Toptal is one of the leading global remote team building agencies. It’s best known for its intense screening processes, which lead to the recruitment of the top 3% out of thousands of applicants. From language and personality traits to in-depth skill reviews, the vets individual software developers, designers, product managers and financial experts here are from all over the world.
However, it can prove to be an expensive investment, and might hold up well under the pressures of scaling a company due to rigid structures. There are quite a few alternatives to Toptal that, despite being lesser-known, pack just as impactful a punch. Whether you’re looking to support a local agency, or want to try out other firms, we’ve got your back.
Here are the best alternatives to Toptal to choose for your next remote team development programmes:
1) CONTUS DigitalTeams
With the help of CONTUS DigitalTeams, you can hire individual remote software developers, cloud architects, designers, coders and engineers or create a holistic team with a few more players in the mix. The specialized team works as an outsourced arm of your internal team; as a result, they are well-equipped to take your project from 0 to 100 with minimal management requirements.
Their pre-vetted talent pool includes QA engineers, UI/UX designers, scrum masters, full stack engineers, DevOps engineers, business analysts and cloud architects. All of them are highly skilled in futuristic tech stacks and were able to mix and match their skills to produce the best fit for the project.
2) Upwork
Upwork is not so much a like-to-like Toptal alternative as a portal for freelancers. It’s a great choice for those who want to take the time and effort to screen developers by themselves. By posting your project details, you’ll get a massive number of applications from freelancers all over the world. That’s been said, it’s ideal for short-term and one-off projects than long-term ones.
The auction mechanism that Upwork uses encourages developers to bid for the project at their lowest offer. As a result, you’ll be able to find good developers at reasonable prices. The average rates on the platform range from as low as USD 8 per hour to USD 200 per hour.
3) Arc
In their talent pool, Arc packs more than 20,000 engineers in its database. All of them have been cleared for action using review procedures that are Silicon-Valley level, so you get to pick from the best of the bunch to set up your remote team. Arc helps businesses that are looking to employ committed software developers and engineers on a freelance or full-time basis or through remote teams and remote hubs. You’ll be able to hire four times faster than normal, which will significantly speed up progress on your project.
They have several payment models to choose from. For permanent roles, they set up a fee on their annual salary; contract and freelance developers can be employed through a retainer or on an hourly basis.
4) Trio
Trio lets you kick start projects from scratch or plug gaps within internal departments by providing you with hand-selected digital engineering experts on request. It is one of the top Toptal alternatives for hiring remote app developers of the future. Whether you have a one-time requirement or an ongoing long-term project, you’ll be able to put together a strong team at Trio.
They concentrate only on tech engineering and developers procurement and vetting, and this niche emphasis enables them to employ only top talents who show more than acceptable abilities and skills. Their pricing varies depending on the number of hires you need, and whether you’re looking for individuals or entire teams that work well together.
5) Fiverr
Like Upwork, Fiverr is also a marketplace hosting, among other professionals, a large number of developers, designers and engineers you can use in your team. Fiverr Business is geared towards organizations looking for top talent; this niche helps skip all the overheads of hiring a freelancer and ropes in key managers from Fiverr’s team to help set up a dependable top-tier team.
While Fiverr is one of the more affordable Toptal alternatives to hire developers, the price range varies depending on the quality of the candidate, their skills, and their past client work. It takes a while to cull applications and find the right set, but it’s a wonderful resource if you’re willing to spend that much time.
6) Flexiple
Flexiple is a network of the top freelance developers from all over the world who can be hired for a few hours of work to year-long contracts. If Toptal recruits the top 3%, then Flexiple blings in the top 1% based on experience, complexity of past projects, communication, and strong technical abilities among others. You’ll be able to shortlist the right people within 48 hours after receiving a list of potential candidates from Flexiple.
They have a range of payment options depending on the kind of work you want to get done, and the hours involved. Individual contributors can be hired for USD 30 to USD 50 an hour, while multi-facet contributors who can lead teams can command anywhere above USD 50.
7) X-Team
X-Team helps companies with in-house staff to hire dedicated, full-time remote developers to plug in any gaps. Their agile contacts allow companies to grow or reduce the number of people in a team, while they continue to have full control over project schedules and workflows. Their salient features and benefits include dedicated developers working full-time as part of in-house contracts, versatile and extremely flexible contracts with simple payment schemes, and qualified developers with all the right skills ready-to-hire.
Conclusion
Toptal competitors have much to offer in all aspects including expertise and affordability. Depending on your needs, the hours you want to spend, and the kind of team you’re looking to build, any of these alternatives would be a fantastic choice. As long as you’re able to collaborate with these teams and individuals from the get-go, you can hit the ground running, on any project, from day one.
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