Frequently Asked Questions

Clients building a product who want to hire without running a recruitment process, and senior developers who want structured, well-managed engagements without handling sales, contracts, or chasing invoices.

Clients are typically registered businesses, but individual founders commissioning work in good faith are welcome. Developers must be legally able to work as contractors in their country of residence.

OTF operates globally. Our operating entity is based in England and Wales, and engagements can cross borders subject to sanctions screening and local tax handling.

Clients submit a project brief from the home page and we respond within 24 hours. Developers apply to the vetted network via the Apply page and enter the 5-stage vetting process.

We send a shortlist of 2-3 project-ready developers within 72 business hours of a brief being accepted. Most clients interview and start their engagement within the same week.

No. Engagements can be a single week's sprint or a multi-year partnership. We recommend at least 4 weeks to extract the value of the weekly milestone cadence.

Yes. We support both full-time (40 hrs/week) and part-time (20 hrs/week). Whatever the cadence, the developer is dedicated to your project and does not split focus across multiple clients.

Just a browser. The platform runs weekly milestones, hour tracking, messaging, and payment. We also plug into Slack, GitHub, Jira, and Linear if you already use those.

Yes. A named Account Manager runs a kickoff call with the client and the matched developer at the start of every engagement - scope, weekly cadence, communication, and success criteria.

We send 2-3 project-ready candidates per brief. Each comes with a short intro video, their portfolio, and a technical summary. You interview and pick - we don't force the match.

Within the first 14 days we replace them at no additional management fee. You only pay for the hours worked, and we start a fresh match immediately.

Work is broken into weekly milestones. You approve or request changes within 3 business days. Payment releases on approval - no upfront release to the developer.

Yes. Add a second developer, move from part-time to full-time, or pause at the end of a milestone. Changes take effect at the next milestone boundary to keep delivery stable.

A named Account Manager runs the weekly cadence, reviews milestones, and is on hand for scope changes. The developer reports directly into your sprints - the AM is a safety net, not a middle layer.

One clear invoice per month covering the whole engagement - developer time and the 15% management fee. VAT is applied where legally required and itemised separately.

You do - 100% of the code and IP assigns to your company on milestone approval. Every engagement includes a 3-party contract that legally transfers the work to you.

No long contracts. Engagements are flexible - typical notice is 2 weeks at the end of a milestone. We do recommend at least 4 weeks to get the benefit of the milestone cadence.

Yes. Many clients scale to 5+ developers on OTF. Each is managed to the same weekly cadence, with a single Account Manager coordinating the team.

Portfolio check → live coding test → communication interview → background and reference check → final panel review. Fewer than 3% of applicants are admitted to the network.

No. It is free to apply, free to get vetted, and free to stay in the network. OTF earns from the 15% client management fee - developers keep 100% of their agreed rate.

Your rate, your call. We guide you on market bands in your stack and seniority, but you always set the number. We do not push you to lowball.

When a client brief matches your profile, our matching team sends you the brief. You can accept, pass, or ask clarifying questions. There is no penalty for declining - fit is everything.

On milestone approval. Funds release to you directly from the platform - usually within 48 hours of the client signing off. Payouts support bank transfer, international wire, and a growing list of local options.

By default you are dedicated to one engagement at a time - that's what clients pay for. If an engagement is part-time, you can stack a second engagement with the matching team's approval.

A named Account Manager at OTF handles scope, milestones, and disputes. You focus on the work. The AM is the buffer when things get political or ambiguous.

Flag it to your Account Manager. We step in to unblock or, if necessary, open a dispute. The 48-hour dispute SLA applies to developers too - your work does not go unpaid because a client ghosts.

Yes, at any time. Close out the active milestone, notify your Account Manager, and your profile is removed within 7 days. Past engagement records are retained per our Privacy Policy.

No. A single, published fee is what makes the platform trustworthy to both sides. We do not run custom commercial terms that would tilt the platform-enforced balance.

No. Developers keep 100% of their agreed rate. We believe great developers should not pay to work - we earn from the client management fee only.

Milestones approved → invoice issued → payment released. Clients are on NET 7 terms. Developers typically receive funds within 48 hours of milestone approval.

Cards, SEPA, and bank wire for clients. Bank transfer and international wire for developers, with a growing list of local options. All processing is bundled into the management fee.

VAT is applied where legally required under UK or EU rules. Clients get a compliant invoice. Developers manage their own tax status as independent contractors.

We settle at the mid-market rate plus the banking cost we incur - no markup. Conversion is transparent on the invoice.

Invoices unpaid after 7 days may lead to engagement suspension. Statutory interest and reasonable recovery costs may apply. Persistent non-payment is grounds for account closure and debt recovery.

The client and developer agree it together, with the Account Manager keeping it concrete and testable. The AM will push back if a milestone is too vague to rule on objectively at week-end.

The platform's time tracker logs hours against the engagement. Developers self-report; clients see a live weekly summary. Over-cap hours require client pre-approval before they are billable.

Run-overs are managed openly. If scope changed, we re-baseline. If the developer mis-estimated, they finish within budget. The platform records the reason and rolls learning into future milestones.

Yes, through a written change request. Material changes adjust the timeline, the scope, or both - and are always agreed at a milestone boundary, not mid-week.

Clients review each milestone within 3 business days of submission. You approve, request changes with specifics, or escalate. Silence after 3 business days is treated as acceptance.

Yes - you set the standard at engagement kickoff. Common standards (PR review, 70%+ test coverage, CI green) are built into many engagements by default.

Developers flag upcoming leave at least 2 weeks in advance. The milestone plan is adjusted, or a short-term backfill is provided. Illness is handled pragmatically with milestone adjustments and no penalty.

Portfolio (real-world output), live coding (problem-solving under a timer), communication (structured English and explanation), background and references (verifiable delivery history), and a final panel review (fit, seniority, judgement).

We re-check every developer annually on core stack changes. Stack pivots trigger a mini re-vet. Profiles that go stale for more than 12 months are re-verified before new matches.

The Account Manager flags it in the weekly review. If it persists, the client can invoke the 14-day replacement or escalate to a dispute. Consistent quality issues remove the developer from the vetted network.

Yes. Clients rate deliverables at each milestone and leave a structured end-of-engagement review. Ratings feed into profile visibility and future matching weightings.

Yes. Communication, ownership, and proactive flag-raising are tested across the interview and reference stages. A 10x engineer who ghosts a client does not make it through OTF vetting.

References are called, not just collected. We verify titles, scope of ownership, and real outcomes. Inflated CVs are detected and rejected at the reference stage.

Yes. Briefs can specify industry experience (fintech, healthtech, B2B SaaS, etc.), specific stacks, or compliance backgrounds (SOC 2, HIPAA). We match accordingly - or tell you upfront if the bar is unrealistic.

OTF reviews approved scope, weekly milestone definitions, hour logs, submitted deliverables, the full messaging thread, and prior engagement history. Rulings are based on objective delivery data, not subjective claims.

Full or partial release of held funds, replacement of the developer under the 14-day guarantee, refund to the client, suspension or termination of accounts for serious breaches, or a warning and rating impact.

Yes. OTF is not party to the IP or commercial outcome - we rule on the platform rules. We have suspended paying clients and removed high-revenue developers when the evidence required it.

Within the first 14 days of an engagement, if the matched developer is not the right fit, we replace them at no additional management fee. You only pay for hours worked, and we re-match within 72 business hours.

Standard rulings are issued within 48 hours of a dispute being opened. Complex cases involving multiple milestones or technical forensics may take longer; we commit to status updates every 48 hours if the standard SLA will be missed.

A ruling can be reviewed once by a senior dispute manager if new evidence emerges. Beyond that, the ruling is binding on the platform. Statutory rights to pursue legal action outside the platform are always preserved.

Ideally no. Most disputes resolve in 24 hours with a conversation the AM facilitates. Filing is a safety net, not an accusation - both sides benefit from the platform's neutral authority.

No. We do not sell personal data under any definition - including CCPA's broad definition. Engagement content is never used to train third-party or general-purpose AI models.

Encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256), role-based access, audit logging, and annual third-party security review. Sensitive fields (KYC documents, bank details) are stored with an extra layer of field-level encryption.

Primary storage is in the UK and EU. Some sub-processors operate outside these regions - transfers are protected by Standard Contractual Clauses and, where applicable, the UK-US Data Privacy Framework.

Email privacy@openitfreelancers.com from the address on your account. We verify identity, acknowledge within 72 hours, and respond within 30 days - typically faster. No fee for standard requests.

Yes. You can request a machine-readable export of your profile, engagement history, and messages at any time. The export is delivered within 30 days.

Profile data is deleted 30 days after closure. Engagement, payment, and KYC records are retained for the statutory periods listed in the Privacy Policy, after which they are permanently deleted or fully anonymised.

From the Security tab of your account. MFA is strongly recommended and can be enforced on your account. You can revoke active sessions, rotate API keys, and download your full login history from the same page.