Getting the right professional to fit your needs can be an arduous endeavor, especially when the professional you need is an engineer or a developer.
In many scenarios, hiring freelance professionals makes for a happy medium. They can help reduce some of the running costs of upcoming projects without compromising your company’s needs and standards.
The question now is, ‘Where can you find these freelance developers?’. A lot of websites claim to have access to the freelance programmers you need. Do they deliver on these claims…?
A useful site should be a hub of reliable information on the developers you need, so that you can assess their bios and information and be sure of their technical viability. Which websites can help you achieve this goal with the least stress?
In this article, we’ll analyze and outline some of the platforms that rank well in this category.
Oh and, by the way, we’ve put all of our articles and resources on how to find and hire developers here.
Why hire a freelance developer?
The typical and most common reason we hire freelancers is that we need specific skills and expertise. Or, we’re in a hurry and need extra “hands on deck”. Freelance developers are thriving in today’s gig economy – with good reason!
First, there’s the undeniable wealth of experience and boost freelance developers can bring temporarily to a project. Also, there’s the matter of cost-efficiency in comparison to hiring a full-time agency.
The value of their experience spans across the many aspects of development. Indeed, developers do not just create; they help understand user requirements and needs and then assist you in fulfilling those needs.
Here are a few benefits to hiring freelance developers:
Cost
Typically, most freelance developers work remotely. This means that they do not incur extra office running costs, which reflects in their rates.
Speed
Freelance developers are usually more open to accelerating the process in the situation of time-constrained projects to meet your deadlines spot on. Developers also have the benefit of extra flexibility to work evenings and weekends to hasten job completion.
Experience
Developers improve their skills with every completed milestone. We cannot undermine the potential that freelancers bring to the table, spun up from working different applications with multiple brands in the past.
Plus, you can find freelance developers whose past experiences directly align with your specific industry; this will further cut down on cost by shortening the onboarding time.
Wide range of choice
With the sector flourishing, there’s been an influx of talent into the freelance developer community. You can choose, from a wide range of skill sets and expertise, the person that suits your purposes.
Communication and future relationships
Freelance developers are always looking to improve and grow with the market. They’ll usually keep in touch, keeping the line open for future collaborations. Working with just one person directly also makes it easier to communicate effectively.
How much does it cost to hire a freelance programmer?
You have the flexibility of paying freelancers in different ways, depending on your needs. Freelancers will generally provide rates by the hour or by the day, but you can also choose to decide on a fixed project rate, on rarer occurrences.
In the situation of smaller projects, for example, a project fee to cover the cost of the whole gig may well be agreeable. However, if your project is a big one, the freelance programmer will most likely charge on an hourly basis. Sometimes, you’ll be able to negotiate a lower hourly rate by offering long-term work.
Freelance developers that mostly do short term gigs set their rates higher by a bit to cover the inconsistent flow of income and potential days when they are not working. It is prudent to note, however, that in the freelancing environment, nothing is set in stone
Rates will usually vary a lot based on the quality of service the web developer is offering. If you’re looking to square off a rough budget on an average pricing of the current market, a 60 -100$ range is a good place to start.
Where can I find and hire freelance developers?
There are a number of web platforms where you can hire a freelance developer. However, they are not all reliable. In your search for the right fit for your business, you want to avoid stumbling onto the wrong medium – that is a recipe for catastrophe.
Some freelance hosting sites have pretty terrible hosting policies and breed inefficiency. To avoid obstacles to your project, you want to avoid sites like this. The most reliable sites usually offer pre-screened and vetted freelancers that can actually deliver on their promises. Using a reputable and reliable platform will reduce the chances of project setbacks.
We’ve collated a list of ten of the best places you can find freelance developers:
- Toptal
- People Per Hour
- Working Nomads
- Freelancer
- Gun.io
- Upwork
- Guru
- Gigster
The best places to find freelance developers
Toptal
Among tech freelancer communities, this website is well-known for its extensive screening process. Screening includes a personality test, a language test, technical discussions with Toptal engineers, and test projects.
The website only takes on the best freelancers, who have to sign binding agreements to maintain a particular standard of work and service.
Although this may be a very stressful process for freelancers, clients don’t have to vet every freelance software developer they find on the site. The platform is easy to use and reliable – and a little pricey.
All you need to do is tell the platform what kind of technology and how many developers you require. They’ll take it from there!
People Per Hour
People Per Hour is a freelance marketplace that has racked up a fair number of users.
Not only can professionals post their own projects, they can also browse freelancers’ pre-packaged bundles for inspiration or for reference.
The platform’s members number in the millions, with thousands of confirmed hours and a mass of different success stories from both freelancers and clients. The website is designed to be as intuitive as possible for employers interested in searching and vetting their freelancers themselves. The website also has an additional feature that enables you to connect with local freelancers.
Working Nomads
The Working Nomads platform hosts lists of remote job offerings for a variety of careers.
Their largest category, as with other remote job boards, is development. It’s a great place to find developers at affordable rates. On Working Nomads, it’s up to you to vet and interview candidates. If this isn’t a problem, then you should surely try this website out.
Freelancer
Freelancer is a huge market hub and a major player in the gig economy. The platform has about 25 million registered users, 12 million total posted jobs, and countless amounts of completed projects.
The size of the marketplace may be impressive, but it does pose a unique problem. How does one find the right candidate in the midst of that many?
Software development is one of the more popular categories on the platform, and you’ll have to go through a fair amount of freelancer profiles to find the best fit. You’ll then need to screen, interview, and manage the candidate’s payments yourself. If you’re working on a budget, it’s an affordable option, but if it’s a long-term thing, we’d recommend matching services like Toptal or Gun.io.
Gun.io
This platform has an advancing hub of developers (over 25,000). Similar to Toptal, their service aims to reduce the stress of the hiring process.
This website vets its members (with code, culture and reference assessments) and makes sure their freelancers commit to all projects.
If you’re looking for a senior freelance developer, Gun.io is a good place to start.
Upwork
The Upwork platform is a huge and expanding freelance marketplace, with over 12 million users.
Upwork connects clients with remote freelancers in various fields, from brand content writers to JavaScript experts and web developers.
Employers often enjoy the platform’s ease of use, but highlight that variable quality is a major drawback. Finding freelance developers to interview is quite easy with Upwork. However, drafting multiple candidates will take some doing. You can take client feedback and evaluations into account, but you’ll still have to do most of the screening and vetting yourself.
Guru
This site is very similar to freelancer platforms like Upwork and People Per Hour. It has a slightly smaller network of freelancers, but you can explore the profiles of millions of Gurus, set up projects, and pay for services with ease on the website.
Guru is a network composed of all sorts of professionals. To save time, you can search for specific freelancers based on parameters like expertise, rates, feedback, location, etc.
On this freelance network, vetting and interviewing is up to the employer.
Gigster
Gigster is a recruiting platform that connects you with a qualified team of developers for a variety of tech projects.
They set their clients up with product managers, who then act as go-betweens for the clients and the developer. This eases up the process by quite a lot
This platform matches you with a development team in a shorter time than most recruitment agencies. They, however, do not offer a time guarantee. If you need a developer for a time-sensitive project, try Toptal.
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Hopefully, you now know a little more about how to find the right freelance developer. Taking into consideration your own situation and project, at least one of the platforms listed above should suit your needs. Good luck!
