Today, I’m taking a look at a few drone job websites to see first off, whether it is worth your time to sign up with these sites. Additionally, what kind of work do they offer? How much do these sites pay drone pilots? Is the work consistent? These are all things you should know and I’ll cover them in depth here.
One of the most common problems for commercial drone pilots (or any entrepreneur really) is that it can sometimes feel daunting to get work. And sometimes the work that you do get can be less than ideal. While each person will have their own baseline to determine if a job is worth it, sometimes finding any drone work at all can be difficult.
And just like any problem, there are a number of drone job websites that have cropped up to help fill this void and connect potential customers to drone pilots. These sites typically get paid by taking a percentage of the cost of the job. You are connected with a client through the site and the client pays securely through the site. Once paid, the website takes their portion and forwards the remainder to you.
Are Drone Job Websites Even Worth it?
Here’s the deal. Unless you have access to clients directly (and I highly recommend that you network in an effort to develop your own client base) drone job websites might be a great starting point for you.
Yes, the pay for these jobs tends to be less than if you worked with a client directly. Part of this is just the fact that competition drives these prices down and part of it is that the website (typically) takes a cut of the overall price. While the lower price is not ideal, this may just be the cost of gaining access to clients when you are starting out.
Additionally, the experience with these types of markets tend to improve over time because you gain a few reviews (assuming you do good work) and tend to become a little more preferred than other pilots that haven’t been hired for any jobs at all.
So yes, these websites can be a great starting point. I highly recommend creating profiles on multiple drone job websites. Worst case scenario is that you end up receiving emails for drone jobs you don’t want. Just to be clear though, I don’t think any of these sites individually would provide you enough work on its own to keep you busy.
Next, I’m going to dive into each of the drone job websites to tell you a little bit about each one.
Best Drone Job Websites
Soldbyair.com
I’m starting with Sold by Air for a few reasons. First, it is a little bit different than the other drone job websites because the pilot dashboard is all about the pilot. It provides you with the ability to enter a property address and it will tell you the weather for the next week, whether there are any airspace restrictions (looks like it pulls info straight from Airmap) and my personal favorite, it gives you a Google satellite view with indicators for where the sun will rise and set so that you can determine the best time of day to shoot. These are fantastic tools.
Not only this, but there is a whole page full of tutorials covering everything from getting your videos on the multiple listing service to planning and pricing your drone services.
Honestly, it seems like the only one of the three drone job websites that I’ll talk about with the drone pilot in mind. That said, it doesn’t look like you get any interaction with actual client on this drone job website, which makes it difficult to encourage drone pilots to use if you are trying to increase your client base.
The other thing I like about Sold by Air is that while you have the ability to create a profile (which they apparently review before assigning jobs), this site also seems to work as like a whole client solution. If you pay a monthly fee, you gain access to video and picture hosting, payment services, and you are marked as a preferred pilot.
I had the chance to catch up with the founder of Sold by Air and this is what he had to say.
At SoldByAir we are the only nationwide drone company that focuses entirely on real estate drone photography. This specialization helps us to provide a higher level of quality and guidance for shoots. Pilots who do shoots for us end up learning from us and improving their own real estate drone skillset.
When we post our jobs, pilots receive alerts if they are in a predefined radius. Generally it’s first come first serve to claim them, though there are a variety of checks in place to ensure quality. For example, is the pilot FAA certified? Have they uploaded photos to their portfolio so we can verify quality? etc. The job assignment process is nearly entirely automated.
Occasionally there are higher paying jobs that require a more skilled pilot. In those situations we may reach directly out to pilots who we know are going to produce high quality work. So even if you don’t like a certain jobs pay, it may make sense to do one or two just to establish reputation with the better networks.
And this seems to jive with the way the website is set up. Very pilot focused and it encourages pilot’s to display their best work so that Sold by Air can be sure that they are farming out the work to qualified pilot’s that will result in quality drone work for their clients.
While Sold by Air does take a percentage (which varies depending on the job) the price that you are quoted to shoot the job is the price you will get paid because the percentage is calculated before the pilot’s cut is published
Ultimately, this site is my ideal experience on a freelance drone job website. Highly recommend.
Droners.io
Droners.io has been around for a while now and they’ve partnered with Precision Hawk, which is a commercial drone and data company. Droners takes a 10% commission for all drone jobs that are completed through their website.
At any given time, Droners has about 50 or so jobs listed throughout the United States, so I only get notice of one in my area about once a month.
The user interface is pretty straightforward, but it can get confusing if you have both a Pilot account and a consumer account. I’ve had clients hire me for work and I’ve subbed it out on Droners, which worked well. The confusing part is just remembering which account is associated with each email address.
Once you’ve found a job you’re interested in, you just submit a bid (either hourly or flat rate). You then have the ability to communicate with the client through the site. In fact, it is a violation of the terms of service on the website to communicate with a client outside of the site. But that makes sense because Droners doesn’t want a bunch of people connecting on their site and then just engaging in business outside of the site. They’d never get paid.
You also have the ability to add images and videos to your profile, which I highly recommend. When I’ve subbed out work on Droners, this has been largely the deciding factor in whether I reach out to a pilot or not.
Lastly, what I really like about Droners is that you maintain contact with the client. This might seem small, but when the drone job website gets in the middle, the pay on drone jobs seems to drop a lot. On Droners, you essentially just bid against other drone pilots for jobs. I tend to like that system more than the alternative.
Drone Base
Drone Base is another drone job website but they have a business model that is entirely different from Droners. On Drone Base, you sign up with either a client or pilot account and create a profile. What’s different is that you basically provide Drone Base with your geographic service area and when they receive a job in your area, they just send out an e-mail blast (or notification on their app) telling you about the job.
Basically, if you don’t immediately reply, it has been my experience that the jobs are pretty quickly snapped up. I guess this just shows the level of competition for most of these jobs because it is not like they are high paying. I’ve only seen 5-10 job offers come my way and they’ve all been around $60 per job. They are generally about an hour drive from where I live. At that price, I’m typically not interested unless it is right down the street.
The e-mail I get from Drone Base usually looks something like this:
If you’re in an area where the volume is higher, you could try and schedule multiple drone jobs in a day and the lower price could be made up for in volume but I’ve just not seen the volume to be able to do that at this point.
So, which of these drone job websites is the best?
I think it kind of depends. If you’re looking for the largest selection of drone jobs and direct contact with your client, your best choice is Droners.io.
If you’re looking for a pilot-centered experience that has the potential to provide you with a better flow of work (even if you don’t have client contact, Sold by Air is your best bet.
Drone Base is my least favorite because the job selection is isn’t great in my area, the price per job is chosen for you and is typically around $50-60 per job.
Related: How to Start a Drone Business
Ultimately, I’d still recommend creating a profile on each site. They don’t take long to setup and the worst case scenario is that you get job offers you don’t want or you get nothing at all. Best case scenario is that you end up with a return client, who might just come directly to you the next time.
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