How to Pay Freelancers: 8 Payment Methods that Make Virtual Payroll Easy

Hiring a freelancer is a smart and affordable way to utilize outside talent for business success.

You may hire a freelancer because no one in your company has the qualifications and skills to do something you need to be done, or because you only need a particular skills once or twice and can’t justify hiring full-time staff.

To make the most of this hiring experience, you should invest in easy, accurate, and efficient ways to pay freelancers.

Best way to pay freelancers

We’ve compiled a list of freelance payment methods to make sure your online payroll process works as smoothly as possible. Let’s dive in.

1. Hubstaff

What makes it special:

Hubstaff provides a three-in-one app feature – time tracking, invoicing, and automatic payroll which supports PayPal, TransferWise, Payoneer, Bitwage, and QuickBooks.

Hubstaff allows you to track the time your team spends working, while also capturing optional randomized screenshots, activity levels, and apps and URLs used. Combined, these features make it easy to manage and pay freelancers for their work. There’s no question about what was worked on, and by whom.

To save you even more time, Hubstaff offers automated payroll, daily timesheet emails, and reports that can be customized for your use.

The payroll function allows you to easily add a team member to your organization, set their pay rate, and automatically issue payments at time intervals you can decide on. In other words, you can pay freelancers virtually from within Hubstaff using the time they track on Hubstaff’s time tracker apps.

You can also turn on timesheet approvals so that payments are only sent after you’ve reviewed each person’s time.

Read about how we saved $30,000 on contractor payroll.

Hubstaff also integrates easily with top project management software so your freelancers can track time directly to tasks. For an even better time and project management solution, check out Hubstaff Tasks. It’s a visual, kanban-style project management tool built to work with Hubstaff. Your detailed tasks include checklists, assignees, due dates, attachments and much more.

Here are a few things you can do with Hubstaff:

• Set different pay rates for individual freelancers
• Send payments automatically or manually
• Pay for the exact amount of time worked
• Schedule payments weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or twice a month
• Easily integrate with PayPal, Payoneer, TransferWise or QuickBooks
• Integrate with numerous project management tools for a seamless workflow

Get started with Hubstaff’s automated payments and payroll.

2. PayPal

What makes it special:

PayPal is the most widely used form of online payments for websites, companies, and individuals. It has 227 million active users, services more than 200 markets, and supports 25 currencies to serve a truly global market.

Started in 1998, PayPal has a market capitalization of $100 billion, and the number of users has grown from 15 million to almost 250 million. In addition to being one of the most trusted and widely used money transfer service, PayPal also allows you to pay from your credit card, make bank account payments, PayPal wallet and a PayPal credit line.

PayPal Mass Pay allows you to make mass electronic payments to multiple recipients with just one click.

• Send money to multiple freelancers at once
• Integrates with Hubstaff for automatic payments based on time tracked
• Competitive fees paid only when you send money
• Send payments to different countries
• Send payments in different currencies
• Track payments
• Pay freelancers quickly

3. Payoneer

What makes it special: 

Payoneer offers mass pay so you can pay multiple freelancers with ease. Mass pay can accommodate anywhere from 5 to 200 beneficiaries, so you can use it no matter how vast your freelancer network is.

Payoneer provides fast, flexible, secure, and seamless cross-border freelance payment option. It was founded in 2005 and has since grown to serve businesses and professionals in more than 200 countries and 150 currencies. Payoneer is the payment method used by popular freelance websites such as Hubstaff Talent, because you can find freelancers, track their time, and issue payments all through the same account.

• Freelancers can withdraw funds directly to their bank accounts
• Integrates with Hubstaff for better time tracking and team management
• Payoneer is regulated in the US and the European Union, and licensed to operate globally
• Pay in multiple currencies to different countries
• Send payments via credit cards, bank transfers, online wallets or international checks
• Save money with free transfers
• Funds are available quickly, as soon as 2 hours after initiating a transfer.
• View detailed reports that include payment history, freelancer information, account history and more.

Learn more about how to make automatic payments with Payoneer’s mass payouts.

4. QuickBooks

What makes it special:

Sync with bank accounts, track expenses with user-friendly accounting software, get expert support and opt to have a professional accountant take care of your taxes.

Quickbooks is an accounting tool that also has a full-service payroll feature. Simply enter the hours worked and QuickBooks will do the calculations. To speed things up, QuickBooks has a Hubstaff time tracker integration that allows you to send automatic payments and payroll based on exact time worked. After you’ve paid your freelancers, you can also have an expert accountant take care of your taxes for you.

Their payroll service comes with multiple features and unique benefits.

• Pay freelancers by check or direct deposit. Print checks for free
• Integrates with Hubstaff for streamlined time tracking and payments
• Free expert support via phone, IM, and email
• Get tax support and streamline taxes
• Automatic calculations; just enter the data or send hours through a time tracking integration, and QuickBooks does the rest

Learn more about integrating Hubstaff with QuickBooks.

5. Venmo

What makes it special:

Sign up with Facebook, free to make payments from U.S. bank accounts, major debit cards, and Venmo balance.

Venmo is an online wallet that allows users to send money between Venmo accounts. Just connect your bank accounts or cards, load up your Venmo balance, and send payments to freelancers. This service doesn’t offer a fee calculation tool, so clients will have to determine how much to pay their freelancers manually. And it’s only available in the United States.

• Pay from a bank account, major debit cards, or your Venmo balance
• Free to receive money
• Free to send money when using certain debit cards
• Freelancers can get money to their bank accounts within one business day
• Sign up with Facebook or email

Visit Venmo.com to learn more.

6. Bitwage

Pay your team of freelancers, contractors, and virtual assistants with Bitwage. It’s simple to use, allowing you to create payroll and fund it using wire, ACH credit, ACH debit, SEPA, credit card or digital assets.

Bitwage integrates with Hubstaff so you can make sure payments are 100% accurate. Add pay rates in Hubstaff, have your team track hours, and then use those timesheets to issue automatic weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly payments.

What makes it special:

• Simple and precise time tracking
• Automatic credit card payments
• Screenshots and activity levels
• Generate custom reports

Learn more about automating payments with Bitwage.

7. Xoom

What makes it special:

Simple to use, lock-in exchange rates, transaction tracking online or via text, email or 24-hour phone line.

Xoom is a money transfer service that operates in 32 countries and works with multiple currencies. It’s a straightforward service that will allow you to send money from your bank accounts or credit cards to a freelancer’s account. Freelancers also have the option of picking up their payments at specific locations, such as Western Unions. In some countries, Xoom also offers cash pickup and door-to-door deliveries.

• Simple and easy money transfer service
• Cash pickups and door-to-door deliveries available in select countries
• Pay freelancers using a credit card or direct from bank accounts
• Send money to a bank account or pick-up location

Learn more about how to transfer money with Xoom.

8. TransferWise

What makes it special:

Batch payments simplify payroll by allowing you to send up to 1,000 payments at once. And, all at one low, transparent fee.

Transferwise offers easy, international payments for freelancers and remote teams. Multilingual customer support is available by live chat, phone or email.

• Ability to pay money directly to email with TransferWise
• No international receiving fees for freelancers, as you’re paying directly to their account
• Client benefits, too, as they end up paying less on international payment fees

Learn more about how to transfer money with TransferWise.

What you think is the best way to pay freelancers

Now that we’ve covered our favorite and easy freelancer payment methods, we want to hear from you. No matter whether you’re a freelancer, or someone hiring freelancers, let us know: what are your favorite payment services?

This post was originally published in 2015, and updated March 2019.