Top Upwork Alternatives For Hiring Developers in 2022

Freelancing platforms are growing at a pace that they never did before. While offices are closed, people found an opportunity to get a second job and they often turn to freelance to do so. They often take easier projects like Hubspot website development. So the talent pool on the platforms has grown significantly which is a win for recruiters. 

When we think about hiring freelancers, Upwork is usually the first thing that comes to mind. It has the biggest community of freelancers, with 12 million freelancers from numerous fields. A bidding system really favors companies because freelancers tend to lower prices to get the assignment and the rating system helps to avoid scams. 

However, it has its limitations that make companies go look for other platforms: the system lets everyone participate and does not require any approval of skill, huge fees for freelancers scare high-quality candidates away, and companies will have to pay a lot too if they want to access better features. Overall, it is used for low-end projects with simple tasks, and to find someone great, you will have to either spend days filtering the profiles or visit other platforms. Luckily, there are lots of Upwork competitors that you can consider while searching for the best Upwork alternatives.

In this article, we will help you with the second option. We have found the 8 best Upwork alternatives where you can find freelancers. 

7 Platforms Like Upwork

While thinking about sites like Upwork, Fiverr is the first platform that comes to mind. It was launched before Upwork, back in 2010, and became one of the most well-known options for freelancers. You can hire people from any field there, from musicians to back-end developers. It works pretty much like Upwork, you do not have to go through the tests to enter the platform and the overall quality of professionals there is low. Yet, you also do not have to pay much for getting the job done. 

However, there are some differences. The list of Top Sellers and Fiverr Pros is filtered: Upwork places high standards on these categories and freelancers do follow them because they would not end up there or be forced to leave otherwise. It is a great way to find professionals faster but you should expect higher prices in that league and they do not work on tight deadlines (or charge extra for it). It is also easier to get a refund on Fiverr than on other platforms since the platform always defends buyers. 

It is a great option for small- to mid-sized companies that have easy tasks and are on tight budgets. 

Pros of Fiverr

• The wide talent pool from numerous areas
• Cheap workforce
• Filtered pro and top freelance lists
• The platform supports buyers and issues refunds easily

Cons of Fiverr

• There is a small number of actual professionals
• Low-quality completed assignments
• It is difficult to get to the professionals since they have many orders
• There are many scams that will waste your time

Guru is the OG platform and it has been around for more than 20 years. There are around 3 million freelancers now who seek work in the following categories:

• Programming and development
• Design and art
• Writing and translation
• Administrative and secretarial
• Business and finance
• Sales and marketing
• Engineering and architecture
• Legal

So the talent pool is smaller because it has limitations on the industries. On this website, you can find profiles that are not on Upwork since the latter restricts access to new profiles if there are too many freelancers for this skill and, therefore, they migrate to Guru. 

It is suited for small and mid-sized companies that have a tight budget and a lot of time to test different freelancers. 

Pros of Guru

• Fewer industries make it easier to navigate
• Has unique users that are not on Upwork
• Has lower charges

Cons of Guru

• A lot of scams
• Customer support can take weeks to get back to you

Toptal is one of the most popular freelancer Upwork alternatives. You can find software engineers, designers, finance experts, product managers, and project managers there. 

The main advantage of Toptal compared to Upwork is their filtering system: they review code, portfolios, English skills and candidates have to go through real-time testing as well. As a result, only 3% of applications actually get approved, and there you can find only real professionals with high-quality skills. Toptal analyzes both requirements of companies and the skillset of freelancers and matches both sides in a very personalized way. However, it is more expensive than Upwork. 

It is for big companies that have complex projects, look for actual skilled professionals, and are ready to pay the price for the skill, scam filter, and personalized approach. It also works very well for those who want to work with freelancers in the long term. 

Pros of Toptal

• Only skilled professionals
• Personalized recommendations which spare you from filtering yourself
• No scam
• You can find people to work in your offices

Cons of Toptal

• Expensive
• You can not test it, you have to pay before you get a look at Toptal
• Has a smaller talent pool

PeoplePerHour is a UK-based service and you can find freelancers from more than 89 countries there. Different industries are featured on the platform like IT, marketing, SEO, translation, social media, video, writing, administration, design, etc. 

It works pretty much like Upwork where freelancers bid their prices for the assignments and companies just look for the most fitting person based on reviews and pricing. The platform has CERT (community, engagement, repeat usage, and trust) level, with levels 4 and 5 being the highest. Freelancers with that level have much higher prices than those from lower levels. There is also a level higher than 5 and those are top workers – there are only 0,5% of those and they have to adhere to very high standards. 

PeoplePerHour’s unique feature is that you can hire locally and, therefore, you are more likely to find long-term engagement. 

The platform is good for any size of business since there are both low-level assignments and high-paying gigs. 

Pros of PeoplePerHour

• Great talent pool with different skill level
• Good scam filtering feature
• Local search available
• Budget-friendly

Cons of PeoplePerHour

• Fewer job categories 
• Resolves disputes poorly
• Requires too much personal information to sign up

Freelancer.com is one of the most known and popular freelance platforms among beginners. It has a huge user base – there are around 25 million companies and freelancers. 

The algorithm is similar to Upwork’s one. You can find employees from numerous fields like social media marketing, science, or data entry, post a job and choose among the applicants. 

If you want to, you can pay extra and the Freelancer’s employees will do the filtering and send invitations to the most fitting and experienced users. You can also track how many hours a freelancer is working on the project to make sure that the hourly rate is not a scam. There is an interesting feature called the Freelancer.com contest: you post an assignment and everyone who wants to participate sends you their completed tasks, you choose one and pay for one. However, do not expect too many competitors since freelancers, especially skilled ones, will not want to waste time on a project that might not even land them a paycheck. 

The platforms will work for small and mid-sized businesses that are looking for low-level freelancers.

Pros of Freelancer.com

• Many industries
• Amazing talent pool
• Quick hiring

Cons of Freelancer.com

• Have additional fees for disputes but resolve them quickly
• Many scammers
• Laggy mobile app

Outsourcely does not focus on freelancers primarily but on remote workers. It is a relatively new platform and it markets mostly to startups. There are around 400,000 users. 

It works like Upwork but it is more focused on long-term cooperation and stable jobs rather than small assignments. Usually, more skilled professionals sign up to use the platform. 

Outsourcely is smaller than other websites but they offer a good filtering system. They can even contact previous employers listed by the freelancers to check how legit the person is. They also can help you to find the right person. 

It will work well for startups, especially in their early stages, and for companies looking for remote teams.

Pros of Outsourcely

• Inexpensive
• Focuses on long-term relationships
• No hidden fees
• Filtering process in place

Cons of Outsourcely

• Not suitable for small assignments
• Has a smaller talent pool

Truelancer is an Indian freelance platform, a significant number of freelancers on it come from this country. It results in very low rates for their services, however, you need to profoundly analyze freelancers' profiles in order to choose the freelancer who'd deliver the services of high quality.

The platform offers a vast variety of professionals in different niches such as software development, design, content creating, customer support, etc. If you need to outsource particular technical tasks and reduce development costs, Truelancer is a great choice. 

On the other hand, it's hard to find consultants or business advisors here, who could take full ownership of the product development.

Pros of Truelancer

• Very low prices
• Great for outsourcing small technical tasks
• Quick service delivery time
• Different options on how to cooperate with freelancers

Cons of Truelancer

• Shortage of professionals with unique skills
• Lots of unqualified candidates
• Poor customer support

Ideamotive is a specialized platform for finding employees for IT projects: you can hire developers for numerous languages like Ruby, Java, Python, React, React Native, .NET, designers, project managers, business analysts, etc. Ideamotive also gives access to experienced eCommerce marketplace developers and Machine Learning consultants. The platform lists candidates from Eastern and Central Europe mostly, so the rates are very affordable. 

It does not work like the previous platforms – it is more personalized and easy to use. You just list your requirements and the platform finds you the most suitable candidates within 24 hours to choose from. The candidates are thoroughly tested before they can make it to the website listings. They are open to both short- and long-term projects and can easily help you scale as you grow. 

Ideamotive will work well for businesses of any size, so consider trying it if you are looking for the best Upwork alternatives. The company gathered its extensive experience in software outsourcing in the CEE IT Outsourcing and Offshoring 2021 Report. Feel free to review it to get valuable insights about outsourcing and its benefits.

Pros of Ideamotive

• Personalized approach
• Has only verified and tested professionals
• Easily scalable
• Has both small- and long-term projects
• Offers business advisory services

Cons of Ideamotive

• Smaller talent pool compared to Upwork

Comparison Table of Best Upwork Alternatives

Wrap Up

There are numerous freelance platforms tailored to specific kinds of users and now you know the best Upwork alternatives. There are websites for startups and small companies, there are ones that do all the work instead of the company, there are those with long- or short-term focus. Basically, you should choose the platform based on your needs rather than what is considered the best platform.

If you are not sure what your needs are, do not hesitate to reach out to Ideamotive. We work with companies of all sizes and can turn the most ambitious idea into a well-functioning product that has the potential to win over the market.