Updated on July 17th, 2022
Can I Trust Fiverr with my WordPress Login? Say that you’re wanting to make some small coding changes on your site and the technician needs access. This can be a really difficult question to ask yourself! It requires a degree of soul searching as you’re effectively handing over the keys to someone you’ve never met based on blind trust. In a nutshell, consider the following:
It’s possible to mitigate the risk by only working with level two Sellers or above with only five star ratings. Set up a specific login for the technician and only give them access to the specific functions that they need. Once they’ve completed the work, immediately deactivate that login. Backup your site before allowing any access.
There’s no doubt that Fiverr is a trusted resource. It’s been around since February 2010 with over 50 million transactions being processed per month. The price they charge for work is obviously very attractive and they have some very talented providers.
Altogether, We’ve had good experiences with their services in the past. Having said this, when it came time to employ their services, we’d never had any programming work done remotely on our site. So when we recently needed to engage a programmer, an obvious question arose. Can I trust Fiverr with my WordPress login?.
The reality is that most Fiverr sellers are honest and genuine and earn an honest income. It’s not worth it for them to risk losing their account.
Can I Trust Fiverr with WordPress Login? – My Security Concerns
I’m a huge proponent of online security. Accordingly I don’t use the same password for multiple websites. This means always using a password manager and two-factor authentication.
For the programmer to work on your site, they need to be able to access your site. Additionally (this is a big and!), they’ll need some form of Admin privileges. This is because they’ll have to try the code that they develop and check that it’s all working correctly.
I personally believe that you should never give out your login details. This particularly applies when the recipient is someone you’ve never met and probably resides in another country.
By giving over the keys to your website, you’re potentially inviting someone to steal your website or make change that you haven’t authorised. Additionally, there’s always the risk of malicious code being introduced to your site.
Can I Trust Fiverr with WordPress Login? – Considerations
My decision to go ahead was based on satisfying the conditions laid out below. These factors are my view based on my current knowledge. Anyone else considering doing this should make their own enquiries and evaluate their individual risks applicable to their particular website.
Only work with Level 2 Sellers or Above
There’s so much competition on Fiverr with over 830,000 sellers. You have an amazing choice of providers to work with. Sellers are based into different grades on Fiverr based on their skills and experience. Accordingly, Level 2 sellers are required to obtain a high level of performance to achieve their ranking. For this reason, I’ve chosen to only work with Level 2 sellers or above.
Go with the Level 2 Seller with the Highest Feedback
I generally look for sellers with a 5 star rating. Also, the quantity of feedback responses is critical as it shows how much work the seller has done. Read any negative feedback that the seller has received. What was the nature of the negative feedback and how did the seller respond to that feedback?
My view is that any seller with negative feedback relating to loss or damage to websites needs to be avoided.
Summing this up, I would select the highest rated seller with the highest number of feedback items. Having said this, I would avoid any seller with concerning negative feedback, even if they met the previous criteria.
Also look at how long the seller has been on the Fiverr platform. When asking “can I trust Fiverr”, the longer they have been on the platform is a good sign that they can be trusted.
Read the Seller’s Positive Feedback
Read the positive feedback comments of the seller. How engaged are the buyers? If they mention that they’ve worked with the seller before and that they’re looking to use their services again, it’s a positive signal. The more of these types of comments the better, the more comfort I would achieve with the seller.
Consider setting the designer up as a Collaborator
Some site hosting providers such as Siteground offer a facility on some plans which is called Collaborator status. This will allow your Fiverr technician or designer to work on your site and get around issues such as two-factor authentication on our site.
Can I Trust Fiverr? – Techniques to Limit Risk
Once you’ve selected a Fiverr seller, below are the techniques that I used to limit the risk of handing over my user ID and password.
These methods aren’t failsafe for everyone and there’ll always be an element of trust involved.
Don’t Risk a High Value Website
If your site is a commercially valuable asset, I’d recommend choosing a local programmer instead of using Fiverr. You can meet the programmer face to face and see exactly what they are working on.
There’s no doubt that it’ll cost more, but it’s well worth it for your peace of mind.
Backup your Site
Backing up your site should be a regular occurrence (at least daily) anyway. Just ensure that this has been done as it’s something that you could fall back on in a worst case scenario.
Most hosting providers such as Siteground and Kinsta include these services with their package.
Create a new WordPress ID for the Fiverr Seller
It’s preferable not to give them your own user ID. So I’d recommend creating a new user ID specifically for the use of the seller. Make sure both the ID and password are sufficiently long and complex to avoid the risk of hacking by a third party.
Note: Never use “Admin” as a user ID and I wouldn’t recommend using the Fiverr seller’s actual name either.
Restrict the access privileges as much as possible to the tasks that need to be done.
As soon as the gig is completed, either delete the user ID or change the password to something else which is long and complex.
Try to Avoid Disputes with the Seller
It’s really unlikely that you’ll be let down if you have chosen your seller well. But if you aren’t happy, it’s best to walk away on peaceful terms.
Change the password or delete the username that was given to the seller. Fiverr transactions don’t cost much. I’d walk away if there was any sign of friction and someone else had admin access to my site.
Can I Trust Fiverr with my WordPress Login? – Summary
The decision to hand over login details to a third party is up to each person based on their own feelings for risk.
There are so many factors that come into play for each person. From my experience doing this, the reward was worth the potential risk for my website. I’d make sure to re-evaluate this for each and every interaction I have in the future.
The sellers I’ve worked with at Fiverr have been highly communicative, courteous and have performed quality work promptly.
Frequently Asked Questions – Can I Trust Fiverr with my WordPress Login?
Should I use Fiverr or Upwork for my project?
It depends on a few factors. Fiverr is perfect for one-off small and uncomplicated tasks e.g. snippets of code, creating a logo or a landing page.
Upwork is suited to larger, more complex tasks. You’ll have more of an opportunity to build a working relationship with your provider at Upwork than on Fiverr. Upwork would be suitable for tasks like sourcing a regular contributing writer or a software developer for a website redesign.
Is the quality of work on Fiverr good?
Yes generally it is. When engaging someone for a gig on Fiverr, make sure to read their reviews. Review their comments and rating level. All these factors will give you a good indication of the outcome that you can expect from the provider.
How do I allow someone else to work on my website if I have 2-factor authentication?
Photo by Kipras Štreimikis on Unsplash
