Toptal has been a top contender among tech-talent marketplaces for startups and entrepreneurs looking to hire software developers, designers, and project managers for their varying technical requirements.
So What Does Toptal Offer?
Why Should You Consider Toptal Alternatives for Your Developer Hiring Requirements?
Over time, the freelance talent-hiring industry has expanded. Today, more and more startups and companies of all sizes are on the lookout for remote workers and choosing to work with freelance tech talent.
According to Toptal customer reviews, it is one of the high-end talent marketplaces accessible today, with Toptal developers costing between 75 to 200 USD per hour and Toptal designers costing around 70 to 150 USD per hour.This has given room for a range of Toptal alternatives to enter the talent-hiring industry by offering their own freelancer marketplaces with distinctive talent services and varying price points that make it viable for startups, entrepreneurs as well as larger organizations looking to scale up to find pre-vetted tech talent with whom you can collaborate with ease.
20 Toptal Competitors to Hire Your Next Remote Developer:
So let us take a look at some of the best Toptal alternatives you should consider when choosing the best software engineers for your tech startup and development requirements.
It is your one-stop shop for hiring remote tech talent. You can source senior tech talent from its global pool of 8000+ pre-vetted developers and designers. Compared to other Toptal alternatives, Unicorn.Dev ensures that all their senior talent has at least 5 years of experience. Unicorn.dev handles all of your talent management, payments, and compliance, so you don’t have to worry about anything else. Unlike Toptal, you’ll be able to begin working with your assigned talent within 24 hours via your private Slack workspace.
Unicorn.dev charges a flat rate of $35 per hour.
Unicorn.Dev employs a stringent vetting process to make sure its clients from all around the world receive the best quality of work.
This includes a 5-stage vetting process:
Continuous monitoring and assessment to ensure high standards are maintained, making Unicorn Devs a close substitute for Toptal freelancers.
CloudDevs is a recognized Toptal alternative that offers pre-vetted freelance developers and designers for hire. With a talent pool of 8000+ elite senior developers and designers from Europe and Latin America, CloudDevs ensures that its clients' demands are met within 24 hours. The entire business is conducted remotely so they’re able to keep their overheads low and provide the lowest possible rate to their clients. It is the only top-ranked Toptal alternative to offer a reasonable cost without sacrificing quality.
CloudDevs charges a flat rate of only $40 per hour.
CloudDevs comprehensive vetting process consists of 6 steps to ensure that all candidates have the requisite technical skills and English proficiency to perform at their best.
This 5-stage screening process consists of the following steps:
People per hour is a long-standing freelancer platform that has been in operation longer than Toptal. This Toptal alternative has been in operation since 2007 and does a splendid job of making sure that its clients are matched with expert freelancers within minutes. They have a dedicated customer service team available 24/7 to assist you. People per hour offers a money-back guarantee and anti-fraud protection to ensure the security of your transactions. Its job seekers are scattered across a range of specialties, including programmers, design developers, SEO professionals, and writers.
You can expect to find a developer on People per hour in the range of $15-$50.
Every freelancer must be approved by People per hour in order to join.
It is one of the few Toptal competitors that focuses solely on the recruitment of software developers. It has an invite-only, close-knit network consisting of elite software developers. Gun.io makes sure to match its developers with companies using a customized recommendation process. It relies on user relationships to handpick developers.
Depending on the region from which they work, freelancers might charge anything from$20.00 to $88.00/hr.
They conducting-depth interviews with their applicants to verify the abilities they possess.
Fiverr is a convenient service that popularized the concept of hiring developers based on orders. It is the ideal Toptal alternative for hiring talent for one-time or small-scale projects. Fiverr is the hub for cheap-skilled labor and you can search for freelancers based on their profiles and review all the details and ratings to ensure you’re making the right pick.
Freelancers charge between $5-$995 depending on the project.
Due to the large number of candidates available on the site, Fiverr is unable to check the competence level of these freelancers.
Freelancer is a popular online crowdsourcing and freelancing platform where businesses can hire freelancers for various projects such as creating a simple logo or a website. With over 50 million candidates, you can browse through their samples of work and read their profile reviews to find the best fit. This Toptal alternative offers a time tracker and a mobile app that keeps you informed and on the go.
It has various pricing plans ranging from $4.95/month to ¢59.95/month for its premium plan.
Unlike Toptal, Freelancer has no screening process. So you’ll need to do quality control.
Arc.dev covers every tech stack and time zone and makes sure to deliver complex projects under tight deadlines in a variety of industries. Like most other Toptal alternatives you are able to hire both permanent and freelance remote developers, as well as access “hidden gems” outside your local area. Arc.dev lets you hire freelance developers in 72 hours and permanent developers can take up to 14 days.
Arc.dev lies in the higher price scale with developers costing anything upwards of $60 to $200 per hour.
It uses a Silicon Valley-calibre vetting process similar to Toptal. Initially, they examine a candidate’s English proficiency and technical skills. Then you’ll be invited to a “Quick Chat” to introduce yourself and answer questions to verify your eligibility. This is followed by a technical skills assessment, such as a coding challenge or online technical interview.
Codeable is the only Toptal alternative that purely focuses on WordPress developers, allowing you to build WordPress projects that are short-term, recurring, or full-time. It has a limited number of profiles, thus recruiting is quick. However, Toptal does not have nearly the same amount of freelancers as Codeable. 97% of its developers have 6+ years of professional WordPress experience and these specialists are spread over 60+ countries. Codeable’s single-price algorithm eliminates undercutting and over-pricing.
Codeable developers all charge the same rate of $70- $120/hr, which is determined by the scale, complexity, and urgency of a project.
Codeable employs a six-step screening process to vet their freelancers. This process includes:
With over 2 million freelance accounts, it is one of the largest freelancing Toptal alternatives in the market. With integrated Work Rooms, it’s simple to manage several freelancers working on a project. You can explore these freelancers’ profiles, propose projects, and secure all of your transactions with its Safe Pay system. It has a fantastic customer support team that serves both freelancers and job seekers. Unlike Toptal, Guru, like every other budget-friendly freelancing site, struggles with quality. 
No matter what skill or role you require, this Toptal alternative offers a global network of over 450,000 freelancers who are there to guide you. Twine’s freelancers can build large audio and video datasets to help reduce machine learning bias. You can use its escrow service to safely pay for a job, knowing that you will either get the desired result or your money back. Twine’s diverse global talent can help diversify your team. It uploads its freelancers’ portfolios to make it easier to discover the perfect person for your task.
Its basic membership starts at $8 per user per month.
There is no vetting process to filter out the candidates.
One of the more recent Toptal alternatives offers a completely free service. It is the perfect alternative for hiring both independent freelancers and agencies. Hubstaff Talent is a transparent marketplace that allows clients to explore developer profiles and contact them directly without the need for intermediaries.
It is free for both clients and freelancers.
It does not carry out a manual screening procedure to vet its talent.
TECLA is a Toptal alternative that acts as a premium hiring platform connecting the world’s best tech companies with the best tech professionals in Latin America. Its matching technology saves you weeks in time-to-hire and allows you to employ the top tech recruiting professionals in LATAM. These candidates are only invited if they have a career trajectory of working at top companies.
The price will vary depending on the project.
Its stringent verification process involves checking the candidates’ English proficiency, communication and soft skills, track record, repositories, references, portfolio, culture fit, and soft skills.
Upwork has been on the market for over 10 years and is a great Toptal alternative for small businesses where cost is the main concern. It has a huge database of freelancers in over 50 verticals, including freelance developers, designers, writers, and video editors. Unlike Toptal freelancers, Upwork talents aren't vetted, so you would have to allocate more time and resources to vetting the talent yourself when hiring from sites like Upwork. Upwork isn’t as much of a fit as Toptal if you’re looking for developers for a long-term project, but it is an affordable Toptal alternative where you are able to browse talent from various categories and you’re provided 24/7 support if needed.
The average rates of developers start as low as $8-$15/hr and go up to $200/hr.
It doesn’t screen its developers. Instead, their profiles are uploaded on the site with samples, client reviews, and identity verification to choose the most suitable one.
It is one of the world’s top-quality crowdsourced talent marketplaces and like Toptal, it handpicks a selected community of leading designers. It only accepts 5% of the candidates that apply to the platform. They do this to ensure that they can produce high-quality designs. Unlike most other Toptal alternatives that offer a wide range of freelance services, DesignBro solely specializes in providing top-quality graphic designs for various projects, such as logos, packaging, and branding.
Its top five design pricing packages are within the range of:
Freelancers and designers submit a high-quality portfolio and are chosen from this pool.
Gigster is the perfect Toptal alternative platform for enterprises looking to quickly augment their tech team. It lets you assemble an entire tech team in 3-14 days. Gigster uses AI-based algorithms to assemble the right team for your project based on the scope and customer requirements. Compared to Toptal, they only take on projects that are worth above a certain minimum threshold and you can obtain complete ownership and license for the software built.
It depends on the complexity, type, and speed of the project. For eg: Apps for different devices can cost as little as $52,000.
It doesn’t have a vetting process to filter out its developers.
Bark is a marketing service-focused Toptal alternative. Whatever marketing-related service you’re looking for, Bark will help you find a professional for the job. They make sure to search thousands of professionals to find the most suitable fit. You can check out their profiles, reviews, and websites to help make a decision. With Bark pro, you get an online profile to boost your web presence and an award-winning customer success team to promote your business.
The prices are calculated based on the service and value of the job.
These professionals aren’t vetted but there’s a review system to help customers determine who to hire.
WWR is one of the largest Toptal alternative hiring sites in the market. It has one of the biggest remote communities in the world and they make sure to fill 90% of the positions held. You can receive manually prioritized batches of applicants so you don’t have to waste your time sorting through hundreds of applicants. Simply post your job on WWR and it’ll also be featured on Google Jobs Network, SitePoint, Unicorn Hunt, and over 20 independent niche job sites.
The base pricing for a job listing on WWR is $299/month but you may upgrade to various plans depending on the visibility of your listing.
WWR doesn’t offer vetted talent as it’s an open platform where anyone can post a job.
Designhill is a designer-focused Toptal alternative helping you find designers for a variety of projects such as website design, landing page, banner ad, and blog design. Simply fill out a design brief and post a project you want to work on. You can expect to receive 70+ designs within 7 days of posting a project. Designhill also provides 24/7 customer support and access to 70,000+ designers with a 100% money-back guarantee.
These prices could range from $169 - $599 depending on the type of project.
Its Pro Designer’ and ‘Pro Contest’ program is used to reward designers based on their performance. This helps clients to pick their rank designers for better assurance.
Crowdspring is another design-focused Toptal alternative offering freelance designers competent in website design, landing pages, banner ad design, and more for tier-based pricing. It is home to over 220,000 designers and you’re provided with 24/7 customer support and free design consultations to simplify things. Once you post your requirements, multiple designers will submit concepts for you to choose from.
There are several plans ranging from $299 -$1999.
Unlike Toptal and other Toptal alternatives, Crowdspring offers no vetting process to filter out candidates.
