Toptal Alternatives for Hiring Developers

Toptal is by and large one of the biggest players in the freelance tech talent market today allowing businesses to hire developers that are fully vetted from their platform of elite talent.

Claiming to offer the top 1% of the worlds tech talent thanks to their extensive screening measures, and ensuring the freelancers they offer are those that are currently working for some of the biggest tech giants in the world, Toptal has quite the reputation to keep and they sure take all efforts to make their name shine amongst their multitude of competitors.

Charging upwards of $150+ per hour for their tech talent which includes developers, designers, project and product managers as well as financial advisors, Toptal is one of the dev hiring platforms that are on the higher end of the pricing spectrum.

So let us introduce to you some of the more popular Toptal alternatives among startup founders and entrepreneurs for hiring developers. 

1. CloudDevs

CloudDevs is undoubtedly one of the best alternatives to Toptal for someone seeking highly vetted senior developers. Their platform is composed of software engineers that possess a minimum 5 years of experience in their respective fields. All CloudDevs talents are specially sourced from the LatAm regions and are continually tested and screened for their coding skills as well and English language proficiency. Moreover, they only require 48 hours to match you with a suitable talent from their pool once you’ve expressed all your needs and requirements to one of their senior consultants after a simple phone call that can be scheduled via their website. 

Working with CloudDevs’ LatAm based talent provides the added advantage for US companies that wish to hire developers from their own time zone. Unlike hiring offshore developers from Asia or Europe, CloudDevs ensures all your talent hires are within your time zone allowing your remote developers to work seamlessly with your in-house teams. 

2. Upwork

Upwork is a very popular Toptal alternative among freelancers with over 5 million companies being registered on the site utilising their services. Thousands of companies have hired developers from Upwork over the years alongside numerous other talents. The good thing about Upwork is that recruiters can hire devs for both long and short term or even on a project basis. 

While you may think hiring a developer via Upwork is relatively easy, there are quite the obstacles in place when firing devs from this Toptal alternative. This is that Upwork does not offer strict screening and vetting procedures for their talents in a similar vein to Toptal or CloudDevs. This makes the hiring manager’s job slightly more difficult and time consuming as he/she would have to peruse a number of job applicants, set up interviews with them and conduct screening themselves prior to making the hire.

3. Unicorn Dev 

Unicorn Dev is a fantasticToptal alternative if you’re seeking to hire a developer for your business or startup. These highly vetted and handpicked unicorn devs are all seniors with at least 5+ years of experience within their tech stack and are motivated and committed individuals that aim to achieve the best.

The most impressive feature of UnicornDev is their ability to match you with a pre-vetted  unicorn developer sourced globally whilst ensuring the client receives a minimum of a 4-hour time zone overlap to ensure convenient communication across teams. And to add to that, all Unicorn.Dev developer hires come with the week-long free trial so the clients get to actually work with their talents to ensure they’re the right fit. If the client isn’t fully happy with the dev, they can request a replacement that comes with another free trial.

4. We Work Remotely 

We Work Remotely is another fantastic choice if you’re looking for a Toptal alternative to hire developers remotely. They are a platform that specifically serves job seekers and employers looking for remote working opportunities. We Work Remotely is a hybrid between a typical freelancing website and a job board.  

We Work Remotely costs up to $299 for its services, although most other platforms are free for job seekers and employers. In comparison to its rival companies, it falls a little on the expensive side, but its excellent services make up for it.    

5. Freelancer

Freelancer is a well recognised Toptal alternative  that offers software programmers and developers alongside many other professionals on board their platform. 

One can simply sign up on the site and create a profile and the freelancers can use their profiles to apply for job listings on site. Unlike Toptal, Freelancer does not vet or screen their candidates so it’s up to those who are hiring to conduct sufficient vetting to ensure they find the right talent match through the platform.

6. X-Team

X-team is a renowned  Toptal alternative that offers a team of developers assembled from all over the world. Having established themselves in 2006 as an elite tech team that you can rely on to scale your existing teams or develop projects in their entirety, X-team comes with a dedicated account manager that will oversee all your development requirements.

Skewed more towards the higher end on the pricing scale, X-teamers have worked for some of the biggest companies like Sony, Fox, Coinbase and Riot Games that have utilised them to hire developers for their long-term projects, which is the specialty of X-Team. 

While they do come at a pretty steep cost, X-team is known to provide exceptional services based on reviews by past clients. But unless you’re venture backed and have the finances to afford them, it’s probably not worth pursuing.   

7. Gaper

This Toptal alternative actually acts as an online job board that has acquired talented software engineers from all over the world. When you’re in need of a team member, a series of tests are carried out to assess their expertise and communication skills to see if they match the needs of the client. 

Gaper also provides training programs for aspiring software engineers and developers, ranging from junior full-stack developer program to full-stack software developer. It is undoubtedly one of the best Toptal alternatives in the market today.