The short version
- On Fastwork you pay into the platform's hold before work starts, and the freelancer is paid only when you approve.
- Approve only once everything in the quote is done. Approval ends Fastwork's protection, and a final delivery you leave for 3 days approves itself.
- For a bigger job, pick a seller who offers staged payment. Each stage is a small order of its own, and you can stop after any of them.
- A Thai company can hire on Fastwork, have 3% withholding tax deducted in the system and get a receipt in its own name. A VAT tax invoice depends on whether the seller is VAT-registered.
- An agency hired directly gives you its own contract and paperwork, but nobody holds the money in between.
- Whoever you hire, ask whose name the domain goes in and what year two costs before you agree.
In this article
- Who is writing this
- What Fastwork is, and who runs it
- How hiring on Fastwork works
- Hiring an agency directly
- Freelancer, agency, or a team that sells on Fastwork
- How to pick a web designer on Fastwork
- Hiring as a Thai company: receipts, 3% withholding and tax invoices
- Domain, hosting and who owns the site
- What it costs after launch
- If something goes wrong
- Hiring TopWebAsia through Fastwork
- Questions people ask
Who is writing this
TopWebAsia takes every order through Fastwork. Our founder sells there as an individual under the shop name TopWebAsia (our Fastwork profile (opens in a new tab)), so this guide is written by a seller, and you should read it knowing that.
Every Fastwork rule below links to the Fastwork page it comes from. Where something is our opinion, we say so. More about TopWebAsia.
What Fastwork is, and who runs it
Fastwork is Thailand's freelance marketplace. The Thai site, fastwork.co, is run by ChangeSea Co., Ltd. (Fastwork's terms (opens in a new tab)), and its newer global site, fastwork.com, by Changesea Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. Only Thai citizens can register to sell, verified with a Thai national ID (Fastwork help (opens in a new tab)), so every seller you meet there is a Thai individual working under their own name or a shop name.
If you searched "is Fastwork legit", many of the results are about fastwork.id, an unrelated Indonesian site. For the Thai Fastwork, the answer is in its own rules: your money is held until you approve, Fastwork mediates disputes, and its guarantee covers a seller who breaks the quote or disappears, up to the moment you approve (Fastwork Guarantee (opens in a new tab)). The rest of this guide walks through those rules. Fastwork also runs an English help centre (opens in a new tab).
How hiring on Fastwork works
You talk the job through in Fastwork chat, the freelancer sends a quote, you pay into Fastwork's hold, and the work starts. The freelancer is paid only when you approve.
- YouYou agree the scope in chat. The freelancer sends a quote with the stages, dates and number of revisions.
- Fastwork's holdYou pay for stage one. The money sits in the hold; the freelancer has not been paid.
- The freelancerThe freelancer does the work and delivers the stage.
- You3 daysYou check within 3 days: ask for changes, or approve. A final delivery nobody responds to is approved automatically after 3 days.
- The freelancerProtection endsThe stage's money goes to the freelancer. Fastwork's protection for that stage ends here.
- YouYou press "start the next round" and pay for the next stage, until the last one.
- You can stop after any stage with "end the job". The freelancer keeps only the stages already done.
- Cancelling mid-job: the other side has 72 hours to reply, Fastwork reviews in 5 to 7 working days, refunds take 5 to 10 working days.
- An order with no activity for 180 days is cancelled.
You pay into the hold first
Fastwork's help centre puts it plainly: you pay into its escrow before the work begins, and the freelancer is paid only after you click "Approve Work" (How safe is hiring through Fastwork (opens in a new tab)). You can pay by QR code, by card with a 3.4% fee, or by bank transfer with a 20 baht fee (How to pay (opens in a new tab)).
Approving means accepting the work
This is the most important rule in the whole guide. Fastwork treats a click on "Approve" as accepting the freelancer's work, and after that the job is beyond its help (How to approve work (opens in a new tab)). The Fastwork Guarantee (opens in a new tab) ends at the same moment.
The clock is shorter than most guides say. For deliveries from 31 March 2026, a final delivery you neither approve nor send back within 3 days is approved automatically. It used to be 7 days, and older posts still say so (Fastwork's announcement (opens in a new tab), in Thai).
"After I approved before it was finished, so the freelancer could get paid first, they were very hard to reach."
Paying in stages
Sellers with Fastwork's staged-payment badge can split a job into stages. Each stage is a small order of its own: once you approve one, you press "start the next round" in chat and pay for the next. To stop part-way, agree the terms with the seller and press "end the job"; they keep what the finished stages paid, and you owe nothing for the rest (Fastwork help on staged payment (opens in a new tab), in Thai).
For a website that takes several weeks, this is the best protection you have: you see each part before paying for the next, and you never put the whole fee in on day one. Check each stage within 3 days of delivery.
If delivery runs late
Fastwork treats the delivery date on the site as an estimate: a late delivery has no consequence as long as both sides agree the new date (Fastwork help on late delivery (opens in a new tab), in Thai). So when a date moves, agree the new one in writing in Fastwork chat.
Hiring an agency directly
Fastwork's own description: an agency acts as a go-between that supplies people and services, so you may never speak to whoever does the work, while Fastwork suits buyers who want flexibility, have a limited budget and want to choose and talk to the freelancer themselves (What is Fastwork (opens in a new tab), in Thai). What that leaves out is the money.
With an agency hired directly, nobody holds the money in between. The contract is the only rulebook: the payment stages, the deposit, the revisions and what happens if the work never arrives. In return you get the agency's own paperwork, and a VAT tax invoice if it is VAT-registered. If it ever comes to a dispute, a lawyer answering a Thai buyer on Pantip put it simply: you can claim money back in court, but you cannot force anyone to deliver the work (Pantip, 4 October 2023 (opens in a new tab), in Thai).
Before you sign with an agency, get these in writing:
- How many payments, and what each one buys
- How many rounds of changes, and what counts as extra work
- What you get back if the work is late or never finished
- Whose name the domain, hosting and accounts are in
- What year two costs
- Whether they can issue a VAT tax invoice
Freelancer, agency, or a team that sells on Fastwork
The third column is what TopWebAsia does: a team that works like an agency but takes every order through Fastwork. We added it because no comparison we found covers it, and you should know what it does and does not give you.
| Freelancer on Fastwork | Agency hired directly | A team that sells on Fastwork (like TopWebAsia) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who you contract with | One person: Fastwork sellers are Thai individuals | The company, under its contract | Still an individual seller on Fastwork, under a shop name |
| Where your money sits during the work | Fastwork's hold | Paid to the agency as the contract says, with no one in between | Fastwork's hold |
| When the maker is paid | When you approve, or automatically 3 days after a final delivery | As the contract says | Same as a Fastwork freelancer |
| Paying in stages | With sellers who show the staged-payment badge | Whatever the contract sets | TopWebAsia: 2 to 5 stages |
| If the maker disappears | You can choose a full refund once Fastwork has checked | The contract decides; a court can award money but not force delivery | Same as a Fastwork freelancer |
| Who settles a dispute | Fastwork mediates, and its split of the money is final | You and the agency, then the courts | Same as a Fastwork freelancer |
| Paperwork for a company | A receipt in your company's name from Fastwork's system with 3% withheld; a VAT invoice only if the seller is VAT-registered | The agency's receipt, and a VAT invoice if it is registered | A receipt in your company's name with 3% withheld through Fastwork; no VAT invoice, as we are not VAT-registered |
| Fees on top | Card 3.4% or bank transfer 20 baht; the commission is the seller's | Whatever the agency charges | Same as a Fastwork freelancer |
| Who owns the finished work | You, unless the quote says otherwise | As the contract says | Same as a Fastwork freelancer |
| Fixes after handover | Whatever the quote says; Fastwork's cover ends at approval | As the contract says | Free fixes for 30 days after handover, for anything not working as agreed |
| Who you talk to | The person doing the work, in Fastwork chat | Not necessarily whoever does the work | The founder or the team doing it, in Fastwork chat |
How to pick a web designer on Fastwork
Read the quote before the reviews. The quote is the contract, and it is the evidence Fastwork works from if anything goes wrong.
Six things the quote should spell out
- The scope and the pages, listed, not just "one website"
- The delivery date, which Fastwork counts from the day you pay
- How many rounds of revisions
- If it is staged, what each stage delivers
- What you have to supply: text, photos, the logo
- Whose name the domain and hosting go in, and what year two costs
Placing the order counts as accepting everything in the quote, from delivery and revisions to who owns the work (Fastwork's terms, clause 5 (opens in a new tab), in Thai), and once you have paid, the quote can't be edited: extra work becomes a new order. Anything left out of the quote is hard to claim later.
What the identity badge tells you
It means the seller uploaded a Thai ID card and Fastwork checked it (Fastwork's profile guide (opens in a new tab), in Thai). It tells you who they are, not how good their work is.
Reviews, sales and real work
Fastwork suggests checking completed jobs, review scores and samples. From our own experience, add one more: open a site they actually built, on your own phone. If it is slow or awkward, yours may be too. And keep the listing's portfolio in mind for later: in a dispute, Fastwork judges quality against the work the seller shows on their own page (Fastwork refund policy (opens in a new tab), in Thai).
"Sellers undercut each other to win buyers, and the work comes out at the price you paid."
So who is good on Fastwork?
No single answer fits every business. A seller who fills in all six points of the quote, shows live sites you can open, answers chat quickly and never asks you to approve unfinished work is a good place to start. If you need the copy written, SEO or a second language, ask whether the price includes them.
Keep it all in Fastwork chat
Fastwork reviews disputes from three things: the quote, the chat inside its system and the work itself. Before you pay, the system won't let either side swap LINE, phone numbers or email (How Fastwork works (opens in a new tab), in Thai), and afterwards the scope, dates and approvals still belong in Fastwork chat.
Hiring as a Thai company: receipts, 3% withholding and tax invoices
Yes, a company registered in Thailand can hire on Fastwork. First add the company's details and tax ID under account settings and wait for Fastwork to approve them, then ask the seller for a quote in the company's name (Hiring under a company name (opens in a new tab)).
Fastwork's system then deducts 3% withholding tax from the quoted price and issues the receipt in your company's name (Fastwork's guide for companies (opens in a new tab), in Thai). On a staged job the 3% comes off each stage. The tax is withheld against the freelancer, not Fastwork, because the contract is between you and them (company hiring terms (opens in a new tab), in Thai).
A VAT tax invoice is a separate matter: only a VAT-registered seller can issue one, and many Fastwork sellers aren't. TopWebAsia isn't, so we can't issue one; hiring us through Fastwork as a company gets you a receipt in the company's name with the 3% withheld. If your company is looking at the company websites we build, say so at the start so the quote goes out in the company's name.
Domain, hosting and who owns the site
The usual advice is to keep the domain in your own name, whoever you hire. One Thai owner wrote on Pantip that the web company registered their domain in its own name, and later it belonged to a company they had never heard of (Pantip, 20 July 2018 (opens in a new tab), in Thai). The replies said the same thing: register it yourself, or check the registrant with a whois lookup.
As for the site itself, Fastwork's terms say the delivered work is yours unless the quote says otherwise (terms, clause 17 (opens in a new tab), in Thai). After a full refund, though, the copyright stays with the freelancer and you can't use the work (refund policy (opens in a new tab), in Thai).
Our own rule, stated plainly: every package includes the domain and hosting free for the first year. If you want them in your own name from the start, you buy them yourself and skip the free year, and you can take them over or move them elsewhere at any time (our terms).
What it costs after launch
Ask before you hire. A Thai owner on Pantip was charged ฿70,000 to ฿80,000 for upkeep in year two; most replies called it far too high and put a .com domain at about ฿500 a year and small-site hosting at ฿1,000 to ฿3,000 (Pantip, 11 February 2024 (opens in a new tab), in Thai).
The running costs to ask about:
- The domain, per year
- Hosting, per year
- Paid plugins or theme licences, if it is WordPress
- The monthly platform plan, if it is Wix, Framer or Webflow
- Changes and upkeep after handover, and how long fixes are free
Ours: for 30 days after handover, we fix anything that doesn't work as agreed at no charge. The domain and hosting are free in year one, then ฿1,500 a year, paid through Fastwork. If you'd like us to keep looking after the site, here is what the monthly Care Plan covers.
If something goes wrong
If the freelancer stops answering or can't carry on, tell Fastwork straight away; you can choose a full refund (refund policy (opens in a new tab), in Thai). If the work doesn't match what was agreed, Fastwork asks both sides to sort out revisions first, then reviews it if that fails.
How a cancellation runs
- Agree the percentage with the freelancer first
- Press "request cancellation", give the reason and percentage, and attach evidence
- The other side has 72 hours to reply
- If you still disagree, Fastwork reviews it in 5 to 7 working days, and its split is final
- Refunds usually arrive within 5 to 10 working days; a card fee is not refunded
(cancellation steps (opens in a new tab) and refund conditions (opens in a new tab), in Thai). Fastwork decides on three pieces of evidence: the quote, the chat and the work. One real case from Pantip: a ฿10,000 software job failed testing, the freelancer asked for 90% on cancelling, and Fastwork's team ruled that the buyer pay 30%.
"About 15 days later we were told we had to pay the freelancer 30%."
What Fastwork does not cover
- Anything after you approve, or after the automatic approval
- Money paid outside Fastwork
- An order with no activity for 180 days: it is cancelled and what you paid counts as platform fees
If a freelancer left a WordPress site half-done or broken, we take on fixing a WordPress site someone left broken, and when it is not worth saving, a new site on the same domain.
Hiring TopWebAsia through Fastwork
We build on WordPress, Next.js, Wix, Framer and Webflow, write the copy for every page and finish the SEO before launch. Every order is placed and paid through Fastwork: we send the quote in the system, you pay Fastwork, and the money reaches us only after you accept the work. Fastwork's protection ends when you accept, but for 30 days after that we still fix anything that doesn't work as agreed, free. Bigger jobs can be split into stages, and we take no payment outside Fastwork.
Our Fastwork packages have their own scope and prices; the website packages are on our packages page, and past work is on our work page.
Questions people ask
Is Fastwork safe for hiring a web designer?
Fastwork holds your money until you approve, mediates disputes, and its guarantee covers a seller who breaks the quote, delivers something different or disappears. That cover ends when you approve or let the automatic approval run, and it never covers money paid outside Fastwork.
Should I approve work that isn't finished?
No. Approving counts as accepting the work, and Fastwork can no longer help afterwards. If a seller asks you to approve early, request changes instead, and check every delivery within 3 days.
Can I pay in stages?
Yes, with sellers who show the staged-payment badge. Each stage is its own small order, you pay for the next one when it starts, and you can stop after any of them. We offer 2 to 5 stages, each with its own work and date.
Can my company hire on Fastwork, and get a tax invoice?
Yes. Add the company's details in Fastwork and wait for approval before you ask for a quote; the system withholds 3% and issues a receipt in the company's name. Only a VAT-registered seller can issue a tax invoice, and TopWebAsia isn't one. For the 50 Tawi certificate, ask Fastwork before you pay.
What if the freelancer disappears or cancels?
If Fastwork can't reach the seller, or the seller can't continue, you can choose a full refund. It usually takes 5 to 10 working days, a card fee isn't refunded, and after a full refund the copyright in the work stays with the freelancer.
Do I pay Fastwork a fee on top?
Fastwork's help centre says the commission is charged to the seller and can't be added to your price. You pay only the payment-method fee: 3.4% by card or 20 baht by bank transfer (as of 5 October 2026).
What does Fastwork's identity badge mean?
The seller uploaded a Thai ID card and Fastwork checked it. It tells you who they are, not how good their work is.
Whose name should the domain be in?
Generally yours, and you can check the registrant with a whois lookup. With us, the domain and hosting are free in year one; if you want them in your own name from the start, you buy them yourself and skip the free year, and you can take them over at any time.
Sources
- Fastwork: How safe is hiring through Fastwork (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: How to approve work submitted by freelancers (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: automatic approval changed to 3 days (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork Guarantee (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: buyer terms of service (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: staged payment (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: How to pay (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: service fees (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: hiring under a company name (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: company hiring terms (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork blog: hiring as a company (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: refund policy (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: cancelling a job (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: refund conditions (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: late delivery (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: changing a quote (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: what Fastwork is (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: how hiring works (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork blog: freelancer profile tips (in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Fastwork: can non-Thai citizens register as a freelancer? (read 5 October 2026)
- Pantip: a buyer's Fastwork website job (23 April 2022, in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Pantip: whose name is my domain in? (20 July 2018, in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Pantip: upkeep costs after year one (11 February 2024, in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Pantip: a disputed Fastwork job (31 October 2024, in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Pantip: suing a late freelancer (4 October 2023, in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Pantip: can Fastwork be trusted? (24 April 2025, in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)
- Pantip: why people use Fastwork (7 November 2025, in Thai) (read 5 October 2026)