Reading a profile: what the stars and the score actually mean

Every number on a profile is either something the freelancer said, something we measured, or something we computed. They are not interchangeable, and the page tries hard to keep them apart.

Stars are self-assessed, and they measure depth

The one to five stars beside a skill, a tool or an industry are the freelancer's own answer. They are capped on purpose: ten skills at most, and at most three of those can be five stars. Twenty tools, at most five of them five stars. Three industries.

The caps are the signal. Anybody can claim to be excellent at everything; nobody can claim it here, so choosing becomes informative.

Every skill also carries the month somebody started using it, so "four stars" comes with "since 2021" rather than floating free.

Stars answer how deep, not how good. A profile page says so beside them.

Some things we measured

• The ID check. A person compared a document to a photograph.
• Typing speed, if the freelancer took the test and chose to show the result. The test runs in the browser for thirty seconds and we are the only writer of the number.
• Connection speed, if they linked a public speed-test result. It is marked verified for six months and then goes back to being self-reported, because a two-year-old test is not a claim about today.

Each of those carries the date it happened, and the date is public even where the figure is not. An old claim should look old.

The profile score is computed

It is a number out of one hundred, built from a published rubric: what is filled in, what is verified, and how somebody has actually behaved on the platform. A freelancer cannot reach the top of it alone, because part of it can only be caused by a client.

It is a completeness and reliability signal. It is not a quality rating, and no client review moves it.

What none of it tells you

Whether this person is right for your job. That is what the conversation is for, and it is free to start one: browse talent.