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November 18, 2024
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Toptal Alternatives for Hiring Developers in 2024 – Recommended by Recruiters
In today’s fast-paced, competitive business market, staying ahead of the curve is essential for businesses to thrive. Your employees play a major role in that.
But often, organisations are not able to source talent from the same geographical location, or they might not be budget-friendly to hire. Here, talent marketplaces serve as game-changers for organisations by enabling companies to hire global talents with the required skill sets from anywhere in the world.
Toptal has long been considered a leader in the industry for connecting top-tier software developers with employers across various industries. However, now there are other excellent Toptal alternatives available, each with its own unique features and benefits.
In this blog post, we will explore the top ten Toptal alternatives worth considering.
Table of Contents
Benefits of using a talent platform
- Talent platforms like Ellow, gives businesses the opportunity to tap into a global talent pool.
- It leads to faster and easier as they streamline the hiring process as they manage everything from talent sourcing to onboarding.
- In-house developers are often costly. They have to be paid salaries, incentives and other benefits, and organisations have to pay them even when there is no active work. But the hiring platforms offer contractual developers, hiring them is cost-friendly to the organisation.
- Companies get the flexibility to scale-up or scale down their teams as per project requirements and business needs.
- Hiring global talent enables organisations to build a workforce with people from diverse backgrounds, cultures, and regions that leads to innovation and creativity.
Top 10 Toptal alternatives in 2024
Here are the top 10 Toptal alternatives which can be used in 2024 to hire remote developers:
- Ellow
- Turing
- Supersourcing
- Flexiple
- Revelo
- CloudDevs
- Upwork
- Guru
- Fiverr
- Freelancer.com
Ellow.io is a global talent marketplace and Toptal alternative that connects the top 3% of freelance developers with businesses around the world.
With AI and human-based vetting or screening processes, they ensure that businesses have access to the best talent to build software solutions and websites. Ellow ensures that you can start building your team of software developers in just 48 hours.
The Toptal competitor boasts of a network of over 25,000 developers and has worked with some of the Fortune 500 companies and across industries such as blockchain, FinTech, EdTech, banking, logistics, etc.
Features of Ellow:
- Human and AI-powered vetting processes: Ellow uses an AI-powered vetting process to assess the skills and experience of each developer. This process covers 80 data points and evaluates candidates on their communication, technical, and coding skills, along with personal interviews.
- Global talent pool: Ellow has a global talent pool of over 25,000 software developers. This allows businesses to find the right talent for their needs, regardless of their location. Ellow’s global database of developers is experienced in digital skills such as React.js, Node.js, Angular, Java, Python,.Net, iOS, Android, and others.
- All-in-one hiring solution: Ellow offers an all-in-one hiring, tracking, and management solution for sourcing, vetting, hiring, and managing developers. This makes it easy for businesses to find and hire the right talent quickly and easily.
- Flexible Pricing Model: Hourly or monthly pricing models based on the type of project.
- Invoice and timesheets: Ellow tracks and manages timesheets and the work history of all the freelancers. Additionally, they also manage and track invoicing too.
Sign up with ellow, and access 25,000+ pre-vetted profiles and start building your software development team in 48 hours.
Turing.com is one of the top Toptal competitors and leaders in the gig economy, especially when it comes to freelance software developers. They connect the best software developers around the world with global businesses.
Its array of features, such as AI-driven matchmaking, collaboration tools, and robust security measures, ensures that the hiring process is streamlined and there is a seamless collaboration between the freelancers and the businesses. Turing has completely redefined the remote work industry.
Features of Turing.com
- Talent Pool: Turing.com has a pre-vetted, highly skilled pool of software developers with exceptional technical expertise, communication skills, and work ethic. They ensure that businesses have access to the most qualified developers.
- AI-Driven Matchmaking: Turing leverages AI algorithms and considers factors such as industry experience, programming languages, project scope, and industry experience to create optimal matching between freelancers and employers
. - Speedy Hiring: In the rapidly changing business environment, time means money. Turing.com recognises the importance and has a record of an average time of less than 48 hours to match businesses with the perfect developer.
- No-Risk Trial Period: Turing.com offers a risk-free trial period, allowing businesses to assess a developer’s skills and compatibility before making a long-term commitment.
- Developer Management: Turing.com handles all administrative aspects of working with remote developers, including payroll, contract management, and performance monitoring.
Supersourcing is a Toptal competitor that helps companies ramp up their teams with top-notch software developers by 2–200 people in a matter of days.
The developers or engineers only become a part of the poll once their skills have been verified on skill assessment platforms such as HackerEarth and Mettl. They manage onboarding, taxes, compliances, and timesheets, which reduces the burden on the businesses.
Features of Supersourcing:
- Focus on Software Development: Supersourcing has a large pool of software development experts and skilled programmers who are full-stack developers, tech experts, UX/UI developers, blockchain experts, mobile developers, database architects, etc. It enables businesses to choose niche and project-specific freelancers.
- Rigorous Vetting Process: They do screening and vetting of freelancers to ensure that only the best freelancers are available to be hired by businesses. It ensures that a continuous and high standard of quality is maintained.
- Global Talent Pool: Supersourcing enables hiring from across the globe, based in different time zones and countries. It allows for 24/7 productivity and faster project completion. A global talent pool leads to diversity in the workforce, which leads to innovation and an increase in productivity.
- Algorithm-based Matching: Supersourcing’s algorithm-based matching allows smart matching of freelancers with employers based on their project requirements and skills. This ensures that employers hire the best fit for their projects.
- Access to freelancer profiles: Employers have access to the complete profiles of the freelancers. It includes details such as work history, portfolio, client reviews, and technical skills. This transparency helps them make the right decision.
- Flexible work models: Based on the project requirements and skill sets, Supersourcing offers employers or businesses the option to choose various pricing models. From fixed-priced contracts to hourly agreements, employers and freelancers can choose any pricing option they like.
Flexiple is a renowned Toptal alternative that is an invitation-only network that helps global businesses source tech talent. The invitation-only network ensures that only the best developers, designers, and tech professionals are a part of it.
Every tech talent goes through three rounds of screening: depth in past work, a technical test, and a live interview.
Features of Flexiple:
- Handpicked Tech Experts: Flexiple takes pride in the fact that it has only handpicked the best developers, designers, and tech experts in its talent pool. This commitment to quality ensures that businesses are always matched with the best possible talent.
- Global Talent Pool: Like other freelancing websites, Flexiple has a global talent pool with individuals from diverse backgrounds and skill sets. This enables businesses to hire strategically to enable round-the-clock productivity.
- Flexible Engagement Models and Pricing: Flexiple offers a no-risk trial period and has a time-based compensation model that may differ from project to project. Businesses can engage with freelancers at competitive rates without any hidden costs.
- Dedicated Account Managers: To understand each client better and ensure a seamless client experience, Flexiple provides dedicated account managers to businesses. They help businesses match their projects with the right freelancers.
- Seamless Onboarding: Flexiple’s in-house team manages the onboarding process for the freelancers, ensuring that businesses can start working with them right away.
Revelo is a cutting-edge talent acquisition platform and a Toptal alternative. It helps global businesses connect with developers in Latin America.
They help companies optimise their recruitment process by providing them with an end-to-end talent management and staffing solution by finding, assessing, and hiring top talent.
Each developer undergoes a technical and soft skill evaluation before they become a part of the Revelo talent pool.
Features of Revelo:
- Smart Job Matching: Revelo utilises AI and ML to connect employers and freelancers, matching candidate profiles with job requirements.
- Skill Assessments and Video Interviews: To ensure the quality of developers, Revelo has integrated skill assessment into its platform. Freelancers can take existing assessments or employers can design custom tests.
Video interviews help the employer assess the candidates based on their communication skills and problem-solving skills. Skill assessments and video enable employers to make data-driven decisions and estimate their culture fit.
- Transparent Salary Information: Revelo lists salary information for each job post, which creates a more equitable hiring process and promotes transparency and fairness. It lets the candidate decide where they want to apply.
On the other hand, Revelo provides a 14 day risk-free trial for businesses to understand whether the employer is comfortable working with the candidate.
- Advanced Analytics: Revelo provides detailed analytics and insights to help the business understand how effective their overall hiring strategy is.
CloudDevs is a Toptal alternative that connects remote developers in Latin America and Europe to global organisations.
Their five-stage screening process ensures that only the top 5% of engineering talent is available to businesses within 24-48 hours. They are a good fit for organisations that are looking for budget-friendly developers, engineers, and IT experts.
Features of Cloudevs:
- Tech-Centric Talent Pool: CloudDevs has a tech-centric talent pool that enables businesses to hire skilled developers, engineers, designers, and IT professionals. It ensures that employers find the right developer based on their niche and skills.
- Remote Work Advantages: CloudDevs connects businesses with global remote tech talent, enabling them to access a diverse pool across countries and time zones, enabling round-the-clock productivity.
- Vetting, Screening, and Verified Profiles: They have a five-stage vetting process that ensures organisations have access to only the best talent. Employers have detailed information about the profiles, such as work history, client feedback, portfolio, and technical skills. This helps employers make informed decisions.
- Flexible Work Models: Businesses get to choose from fixed or hourly contracts based on the nature of the projects and payment structure. It provides a one-week free trial to its clients and offers both full-time and part-time developers to hire.
- Project Management and Milestone-Based Payment: Milestone-based payments allow employers to release funds on completion of project milestones and track them easily.
With 18 million freelancers, Upwork is one of the largest freelancer platforms globally. It is a great Toptal competitor that connects freelancers from various expertise and backgrounds to employers.
For both employers and freelancers, short-term projects or long-term associations, are possible. The platforms have an in-built messaging system that makes collaboration and communication seamless between the employer and the freelancer.
On Upwork, businesses have a vast pool of talent to choose from, but it becomes difficult for a platform like Upwork to pre-vet their talent.
Features of UpWork:
- Diverse Global Talent Market: Upwork has a database of diverse talent marketplaces, starting from designers to developers, that gives employers plenty of options to choose from.
- Freelancer Ratings and Profiles: All employers on Upwork have access to freelancer profiles where they can see their work history, skills, and reviews from previous clients. It helps them choose wisely and make better decisions.
- Job Categories and Specialisations: Upwork divides projects into different categories based on the type of work. It helps employers find freelancers in their niche and industry easily.
- Verified Work Diary: Upwork provides Work Diary where hourly-based contractors can track their work hours and activity.
- Payment Protection: Upwork has a Payment Protection policy that provides a pathway for secure payments to freelancers upon project completion.
- Talent Recommendations: Upwork helps employers find the right freelancers easily for their projects by showing them talent recommendations.
- Mobile App: Upwork has its own mobile app, which gives employers and freelancers the flexibility to access the application on the go from anywhere.
While you have a wide pool of talent to choose from and a plethora of features on Upwork, if you are looking for pre-vetted talent, then Upwork is not the correct choice. Organizations need to use their own vetting process to vet the talent.
Guru is a popular freelance platform and a Toptal alternative that has over 2 million skilled freelancers across diverse industries on its network.
From web developers to graphic designers to content writers, Guru has freelancers for all projects and services. Its interactive user interface, competitive pricing, option for free job postings, and SafePay for secured transactions make it a popular freelancing platform for everyone.
Features of Guru.com:
- Free job posting: Guru allows you to post jobs for free. Freelancers will send quotes for the job posting, and the employers will review them along with their performance, feedback, and earnings before going forward with the agreement and scope of work.
- Extensive Talent Pool and Specialisation Filters: It has an extensive talent pool with freelancers of varying expertise and skills, thus ensuring that employers have a better probability of finding the perfect match.
- Employers can use the specialisation filters in the system to choose the correct person based on their specific skills, location, hourly rate, and work experience.
- SafePay Escrow and Invoicing: Guru ensures that both parties are protected in the payment process. The escrow system holds funds until the project is completed and approved by the employer. It also supports secure invoicing for payments.
- Guru WorkRoom: WorkRoom is the place where employers and freelancers collaborate and communicate for project-related tasks. It acts as a project management tool.
- Ratings and Reviews: Just like other platforms, ratings and reviews help employers learn about their past performance and projects. Additionally, it has a Guru Work Collection feature that displays a portfolio for freelancers where they can showcase their previous work.
- 24/7 Support: Like some of the other platforms, Guru provides round-the-clock support to employers and freelancers to help them with issues.
Fiverr is another popular Toptal alternative where freelancers for any gig will be available. The rate to hire freelancers starts as low as $5. Like some of the above-mentioned platforms, such as Upwork and Freelancer.com, Fiverr offers a wide range of freelancers with diverse skills and expertise.
On Fiverr, freelancers can bid on projects and send their proposals to employers, or employers can directly reach out to the freelancers. Their vast pool of talent prevents them from vetting resources.
Features of Fiverr:
- Gig-Based Service: On Fiverr, freelancers can consolidate and offer their services as gigs. The gig should outline what services the freelancer offers at a particular price.
- Multiple Service Categories: Fiverr has a wide range of services to offer prospective employers, ensuring they have an option for all of their projects.
- Friendly Pricing: The pricing for Fiverr freelancers starts as low as $5, making it a budget-friendly option for all. Depending on their requirements, employers can hire multiple freelancers for their projects.
- Ratings and Reviews: Like Upwork and Freelancer.com, employers can see ratings and reviews that freelancers received from their previous gigs. Decision-making becomes easy for employers.
- Communication Tools: Fiverr has a messaging system that helps facilitate seamless communication between employers and freelancers. It helps in solving problems faster and understanding project requirements better. Moreover, completed work can be directly shared on the platform without the need to mail it separately.
- Continuous Support: Fiverr offers continuous support to freelancers and employers so that they don’t have any issues while using the system.
Freelancer.com is a Toptal competitor used to hire freelancers and skilled professionals globally by businesses of all sizes.
It has the largest database of freelancers, almost 50 million, and offers a pool of resources from diverse talents and expertise. From simple logo design and writing to creating a complete website, employers can choose top-notch talent depending on their project requirements and needs.
Freelancer has a flexible pricing range from $0.99 to $59.95/mo that ensures that it is a preferred platform for both startups and bug organisations.
Features of Freelancer.com:
- Global Talent Pool: Like Upwork, freealncer.com offers a global talent pool to employers across the globe.
- Bid and Proposal System: Once the employer posts the projects, freelancers can bid for them and share their proposals.
- Wide Range of Projects: Freelancer.com enables employers to hire for a wide range of projects. Writing, designing, marketing, web development, etc. are some of the project categories.
- Ratings and Reviews: To help employers with their decision-making, freelancer ratings and reviews from previous clients offer them insights.
- Payment Milestones: Milestone-based payments ensure that payments are only released to freelancers when a milestone is reached and not before that. They have an escrow system for processing the funds, which secures the process.
- Project Management Tools and Time Tracker: Freelancer.com has numerous tools such as real-time chat, file sharing, progress tracking, a time tracker, etc. that make collaboration and communication seamless
. - 24/7 Support: The platform provides 24/7 continuous support, which helps resolve issues quickly for both sides, i.e., the freelancer and the employer.
Again, owing to the vast talent pool, they don’t vet their resources. As an employer, you need to implement your own vetting process to vet talent.
How do I choose the best Toptal alternative for hiring remote developers?
To choose the best Toptal alternative for hiring remote developers, consider factors such as the platform’s reputation, the size of the talent pool, the hiring process, the cost, and the level of support provided.
| Platform | Reputation | Talent pool size | Hiring process | Cost | Level of support |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ellow | Excellent | 25,000+ | AI-powered vetting, personal interviews | Hourly or monthly | Excellent |
| Turing | Excellent | 1 million+ | AI-driven matchmaking, trial period | Hourly | Excellent |
| Supersourcing | Good | 10,000+ | Algorithm-based matching, freelancer profiles | Hourly or fixed-price | Good |
| Flexiple | Excellent | 50,000+ | Three rounds of screening, dedicated account managers | Hourly or fixed-price | Excellent |
| Revelo | Good | 100,000+ | Smart job matching, skill assessments, video interviews | Hourly or fixed-price | Good |
| CloudDevs | Good | 20,000+ | Five-stage screening process, verified profiles | Hourly or fixed-price | Good |
| Upwork | Excellent | 10 million+ | Freelance marketplace | Hourly or fixed-price | Excellent |
| Guru | Good | 2 million+ | Freelance marketplace | Hourly or fixed-price | Good |
| Fiverr | Excellent | 2 million+ | Micro-tasking marketplace | Fixed-price | Bad |
| Freelancer.com | Good | 40 million+ | Freelance marketplace | Hourly or fixed-price | Bad |
Which alternative is best for you?
1. For rigorous vetting: If a robust vetting process is a priority, consider Ellow. This platform utilizes a four-stage human plus AI vetting process to ensure the quality of the talent they offer.
2. For quick turnaround and user-friendly interface: Ellow is a platform known for its quick turnaround time and user-friendly interface. They promise to provide businesses with the top 3% of global talent in less than 48 hours.
3. For Latin American and European developers: CloudDevs could be your best bet if you’re specifically looking for top-tier remote developers from Latin America and Europe. This platform specializes in outsourcing the top 5% of developers from these regions.
4. For an exclusive network of talent: If you value exclusivity and selectivity, you may want to consider Flexiple. This platform operates on an invitation-only basis, ensuring that only the most talented and skilled professionals are part of their network.
5. For AI-powered vetting: Both Supersourcing and Ellow stand out if you need an AI-powered vetting process. These platforms use proprietary AI-powered deep-vetting processes to verify the skills and experience of candidates.
6. For large talent pool and variety in pricing: If you need a large talent pool and a wide range of pricing options, Upwork or Freelancer.com could be suitable. However, be aware that the quality of freelancers may vary greatly, necessitating a more careful selection process.
7. For high-quality freelancers: If you prioritize quality over quantity, consider Turing, Ellow, or Flexiple. While these platforms may not offer as large a talent pool as Upwork or Freelancer.com, their freelancers are generally more experienced and qualified.
8. For fast and easy hiring: Ellow and Turing could be good options if you need a quick and straightforward hiring process. These platforms use AI-powered matchmaking to help you find the right freelancer for your project and offer trial periods for you to test out potential hires.
Keep in mind that the ideal Toptal alternative will heavily depend on your specific needs and requirements.
I hope these recommendations help guide you toward the right platform for your needs!
Frequently Asked Questions
While Toptal is a reputable platform, exploring alternatives can provide a broader pool of talent with different specialties and pricing models. Toptal Alternatives may also cater to specific industry niches or offer unique features that align better with your project requirements.
Yes, Toptal Alternatives often specialize in different areas of expertise, catering to specific industries or tech-related skills. This specialization allows businesses to find freelancers with precisely the technical skills they need for their projects.
Choosing the right Toptal Alternative involves considering factors such as the talent pool’s expertise, pricing, user reviews, customer support, and platform features. It’s essential to assess your project requirements and match them with the platform that best aligns with your needs.
Yes, Toptal Alternatives often cater to startups and small businesses by offering a diverse range of talent at various price points. They provide cost-effective solutions for businesses with budget constraints.
Yes, businesses can use multiple Toptal Alternatives simultaneously to widen their search for the best talent and explore different freelancing platforms based on their project requirements.
Abhishek Ghosh
Experienced B2B Content Marketer, Writer, Editor, and Strategist. He is from an engineering background who now loves to play around with words. He is an SEO and a social media enthusiast.
Abhishek Ghosh
Experienced B2B Content Marketer, Writer, Editor, and Strategist. He is from an engineering background who now loves to play around with words. He is an SEO and a social media enthusiast.
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