So the time has come for you to start building or expanding your team. You have been working hard to get your business off the ground, and it is now beginning to stand on its own feet. You haven’t done much else – including sleep – for months on end, and you could use a few extra hands.
Hiring freelancers has become the way to go when looking to build and grow small teams for a startup business. Freelancers provide business owners like you with more freedom and lower overhead. You can take on workers with highly specialized skill sets, and for only the hours that you need. This is the most efficient way to get the job done.
Everything is clear up until now – you know what has to get done, and you know what kind of people you want to work with. But where can you find such a team? Here are 25 of the most popular sites for hiring freelancers to help you get started.
1. Toptal
Toptal offers freelancers who have good-sized portfolios. The company screens freelancers who want to join before they can access the client pool, and accepts only the top 3% of applicants. This is what makes Toptal one of the most popular sites for hiring freelancers. The Toptal community is very active, hosting events and gatherings for career growth. Toptal focuses on software development, design, and finance. The platform also provides a no-risk trial period for hires where you only pay if you are satisfied with the work.
2. LocalSolo
LocalSolo has amassed a freelancer pool of over 25,000 individuals. You can hire direct or let the company do the search for your desired talent. You have complete control over contractor rates, payment methods, and contracts. You can post jobs for free or join their premium plans for additional options. Finding talent in specific areas is easy with the option to set your city. The system offers easy application and communication tracking, and an option to direct freelancers to your website.
3. Simply Hired – Indeed
Simply Hired is a very simple platform where you can post jobs for free. They have also partnered with Indeed, another very simple job board where you can access millions of workers. Older job posts get pushed down the results pages over time, so can sponsor your post to retain the best visibility. Indeed sends applications to your email, and you can also access and manage them via your dashboard. The tracking system allows you to measure the whole recruitment process.
4. Freelancer
Freelancer offers the standard hourly and fixed-price projects as well as a contest option where freelancers can submit ideas for your project and you award the best one. For regular jobs, you post your requirements and your price range and freelancers submit proposals and bids. Freelancer has millions of freelancer members for jobs ranging from web design and mobile app development to product manufacturing, graphic design, and data entry. The platform also has a handy reputation system that shows you who the top freelancers are and what they have done before. There is also 24/7 support, a built-in time tracker, and a mobile app. The support and rating systems make Freelancer one of the most popular sites for hiring freelancers.
5. Guru
Guru has more than 3,400,000 available services in 8 categories including writing and translation, admin support, sales and marketing, and legal. They also host about 1.5 million gurus with browsable profiles and portfolios. The Guru Work Room allows you to manage your team, track and collaborate on projects with your defined agreements and milestones, plus file sharing. The company also offers an Enterprise account for when your team and number of jobs grows.
6. Upwork
Upwork, formerly oDesk, is a household name when it comes to remote hiring, so it definitely gets a spot in the most popular sites for hiring freelancers. Upwork has over 1.5 million clients, and possibly the widest range of skillsets for both short-term and long-term projects. You can choose to hire hourly or per project, and select workers based on entry-level or expert-level skill. Like Freelancer, you post your job and what you are willing to pay, and interested freelancers can submit their proposals and bids. You can also browse the top freelancers and invite some to bid on your post.
7. Fiverr
Fiverr is a non-traditional platform where you can look at jobs posted by freelancers for what they will do for 5 bucks and up. The jobs are sorted by category, and you can search by keyword. It’s a good way to look at the skills and tasks that are out there. This helps if you are not sure what you really want done or what’s involved, or if you just don’t have the time to write out detailed posts and sort through applicants.
8. FreeeUp
FreeeUp is a newer player on the field, and also has a unique value proposition that has boosted up to being one of the most popular sites for hiring freelancers. FreeeUp offers a fast hire solution to business owners who don’t have the time to browse profiles and conduct long interviews. You simply sign up for free on the website, post your requirements, and the team finds and introduces the best matches to you. You meet the workers you want and hire after a short interview. This company thoroughly vets freelance applicants and accepts only the top 1%. It also offers a no turnover guarantee so your business doesn’t experience losses in the rare case where your worker leaves. FreeeUp focuses on eCommerce businesses but also offers a wide range of other skillsets for anyone who needs a hand. The team is led by the CEO, who communicates personally with business owners and is available to assist at every stage of the recruitment and working process.
9. LinkedIn ProFinder
LinkedIn is another popular site that is not traditionally a job posting site but deserves to be included among the most popular sites for hiring freelancers. LinkedIn is a business networking site where you can view professional profiles and quickly search for freelancers through ProFinder. You answer a few questions about what you need and the team finds the 5 best local professionals for the job. You review the offers and the profiles and make your hire. ProFinder also has a concierge team ready to assist.
10. Krop
Krop offers full time and part time freelancers in the creative fields. You can find freelancers and view portfolios using an intuitive search feature. Krop hosts a good number of famous creatives with excellent track records among their 100,000 resumes and portfolios.
11. Stack Overflow Careers
The career section of Stack Overflow is dedicated to a list of developers and engineers and related skills. Both full-time and contract positions are accepted. If you need special software designed to help you get your systems automated, this is a good place to post your job. Stack developers are known for their expertise, and though you can expect to pay top dollar, you will be getting the best in the field.
12. FlexJobs
FlexJobs is a professional job service that can help you find the best flexible workers available. FlexJobs focuses on TRaD (Telecommuting, Remote, and Distributed) work on part-time, alternative, or flexible schedule basis, as well as freelance contracts. Skill tests are available for freelancers to take and show as part of their profiles, as well as webinars and other resources to help them grow and provide better services. You can search the candidate database and use their custom marketing solutions to find the top talent for your needs.
13. CrowdSource
CrowdSource is another large pool of freelancers, this time specializing in content creation, copy editing, and monitoring for eCommerce retailers, media companies, and publishers. This platform’s unique approach allows you to break down larger tasks into smaller ones for easier management. CrowdSource screens qualified freelancers who, when hired, can work on tasks via the integrated platform. Compensation and work assignments are based on ratings, and you can access the best workers based on these criteria.
14. Freelance Writing Gigs
Another platform for content experts, Freelance Writing Gigs hosts a slew of editors, writers, publishers, and bloggers who have expertise in photography, healthcare, cooking, and technical writing. They accept only PayPal as payment, have a minimum of $10 per job, and only accept posts for cash payment for work done and not projected results.
15. Peer Hustle
Peer Hustle accepts posts for work to be done in person or remotely. It focuses on finding the best local freelancers available for the skillsets you need. The site offers in-app calling and video calls as well as real-time chat for communicating with your hires directly. This is a good option if you are often on the go and need to manage workers and jobs on mobile.
16. Smashing Jobs
Smashing Jobs is the job board of Smashing Magazine, hosting a long list of tech jobs that you can hire freelancers for. The site also hosts full-time jobs, and focuses on developer and designer jobs. Smashing Magazine is one of the best magazines for creative professionals, and has over 4 million monthly users. This is a great pool of prospective talent for your design and development needs.
17. Mashable Job Board
The Mashable Job Board, part of Mashable, hosts the community of this global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Mashable is known as the top source of tech, digital culture and entertainment content. You can get access here to the leading digital talent across the globe. Mashable actively promotes job postings to its 45 million monthly unique visitors and 25 million social followers.
18. Working Nomads
Working Nomads has categories for design, development, system administration, customer success, management, and marketing, and related digital fields. Job postings are paid, but you get access to 100,000 digital professionals and your posting is promoted to the network’s email subscribers and Twitter following. Relisting on the platform is free.
19. Authentic Jobs
Authentic Jobs accepts freelance, contract, and moonlighting jobs for a range skills that include project management, backend development, and content strategy. This is a good place to find the best designers and creative professionals.
20. Problogger Jobs
Problogger Jobs is dedicated to bloggers who are open for freelance positions. It is a great place to find a content writer to help you promote your business of get your blog up and running. You can also find writers here who specialize in technical content. WordPress-savvy workers and others with various technical skills are also available.
21. People Per Hour
People Per Hour focuses on jobs relating to marketing, SEO, and software engineering. The company is actively involved in streamlining freelance hiring with an organized system for communication, job management, and payments. Fill up a short form with the description of what you need done, post the job, and wait for freelancers to submit their proposals for your review.
22. Project4Hire
Project4Hire connects you with freelancers in the fields of Accounting & Finance, Business, HR & Legal, Data Entry & Admin, Languages & Translation, Sales & Marketing, Writing & Content, and more. You can post your job for free and get bids from the platforms pool of workers. Project4Hire also offers a workspace on the site where you can manage your projects and collaborate with your workers.
23. Craigslist
Craigslist has evolved from that site where you can post second-hand items for sale into a good place to find people who have your desired skillsets. Craigslist does not offer security, but you can find rare talent here if you are careful and have the time to properly vet your candidates. There are millions of people on the site every day, so this is the place to be if you are looking to go through a large variety of workers.
24. Remote
Remote uses artificial intelligence to connect you with the over 2 million remote professionals on their network. The AI engine matches freelancer skills, experience and personality traits to find you the best worker. They also accept posts for full-time and consulting work. Remote has a reviews system where you can see the ratings that freelancers have received for different jobs completed.
25. Croogster
Croogster is another alternative platform where both clients and freelancers can post jobs. Clients post their requirements and freelancers post what they can offer complete with turnaround time and rates. Clients can wait for applications or brows offers and purchase them.
Find Your Platform
There are a lot of options out there, and it will take some trial and error to find the one that’s right for you. Doing a bit of research into what each one offers in terms of not only workers but features will go a long way in helping you to figure out where you will be most comfortable. If you need additional tips or just don’t want to go through this grueling process, reach out and we’ll be happy to lend a hand.
You might also enjoy reading about a FreeeUp and oDesk milestone comparison, organizing and motivating your team this year, and why you should build a core team to support your founders.
