How it works

Trustless freelance.
Powered by AI escrow.

Vouch eliminates payment disputes between employers and freelancers. Funds are locked in escrow, milestones are verified by AI, and reputation is tracked automatically.

Overview
1

Employer posts a project

Describe your project in plain English. Set a budget and deadline. The AI reads your brief and automatically breaks it into verifiable milestones with individual payouts.

2

Freelancer applies from the Marketplace

Open projects are listed on the Marketplace. Freelancers browse, view full details and milestones, then apply. The employer reviews applicants by their PFI score and assigns the project.

3

Work proceeds milestone by milestone

The freelancer completes each milestone and submits a proof-of-work link. The AI QA Agent reviews the submission and scores it. On approval, the milestone payout is released automatically.

4

Project settles with a success bonus

When all milestones are approved with no disputes, the freelancer earns a 5% success bonus on top of the total budget — paid from the platform fee held in escrow.

Milestones

Instead of one large payment at the end, every project is split into milestones — discrete, verifiable deliverables with individual payout amounts and due dates.

Generated by AI

You write a brief. The Requirement Agent reads it and creates 3–6 milestones automatically, each with a title, description, payout, due date, and a checklist of required deliverables.

Verified by AI

When a freelancer submits work, the QA Agent inspects the submission against the milestone checklist. It returns a verdict: FULL pass, PARTIAL pass, or FAIL — with a score out of 100.

Paid automatically

An approved milestone triggers an instant payout from escrow to the freelancer. No manual approval needed. Rejected submissions can be resubmitted.

Dispute protection

If an employer believes a milestone was incorrectly approved, they can raise a dispute. Disputed projects are flagged and affect the freelancer's PFI score.
Escrow

When an employer posts a project, the total budget + platform fee is charged immediately and held in escrow via Stripe. Funds are released incrementally as milestones are approved — the employer never has to manually pay, and the freelancer never has to chase payments.

Escrow lifecycle
Project postedBudget + 10% fee charged → held in escrow
Milestone approvedMilestone payout released to freelancer
All milestones done+5% success bonus released to freelancer
Platform net fee5% of budget retained by Vouch
PFI — Professional Fidelity Index

PFI is Vouch's AI-computed reputation score for freelancers. It ranges from 0 to 1000 and is recalculated automatically after every milestone. Employers see your PFI score when reviewing applications — it's your on-platform track record.

Formula

PFI = (QA × 0.4 + Deadline × 0.3 + Completion × 0.2 + Dispute-free × 0.1) × 1000

QA Score

40% weight

Average score (0–100) given by the AI QA Agent across all approved submissions. High-quality, checklist-compliant work scores higher.

On-time Delivery

30% weight

Percentage of milestones submitted before or on the due date. Consistently hitting deadlines is the second biggest factor.

Completion Rate

20% weight

Percentage of accepted milestones out of total evaluated. Abandoned or perpetually-failing milestones hurt this metric.

Dispute-free Rate

10% weight

Percentage of milestones that were not disputed by the employer. Even one dispute has a lasting impact on your score.

EXCELLENT

900–1000

GOOD

750–899

FAIR

600–749

BUILDING

0–599

New freelancers start with a default PFI of 500 until their first milestone is evaluated.

Fees

Freelancer pays

Free to apply, free to work

$0

Platform fee (employer)

Charged at project creation

10% of budget

Vouch keeps

Non-refundable platform cut

5% of budget

Success bonus (freelancer)

Paid from platform fee on full delivery

5% of budget

Example: $1,000 project → employer pays $1,100. Freelancer earns $1,000 in milestone payouts + $50 success bonus = $1,050 on perfect delivery. Vouch keeps $50.

AI Agents

Vouch runs a fleet of specialized AI agents that automate the entire project lifecycle — no human moderator needed.

[ORCH]

Orchestrator

Coordinates the full lifecycle. Triggers agents at the right time, handles project state transitions, and initiates settlement.

[REQ]

Requirement Agent

Reads the project brief and generates structured milestones — titles, descriptions, payout amounts, due dates, and acceptance checklists.

[QA]

QA Agent

Evaluates freelancer submissions against the milestone checklist. Returns a verdict (FULL / PARTIAL / FAIL) and a score 0–100, with detailed reasoning.

[PFI]

PFI Agent

Recalculates the freelancer's Professional Fidelity Index after each milestone evaluation, pulling from the full submission history.

Ready to get started?

Create an account as an employer or freelancer — it takes 30 seconds.