Toptal Alternatives & Competitors: Top 10 Sites Similar to Toptal

What is Toptal?

Toptal is a freelance platform that helps businesses connect with the world’s top 3% of software developers. They have a vetting process to ensure that skilled developers are allowed on the platform. You can hire a developer on Toptal for an hourly rate between $60 to $250. 

One of the main ways they help businesses is by providing access to a large pool of talented developers from around the world. This makes it easy for businesses to find the right freelance developer for their needs, and it also helps to save time and money on the hiring process. 

However, Toptal is one of many providers of freelance engineers. Even though they have assembled good freelancers, many alternatives have sprung up in recent years. Today, you can get quality freelance software engineers from similar sites without breaking the bank.

In this article, we want to look at the best alternatives to Toptal, what they have to offer, their pricing, the hiring process, and everything in between. But before we dive in, let’s look at what Toptal offers so you can make a good comparison.

Brief Overview of Toptal’s Benefits:

1. The process is faster when compared to the typical employment process. On Toptal, you hire a software developer in less than three weeks.
2. You can hire developers for both short and long-term engagements.
3. You don’t have to incur any recruiting costs.
4. Candidates are pre-screened; that’s some guarantee of quality.
5. The failure rate of hiring the wrong freelance developer is low.

How Much Does Toptal Cost?

Toptal’s pricing varies from developer to developer since the platform allows freelancers to set their rates. Fees may differ based on seniority, location, and whether you need them for hourly, part-time, or full-time projects. Hourly rates range from $60 to $250 per hour.

How Long Does it Take to Hire Talent Through Toptal? 

In most cases, employers get matched with a freelancer within 24 hours. The option to work with multiple candidates before deciding on a particular freelancer is available. They offer a trial period of up to two weeks to ensure a perfect match.

Why Consider Toptal Alternatives?

While Toptal remains a leading platform for hiring the best software developers, there are a few reasons why you may want an alternative.

Here are a few of them:

1. Hiring Time – your hiring decision may be influenced by how urgent you want the work done and how quickly you can have your talent onboarded.
2. Budget – It is evident that hiring a developer on Toptal is costly. That’s why alternatives like CloudDev, UnicornDev, and ReactSquad.io offer a more budget-friendly option for hiring vetted talents.
3. Time Zones – while you’re open to hiring a remote talent, you can consider hiring one that operates in a similar time zone as the rest of your team, so collaboration is seamless.
4. Talent location – you may want to hire from a particular geographical area due to language or cultural factors.
5. Seniority of talent – if your project is complex, you may want to consider recruiting from a platform that attracts experienced talents.

Top 10 Toptal Alternatives To Hiring Developers – Toptal Competitors

Here, we have provided a mix of platforms that serve as the best alternatives to Toptal so that you can pick one based on your specific requirements. You will also find information regarding the location of talents, pricing, skills offered, and the hiring process.

1. ReactSquad.io vs. Toptal

ReactSquad.io is a software engineering partner for fast-paced startups. They provide React developers that can be fully embedded in your team in less than seven days. They free you from having to create an account, post your project details, go through hundreds of profiles, and conduct interviews before hopefully finding someone for your project. 

How Do They Compare?

• ReactSquad.io provides full-time or part-time React developers. They focus on React developers because you cannot rely on generalists when you want to build something fast.
• Faster turnaround time (you can be matched with a developer in less than 24 hours)
• You can choose the number of developers you want, including hiring a whole team.
• They fully integrate developers into your team as an embedded team extension.
• Work with developers in GMT and EST time zones, guaranteeing you at least 4 hours of overlap.

How it works:

1. Tell them your needs: Whether you need one developer or a whole team, ReactSquad listens and understands.
2. Speedy matching: Their matching process is lightning-fast – way quicker than traditional recruiting methods.
3. Meet your developer: A quick call to ensure the developer fits your team’s skill and culture.
4. 7-day free trial: Test their skills in real-time, with zero risks involved.

Pricing

Rates start from $75 per hour.

This service is suitable for early-stage or venture-backed SaaS companies, especially after fundraising rounds or in high-growth situations, looking to gain speed and product velocity. 

2. CloudDevs Vs. Toptal

CloudDevs is one of the few remote hire firms that maintain low overheads while still providing a good service.

How Do They Compare?

• It is the closest competitor to Toptal, with over $15 million in projects completed.
• Their talent pool consists of senior developers and designers with a minimum of 5 years of experience from Latin America.
• Their hiring process is swift; it takes about 24 hours to be matched with a developer on CloudDevs.
• They have a 14-day no-risk trial period so clients can be sure they have the right talent for their project. 
• CloudDevs offers a weekly rolling contract with no minimum commitment; this allows clients to cancel anytime they want. 

Price

CloudDevs charges $45-$70 per hour (depending on seniority), which is lower than most Toptal developers charge.

3. Upwork vs. Toptal 

Upwork is one the most popular Toptal alternatives where startup founders hire freelancers, usually at a lower rate. 

How Do They Compare?

• Unlike Toptal, Upwork does not screen its freelancers; the client needs to have a good understanding of what they are looking for and be able to conduct their vetting process, which could take up to 8 weeks.

• High-end developers are hard to come by these days, and Upwork may not be suitable if your project requires a very qualified developer for long-term work.

• Upwork is one of the most popular alternatives to Toptal for clients seeking talent at a low cost.

Price

The average Upwork developer rates range from $21-$52/hour, and they can go up to 200 dollars an hour for senior developers. Additionally, there is a 2-3% fee to Upwork, which makes it possible for your hourly fee to be much higher depending on the number of developers you have working for you.

You can check out our full comparative review of Upwork vs. Toptal here.

4. Andela vs. Toptal

Andela is arguably one of the perfect clones of Toptal. Just like Toptal, their talent acquisition process involves many layers of tests and interviews. Their developers are mostly from Africa and Asia, and you can expect to be matched with one within 3 to 4 business days.

How Do They Compare?

• The earlier batches of engineers have been well-trained by the Andela team.
• Just like Toptal, their engineers have been well-vetted.
• There are more than 175,000 developers in their community.
• They only recently shifted to hiring senior engineers, so there are very few of them.
• This may not be suitable for you if you want to hire a freelancer. They did not state on their website that they provide developers on a freelance basis.

Price

According to Forbes, hiring a developer on Andela costs companies anywhere between $26 to $63 per hour. We wish their fees were more transparent, but that’s the closest information we could find.

5. Freelancer.com vs Toptal

Freelancer is one of the largest freelance websites in the world, with over 50 million active users. They have a talent support team to help you quickly navigate the hiring process. They also have various features, such as the time tracker and the mobile app, which allow you to manage your project on the go. 

How Do They Compare?

• Their hiring process is much faster; 80% of projects get bid on within 60 seconds.
• Once the job is completed, you can pay if you’re 100% satisfied with the output.
• You have access to a wide range of talents from almost everywhere.
• You can find developers with a wide range of skills and specializations.
• When you want to begin the hiring process, you must enter details about your projects and expectations. You then reach out to freelancers who meet your requirements and schedule an interview to ensure they have what it takes to complete your project.

Price

Fees vary depending on a skill level, but generally, developers charge between $60 to $100 per hour.

Freelancer is a renowned Toptal alternative because of its variety of talents. Depending on your budget, you can hire anyone from a beginner to an expert. However, this also means you must put in extra effort to get a good hire.

6. Revelo vs. Toptal

Revelo is a platform where you can find, hire, and pay quality remote software engineering talent in Latin America who speak English, work in US time zones, and are rigorously vetted on soft and technical skills. 

How Do They Compare?

• They make it easy to hire these freelancers by handling all the legal paperwork, payroll, benefits, and rewards.
• Developers are matched within 3 days. The majority of them get hired within 3 weeks.
• They equip freelancers with the soft qualities required to rapidly become a productive member of your team.
• They do not provide freelancers or professionals on a project-by-project basis. Rather, they focus on providing full-time employees.

Price

Revelo costs $2,500 monthly plus the developer’s salary. There’s little information available about their pricing. This is all we could find.

7. Crossover vs. Toptal

Crossover serves as an intermediary between tech companies and software developers. They find and hire software developers for tech companies around the world. They also post available positions on their website and invite prospective developers to apply.

How Do They Compare?

• Based on available reviews, we can deduce that Crossover recruits their developers from countries like Pakistan, India, Romania, and Russia and promises them great opportunities with US-based companies.
• They claim to find the top 1% of global talent. (Hopefully!)
• They have recruited 5,000 developers for now, which is lower than Toptal has achieved.
• Their hiring process takes about 6 weeks.

Price

They are not transparent with pricing information. However, we found that the average developer salary is $60,000/year ($31 per hour). It is unclear whether this includes their service fee.

8. Fiverr vs. Toptal

Fiverr is one of the major marketplaces for freelance services with many service providers. Service providers, commonly known on Fiverr as sellers, list their services and offers. All you have to do is carefully select one that best fits your needs.

How Do They Compare?

• There are a lot of services on Fiverr, but with the search functionality, you can type in the exact service you want and apply the necessary filters to get the right candidate.
• Even though Fiverr freelancers are not vetted, you can check their reviews and superiority (seller level). 
• You can cancel halfway through or request a revision if you are unsatisfied with the service.
• You can hire a Fiverr freelancer almost immediately if they’re available. Once you’re pleased with their reviews and offers, you can place an order immediately. If the seller is online and has no pending orders, they can attend to you.  

Price

Pricing can be as low as $15 per hour for beginners and up to $700 per hour for an expert. Other factors that influence pricing include the freelancer’s superiority and location. Freelancers from certain regions tend to offer higher prices as compared to others.

There are a lot of things that make Fiverr a good alternative for Toptal. For example, Fiverr has many great talents, and some well-known brands work with Fiverr freelancers. However, Fiverr is best suited for small tasks, while long-term projects are better handled by other Toptal alternatives such as ReactSquad.io or CloudDev. Also, we cannot clearly provide a hiring time for Fiverr because that depends on a lot of factors.

9. Guru vs. Toptal

Guru shares a lot of similarities with Fiverr and Freelancer. They also have a vast pool of freelancers on their platform. In addition to developers and designers, Guru has a freelancer for almost every skill on the planet. However, since there’s no vetting and screening process, anybody can get a place on their platform. 

How Do They Compare?

• Hiring depends on the client, and the process can take up to a month.
• Opening an account is free, but the site takes a 3% cut from every transaction.
• You can promote your job listing to get more candidates. That service comes at a fee of $29.95 per month.
• To verify the credibility of freelancers, Guru publishes feedback from previous transactions in the form of reviews, just like Fiverr does.

Price

Just like every other platform, the price varies depending on the experience and expertise of the freelancer. Fees can range from $30 dollars per hour to more than $100 per hour, depending on the skill of the programmer.

If you want access to a large number of freelancers to choose from for your project, Guru is a good place. However, you have to take on the extra responsibility of screening the talents. This Toptal alternative is ideal for hiring freelancers for small projects.

10. Codeable vs. Toptal

Codeable is a place where you can hire the best WordPress developers. It is the only WordPress freelancer platform that matches well-vetted developers to clients.

How Do They Compare?

• Their freelancers have to undergo a 45-day trial before being accepted.
• You can get an expert developer to review your project in as little as 3 to 5 hours after posting the job.
• They have a money-back guarantee if the client is unsatisfied with the work.

Price

Their rates are usually between $75 to $120 per hour.

If your project requires a WordPress developer, Codeable is an excellent place to find one. However, Toptal and its alternatives also have many WordPress developers. 

Best Alternative to Toptal

We recommend Reactsquad as the best alternative to Toptal for hiring freelance developers, especially if you run a SaaS startup.

Why We Recommend

• Unlike other alternatives, Reactsquad is fully focused on one specific tech stack (React & Node.js). Their developers have high expertise and a niche focus on SaaS products
• Reactsquad has a rigorous vetting process for their developers; with 4 interview rounds and 4 weeks working on a paid test project
• Senior developers with 5+ years experience

• Startup-friendly rates (starting from $75/hr)
• 7-day free trial with your matched developer and a replacement guarantee at any point during your project
• You can hire React devs for short and long-term SaaS projects and pay on a month-to-month basis

Visit Reactsquad’s website to get matched with the best React developers for your SaaS startup.

Conclusion: Other Toptal alternatives to try, in our opinion?

Short answer: All of them! But there are better ways to approach this, as everyone may have a different reason for hiring a developer.

As explained above, each of the ten platforms listed in this article offers something unique. So depending on what your needs are, here are some of the choices available for you:

1. Do you want excellent quality service while working with a small budget?

There are a lot of budget-friendly options, but it may be difficult to guarantee quality. However, we can recommend CloudDevs, ReactSquad.io, and Codeable. They are the closest competitors to Toptal, offering the same rigorous vetting process.

2. Are you looking for the cheapest option and not so bothered about quality?

Fiverr, Freelancer, and Upwork are the cheapest freelance platforms that can fit any budget. These platforms do not provide any vetting for their talents, so you can find some of the most affordable prices.

3. Do You want to hire as soon as possible?

ReactSquad.io, Codeable, and CloudDev/UnicornDev are your best bets.

4. Do You want to hire a developer on a long-term basis?

Revelo, CloudDev, ReactSquad.io, and Codeable are great options. These platforms are popular for their long-term contracts with clients.

5. Do you want to hire senior developers with over five years of experience?

CloudDev accepts only senior developers and designers.

6. Do you want the hiring process done for you?

ReactSquad.io practically takes control of the process and provides you with a suitable developer for your team in just under 24 hours.