Turing 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.

Why Do People Hire Tech Talent from Toptal?

Toptal has long led the freelance talent market. It’s especially popular among businesses and entrepreneurs who seek tech talent like software developers, graphics designers, and product managers. These companies are in search of remote tech talents for hire on a freelance or contract basis. Toptal acts as a liaison for these companies. It outsources highly vetted offshore tech talents. They specialize in fields like product and project management. They also do web design and software development. They offer these pre-vetted talents to companies and startups, making their hiring processes simpler.

However, Toptal is no longer the sole tech talent marketplace in the picture. Toptal was a pioneer in finding vetted developers and designers. But, today, you can hire from many Toptal alternatives that are well worth your time and money.

We made this guide to help you narrow your search. It covers the top Toptal competitors today.

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

A Brief Overview of Toptal’s Offerings:

• Toptal is unlike most other alternatives. Toptal talents are rigorously screened. They go through a multi-stage vetting process that ensures the quality of talent on the platform.
• Toptal lets you hire developers for short or long terms.
• Toptal sources remote freelancers from all over the world.
• All Toptalers set their own rates. They can quote their price based on their skills, seniority, and location.
• Most Toptal talents are expert devs. They work for some of the largest tech firms in the US. They offer their services as freelancers on Toptal.

How Much Does Toptal Cost? 

Toptal developer rates vary by talent. 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.

To get an accurate cost estimate for your project, you have to talk to Toptal. You need to tell them all your requirements. Based on your expectations they can find you a dev match from within their pool. The rates would only be set after assigning the developer. So, you may not get an accurate project cost right away.

How Long Does It Take to Hire Talent Through Toptal? 

Toptal bases hiring pre-vetted tech talent on availability. We match each talent to the client’s needs. Toptal is highly selective with its talents. So, their talent pool is somewhat limited compared to other Toptal alternatives we present in this article.

Why Consider Toptal Alternatives for Your Developer Hiring Requirements?

Toptal is still a top platform to hire freelance software developers. But there are a few reasons you may want an alternative to Toptal.

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

• Developer rates: You may seek a cheaper option for hiring vetted talent. Toptal developers cost more than other Toptal competitors, like CloudDevs and Unicorn.Dev.
• Hiring time: How urgent your needs are may determine your hiring decisions. So how quickly the platform can match you with talent should be factored in. If Toptal does not have a dev on the platform that fits your needs, the hiring time may be longer. In that case, you may need to consider an alternative to Toptal to find talent.
• Timezone alignment: You’re open to hiring a remote developer. But you want to hire someone in the same time zone as your team to make collaboration easier for existing team members. Toptal freelance developers are globally distributed. They come from different time zones. So if you require timezone alignment, you may want to try a Toptal competitor. One that only sources developers from the US time zone, such as CloudDevs.
• Talent location: You may also want to hire from a particular location. This might be due to language or cultural preferences.
• The seniority of talent: The talent’s seniority matters. Your project needs senior talent because it’s complex. In this case, you want to hire from a platform that focuses on seniority and experience. Look for a Toptal alternative like CloudDevs that only offers senior talents.
• The flexibility of contracts: The contracts need flexibility. You want a solution that fits your needs and budget. You may require a Toptal alternative that does this.

If your startup is facing these requirements and if Toptal is too pricey, you should explore the below Toptal competitors for your developer hiring needs.

Toptal has many rules and standards. They ensure that their developers and designers have the necessary skills and training. They also provide top-quality work. However, there are many Toptal alternatives today that provide similar services and meet the same preferences.

It is worth knowing about all your options when you look for Toptal alternatives for hiring tech talent. So here’s our top list of Toptal’s competitors that you can choose from:

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

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.

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

Outsourcely is a Toptal Alternative that offers a wide variety of talents across a range of disciplines and skill levels. Clients are able to post jobs on the Outsourcely platform and have the interested candidates reach out to them. Talents at Outsourcely are in search of long-term engagements with their employers, and it is the responsibility of the employer to conduct interviews and screen their talent prior to hiring. 

Talent Location: Worldwide 

Pricing: A small business plan costs $79 a month allowing you to send upto 100 emails and 5 job posts within the timeframe while a professional plan at $229 per month lets you send 500 emails and post 30 job posts per month.

Skills Offered: Design and multimedia, web development, app development, writing and content, admin support, customer service, sales and marketing, business services

Hiring Process: Browse the open profiles of the freelancers and you may directly message, call or email them to get in touch. Vetting and screening them prior to hiring is within your hands. 

Cancellation Policy: Not disclosed 

Recommended For: Hiring a variety of talents for short-term gigs.