What Happened to oDesk and Elance? The Story Behind Upwork

If you remember oDesk or Elance, you were around during an earlier phase of online freelancing.

Both platforms were major names before Upwork existed. Elance had been operating since the late 1990s, while oDesk arrived a few years later and became one of the most visible marketplaces for remote freelance work. For a long time, they competed for the same broad market: businesses looking for independent talent and freelancers looking for projects online.

Then the two companies merged.

That merger eventually led to the creation of Upwork, and over time the old oDesk and Elance platforms were consolidated into one marketplace.

So if you are looking for the old oDesk freelancer website or wondering what happened to Elance, the short answer is that neither continues as a separate freelance platform today. Their businesses became part of what is now Upwork.

What Was Elance?

Elance was one of the earliest major platforms built around hiring independent professionals online.

Upwork’s own company history says Elance was founded in 1998, long before online freelancing became a normal part of how companies hired specialist talent. The platform allowed businesses to find freelancers for project-based work while giving independent professionals a way to reach clients beyond their immediate local networks.

That sounds ordinary now, but it was a much newer idea at the time.

Most professional hiring still happened through traditional employment, staffing firms or personal networks. Elance was part of an early group of companies showing that professional services could be sourced, delivered and paid for through the internet.

Its categories expanded over time to include areas such as software development, writing, design, marketing and business services.

What Was oDesk?

oDesk came later.

According to Upwork’s corporate history, oDesk was founded in 2003. Like Elance, it connected businesses with freelancers online, but it became particularly well known for remote work and hourly contracting.

By 2013, oDesk said more than $1 billion had been spent cumulatively through its online workplace. The company also reported almost 2,400 skills listed across the platform during the preceding twelve months.

That gives some sense of how significant these platforms had already become before the Upwork name existed.

oDesk was not a small product that simply disappeared after a rebrand. It had already developed into a major marketplace for online work, connecting companies with developers, designers, translators, customer-support professionals and many other kinds of independent workers.

Elance and oDesk Competed

Before they merged, Elance and oDesk were competitors.

Both were trying to make online freelance hiring easier, but they had developed somewhat different product experiences and communities. Freelancers could maintain profiles, look for projects and build marketplace reputations, while businesses could use the platforms to hire talent without relying entirely on local employment markets.

By the early 2010s, online work was becoming much more established. Faster internet connections, better collaboration tools and increasing comfort with remote work made it possible for companies to build teams across countries in a way that had been much harder a decade earlier.

That growth also created pressure to scale.

Rather than continuing to compete independently, Elance and oDesk eventually decided to combine.

The 2013 Merger

On December 18, 2013, oDesk and Elance announced that they had signed a definitive agreement to merge.

The companies said the combined community included more than 8 million freelancers and 2 million businesses across more than 180 countries, with an estimated $750 million in billings during 2013.

An important detail is that the merger did not immediately eliminate either website.

The original announcement said the merged company would continue operating odesk.com and elance.com as separate platforms. That meant freelancers and clients did not wake up the next day to find both sites replaced by something new.

The corporate structure had changed first. The product consolidation came later.

Elance-oDesk Came Next

After the combination, the business operated as Elance-oDesk.

Upwork’s later corporate filings explain the timeline clearly. The company was incorporated in Delaware in December 2013 in connection with the Elance-oDesk combination, changed its name to Elance-oDesk, Inc. in March 2014, and later became Upwork Inc. in May 2015.

For a period, therefore, Elance and oDesk still existed as recognisable marketplaces even though they were owned by the same company.

This is why people who used the platforms around 2014 may remember Elance-oDesk as the company name while still logging into an Elance or oDesk product.

The next major change happened in 2015.

oDesk Became Upwork

On May 5, 2015, Elance-oDesk announced that the company was relaunching under a new name: Upwork.

The new brand was accompanied by a new Upwork freelance talent platform, with the company saying it wanted to make it faster for businesses to find and work with independent professionals.

This was not simply oDesk changing its logo.

The company was moving toward one combined marketplace built from the businesses and technology that had previously existed across both Elance and oDesk.

Upwork’s current investor materials summarise the history simply: Elance was founded in 1998, oDesk in 2003, the businesses combined in 2014 and the company rebranded as Upwork in 2015.

What Happened to Elance?

Elance did not disappear at exactly the same moment the Upwork name launched.

The consolidation happened gradually.

Upwork’s corporate filings say the company began consolidating the Elance and oDesk platforms during 2015 and completed that consolidation in 2016, after which the company operated under a single platform.

That is the clearest way to understand what happened.

Elance and oDesk first merged as businesses. The company later rebranded as Upwork. The two separate marketplaces were then consolidated into the single Upwork platform.

So there is no modern Elance marketplace operating independently from Upwork today.

What Happened to oDesk?

The same applies to oDesk.

oDesk became part of the Elance-oDesk combination and then the broader Upwork platform. The old oDesk marketplace was eventually folded into the combined system.

If you search for oDesk today because you previously used it to find freelance jobs or hire people, Upwork is the direct successor.

Some parts of the modern marketplace will feel familiar to former oDesk users. Clients still search for independent professionals, freelancers still build profiles and work histories, and the platform remains involved in contracts and payments.

The product has changed substantially over the years, but the connection between oDesk and Upwork is direct rather than simply historical inspiration.

The Timeline in Simple Terms

The history is easier to follow when the main events are put together.

The 2018 milestone comes from Upwork’s own company history, which records its move from the Elance and oDesk businesses into the public company it became later in the decade.

Why the Merger Happened

The public merger announcement focused on scale and investment.

Elance and oDesk said combining the businesses would allow them to invest more heavily in technology and create more opportunities for freelancers and businesses around the world.

That fits the market they were operating in.

Online freelancing was growing quickly, but marketplaces also depend heavily on network effects. Clients want access to enough relevant professionals, while freelancers want enough active client demand to justify spending time on the platform.

Combining two large marketplaces potentially strengthened both sides of that equation.

The merger also gave the new company a larger pool of marketplace data, users and technology from which to build the next version of the product.

Why People Still Search for oDesk

The oDesk name still has search demand because the platform had a large user base before the Upwork rebrand.

Many freelancers built careers through oDesk. Businesses used it to hire remote workers. Old profiles, forum discussions, tutorials and references to the platform still exist across the web.

Someone returning to freelance work after several years may therefore search for “oDesk freelancer” without knowing that the company became Upwork.

There are also people searching older brand names because they remember a particular workflow or marketplace experience and want to know whether it still exists.

In practical terms, anyone looking for the modern version of oDesk should start with Upwork.

We have a separate guide to Upwork for freelancers covering how the current marketplace works, including jobs, Connects, freelancer fees, profiles and payment systems.

Why People Still Search for Elance

Elance has the same legacy effect.

It was active for many years before the merger, so old articles, freelancer portfolios and client references still mention the name. Someone who last freelanced during that period may naturally search for Elance again.

The important thing is not to confuse those old references with a current active marketplace.

Elance is part of Upwork’s history, but the old Elance platform itself is no longer a separate destination for finding freelance work.

If you want a wider view of current options rather than following the Elance-to-Upwork path, our guide to the best freelance websites to find work in 2026 compares Upwork with other active platforms and talent networks.

How Upwork Changed the Model

Upwork retained the basic marketplace idea behind Elance and oDesk but continued expanding the system around it.

The current platform supports job postings, freelancer proposals, hourly and fixed-price work, Project Catalog services, payment infrastructure, enterprise products and other tools for managing independent work.

In that sense, the story of Elance and oDesk is also the story of how online freelance marketplaces became more sophisticated.

The early problem was largely discovery: how can a business find someone on the internet who has the skills to complete a project?

Modern platforms are trying to solve much more than discovery. Matching, trust, contracts, payments, reputation, compliance and project workflow all sit around the introduction itself.

That broader shift is visible across the freelance-platform market, which we examine in our Freelance Platforms Market Report.

Was oDesk Better Than Upwork?

There is no particularly useful objective answer to that question.

People who used oDesk may prefer aspects of the older marketplace, especially if they built successful businesses there before the merger. Other freelancers may prefer features that were introduced later through Upwork.

The platforms also operated in different markets.

The freelance economy of 2012 was not the same as the freelance economy of 2026. Competition has increased, remote work is much more mainstream, AI is changing professional services and clients have far more ways to find independent talent.

Comparing the two purely through nostalgia misses most of that change.

The more practical question is whether modern Upwork works for the kind of freelance business you are trying to build today.

Is an Old oDesk Account Still Useful?

Anyone with a very old account should use Upwork’s current account-recovery and support process rather than relying on old oDesk login instructions found elsewhere online.

The platforms have been consolidated for years, and old tutorials may refer to systems that no longer exist.

The same applies to Elance accounts.

If you previously used either platform and want to find out whether your account history can still be accessed, Upwork’s current support resources are the appropriate place to check.

Avoid entering account details into websites claiming to be old oDesk or Elance login portals. Neither brand operates as a separate modern freelance marketplace.

Are There Alternatives to Upwork?

Yes.

The fact that oDesk and Elance became Upwork does not mean Upwork is the only place to find freelance projects today.

Fiverr approaches the market through service-based Gigs. Contra has built its own independent-work platform. Toptal operates a more selective talent network. Freelancer.com, PeoplePerHour, Guru and specialist platforms all have different approaches to connecting clients and freelancers.

The right choice depends partly on what you do.

A developer may care about different platforms from a graphic designer. That is why we maintain dedicated guides to IT freelancing websites and graphic design freelancing websites rather than treating every freelancer as though they need the same marketplace.

We are also building a dedicated guide to Upwork alternatives for people specifically looking for a different marketplace model.

Where Flexable Fits

Flexable came much later than Elance and oDesk, so there is no direct historical connection between the products.

The interesting connection is how the problem has changed.

Early freelance marketplaces were largely built around giving clients access to large pools of independent professionals. That solved a major problem at the time because finding remote freelance talent online was still relatively unusual.

Today, access alone is much less difficult. There are enormous marketplaces, professional networks, social platforms and portfolio sites full of people available for independent work.

The harder problem is often narrowing that supply to the people who actually fit a specific project.

That is why Flexable has moved toward a more project-first approach. A client explains what needs to get done, along with the scope, budget and timeline, and matching helps narrow the relevant talent around that requirement.

We explain that evolution in FLXB 2.0: How Flexable Works Today.

The underlying objective is still familiar to anyone who used Elance or oDesk: help clients and independent professionals find each other. The way platforms approach that problem has simply continued to evolve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does oDesk still exist?

No. oDesk became part of Elance-oDesk after the merger between the two companies and was later consolidated into Upwork.

Is oDesk now Upwork?

Yes. oDesk was one of the two predecessor platforms behind Upwork, alongside Elance.

What happened to Elance?

Elance merged with oDesk. The combined company operated as Elance-oDesk before relaunching under the Upwork name in 2015. The separate platforms were later consolidated.

When did oDesk become Upwork?

Elance-oDesk relaunched as Upwork on May 5, 2015. The consolidation of the separate Elance and oDesk platforms continued afterward and was completed in 2016.

When did Elance and oDesk merge?

The companies announced their merger on December 18, 2013. The combined company subsequently operated under the Elance-oDesk name.

Does the Elance website still work as a freelance marketplace?

No. Elance no longer operates as a separate freelance marketplace. Upwork is the successor platform.

Can I still find oDesk freelance jobs?

There is no separate oDesk job marketplace today. Freelancers looking for the modern successor should use Upwork.

Why was oDesk renamed?

The change was part of the consolidation of Elance and oDesk into a single company and marketplace. The combined company relaunched under the Upwork name in 2015 rather than continuing indefinitely with two legacy brands.

Final Thoughts

oDesk and Elance did not simply disappear. They became the foundations of a larger combined platform.

Elance started in 1998, oDesk followed in 2003, and the two companies spent years helping normalise the idea that businesses could hire independent professionals online. They announced their merger in 2013, operated together as Elance-oDesk, relaunched under the Upwork brand in 2015 and completed the consolidation of their platforms in 2016.

For anyone searching the old names today, Upwork is the direct successor.

The more interesting part of the history is how much the market has changed around it. Elance and oDesk helped make online freelance hiring possible at scale. Modern platforms are now competing over what happens after access is no longer the main problem: better matching, stronger trust, easier payments and a smoother path from a project brief to the right person doing the work.