The work tools a freelancer in China can reach

Some of the tools your team uses open normally from mainland China, and some don’t. The board below gives, for each tool, the latest result of GreatFire’s tests from probes inside mainland China, with the test date. Pick tools your freelancer can open without a VPN, and test the real links together on day one.

Every result here was read on October 18, 2026. We re-read the board each month.

The status board

Twenty work tools, each at two addresses: https, which a browser normally uses, and plain http. GreatFire tests them separately. Every address links to its GreatFire page.

Vantage: probes inside mainland China, compared with a control probe outside it, normally in the United States (GreatFire).

“GreatFire’s answer” is its reply to “Can you open this address from mainland China?”: ■ No, ◧ Sometimes, □ Yes, with its share of disrupted tests over 90 days in parentheses. “Not tested” rows carry no result. A last test over 90 days old gets a “stale test” mark; on the read day, none did.

What these results mean

Before you act on any one row, it helps to know what a row covers.

GreatFire has tested access to web addresses from inside mainland China since 2011 and publishes every result. One GreatFire test fetches one exact address (scheme, host and path) from several probes inside mainland China and from a control probe outside it, normally in the United States, at the same moment. Detectors then look for four kinds of interference, from a reset connection to a page that fails to load. Its methodology page doesn’t name the probes’ cities or networks, so neither can we.

The verdicts are defined in GreatFire’s FAQ. Blocked means a detector proved interference. Intermittent means the probes disagreed, or the address alternates between reachable and blocked. Not blocked means the probes matched the control. Not enough data means the test couldn’t tell. Each address page boils its conclusive tests from the last 90 days down to the Yes, No or Sometimes on the board.

Several rows say “verdict revised.” Since August 27, 2026, roughly half the connections from several of GreatFire’s mainland probes to foreign addresses have been refused within tens of milliseconds, on routes with no other sign of interference. GreatFire no longer counts those refusals either way, and flags each page where that changed the verdict.

Why would one tool’s two addresses differ? GreatFire’s answer is that plain http exposes the path and the page to inspection, while https hides the path but still reveals the hostname.

A test also covers only the address tested. An app’s login or video traffic can run through other hosts, and those can behave differently. Treat the board as a first filter and then run the check.

A day-one check with the freelancer

• Send the real links you will use: a shared folder, a meeting invite, a repository.
• Ask the freelancer to open each one on their phone and laptop, without a VPN, and tell you what loaded.
• Agree on a fallback for each link that fails.
• Agree on where decisions are written down, so none of them lives in a tool only one side can open.
• Run the check again after any change of tool.

The handbook chapter on working with a freelancer in China day to day picks up from there, and Working across time zones with a freelancer in China covers the daily rhythm.

Choosing when a tool fails the check

Start with files. On the documents rows, Google Docs, Dropbox and OneDrive read No at both addresses on the read day. Choose a tool both of you could open in the check, and send finished files in a form the freelancer can download and keep, so the work never depends on a link staying open. Hardware jobs pass drawings and firmware back and forth constantly; prototyping hardware in Shenzhen without moving there goes into that kind of job. Design files and boards need the same check before a design job starts.

For meetings, use the tool that passed your check, and after each call send a short written note to the place you agreed. Do the same with chat. If an assistant will run your messages, see hiring a Chinese-speaking assistant based in China.

Code is stricter. The freelancer needs a code host they can push to every day, so test a push and a pull on day one, not only the web page. The code rows show why: GitHub and GitLab read Sometimes at their https addresses, and Gitee’s Yes rests on one test at each address. If you’re still budgeting, see what a software developer costs in China, then post the job under engineering.

If you haven’t hired yet, the overview, How to hire a freelancer in China without speaking Chinese, comes first.

Say in the brief which tools you use, so freelancers can tell you on day one what opens. Start a brief.