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Trust & Safety

Both sides protected. Every step logged.

Marketplaces run on trust, and trust runs on verifiable facts — not promises. Below is exactly how VERORA protects clients and freelancers, what happens when things go wrong, and what we never claim. Every rule here is enforced in the product.

How clients are protected

  • Hire from proof, not pitches. Every application is the freelancer's verified work history — live demos, repos, and platform-verified completions.
  • Four verification levels. Email-confirmed, GitHub-linked (commit history), ID-verified (human-reviewed photo ID), and platform track record (completed paid contracts). Shown as badges on every profile.
  • Receipt-verified escrow. The final deliverable stays locked until you upload payment proof and the freelancer confirms receipt. Demo first, pay second, download last.
  • Freelancer must accept. Your offer (scope, budget, deadline) is reviewed before work starts. No silent commitments, no surprise invoices.
  • Reviews only from real contracts. A review can only be posted on a completed escrow contract, by its actual participants. No purchased or farmed ratings.

How freelancers are protected

  • Nothing unlocks before payment is confirmed. Your final files stay behind the paywall until you verify the funds arrived. No more “send the source first, payment next week”.
  • You can decline any offer. Scope, budget, or deadline not right? Decline with a reason — no penalty, no hidden score hit.
  • Paid directly, no holds. In manual mode clients pay you directly (bank / Instapay / wire) — the platform never sits on your money for 14 days.
  • Fees only on completion. The commission ($50.00 on $500.00 shown as an example) is quoted upfront and taken only when the contract completes. Applying and proposing are free, forever.
  • Two-way reviews. You review the client too — late payers and scope-creepers build a visible record, just like you do.
  • Fair disputes. Every message, demo, delivery, and receipt lives in the contract room. Admins judge the full history, never one side's screenshot.

The escrow flow, step by step

  1. Offer — client sends scope, budget, deadline. Freelancer accepts or declines.
  2. Work + chat — everything happens in the dedicated contract room, with milestones and file links on record.
  3. Demo — freelancer shares a staging link for review before final delivery.
  4. Locked delivery — final files lock behind the paywall.
  5. Receipt — client pays directly, then uploads the transfer screenshot as proof.
  6. Verify & unlock — freelancer confirms the funds arrived; the download unlocks, payout credits, and a verified proof publishes to their profile.

Honest note: in manual mode money moves directly between you (we don't hold funds yet). The platform's protection is the verification lock plus a complete, auditable record — not custody of cash.

Fees — quoted upfront, taken on completion

Sliding commission, undercutting the ~15% industry standard: 10% to $500, 7.5% to $5k, 5% above. Example: $500.00 → fee $50.00, freelancer gets $450.00. Applying, proposing, and chatting are free.

Cancellations, refunds & disputes

  • Before acceptance: client may withdraw, freelancer may decline — no record, no fee.
  • During work: either side may open a dispute from the contract room. The room freezes into review.
  • Dispute SLA: admins review the full room history and rule within 2 business days. Outcomes: resume work, cancel cleanly, or ban abusers.
  • Refunds: because payments move directly between parties, refunds are settled between you with the admin's ruling as the reference. What the platform does enforce: locked deliverables stay locked until verified, offenders lose verification and accounts, and every ruling is logged.

Security practices

Bcrypt-hashed passwords, sealed tamper-proof sessions, CSRF tokens on every state-changing action, rate limiting on auth and messaging, strict image-upload validation, Content-Security-Policy headers, and OAuth logins that verify provider state. Banned accounts are logged out on their next request. We publish this list so you can hold us to it.