Toptal 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 

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.

Freelancer is a Toptal alternative that is widely used to hire freelancers for a variety of projects. This can involve creating a simple logo or even a complete website. It offers by far the largest pool of freelancers from across the world, which accumulates to over 50 million. You can find the ideal professional for your project by browsing samples of previous work and reading through profile reviews.  

Freelancer’s talented team helps you find the best freelancer and provides you with technical co-pilots to manage the project. Using its time tracker and mobile app, you can track the progress of your project. You receive obligation-free quotes and 80% of the projects get bid on within 60 seconds. Once it’s completed, you may pay if you’re only 100% satisfied with the quality of the work.  

Talent Location: Worldwide   

Pricing: Freelancers’ pricing plans range from $0.99 – $59.95/mo, depending on the features of the plan. 

Skills Offered: A wide variety of skills from writing to programming to virtual assistants.

Hiring Process: Enter the details about your project and your expectations. Browse the freelancers and their profiles on the platform. Reach out to those that fall within your budget. Contact them on your own, maybe even interview them to ensure they have what it takes to complete your project and sign on the freelancer you prefer. 

Cancellation Policy: Not disclosed  

Recommended For: Freelancer is a Toptal alternative that is renowned for its presentation of a wide variety of talents within its platform and you can hire anyone from a translator to a developer for short-term projects.

Remoteok is a Toptal alternative that offers access to a wide range of talents the world over. It is a job board where those looking to hire developers can post their job listing for a set fee and allow talents to apply for the position. Unlike Toptal, Remoteok does not provide screening and vetting of talent nor do they handle payments and project management. 

Talent Location: Worldwide 

Pricing: $599 per job listing

Skills Offered: All varieties of freelance talent

Hiring Process: Post your job with an accurate job description and allow freelancers apply for it. Vetting and screening them prior to hiring is within your hands as the client making the hires. 

Cancellation Policy: None

Recommended For: Hiring a one off remote employee for a long-term gig.

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