One of my favourite ways to travel for free is by volunteering abroad using Work exchange programs like Workaway. Workaway is the biggest work exchange website, but there are several other sites like Workaway which work in a similar way, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. I’ve brought together six of the most popular Workaway alternatives to compare so you can choose the best option for your work exchange. We’ll cover Worldpackers, HelpX, WWOOF, Hippohelp, Helpstay & Volunteers Base and Trusted Housesitters, all of which could be better than Workaway for your next trip.
You’ll also find a $10 discount code for Worldpackers membership if you decide to try them out and you can save 25% on TrustedHousesitters with the code TALES25 !
Workaway Alternatives Quick Reference Guide
If you just need a quick answer, here are the best work exchange websites that I’ve found. Scroll down to read more information about each of the platforms.
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Workway – Biggest Work Exchange Website
Workaway has the most placements and members, so lots to choose from – but there can be a lot of competition. Not great support, questions about how authentic reviews are. Best for families, as you can add children under 18 to your profile.
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Worldpackers – The Best Workaway Alternative
Worldpackers is my favourite work exchange site and the one I always recommend first. High level of support, including WP Safeguard included in all packages, with varying levels of money refunded for emergency accommodation if your volunteering experience doesn’t go as planned. You also have the chance to earn money as you travel through Worldpackers Programs. Learn More & Save $10 on Yearly Membership
Get a $10 Discount on Worldpackers Membership
Save $10 on a year’s membership with Worldpackers with the discount code TALESOFABACKPACKER
PLUS register with Worldpackers by June 30th and get an exclusive virtual guide to travel with peace of mind, purpose, and confidence. Created by experts from the Worldpackers team based on thousands of real experiences. Over 20 pages of essential content — available to you for free!
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Helpx – For Budget Backpackers
Cheap, good range of placements in Europe, Australia and Canada. Not as much support as other sites like Workaway and Worldpackers.
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WWOOF – For Farm Work and Permaculture
Focuses on organic farms in rural areas. Great for people who want to work outdoors and learn about farming in one particular country.
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HippoHelp (now HelpStay) – Free Work Exchange Website For Experienced Travellers
Lack of support means free work exchange sites like HippoHelp and Volunteers Base are best for experienced backpackers who have already done previous work exchanges. I wouldn’t recommend them for solo female travellers. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend Volunteers Base at all as it isn’t really free as it claims to be, but more on that below!
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Trusted Housesitters – House & Pet Sitting Opportunities
A bit different from a work exchange in that you don’t spend time “working”, rather you will be living in someone’s home and looking after the house and their pets while they travel. Trusted Housesitters can be a great option for flexible travellers who have experience looking after animals or for more mature travellers and digital nomads.
Trusted Housesitters Discount Code
SAVE 25% on Trusted Housesitters Membership with the code TALES25
What is a Work Exchange & What Are the Benefits?
Let’s start with the basics. I assume that if you’ve heard of Workaway, you are familiar with the concept of work exchanges, but to be clear; a work exchange means that people offer their time and skills to do volunteer work in exchange for free accommodation and food or other benefits.
It is also known as a kind of work and travel programme, work-trade or voluntourism, although the volunteer placements are often ‘normal’ businesses looking for an extra pair of hands, not necessarily doing work to help others as you may imagine in the traditional sense of ‘volunteering’.
But, still helping local businesses to survive and thrive is still a valuable contribution to them and the community, and while you can pay a lot of money to volunteer through some organisations, work exchange websites offer the chance to volunteer for free abroad – or almost free at least!
The kind of work you do on a work exchange is as varied as the countries and hosts you choose. You might find work in hostels, on a farm, in a family home or at an NGO. I did several work exchanges working at hostels, as well as for a travel agency and website developer but there are lots of different options available.
Another way to look at work exchanges is actually to view them as a cultural exchange. Volunteers still exchange skills for accommodation, but the key element is that the host and the volunteer learn more about each other’s culture. This often happens after the work is done, during social activities like eating meals together and getting to know one another as you would usually do in a hostel for example.
Work exchanges have many benefits, from saving money to learning more about the culture and getting great work experience for your resume or CV. You could also learn new skills, including learning a new language, and make some lifelong friends along the way.
I’ve loved doing work exchanges as I travel, and travelling slowly and spending more time in one place also helps to avoid backpacker burnout, which I can definitely tell you is a thing! As much as I adore travel, travelling non-stop is exhausting so I really appreciated things like being able to unpack and explore a place instead of moving on every few days.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: How to Travel for Free by Volunteering Abroad
Why I Use Work Exchange Websites
One of the best ways to find work exchanges is to use a work exchange website to browse available placements.
Work Exchange sites offer a platform for individuals, families, businesses and organisations to advertise for the help they need. Potential volunteers sign up for these work exchange platforms to search for suitable hosts and volunteer work exchange placements in countries all over the world, and then the host and volunteer arrange the placement together.
The best work exchange sites like Workaway and Worldpackers offer more security and support while looking for placements and while you are volunteering abroad, so it is a great way to find placements quickly and safely – and how I found all of my hostel work while I was backpacking, as well as working at a stables in the UK.
If you’re looking for alternatives to Workaway then there may be a reason why you don’t want to do a work exchange with Workaway or had a bad Workaway experience – if so, please do let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear more so I can keep this article up to date!
Now I’ll talk about the main work exchange websites I’m aware of, including five Workaway alternatives for you to choose from, then have a recap of Workaway as a reminder of what they offer.
Workaway Alternatives
While Workaway is a great work exchange website, it certainly isn’t perfect, so these alternatives to Workaway may be better for you. Have a read and see if you’d like to try any out:
Worldpackers – The Best Work Exchange Website
If you’re wondering what is better than Workaway, Worldpackers is my preferred work exchange site, and in my opinion, it is the best work exchange website out there, beating Workaway in several aspects.
Similar to Workaway, Worldpackers is free to join, and the site is easy to use and navigate. You can sign in via Facebook for ease of access or download the Worldpackers app. Check out the video here for more information about how Worldpackers works.
Worldpackers Membership Fee
To contact hosts and arrange placements you need to sign up to become a verified member, which costs from $59 USD for one year on a standard membership, or $49 with this discount code for a solo membership, .
Worldpackers also have two upgraded membership options, so in addition to the “Solo Trips” basic membership, you can choose the Solo Pack or Solo Pack Plus.
These upgraded memberships have added benefits, including special discounts and extended WP Safeguard with more money for emergency accommodation if your volunteering experience doesn’t go as planned. You’ll also get access to the entire Worldpackers Academy where you can learn more about planning your travel adventures and how to earn money while travelling. Learn more about the package options here.
Volunteer Positions on Worldpackers
Worldpackers started in South America, so they have a lot of opportunities there and have rapidly expanded the number of placements available in the rest of the world, with a network of over 1.5 million hosts and volunteers worldwide.
There is a wide range of volunteer opportunities available on Worldpackers with hostels, campsites, NGOs, social projects, farms, ecovillages, restaurants, and small businesses, families, again – you name it, they’ve got it.
Some of the awesome placements include:
I’ve used Worldpackers to volunteer and I love the site and how easy it was to find a placement and get a quick response from hosts compared to previous experiences I’ve had with Workaway. Check out my full review of my Worldpackers experience here to find out what I got up to.
Worldpackers Support & Standards
What really makes Worldpackers stand out from other work exchange sites (including Workaway) is the level of support they offer to all members. They have several safety measures in place including 24/7 support to volunteers and hosts, through a dedicated email address on the website to get in touch, or through their app.
All hosts go through a verification process before they are approved to welcome volunteers Worldpackers are proud of the fact that a lot of their volunteers are solo female travellers – around 59% apparently – so that is good peace of mind for us ladies!
Worldpackers Host Response Guarantee
WP Safeguard (formerly Worldpackers Insurance)
Unfortunately, sometimes things don’t work out as you’d hoped, and if you have to leave an exchange early because something isn’t going as agreed with your host, you have WP Safeguard included as part of your membership.
This means that the Worldpackers support team will help you find a new placement and also reimburse you for emergency accommodation costs while you look for a new placement. For standard members, they will refund up to $59 USD, and if you have a “pack” membership that increases up to $199 for the Pack Plan and $399 USD for the Pack Plus Plan.
Earn Money with Worldpackers
Another huge benefit of Worldpackers is the chance to actually earn money while you travel with Worldpackers Programs. Once you have completed some work exchanges on Worldpackers you can get paid to share advice with other travellers and for creating video or blog content about your experiences. Not only does Worldpackers save you money on accommodation but it can pay for the rest of your travels too!
Ecological & Social Sustainability
This is something you might not even realise is running behind the scenes, but Worldpackers Ecological & Social Sustainability Awards give prizes amounting to $20,000 to the hosts who make the biggest impact in these areas. The awards are voted for by Worldpackers members, and winners win between $5000 and $1000 to boost their project. I think it’s a fantastic initiative, and you can learn more about it here.
Worldpackers Fees
I’ve teamed up with Worldpackers to offer all Tales of a Backpacker readers a $10 discount, which means you only need to pay $49 USD for a full year’s verified membership, so what are you waiting for?!
Get a $10 Discount on Worldpackers Membership
Save $10 on a year’s membership with Worldpackers with the discount code TALESOFABACKPACKER
PLUS register with Worldpackers by June 30th and get an exclusive virtual guide to travel with peace of mind, purpose, and confidence. Created by experts from the Worldpackers team based on thousands of real experiences. Over 20 pages of essential content — available to you for free!
Cost: starts from $59 USD for 1 year for a solo membership or $49 USD with this discount code
from $69 USD for 1 year for a couple/joint membership or $59 USD with this discount code
Pros: Good range of opportunities and easy to get a placement. Excellent support for volunteers, including WP Safeguard (formerly Worldpackers Insurance). Chance to earn money as you travel
Cons: Fewer opportunities than Workaway, but growing quickly, so it’s at least worth browsing the opportunities for free before you sign up.
Worldpackers: The Best Workaway Alternative
Workaway and Worldpackers are in my opinion the two best work exchange sites, but for me, Worldpackers just tips the scales for the excellent value of membership (with the discount), their level of support with WP Safeguard and added extras in their community like the Worldpacker Programs and Worldpacker Academy, so it is definitely the best alternative to Workaway.
I go into more detail about which I think is the best work exchange website in this article comparing Worldpackers and Workaway, if you would like more information about Worldpackers v Workaway.
However, If you are still struggling to decide between Workaway or Worldpackers, the deal-breaker really depends on what work exchange placements are available where you want to go.
I have had several successful work exchanges through Workaway, but because of the sheer size of the network, hosts in popular destinations are often bombarded with requests for exchanges and you might be less likely to get a reply from them.
Worldpackers, on the other hand, may have fewer placements where you want to go, but it is easier to get a response from hosts. I’ve spoken to several people who have had trouble getting responses from prospective hosts on Workaway, and there is nothing more frustrating than paying for a service where hosts don’t respond, although both Worldpackers and Workaway now have host response guarantees!
At the very least, check out the opportunities available on Worldpackers to see what options there are for your chosen destination, and if they have placements then I’d recommend signing up and applying! You will save a ton of money on accommodation, and you can even make your money back as you travel.
Worldpackers is growing quickly, so check back frequently to see if more hosts have signed up. If you are looking for volunteer placements in Latin America then start with Worldpackers, as they started in Brazil and have a strong presence in the region.
Helpx
Help Exchange, or HelpX for short was originally set up in 2001 by a traveller who wanted a better system of finding cultural work exchange placements while backpacking in Australia and New Zealand. The website has had a revamp and isn’t as old-fashioned looking as it used to be, and works in a similar way to Workaway and Worldpackers but it is missing some of the bells and whistles of these more advanced sites.
You can browse and search for listings without having to register, but to contact hosts and to read the full reviews of placements you have to upgrade to the premier membership.
Premier Membership is cheap though, at €20 (about $22.50 USD) for 2 years, although with fewer of the benefits of the top Workaway alternatives. There is a contact us form on the website which says they’ll try and get back to you within 3 days, so the level of support doesn’t come anywhere near that of Worldpackers or Workaway.
This site seems to focus primarily on Australia, New Zealand, Canada & Europe, although there are listings in other parts of the world too.
Once you have searched for a location you see when the profile was last updated – some seem quite out of date (as the website has been going for a long time) but it is always worth contacting them. In search results, the profiles which have been updated most recently show up first.
Cost: $22.50 for 2 years
Pros: Cheap. A wide range of opportunities in Europe, Australia, Canada.
Cons: Old website, not easy to see information at a glance. Not many international placements outside their focus area.
WWOOF
WWOOF or World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms does what it says on the tin – working in a similar way to the above sites but solely for placements on organic farms. The farms offer excellent opportunities to experience rural areas of your chosen countries, but by their nature tend to be more isolated from city centres and offer more basic accommodations than you expect to find in hostels where tourists are.
Most countries have their own WWOOF network, and you have to pay for registration for each country network you want to join, which vary in cost between around $20 – $30 per country up to $50 USD. If there isn’t a specific WWOOF organisation in the country you’re looking for, there are also WWOOF Independents, which are clubbed together on their own website.
WWOOFer membership for WWOOF Independents is currently €35 for a single membership or €55 for joint membership for one year which is around $40 for one person or around $60 for two people. There are currently 1020 Organic growers & farmers on WWOOF Independents.
Cost: $20-$50 per country.
Pros: Organic, so great for people wanting to learn more about permaculture and farming
Cons: Payment is per country, so if you are travelling around several countries, it can be expensive. Only farming opportunities, so no other work experience available.
HelpStay Review
HelpStay is another site similar to Workaway and Worldpackers, but much smaller. They currently have over 1500 hosts, projects and families offering work exchange placements on the site, which is a lot fewer than the other larger sites.
However, the cost isn’t much lower than those, so considering you get a lot less for your money I don’t see HelpStay as being particularly good value. I think it has potential for the future if it grows significantly, and having recently taken over HippoHelp (see below for details) they may have big plans for growth that haven’t yet come to fruition.
If you’d like to take a look you can browse available opportunities for free, and then you’ll need to sign up for a paid membership in order to contact any of the hosts, and to access added functionality like saving favourites.
Cost: HelpStay membership currently costs €42.99 (approximately $48 USD) for a solo membership and €51.99 (approximately $58 USD) for a couples or friends membership.
Trusted Housesitters
I originally hadn’t included housesitting in my comparison of Workaway alternatives, but housesitting is a kind of exchange of “work” for accommodation in that you would be caring for someone’s home and their beloved pets in exchange for staying at their house for free so I wanted to give you the option of doing something slightly different.
Trusted Housesitters is the best-known house-sitting website, with the best security measures for both homeowners and potential sitters.
Trusted Housesitters Discount Code
SAVE 25% on Trusted Housesitters Membership with the code TALES25
Housesitting doesn’t have some of the same benefits of traditional work exchanges as you will be on your own in the host’s home, not interacting with them – but you will be able to feel at home in the destination and for long stays in particular, you can really feel part of the local community if you get out and meet people while you’re there.
The main benefit of house sitting is that it isn’t really working at all – you just need to keep the house clean and tidy and care for any animals. This doesn’t mean you get free reign to do whatever you want though – it is a big responsibility to look after someone’s pets so you need to know what you are doing and take care of them properly.
Some animals will need feeding or exercising at specific times of day and you need to make sure they are safe and well in your care, and know what to do if they get sick or injured. The last house sit I did I had to take the cat to the vet and learn how to put drops in their eyes – not an easy task but I managed it!
Housesitting can be competitive, with hosts usually preferring to take experienced sitters over beginners with no reviews. It is more expensive than the other work exchange sites, so it might not work for budget backpackers, but it is still excellent value, even if you only do one house-sit in a year!
I have done some housesitting and cat-sitting for friends and am starting to do some pet-sitting through Trusted Housesitters too. Check out my full review here! >>>Learn more about Trusted Housesitters here
Cost: from £99 / $129 for a basic Sitter membership which lasts for 1 year, with upgraded options including added extras like calls with vets, instant alerts on search results and more. SAVE 25% on Trusted Housesitters Membership with the code TALES25
Pros: not real “work” so more free time, stay in someone’s home so it can be very nice accommodation
Cons: more expensive membership than traditional work exchanges, can be competitive. Usually you need to know about animal care and be responsible for someone’s pets.
Are There Free Workaway Alternatives?
Not any more! It costs money to run a website properly, and even work exchange sites that were free in the past have started to charge a fee, even if it’s a small one. However, for a whole year’s access to thousands of work exchange placements around the world, I don’t think any of the work exchange sites above are expensive for what you get.
Hippohelp Review – Closed Down on 31 December 2024
Hippohelp used to be completely free to join, for both hosts and volunteers but had implemented a fee due to their own rising costs, and I received an email in December 2024 explaining they would be shutting the site down completely as of the end of 2024.
Helpstay has acquired the domain and trademark so could potentially relaunch Hippohelp in the future. For the time being, the Hippohelp domain is still live, but when you click to search for stays it redirects you to the Helpstay platform. Hippohelp has not sold any user-related data as part of the agreement and said they would delete everything on 31st December 2024.
As a free Workaway alternative, Hippohelp emphasised social and cultural exchanges as the key to their work exchange programmes and could have been a good way to ‘test’ out volunteering before you sign up and pay for sites like Workaway and Worldpackers.
However, as with any free site, there was more of an element of risk involved as there is no screening process, and if something went wrong there wasn’t a support team to help you.
Having browsed a few of the placements on Hippohelp in the UK for example, I found that they were often individuals looking for help around the house, and most didn’t have any previous reviews. As a solo female traveller that would be a big no-no for me, but there may have been more suitable options I haven’t found.
We will see what happens in the future with Hippohelp and Helpstay!
Cost: Was Free – Now a membership fee with Helpstay
Pros: Good to get a taster if you are a confident traveller and don’t expect to have problems
Cons: Not as much screening of hosts or support if you do need help
Volunteers Base Review
I had previously been unimpressed by Volunteers Base as I didn’t like the lack of transparency on their website regarding the cost of creating an account. They used to say they were a free work exchange site and so seemed to be a free Workaway alternative, but then there was a fee to have your ID verified to become a member.
However, they have now made it a bit clearer on the site that Volunteers Base is a “not-for-profit alternative” to traditional volunteering networks, but there is a donation-based proof of identity required to register and contact hosts.
If you click on the volunteers page for more information they explain that due to an increase in spam messages, they had to implement an identity verification. There is no minimum or maximum donation amount, so it’s up to you what you want to donate.
For a free volunteering website, I suppose you can’t expect as much functionality as the paid options, but I found VolunteersBase quite hard to use. There are no search filters to narrow down what you are looking for, just by country or a search bar, and there is no way to filter hosts who have reviews.
Each host writes their own description of what they are looking for and what is required so there isn’t any consistency between the information provided. There is also very limited information about the host unless they choose to write something about themselves in the job description, there isn’t a host profile to look at.
It’s nice that it is free, but personally, I would rather pay a bit more money to be able to use the platform properly. I am a member but I haven’t done any volunteer placements for this reason.
Cost: Compulsory “donation” of your choice, no minimum or maximum fee.
Pros: Good to get a taster if you are a confident traveller and don’t expect to have problems
Cons: Not as much screening of hosts or support if you do need help. User interface isn’t as clear or easy to use as other paid sites like Worldpackers or Workaway and it’s harder to search to exactly what you’re looking for with no filters to narrow your search.
Workaway Review
Now you know about the alternatives to Workaway, let’s talk more about the site itself. Workaway is the largest and best-known work exchange site. They have placements all over the world with hosts who advertise volunteer exchange positions in hostels, on farms, in private homes – pretty much everywhere you can imagine – that travellers can search and apply for.
There is a registration fee, but then every work exchange is free of charge. The hosts will provide accommodation and usually some meals but check each individual listing for details. The site is easy to use, and reviews are provided for hosts and travellers so you can see what other people thought about their experience.
You can also set up a joint account if you are travelling as a couple, or link two individual accounts if you are travelling together for a limited time. The site is easy to navigate and simple to use.
As of 1st January 2025, the fee to join Workaway costs from $59 USD per year for a solo membership, or $69 USD for a couple/joint membership. If you use this link to sign up you’ll also get three months extra free on your membership.
If you are travelling with kids you can now add children under 18 to your Workaway account, either as a single parent with a solo membership or as a couple with a joint membership.
You will need to let potential hosts know that you are travelling with children as some hosts will not have suitable accommodation for kids. There is a filter in the search to only look for placements that can host families.
Another recent improvement in safety is the emergency help (possibly inspired by Worldpackers who have a similar policy) which means that if there is an emergency situation “where the host has failed to fulfil their accommodation commitments” then Workaway will “assist in finding a new host in the local area or compensate up to 3 nights of accommodation in a nearby hostel”.
Workaway Reviews
I’ve written my own complete review of Workaway where I go into more detail about this and my own personal Workaway experiences, but one major issue I have with Workaway is their review system.
While most Workaway reviews posted by volunteers and hosts are positive, there is a major flaw as you can leave a review for anyone at any time, whether you have even met them or not – which surely leaves the system open to abuse.
Even if everyone leaves a genuine review, because hosts have the chance to read your review before they write one in return, they can leave you a “revenge” review if you say something about them that they don’t like.
While the experience might have been mutually poor from both sides, it is hard to be honest about a bad experience when you don’t want to risk getting a negative review that could affect your chance of getting future Workaway placements, or even get you kicked off the site.
I have also heard from other users when they have decided to leave a bad review for a host that their negative reviews have not been published by Workaway or have been edited before publishing. It is true that all reviews are screened by Workaway, and that Workaway hides the details of most 1* star reviews, as you can see below.
In their feedback policy, Workaway say that is because they don’t publish abusive reviews “if there are abusive, derogatory or offensive comments, the text will either be redacted or kept confidential”, but without having all the information it is hard to know exactly what happened, whether it was the host or the Workawayer that was in the wrong, and so whether to have trust in the host and apply for the placement.
Workaway Hosts
Getting a response from potential Workaway hosts is also more difficult, and I’ve sent several personalised messages to potential hosts who never reply. This could be because there are now so many people signed up to Workaway that hosts are bombarded with messages and can’t cope with so many applications.
I’ve also heard that people had trouble getting to speak to their support team if something goes wrong. It says that paid members get access to 24/7 support but I couldn’t find a phone number anywhere on their website, just a contact form to fill in so you need instant help for any reason it looks like you would have to wait.
On my account there is a little chat box that appears to be an instant messenger but they are always “away” so if I did need to contact someone urgently I would have to wait! Having said that, this support is still relatively good compared to the other Workaway alternatives I’ve mentioned above – with the exception of Worldpackers which goes above and beyond all of the others.
Workaway Cost
$59 USD per year (Currently for 12 months plus 1 month extra free if you use this link)
Workaway Summary
Pros: Well established, most hosts to choose from.
Cons: Flawed and potentially misleading review system. Can be hard to get a response from hosts, not great support.
READ MORE: Worldpackers vs Workaway – Which is the best Work Exchange Site?
Which is the Best Workaway Alternative?
Workaway and Worldpackers are the most user-friendly work exchange websites, but Worldpackers have the extra bonus of high level 24/7 support if something goes wrong, including their WP Safeguard policy, and you have a better chance of getting replies from potential hosts.
Not only that but with the Worldpackers programs you can also use your Worldpackers experiences to earn money as you travel. So, in my opinion, Worldpackers is the best work exchange website out there, and easily the best alternative to Workaway.
I used to use Workaway as my first choice, but now I go to Worldpackers every time. Even though Worldpackers has fewer opportunities available they are growing quickly, and I’ve had a much better experience getting responses from hosts I contact. They even have a better host response guarantee than Workaway too.
The previously free Workaway alternatives like Hippohelp and Volunteers Base could still be useful to get a taste of volunteering, but as a female solo traveller, I prefer to have a bit more assurance and a better verification process for hosts so I am as sure as I possibly can be that I will have a good experience.
I found HelpX to be a clunky site to use, so the newer websites like Workaway and Worldpackers were much easier to navigate to quickly find the information I was looking for.
WWOOF is best if you want to focus solely on one country, or on farming and permaculture, whereas Workaway, Helpx and Worldpackers have a much wider range of options for different types of volunteer work in a variety of countries.
What do you think? Have you had any experience volunteering with work exchange sites like Workaway, Worldpackers or HelpX? Which do you think is the best Workaway alternative? I’d love to hear what you think, please leave your comments below.
Workaway FAQ
Yes, Workaway is a legitimate website. I’ve used Workaway myself to volunteer in several countries around the world and have managed a hostel where we hosted volunteers through Workaway.
However, I have had issues getting responses from hosts who can get overwhelmed with requests from volunteers. Workaway also never publishes negative reviews with just one star – they show that someone left a 1 star review but don’t give any details about what it was or why that happened, so you never get the full story.
Workaway is a legitimate website and I have used Workaway myself to volunteer in several countries around the world and have managed a hostel where we hosted volunteers through Workaway so in most cases, yes you can trust Workaway.
However, I don’t like the way Workaway hides the detail in negative reviews, so you can’t read any Workaway reviews with just one star, and you don’t know the full story behind what happened.
I have also had issues getting responses from hosts who can get overwhelmed with requests from volunteers, so while Workaway is a good site, I prefer to use Worldpackers.
Absolutely! In my opinion, yes, using work exchange websites like Workaway or Worldpackers is definitely worth it. For less than $50 you can get a whole year of free accommodation by doing cultural and work exchanges so that is a total bargain!
Not only that, but Worldpackers also gives you the chance to earn money while you travel by helping other travellers and creating blog and video content through Worldpackers Programs. So not only can you save money while travelling, but you can come out of the experience having more cash!
Work exchanges like Workaway are a great way to travel the world, enjoying unique and immersive experiences without spending much money. Workaway could be a good idea for you, but alternatives like Worldpackers could be even better.
As with anything in life, nothing is 100% risk-free, but generally speaking, Workaway is safe. Should you need assistance they have 24/7 customer service on hand to help.
However, if you are a first-time traveller or a solo female traveller, you may prefer to use a different work exchange website like Worldpackers which has even more robust safety procedures.
Worldpackers work hard to maintain a safe environment for volunteers and guests, and they have a dedicated page to safety on their website. All hosts go through a verification process, and all Worldpackers members are asked to write an honest review after they have completed an experience with a host.
In addition to that, Worldpackers offer 24/7 support in 3 languages from their customer service team, and they offer Worldpackers Insurance which means that should you have to leave a placement because the host has not fulfilled their part of the agreement, Worldpackers will cover up to 3 nights for you at a nearby hostel and their support team will get you set up with another Worldpacker placement as soon as possible.
Workaway is free to browse and see what kind of placements are available, but to contact hosts and arrange placements you need to become a verified member and pay the registration fee which is $49 USD). If you sign up using my affiliate link you will also get 3 months extra free on your membership.
A year’s verified Workaway membership for one person costs $49 USD. Using this link to sign up will add an extra 3 months to your membership.
If you are travelling with a friend or partner, you can sign up together for a joint membership for just $59 USD for the year (so $29.50 each), and with that, you can apply for work exchange placements together. Again, using this link will add 3 months to your membership.
If you’re travelling with kids, you can now add kids under 18 to your profile, either as a single parent with a solo membership, or as a couple with a joint membership.
Workaway doesn’t offer discount codes or coupons for discounts or free membership. However, if you sign up using my affiliate link you will get 3 extra months added to your membership for free.
Not usually. The arrangement between hosts and volunteers can vary, but generally, you will work part-time in exchange for accommodation and other benefits like meals.
In some cases, hosts may offer an allowance to ensure you will get the equivalent of the minimum wage in that country – but don’t expect to get paid doing Workaway.
Workaway is free to browse but to contact hosts and arrange placements you need to become a verified member and pay the £37 registration fee (approximately $46 USD). If you sign up using my affiliate link you will also get 3 months extra free on your membership.
I haven’t seen any way of getting a totally free Workaway account (unless someone gives it to you as a gift) but there are ways to extend your membership for free once you have an account.
You can apply to become a Workaway ambassador which gives you a free extension on your membership, and you can refer a friend to extend your Workaway membership for free once they have signed up.
If you don’t need a visa to actually travel to the country where you want to go, you shouldn’t need a work visa to do a work exchange, as really it is a cultural exchange and you won’t be doing paid for your work.
However, some countries do require a specific visa for volunteering, so check the host listing to see if they mention needing specific paperwork, and check iVisa to see if you do need a travel visa. Remember, it is your responsibility to make sure you have all of the required paperwork to travel.
Yes, as well as their website, Workaway also has an app where you can browse opportunities, contact hosts and learn more about work exchanges. Search for the app on iStore or Google Play, but, remember to sign up online with this link in order to get your 3 months extra free.
There are several Workaway alternatives that could be better than Workaway for your next work exchange. Worldpackers is my personal favourite, and in my opinion, is the best work exchange website for volunteering abroad. Save $10 on your membership with this link.
Workaway itself isn’t free (you can get 3 months extra free with this link) but HippoHelp is a similar site to Workaway which doesn’t charge a fee at all. However, lack of support means free work exchange sites like HippoHelp are best for experienced backpackers who have already done previous work exchanges, and I wouldn’t recommend them for solo female travellers. Personally, I prefer to pay a small fee for better peace of mind.
The great thing about Workaway and other work exchange programs like Worldpackers is that you get to travel almost for free! The only money you need to spend for Workaway is the $49 USD membership fee for the year (get 3 months extra free with this link), if you find a placement that offers accommodation and meals in exchange for your work.
Workaway doesn’t pay for flights, visas, travel insurance or anything else you might need on your trip, but once you are at your placement you can live basically for free.
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