Best Toptal Alternatives for Hiring Developers

If you’ve tried hiring developers through Toptal, you already know the story — great talent, solid vetting system, premium price tag. But maybe you don’t want to drop five figures a month just to get a project off the ground. Or you just want to hire this week, not next month.

That’s when exploring strong alternatives makes sense. In this article we’ll walk through what Toptal offers, then dive into seven solid alternatives. Some offer faster onboarding and startup-friendly rates without cutting corners on quality. Then we’ll help you decide which platform fits your situation best.

What is Toptal?

Toptal is a tech talent-matching platform that focuses on connecting companies with highly vetted freelancers, mostly senior engineers, designers, and finance pros. They like to say they only take the “top 3%.”

What that really means:

• Everyone goes through a multi-stage vetting process.
• You mostly get senior folks.
• It’s expensive.

And that’s fine if you’re hiring for a critical product or have a big budget. But if you just need a reliable dev or want to spin up a small team fast, Toptal might feel like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Toptal’s key features

• Rigorous vetting process to screen for high quality senior freelancers.
• Their developers charge premium rates, normally within the $100-$200/hour ranges.
• The time to complete hiring can take up to 3 weeks. 
• You can hire developers on an hourly, part-time, or full-time basis.
• There’s a two-week no-risk trial period available.

Toptal’s Pricing

Toptal doesn’t list prices upfront, but most clients report paying $100–$200+ per hour depending on skill and region. That’s roughly 2–3x what you’ll pay on other platforms. You’ll also pay an undisclosed initial deposit to start the matching process. This is besides the $79 monthly fee if you decide to use their talent search services. 

How to Hire Developers from Toptal

Hiring through Toptal is pretty straightforward:

1. Fill out a form describing your developer spec: tech stack, seniority, time-zone, duration.
2. A Toptal rep reaches out to fine-tune your brief.
3. Get matched with 1-3 candidates.
4. Review the profiles and interview them.
5. Onboard the selected developer, integrate them into your team, and start the engagement.

Because of the vetting and matching process, time-to-hire can take a week or two. If you need someone working tomorrow, it’s not ideal.

How Toptal Vets Developers

Toptal’s “top 3%” claim is based on several vetting stages it uses to screen developers:

1. Applicants are first screened on English skills and soft skills.
2. A technical interview follows, involving coding challenges to test their technical knowledge. 
3. A live coding exercise and interview by Toptal experts to evaluate creativity and problem-solving skills.
4. Candidates at this stage are given a real-world test project that lasts about 3 weeks.
5. The most successful candidates are added to Toptal’s talent pool. 

Toptal Client Reviews

Clients usually praise Toptal’s talent quality and reliability. The common gripes? Price, speed, and a bit of friction when you want to scale quickly or pause an engagement. There’s also some uncertainty around their trial period policy as to whether it’s actually “risk-free”. 

Toptal Pros and Cons

Pros:

• High-quality talent pool with expertise in several tech stacks.
• Good for critical, high-impact projects or when you need “elite” developers.

Cons:

• The high developer costs may be out of budget for many startups.
• Hiring can sometimes take several weeks to complete. 
• Slower time to hire compared to more agile platforms.
• Lack of clarity on their trial periods.
  

Toptal Alternatives

Here are five great alternatives to Toptal:

#1 ReactSquad

ReactSquad is a developer staffing agency that provides startups and businesses with senior React engineers. The developers are embedded into the client’s team and work directly under the client like a full-time employee. The main benefit is that clients don’t have to worry about the costs of traditional hiring while getting a developer who works like a full-time hire. 

Pricing

ReactSquad charges $75/hour for senior React devs.

Pros

• Best for React.js projects as their developers are specialists.
• Strong vetting: Devs are rigorously vetted across several interview rounds and a test project to assess their quality.
• Fast hiring: Hire a dev within 48 hours.
• Timezone sync: Get at least 4 hours of overlap with US and EU time zones
• Trial period: Try a developer risk-free for 14 days before committing.

Cons

• Limited tech stack so if your project uses a different technology from React you may need another platform.

#2 Arc.dev

Arc.dev is a curated marketplace for remote developers.  It’s the hiring wing of Codementor, a popular developer community.  Arc is one of the platforms that uses AI for matching developers with companies. 

Pricing 

Hourly freelance rates typically range between $60 – $110+ depending on experience and region.

Pros

• Arc has a broad tech stack.
• 2-week no-risk free trial available

Cons

• Quality varies as their vetting process isn’t so stringent.
• You may be charged separate platform/service fees.
• AI-based vetting is sometimes inaccurate as it can’t fully understand human dynamics.
• You need a security deposit of $300 to start a project.

#3 Gun.io

Gun.io describes itself as a global talent marketplace focused on matching companies with vetted developers for either freelance or full-time roles. Their services span sourcing, hiring, onboarding, compliance, billing, and payroll across many countries.

Pricing

• For freelance devs: ~$90 – $150/hour
• For full-time placements: 20% of first-year salary.

Pros

• Access to senior engineers, strong for enterprise-critical hires.
• Transparent: full rate upfront.

Cons

• Higher cost than more budget‐friendly platforms.
• Time-to-hire may take over 2 weeks to complete.
• Less suitable for startups on a tight budget.
  

#4 Lemon.io

Lemon.io is a curated freelance marketplace platform that matches startups or companies with vetted remote software developers primarily from Eastern Europe.

Pricing

Developers cost between $70 – $100 per hour. 

Pros

• Quick matching, often up to 72 hours. 
• Timezone sync with EU and US regions.

Cons

• Smaller pool: may lack very senior or enterprise-level devs.
• Limited free trial period (just 20 hours).
• An initial deposit is required to start a project.
  

#5 Andela

Andela is a global talent network that connects companies with vetted, remote engineers and other tech professionals mainly from emerging markets like Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Andela focuses more on long-term engagements, which is reflected in their year-long contracts.

Pricing

Hourly rates range between $40 to $120 per hour.

Pros

• Handles payroll and compliance for its clients.
• You can hire devs from multiple regions (Africa, Latin America etc.). 

Cons

• Not ideal for short term projects.
• Doesn’t offer any trial period.
• Most of their developers come at a premium cost.
• Matching can take up to 3 weeks.
• Some companies have reported lapses in communication. 

Toptal Alternatives Compared

Best Toptal Alternative Per Use Case

Conclusion

Toptal is good. Its generally positive client reviews on their developer quality point to that. But if Toptal is good, why alternatives? Because faster hiring, lower cost, more flexibility and broader geography matter for many companies. For startups or smaller teams, that initial cost alone can sting a bit.

The alternatives above offer strong choices. If you want senior talent and budget is less of an issue go with Gun.io or Andela. If you’re a startup looking for agile, cheaper help, turn to Lemon.io. And if you want fast onboarding and good quality at moderate cost choose ReactSquad.

Overall, we recommend ReactSquad because it strikes the best balance between speed, quality, and affordability. This makes it ideal for teams that want reliable talent without the premium pricing or long vetting cycles.