Remoteok.io 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. 

People per hour is a long-standing Toptal alternative freelancer platform connecting freelancers to businesses. It offers a range of specialties, from programmers, web developers, and SEO professionals to writers but none of the talents go through a screening process prior to entering the platform. It has been in the market for over 15 years.

You can post your project and these freelancers will send in their proposals, so you can select the most appropriate candidate for your project. This process can take up to 5 to 10 days. They offer a dedicated 24/7 customer service team and a money-back guarantee.  

Talent Location: Worldwide

Pricing: Typically the hourly rate for a developer will range from $25-$70.

Skills Offered: Admin, writing finance, coding, design, and a host of other services.

Hiring Process: To hire from PeoplePerHour, browse through the freelancer profiles that feature their skills and insights. Shortlist those you prefer and contact them for an interview and screen them for their expertise prior to starting work.

Cancellation Policy: Not disclosed

Recommended For: A variety of freelance talent

Why Do People Hire Tech Talent From Toptal?

Toptal has long been a market leader in the freelance talent market, especially among businesses and entrepreneurs in search of tech talents like software developers, graphics designers, and product managers. Toptal company acts as a liaison by outsourcing highly vetted offshore tech talents, specializing in fields such as product and project management, web design, and software development to companies and startups in search of remote tech talents for hire on a freelance or contract basis.

However, Toptal is no longer the sole tech talent marketplace in the picture. While Toptal was a pioneer in sourcing vetted developers and designers, today you are able to hire from a range of Toptal alternatives that are well worth your time and money.

We have put together this comprehensive guide, to help you narrow down your search when looking to hire freelance developers and designers, by offering in-depth research into all leading Toptal competitors in the market today.

So before we dive into the best Toptal alternatives, let’s understand what Toptal offers its clients.

Brief Overview of Toptal’s Offerings:

• Unlike most other Toptal alternatives available today, Toptal talents are rigorously screened through a multi-stage vetting process to ensure the quality of talent on the platform.
• Toptal offers you the possibility to hire developers under both short and long-term engagements.
• Toptal’s remote freelancers are sourced from all over the world.
• All Toptalers set their own rates and they have the flexibility to quote their price based on their skill sets, seniority, and location they’re from.
• Most Toptal talents are expert devs that work for some of the largest tech firms in the US and they offer their services as freelancers on Toptal.

How Much Does Toptal Cost? 

Toptal developer rates can vary from talent to talent as the platform allows freelancers to set their own rates. Rates may however differ based on the location of the developer and their level of seniority as well.

In order to get an accurate estimate for the cost of your project, you have to communicate with Toptal and let them know all your requirements. Based on your expectations they can find you a dev match from within their pool. The rates would be determined only after the developer is assigned and therefore you may not be able to get an accurate project cost immediately.

How Long Does it Take to Hire Talent Through Toptal? 

Hiring the pre-vetted tech talent from Toptal’s talent pool is based on availability, as each talent is matched to the client’s requirements. Due to Toptal being highly selective with their talents, their talent pool is somewhat limited compared to other Toptal alternatives we present within this article.

Why Consider Toptal Alternatives for Your Developer Hiring Requirements?

While Toptal still remains a leading platform to hire freelance software developers, there are a few reasons why you may want an alternative to Toptal.

Your hiring preferences may vary based on several factors such as:

• Developer rates – You may be on the lookout for a more budget-friendly option for hiring vetted talent, as the cost of Toptal developers can be more in comparison to other Toptal competitors like CloudDevs and Unicorn.Dev.
• Hiring time – Your hiring decisions may be determined by how urgent your needs are and how quickly you can have your talent onboarded. If Toptal does not have a dev on the platform that fits your requirements, the hiring time may increase, in which case you may need to consider a Toptal alternative to source talent.
• Timezone alignment – While you’re open to hiring a remote developer, you may want to hire talents that are within the same time zone as your internal team in order to make collaboration more efficient. Since Toptal freelance developers are a globally distributed talent base with devs sourced from different time zones, you may want to try a Toptal competitor that only sources developers from the US time zone such as CloudDevs.
• Talent location – You may also want to hire from a particular geographical location, either due to language or cultural differences.
• The seniority of talent – Perhaps your project requires senior talent due to its complexity and you wish to hire from a platform that focuses on seniority and experience which might also be a reason why you’re considering other Toptal alternatives.
• The flexibility of contracts – You may require more flexibility for your contracts and are on the lookout for a tailor-made solution for your needs and budget and hence require a Toptal alternative that caters to your needs.

If this is the case, and if Toptal pricing is over your budget, you would benefit from exploring the Toptal competitors that are presented in the text below for your developer hiring requirements.

While Toptal has numerous rules and standards to ensure its developers and designers are highly skilled and trained and provide top-tier work, there is a range of Toptal alternatives in the market today which provide similar services and cater to the above preferences.

Hence it is worth knowing about all your options when it comes to looking for Toptal alternatives for your tech talent hires. So here’s our top list of Toptal’s competitors that you can choose from:

Hubstaff is a relatively new company offering a completely free talent service. This Toptal alternative is free for both sets of users- clients and freelancers. It is best suited for companies looking to hire independent freelancers and agencies. 

It operates more as a database of freelancers who sign up on the platform, as there isn’t a manual vetting process to assess the quality of these developers. You can browse developer profiles and get in touch with them directly. 

Talent Location: Worldwide 

Pricing: It doesn’t charge any fees, markups, or sign-up fees compared to what Toptal charges. 

Skills Offered: Development, Marketing and Sales, Design and Multimedia, Writing and Content, Database and IT, Administration, and Business Consulting related services.

Hiring Process: It’s a free platform for talent to be featured sorted under their respective skill sets. You may browse through the talent profile which will feature their rates, location, years of experience, portfolios, and resumes for your reference. Once you have posted your job with its full description and requirements on the Hubstaff platform for free, you can invite your preferred, shortlisted talents within the platform to work on the project. During this invitation process, the client may interview the potential candidates to ensure the right match. 

Cancellation Policy: No information is provided on project cancellation at Hubstaff Talent as of August 2022. 

Recommended For: Short-term projects that require freelance talent.

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.

Unicorn.Dev is the subsidiary of CloudDevs offering globally-sourced, fully-vetted tech talent that’s matched to your requirements and assigned to you within 48 hours. This Toptal alternative is one of the most affordable tech talent platforms currently in the market for vetted, senior developers that have minimum 5 years of experience within their fields. All Unicorn.Dev talents are available to work for you with a 4-hour time zone overlap which makes it convenient for them to collaborate with your international teams. 

Talent Location: Asia & Africa 

Pricing: All Unicorn.Devs are priced at a transparent, flat rate of $35 per hour and they’re available on fully-flexible and customizable contracts. 

Skills Offered: Developers 

Hiring Process: Fill in a form with your contact details so that a Unicorn representative can call you up. Explain your technical requirements and any special skills or expertise you require. The team will search within their pool to find you the perfect talent match in under 48 hours.   

Cancellation Policy: 7-day free-trial for every talent match. You may cancel anytime, no questions asked. 

Recommended For: Hiring highly vetted senior developers and designers that work on long or short-term projects in a 4-hour time zone overlap with your in-house team so that you can conduct seamless collaboration throughout.

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.

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

An American online and mobile marketplace that matches freelance labor with local demand, allowing consumers to find immediate help with everyday tasks, including cleaning, moving, delivery and handyman work.

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.