform, was the first marketplace where I made real money. Due to the rapid rise of artificial voices, there is less work available on Voices, but I still consider it a solid marketplace.
The verdict: Easier to navigate than Fiverr, but it still suffers from the same underbidding and non-accountability issues.
Voices Pros:
Talent are distinguishable by a premium membership. We VOs pay a hefty yearly fee for access to casting calls, which helps separate professionals from hobbyists (the latter are unlikely to pay up to $400 a year for access). There is an option for beginners to set up a free profile, but subscribers get first access to castings.
Their ranking system for talent is transparent and reliable. I’m a top-rated talent there due to over a decade of highly rated deliverables and client feedback.
The budgets are reasonable, and they offer a rates guide that is not too far below union rates.
The team at voices.com is friendly and helpful. They are still based in Canada, and their customer service representatives are good people.
Voices Cons:
They have started posting data capture and AI voice cloning jobs, despite previously pledging not to. A few years ago, a significant email circulated among long-time Voices subscribers acknowledging the threat that AI posed to VO careers. Less than four years later, they are listing these jobs. Disappointing.
In addition to the yearly fee, Voices takes a 20% cut from talent, making it expensive for professionals to use.
Should I Use THEVOICEREALM.COM to Cast My VO Project?
The verdict: No. Absolutely not.
I have had extensive dealings with The Voice Realm, especially in the early days, and I have stopped using it. They are a supremely dodgy outfit. The Voice Realm has no official business details available anywhere. They claim to be headquartered in New York, but it’s more likely they are based in a tax haven, as their actual business listing is impossible to find.
Their rates are very low. They use a rates calculator (you enter your project specs, and it spits out a fee), but this is all well below professional rates. They charge talent almost $300 per year for membership and take a 15% cut from an already low fee.
It gets worse. The Voice Realm’s customer service appears to be run by just a few individuals who seem unhinged. I, like many VOs, have experienced ranting abuse on their email chains. Unprofessional is one word; crazy is another.
I commend the creators of a terrific Twitter thread entitled “The Twisted World of The Voice Realm” who revealed that at one point, The Voice Realm had ‘team member’ photographs on their About page that were actually stock images.
The Voice Realm also breaks their own payment Ts&Cs regularly. I often had to fight to receive payments from them. They are a crooked operation. Stay well away.
Conclusion: Making Informed Choices
I have shared my experiences with the online voiceover marketplaces I know best. When I work through marketplaces, Fiverr and Voices are where most of my trade comes from. I trust their financial structures, and both allow for bespoke transactions with clients. There are other sites, but when deciding whether to use any of them, be critical of their commission structures and general rates culture. This will be a good indicator of whether you’ll be hiring a true professional. Remember, you get what you pay for. If you hire a VO for $50, you’ll receive that level of work.
The golden rule? The VO talents with the best track records all offer secure hiring processes of their own. Therefore, when using online VoiceOver marketplaces, always offer your direct contact details. Aim to invest your money directly into creative livelihoods rather than tech bro treasure chests.
And of course, if you’re looking to hire me, the good news is, you’re already here! Head to my ‘how it works’ section to learn more about how to hire me directly for your next online VoiceOver.
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