freelancer.com Alternatives And Competitors

CloudDevs is a tech talent platform offering pre-vetted freelance developers and designers for hire. This leading Toptal alternative is home to 8000+ elite senior developers and designers from Latin America. Unlike Toptal, CloudDevs highly vetted senior talent is matched to the client’s needs and the recruitment procedure is completed within 48 hours. 

CloudDevs conducts its whole business remotely, allowing them to keep their overheads low and deliver the best possible pricing to their clients.  

Talent Location: Latin America 

Pricing: CloudDevs charges a transparent rate of $45 to $70 per hour and is the only top-ranked Toptal alternative to provide this pricing without compromising on quality. 

Skills Offered: Developers and Designers   

Hiring Process: Book a call with a senior consultant and let them know your development needs. If you have any secondary skills or soft skills requirements, ensure to mention them too. Based on your needs the CloudDevs team will assign you a few suitable pre-vetted talents from their pool to choose from within 48 hours. You can start working with the talent of your choice immediately on a 7-day free trial.  

Cancellation Policy: If you aren’t happy with your assigned talent, you may cancel anytime or ask for a new talent match that will be provided with another weeklong free trial.   

Recommended For: Hiring individuals as well as teams of developers and designers from your own timezone and at reasonable costs.

Fiverr is a long established online marketplace for freelance services. This Toptal alternative hosts low-cost freelance service providers from across the globe. It is the platform that propagated the concept of hiring freelancers based on orders better known as gigs within Fiverr. 

It offers a wide pool of freelance developers. Almost anyone can create a Fiverr seller profile and offer their services as a freelancer.  The downside to this is that there’s no verification process to filter out the unqualified candidates, so there’s no guarantee of their quality of work. 

Talent Location: Worldwide  

Pricing: You always know what you’ll pay upfront and it can be hourly rates or project-based pricing. The talent’s payment isn’t released until you approve the work being produced. Typically the prices range from $15 to $695 per hour for a Fiverr developer based on the talent’s expertise, skillset and location.

Skills Offered: From writing to design to development and finance professionals, you can expect to find all manners of freelance talent within Fiverr.

Hiring Process: Browse through the profiles and shortlist the candidates based on your preferences and reviews left by past clients. Reach out to the potential talents and conduct interviews to ensure they are the ones you want to hire. Alternatively, the client may create their own profile on fiverr and post the gigs with detailed requirements and allow the Fiverr freelancers to bid on the gigs with their rates and portfolios for the client to pick from.

Cancellation Policy: Both parties need to mutually agree on the cancellation in order for the client to receive a full refund in case of the project being cancelled halfway through.

Recommended For: Fiverr is best suited for small tasks, while long-term projects are better dealt with by another Toptal alternative such as CloudDevs. 

Upwork is one of the most popular Toptal alternative platforms to hire freelance developers. Startups and entrepreneurs have been using Upwork to locate talent to fill all manners of job roles, from simple data entry work to virtual assistants, and even locate programmers and designers to develop tech projects at affordable rates.

While it can be a lot cheaper to outsource services from a freelancer platform like Upwork, this Toptal alternative may not be the most viable option for your startup as it is yet another generic platform similar to Fiverr that does not conduct screening and vetting of talent. It may take a long time to locate the right talent and you need to be familiar with technical knowledge in order to interview potential candidates yourself.

Talent Location: Worldwide 

Pricing: Upwork rates are set by its talents and they may charge by the hour or per project. The charges can range immensely based on the talent’s skill sets and expertise. The average developer rates on Upwork range from $8-$15/hr and go up to $200+/hr based on seniority and skill set. 

Skills Offered: Development and IT, Design and creative, Sales and Marketing, Writing and Translation, Admin and Customer Support, Finance and Accounting and Engineering, Architecture and Legal Consultancy related services.

Hiring Process: Sign up on Upwork and create your profile. Create a job description that illustrates all your requirements from project start and end dates to budget, deliverables, and payment terms. Freelancers will reach out to you with their portfolios and offerings. Shortlist the freelancers that are most suited for your requirements. You may conduct a pre-screening call prior to hiring to ensure the freelancer has good communication skills and if their character is suitable for your project. If you’re looking for more long-term commitments you may onboard the freelancer with a signed contract to ensure all requirements are understood by both parties.  

Cancellation Policy: if the clients cancel the project within 24 hours of purchasing it, they can claim a full refund. If the client cancels the project after 24 hours have passed, Upwork automatically initiates an escrow refund request which may or may not be accepted by the freelancer hence it does not guarantee your money back. 

Recommended For: Short-term, low-level skilled work

Guru is a large freelancing marketplace that acts as a potential Toptal alternative offering over 2 million freelancers on the network. To help you identify the credibility of these freelancers, Guru verifies these freelancers, publishing their feedback scores and All-Time Transaction Data. It provides free job postings and uses SafePay to ensure the security of transactions. You can use its option of integrated workrooms and manage several freelancers. 

However Guru struggles to maintain quality, as is the case with most budget-friendly sites as none of the freelancers are screened or vetted prior to being accepted to the platform.

Talent Location: Worldwide

Pricing: You are offered the lowest fees in the industry and the customers are charged according to the project.

Skills Offered: Programmers, writers and translators, designers, admins and secretaries, sales and marketing personnel, engineers and architects, business and finance professionals, educators and trainers, and legal contractors.

Hiring Process: Enter your hiring requirements on the site to filter out all freelancers and companies that are currently offering those services on the site. When you find a few you like within your budget you can check their portfolio and feedback given by past clients in order to help narrow down the shortlist and contact the candidates to check their availability and start working with them.  

Cancellation Policy: Not disclosed

Recommended For: Guru is recommended Toptal alternative to hire remote freelancers for small-time gigs. 

Specializes in e-commerce freelancers but also networks with digital marketing, web development and graphic design freelancers, among others.

Pangara is a free-to-use freelance platform. Despite being founded by Swedish entrepreneurs, they exclusively hire Vietnamese coders. They are all hired based on a four-step qualifying procedure—application screening, psychometric exams, technical tests, and a structured interview. This ensures the candidate’s linguistic abilities, motivation and work ethics align with Pangara’s norms.   

Support and software maintenance is provided to ensure the smooth flow of work. You can cancel your project by giving the other party 10 business days’ written notice.  

Talent Location: Vietnam

Pricing: You need to contact them directly to get a quote as nothing is disclosed online.  

Skills Offered: Software Development

Hiring Process: Submit your details online for a customer representative to reach out. 

Cancellation Policy: Cancel a project within 10 business days by providing written notice.  

Recommended For: Single developers on a budget for short-term requirements.

Founded in 2014, Andela is a global job placement network that’s high in demand for hiring remote software developers. Andela offers predominantly African tech talents and assures top quality project output. Andela has a verification process to ensure the talents are legit and claim to hire only the top 2% of candidates that apply to become part of their network. It caters to over 110 countries spread across 6 different continents.

Andela strives to maintain quality and you are able to hire the team you desire, regardless of its size. Andela is phenominal talent hiring solution for those seeking remote technical experts for long-term placements within their organisations.

Brief Overview of Andela’s Offerings:

• Offers pre-screened tech talents
• Conducts data-driven matches to ensure there is a technical and cultural fit between the dev and the client
• Talent pool is spread across Africa, Eastern Europe and South America
• Emphasis on long-term contracts
• While they claim to offer exceptional talent, their vetting process is not public, hence the quality of the talent cannot be guaranteed
• Andela pricing can vary based on talent expertise and location

Why Should You Hire Tech Talent From Andela? 

Andela is a dev platform that provides companies access to exceptional talent from the world over. Andela’s talent pool comprises developers, engineers, remote technology experts and product designers.

Andela utilises machine learning and AI to find the right talent match for the client’s requirements. The clients are able to set up interviews with the potential team members and onboard new talents with ease, while Andela handles all payments and compliance.

While Andela started off as a platform for African developers, now they have expanded to provide talents from Eastern Europe, South America as well as Asia within their talent pool. The company focuses on matching their talents with clients that seek long-term engagements.

In 2022, Andela rebranded with an open marketplace that allows companies that are registered with the platform to browse through their talent network and directly interact with each other.

How Much Does Andela Cost? 

Andela does not have a flat rate and nor are they forthright with their pricing, but their services are expected to cost around the same price as Toptal. It’s presumed that Andela costs around $70-$200+ per hour for a mid-level developer.

How Long Does it Take to Hire Talent Through Andela? 

While Andela does not define their hiring time, based on customer reviews it is expected to take up to 3 weeks. This is so because clients have to conduct interviews with the potential talent to ensure it’s the right fit. 

Why Consider Andela Alternatives for Your Developer Hiring Requirements?

Andela is considered a Toptal alternative to hire freelance software developers. However, there are a few cons to hiring talent from Andela and we shall explore them in more detail here: 

• Andela offers no definite trial period to test if the provided talent is the right fit for your project. 
• Andela is not transparent about the rates of their talent so there’s no means of calculating your project cost without consulting them.
• The company does not focus on senior talents. In fact, the majority of Andela’s talent pool consists of junior and mid-level developers.
• Andela talent is worldwide and they do not offer timezone matching. Hence if you wish to find talent within your own time zone for better collaboration, then you’re better suited for Andela alternatives that offer this feature.

Gun.io is an exclusive Toptal alternative offering an invitee-only network, dedicated solely to the recruitment of elite software developers sourced from the United States. The vetting process consists of in-depth interviews to assess the abilities of the candidate. Based on customised recommendations, it matches developers with clients through a quick matching procedure.  

Gun.io offers a refund guarantee if you’re unsatisfied with their work. However, the only hitch is that its entire workforce consists of only software developers.  

Talent Location: United States

Pricing: Its hourly rates range from $75-$150+ per hour.  

Skills Offered: Developers 

Hiring Process: With Gun.io you’re required to share some details about your project and the sourcing team finds you a match that’s presented to you in an interview setting so you can become more familiar with the individual and decide whether to go ahead with the hire.

Cancellation Policy: Not disclosed 

Recommended For: Gun.io is a Toptal competitor recommended for finding elite individual developers that are based in the US.

Gigster is a highly recognised software development platform that specialises in assembling dev teams for hire that can be utilised to get tech projects built on demand. Based off of San Francisco, Gigster was founded by Roger Dickey and Debo Olaosebikan in 2013 and the company ensures high quality output by bringing on only the most elite tech talents onto their platform. In fact, joining the Gigster network is by invitation only, and this allows them to find the best developers and designers out there, who are working for top tier tech companies and bring them onboard their platform.

Clients can outsource the development of an entire project to the highly vetted and elite developers, project managers and designers at Gigster and require very little engagement from the client’s end. Gigster is well known for its AI-powered infrastructure that determines project quotations and assists in the dev team assemblance for your project.

Brief Overview of Gigster’s Offerings:

• Specialises in assembling dev teams that undertake your entire project
• Access to an elite pool of highly vetted developers
• Dev team assembled in 1 to 2 weeks
• Project manager assigned for every undertaking to oversee development on behalf of client
• AI technology that provides project quotations and matches clients with ideal dev team
• Project dashboard that allows clients to stay updated on progress

Why Should You Hire Tech Talent From Gigster?

Gigster offers a simplified development process where clients can outsource their entire tech project to an elite dev team, most of whom are working for companies like Google, Microsoft and Facebook, and are graduates from some of the most prestigious tech colleges in the world. 

Gigster is one of the few tech talent platforms that offers a full fledged dev team for every project. At their $52,000 minimum per project price point, Gigster offers a project manager to oversee the entire process so that you wouldn’t have to spend your time taking care of its day-to-day needs. While other talent platforms in the market also offer the ability to hire project managers and designers in addition to developers, you have to hire these individuals separately. Whereas Gigster’s tech team is all inclusive making it more of an on-the-go outsourcing solution to get your projects developed.

How Much Does Gigster Cost?

Gigster has a minimum project fee of $52,000 thereby discouraging any short term engagements that fall below that price point. Gigster utilises an AI-driven project quotation system to estimate the cost of the project based on certain criteria gathered from the client. However, this does not always provide an accurate estimate and most past clients have commented on the final cost of Gigster projects far exceeding the initial quotation.   

How Long Does it Take to Hire Talent Through Gigster?

Due to Gigster’s focus on assembling dev teams  that are inclusive of developers, project managers and designers to build projects from scratch, putting together the most suitable team for your needs can take some time. It is estimated that hiring a dev team through Gigster takes between 1 to 2 weeks.  

Why Consider Gigster Alternatives for Your Developer Hiring Requirements?

While Gigster is considered a leading Toptal alternative to hire freelance software developers, there are a few cons to hiring from them. Let’s take a look at these to further determine if Gigster is the right fit for your project.  

• Gigster is only suitable for those looking to outsource the development of an entire project. If your requirements are for individual tech talents, or if you’re a more technical founder who wishes to be hands-on with the project development and management aspects, then Gigster is unable to facilitate it.
• The minimum price quoted for a Gigster engagement is $52,000 which is a pretty steep price to start with. And do keep in mind that Gigster’s AI powered quotation system is not an accurate determinant of the final project cost. 
• While Gigster provides a designer to attend to your UI needs, it is worth noting that design is not one of their strong suits. Hence, if you require a top notch design aesthetic within your application, you may have to bring on a third-party designer to polish up their work.
• Gigster does not offer a trial period, nor are you promissed a full refund if unhappy with the project outcome. Hence, be sure you want to hire them, before signing up and making the initial payment.

YouTeam leverages a network of 20,000+ vetted developers from across the globe. All these developers are full-time workers at the best software development companies across Eastern Europe and South America. It handles the legal and financial issues of offshore outsourcing, time zone matching and proactive quality monitoring.

The company ensures their hiring process takes place within 48 hours and its talented Customer Success Specialists are always there to assist. You are able to expand or reduce your remote team size on demand. 

Pricing:

It’s relatively more expensive than Toptal, as its hourly rates range from $23-$150.

LaborX is a global recruitment platform that connects individuals with work opportunities, wherever they are based in the world, and enables them to get paid in crypto. The software offers efficient transactions and robust protections for both parties.

LaborX’s Contract module allows employers and service providers to establish the conditions under which they will work together, including deadlines and payment terms. Users’ financial relationships are protected by digital escrow, which locks funds when the contract is signed and releases them upon satisfactory completion. This reduces the chances of payment delays and disputes. A Reputation module enables users to leave transparent feedback, allowing employers to select the most reliable candidates and service providers to access the best opportunities. In the event a disagreement, a Dispute Resolution service is offered to provide fair resolution.