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Upsight vs Lancer: pay per conversation, or a flat plan with a ledger?
Lancer is the better choice if you want the price tied to outcomes: its Pay-Per-Lead plan is $99 a month with 15 client conversations a quarter included and $19 for each one after, and its Unlimited plan is $333 a month with done-for-you setup and multiple Upwork accounts. Every feature, including the API and MCP server, is on both plans. Upsight is the better choice for an agency that wants a flat, predictable price at volume, automated sending through Upwork's API with approval available on any campaign, and the measurement Lancer's pages do not describe: where each profile ranks in Upwork search, which member converts, and what each proposal really cost in Connects. Upsight is $99, $249 or $999 a month, billed monthly with no setup fee and no minimum term. Both tools filter the feed, judge fit with AI, write from a knowledge base and submit from your own Upwork account.
What Lancer says it does best: "We only win when you win": others charge per proposal sent, Lancer charges per conversation started. An AI agent for Upwork that filters the live feed on budget, client spend, hire rate and reviews, runs an AI suitability pass, writes from a knowledge base you author, submits, boosts where worth it and tracks replies in an inbox; launched January 2024, used by 400+ freelancers and agencies.
Pricing, side by side
Prices verified on from Lancer's pricing page and Upsight's pricing page. Vendors change prices; if one has moved, write to support@upsight.fyi and we will correct the page.
| Plan | Price | Terms | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay-Per-Lead | $99 / month | Monthly, or quarterly at "pay 2, get 1 free". Then $19 per lead beyond 15 a quarter. | One Upwork account, 15 leads a quarter then $19 each, all features, unlimited AI cover letters, proposals and AI job filtering. A lead is a client replying to your proposal. |
| Unlimited | $333 / month | Monthly, or quarterly at "pay 2, get 1 free". | Everything in Pay-Per-Lead plus multiple Upwork accounts, unlimited leads, done-for-you setup, a one-hour strategy consultation and monthly check-ins. |
| Free trial | Not published | The pricing page offers a demo booking; no trial terms are stated. | A customer quote on the page mentions being offered a trial; it is not a published policy. |
- Lancer's page states that pay-per-lead users upgrade to Unlimited within 90 days 33% of the time, and 90-day retention of 86% and 94% for the two plans; these are Lancer's figures.
- "Lead" is Lancer's word for a conversation started: a client replying to a proposal Lancer sent.
- Upwork Connects are bought from Upwork on both tools; Lancer offers automatic Connects top-up.
| Plan | Price | Terms | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solopreneurs | $99 / month | Monthly, cancel anytime. Annual billing 20% less. | 100 proposals / month, 1 connected account, 5 tracked keywords |
| Agencies | $249 / month | Monthly, cancel anytime. Annual billing 20% less. | 250 proposals / month, 5 connected accounts, Member-level analytics |
| Enterprise | $999 / month | Monthly, cancel anytime. Annual billing 20% less. | 1,000 proposals / month, 10 connected accounts, Priority everything |
- Overage $1 per proposal beyond the plan. A proposal counts when Upsight submits it; rejected drafts cost nothing.
- No setup fee, no minimum term. Upwork Connects are bought from Upwork as before and are not part of any plan.
Feature by feature
"Not stated" means the vendor's public pages do not describe it, which is not the same as not having it: ask them.
| Feature | Upsight | Lancer |
|---|---|---|
| Bidding | Yes: AI bidder: campaigns sweep the feed every 15 minutes, score each job against your win history, draft from your knowledge base, submit with a boost bid sized to the live auction. | Yes: Unlimited automated bidding: campaigns filter the live feed on 99+ variables, an AI pass judges fit, a proposal is written from your knowledge base with screening answers, then submitted and boosted where worth it. |
| Approval mode | Yes: Per campaign: send automatically after a short review window, or require a person to approve every proposal. The setting is shown on each campaign. | Partly: Proposals can be reviewed before they go out and there is a proposal queue and a sandbox mode, but Lancer's FAQ recommends "letting Lancer do its thing on auto-pilot" once you trust it. |
| Search-rank tracking | Yes: Daily position of each profile for each keyword in Upwork search, including the agencies ranked above you. Public data, no account access needed. | No: Not offered. |
| Per-member analytics | Yes: Sent, viewed, replied and hired per connected member profile, with the denominator shown. | Partly: "Advanced analytics" and multiple Upwork accounts on Unlimited; no per-member funnel with a denominator is described. |
| Connects & boost ledger | Yes: Every Connect and boost bid reconciled to the Upwork transaction, including refunds, so the real cost of a proposal is known after the fact. | Partly: Automatic Connects top-up and boosting where worth it; no ledger reconciled to Upwork's transactions is described. |
| Inbox & alerts | Yes: Replies, invitations and new leads in one inbox; alerts per campaign to Slack, Discord, Telegram or email. | Yes: Unified inbox, an integrated CRM and sales pipeline, real-time notifications, Slack. |
| HubSpot | Yes: Leads sync to HubSpot as a lead or a deal, deduplicated against Upsight's own ledger. Included in every plan. | Partly: n8n, Zapier, Slack "and more"; HubSpot is not named. Webhooks on every plan. |
| MCP / API | Yes: MCP server and REST API with workspace API keys, so Claude or a script can read and operate the bidder. | Yes: REST API, webhooks and an MCP server exposing campaigns, the knowledge base, cover letters, the inbox and analytics, on every plan. |
| Trial | Partly: No self-serve free trial. A free 30-minute pipeline audit on your own numbers before you pay anything. | Not stated: Not published |
| Minimum term | Yes: None. Monthly, cancel anytime. | Yes: None stated. Monthly, or quarterly with the third month free. |
| Setup fee | Yes: None. | Yes: None. Done-for-you setup is included on Unlimited. |
Where Lancer is better
- Outcome pricing. On Pay-Per-Lead a quarter with no client replies costs $297, and nothing per proposal; Upsight meters proposals sent.
- Everything on every plan, including the API and the MCP server, from $99 a month. Upsight's plans differ by proposals, accounts and keywords.
- Done-for-you setup, a strategy consultation and monthly check-ins on Unlimited; Upsight's onboarding is the pipeline audit call plus support.
- Workflow integrations: n8n, Zapier and webhooks on both plans, plus an integrated CRM and sales pipeline.
- Proof in public. Named case studies and testimonials with reply rates, and a published changelog.
Where Upsight is better
- Predictable price at volume. An agency with 30 client replies a month pays about $574 a month on Pay-Per-Lead by our arithmetic, so Lancer's Unlimited at $333 is the real comparison; Upsight's Agencies plan is $249 with five connected accounts.
- Approval set per campaign and shown on it, alongside automated sending through Upwork's API, rather than autopilot recommended once you trust the tool.
- Search-rank tracking for every profile and keyword, including who is above you. Lancer has none.
- Per-member funnels and a Connects and boost ledger reconciled to the Upwork transaction, so a drop in reply rate can be traced to a profile, a keyword or a boost.
- HubSpot sync in every plan, by name.
Frequently asked
- What does Lancer cost per month?
- Pay-Per-Lead is $99 a month and includes 15 leads a quarter, with $19 for each lead after that; Unlimited is $333 a month. Both can be billed quarterly with the third month free. A lead is a client replying to a proposal Lancer sent.
- Is Lancer cheaper than Upsight?
- At low reply volume, yes: $99 a month on Pay-Per-Lead matches Upsight's $99 Solopreneurs plan and includes every Lancer feature. Once an agency passes about 12 replies a month, Pay-Per-Lead costs more than Lancer's own $333 Unlimited plan, which is above Upsight's $249 Agencies plan. What differs is what you get: Lancer's CRM and integrations against Upsight's rank tracking, member analytics and Connects ledger.
- Does Lancer let me approve proposals before they are sent?
- Yes. Its FAQ says you are always in control and can review outputs until satisfied, and its product has a proposal queue and a sandbox mode; it then recommends autopilot once you are confident. Upsight makes it a per-campaign setting: a campaign either holds every proposal for a person or sends automatically after a short review window.
- Which one has an MCP server?
- Both. Lancer's exposes campaigns, the knowledge base, cover letters, the inbox and analytics as tools on every plan. Upsight's MCP server and REST API, with workspace API keys, let Claude or a script read and operate the bidder, including approving drafts.
See your own numbers before you choose.
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