Top Alternatives To Upwork: Hiring Freelancers or Dedicated Engineers

You may have heard the term ‘paradox of choices’, which is so true when it comes to hiring IT talent platforms. When a product, platform, or concept is new, the whole world gets glued to it in awe, but as soon as other players wake up to the idea, there is a beautiful mess. It all started with platforms like elance, guru, Fiverr, and it grew in various formats and platforms such as Upwork, Toptal, Growmotely, Borderlessmind, and many more.

As the world’s largest freelancing platform, Upwork has been around for more than ten years (earlier Elance) and claims to have millions of freelancers registered in a multitude of fields. But what Upwork considers its strengths can also be regarded as its weakness, as there is a lack of specialization. As a result, it gets harder to find talent with specific attributes and skills with one standardized pool.

With that said, every platform has its positives and negatives. For example, how do you know which platform will serve you best for hiring a team vs. a freelancer? Who has got the best vetting process? Who lets you hire from the job description you have? If you value project management above all other parameters, which provider is the most suited?
There are multiple such factors to evaluate which alternative offers the best solution for your specific needs. Then, delve right into the top options of Upwork to get your remote hiring in place.

Top Alternatives of Upwork to hire remote IT staff

1. Hubstaff
Hubstaff is a software for time tracking and employee monitoring of remote teams. It has a remote recruitment branch called Hubstaff Talent that provides remote work-from-home opportunities for developers who want to work from home. The software has been so successful that it even surpassed the likes of Google and Microsoft in terms of market share.
It offers an easy-to-use interface and continuous monitoring that can be used to monitor employees on the go. For example, Hubstaff allows you to track your employees’ location, speed, and browsing preferences while working on their computers or other devices.
Hubstaff has its own pros and cons, so some people love it while others hate it based on their personal preferences.

Pros
- Talent management system allows managers to easily find the best talent and provide feedback on their performance.
- Talent can access their performance data in real-time.
- Talent can access their performance data without needing another person’s help.
- Hubstaff offers training courses for employees with different skill sets so they can improve their skills and become more productive.

Cons
- Employees have no direct contact with their manager or other coworkers, making it difficult to get feedback on performance.
-Sometimes clients don’t specify the budget .In this scenario, the freelancer will have to take the risk and invest time in applying for a job, only to later learn the suggested budget is not acceptable for them.

2. BorderlessMind
BorderlessMind is a platform that helps companies find remote developers and get the best of them. In addition, it provides an easy way to hire remote developers from around the world.
The platform has advantages concerning software development projects which make it worth considering if you are in need of a remote developer of any kind.

Pros
- Offers more reasonable industry rates than local hires.
- flexible hours and locations for the developer to work from.
- more experienced or senior developers can be hired due to their ability to work remotely.
- the developer will not have any commute time, and they will not have a fixed address so that they can work from anywhere in the world.
- Offers various payment options for employers and freelancers, including PayPal, PayPal credit, wire transfers, and Payoneer.

Cons
- Requires extensive communication between businesses and remote teams to avoid any confusion.

3. YouTeam
YouTeam is a freelance marketplace that helps people find and hire top freelancers with pros and cons. It has over 1 million members, including freelance professionals and hiring managers.

Pros
-It can be used by any company, regardless of its size or industry.
-It is cost-effective and easy to use for anyone without any IT or related fields background.
- It saves time by letting the AI write content for you at scale.
- There are Zero overhead: locally-compliant contracts and billing
- You can get various types of content, including articles, blog posts, infographics, etc, from a single tool.
- It has an intuitive interface which makes it easy to use.

Cons
- The quality of some of the jobs on YouTeam is questionable because only a small percentage of projects go through an evaluation process.
-Add additional attributes for search, not only technologies.
- Mostly suitable for individual developers not the whole team.

4.Toptal
Toptal is an online platform that helps companies hire top-tier software engineers and designers. The company also provides services for freelancers, helping to match them with the best projects based purely on qualification, expertise, and experience.

The company has a review process that ensures that the candidates are a good fit for the job. Toptal is a great option for companies that need to hire high-level talent. However, it might not be the best option for small companies or startups without enough resources to afford to hire expensive engineers and designers.

Pros
- Toptal provides access to top-tier talent at competitive rates.
- They have a wide variety of skill sets
- They provide opportunities to work on projects from anywhere in the world
- They provide access to advanced technology
- Their support team is available 24/7

Cons
-The review process is rigorous and takes up to 4 months for developers and up to 6 months for designers.
-Toptal’s customer support is not appreciated much. Right from the initial hiring discussions, there are multiple touch-points with their staff to get started on the hiring process.

5. Credo
Credo is a freelance marketplace that allows users to hire freelancers online. It was founded in 2009 by three friends: David Armano, Michael Stelzner, and John Katzman. The company claims that they have more than 50,000 registered freelancers.

Pros
- There are many vetted freelancers on the site, and they have been screened by the company
- It is easy to find suitable freelancers with a quick search
- You get to work with top quality writers who have experience in your field of expertise
- You can get a variety of different services from one source, such as writing, design, and editing
- They offer great rates for their services. Their rates are competitive with other companies in the market. They also offer discounts for students and newbies.

Cons
- There is no guarantee that you will be happy with the service you get.

6. Fiverr
Fiverr is a marketplace for freelance services. It has gained a lot of popularity in the last few years due to its low prices and easy access. However, there are some drawbacks to using Fiverr. For example, you cannot get your money back if you don’t like the delivered work, and it can be challenging to find quality work on the platform.

There are also some advantages of using Fiverr as a freelancer, such as the ability to choose what kind of work you want done and working from anywhere in the world.

Pros
-Fiverr helps connect a wide variety of freelancers to different clients.
-It provides instant pay after completion of work.
-It’s easy to get started with Fiverr, and there are many opportunities for people who need to make money from home.

Cons
-The quality of work can be poor, especially if you’re looking for something specific like high-end software development.
- It’s not dedicated to the developers or software projects.

7. Workhoppers
Workhoppers is an excellent tool for those looking for the best online freelancers. It is one of the most popular freelance platforms in the world. It has more than 1,000,000+ registered users and has been around for over ten years. It helps freelancers and employers find the right match for their needs and offers a wide range of services for businesses, individuals, and organizations.

Pros
-Easy to use interface that makes it easy to find the perfect match for your job.
-Flexible payment options that make it possible to work with any budget.
-Quickly connect with freelancers in your area of expertise by using filters such as location, skill set, and price range.
-Ability to filter through freelancers based on how long they have been working in their profession and how many jobs they have done in the past month.
-Free for employers and offers a generous trial period before you sign up for a monthly subscription plan.

Cons
- charges small fees per project when you hire a professional through the site.
- There are also no guarantees that the freelance professionals will complete your project on time.

Conclusion
In our comparison of the above platforms, you can decide the best for your project needs and demands. Essentially all these platforms pursue the same goal, ideally allow yourself to choose the best.