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As an entrepreneur, you have an incredibly heavy workload. You may consider hiring full-time or part-time employees to help ease your load. However, finding the right freelance job site is time-consuming.
More business owners opt to hire freelancers because of their flexibility, lower costs, and expertise. The only question is, where do you find reliable freelancers online?
FlexJobs is one of the more popular remote work websites. Nevertheless, you want to be sure to review other freelance websites before settling on one. You may also want to publish your telecommuting jobs on FlexJobs alternatives to reach more people who work at home.
For design, dev, and finance projects, we recommend Toptal. Toptal does a fantastic job of screening and vetting their developers. This means you get high-quality employees without the added time and stress.
Only 3% of developers who apply get accepted into their program. Further, their hourly rates are what you would expect for hiring a software developer.
To learn more, you can read how Toptal compares to FlexJobs, read our full Toptal review, or register with Toptal.
For outsourcing projects overseas at a lower price, we recommend hiring on OnlineJobs. OnlineJobs has thousands of hard-working Filipino workers, many whom you can hire for $10 to $25 USD per hour.
To learn more, you can read how OnlineJobs.ph compares to FlexJobs, read our full OnlineJobs.ph review, or register with OnlineJobs.
For all other projects, we recommend Fiverr Pro. Fiverr Pro has many freelancers who meet Fiverr’s standard of excellence.
To learn more, you can read how Fiverr compares to FlexJobs, read our full Fiverr review, or register with Fiverr Pro.
Even though FlexJobs is a favorite for many employers, there may be a better freelancer website for you and your business. A lot of the jobs posted on FlexJobs are only semi-remote or entirely on-site opportunities. As such, if you are looking for remote employees, you may have more success with another website.
Furthermore, if you are looking for someone to do a particular job, like graphic design, other pages may be more suited to your needs. FlexJobs also charges a monthly fee to use it, so you may want to find a cheaper freelancer site.
Where FlexJobs has numerous types of jobs and plenty of freelancers to choose from, Toptal boasts of only vetting 3% of applicants. Their name means “Top Talent” which is clear from the thorough hiring process. Each freelancer must pass a 4-step screening process, which includes a skills test. They then continue to produce excellent work for each client.
Even though FlexJobs focuses slightly more on technology jobs, their opportunities are incredibly diverse compared to the few fields that Toptal provides. They focus specifically on developers, designers, finance experts, project managers, and product managers.
Regarding payment, Toptal has a $500 downpayment fee. After that, you pay for your freelancer’s work on an hourly or weekly basis. You can expect to pay anywhere from $60 to $200 an hour, depending on the job.
Compared to FlexJob’s high monthly rate on top of hiring a freelancer, Toptal’s $500 is very affordable.
If you are looking for a freelancer in Toptal’s niche categories, this website can be an excellent way to find serious freelancers.
Comparing Glassdoor to FlexJobs may be necessary if you’re in the market for long-term help. Filling part or full-time roles in your organization requires more thorough vetting than hiring someone to create a logo or type up 200 words of advertising copy.
Glassdoor for Employers is also unique because it functions as both a hiring marketplace and a review site for employers. Therefore, each company has a dashboard to track worker feedback, see engagement stats, and answer reviews.
The company calls this “employer branding,” which centers around managing your brand’s reputation. Though there’s only so much you can do with bad reviews from workers, perhaps vetting your applicants on Glassdoor’s hiring platform can help avoid those issues in the first place.
A free basic account at Glassdoor allows you to answer reviews and take ownership of your brand. Paid accounts give access to hiring capabilities, but the only advertised perk is that “informed candidates apply for your jobs.”
Paying for FlexJobs access clearly gives you more opportunities to hand-pick candidates. Rather than waiting for them to find your job posting, you can actively recruit and track applicants.
When it comes to Fiverr versus FlexJobs, these two may not be a fair matchup. FlexJobs’ reputation for placing mostly tech-based workers in full-time roles is vastly different from Fiverr’s motivation.
Fiverr focuses on filling project-based roles quickly. While some companies wind up finding great freelancers that they work with long-term, most employers use Fiverr for one-off projects that are cheap to outsource.
Fiverr does offer another tier of freelance professionals, however. While they may not have as many full-time-ready workers as FlexJobs, Fiverr Pro does more thorough vetting of its applicants. Freelancers with a Pro certification cost more, but they also offer higher-level services and more peace of mind.
If you’re hoping to hire staff that will stick with your organization long-term, FlexJobs wins here. Paying for access to their candidates is worthwhile when you’re seeking a reliable team member you hope to retain for a few years.
But if you need to fill in the gaps when it comes to administrative tasks or even one-time projects for graphic design or coding, Fiverr can be a helpful hiring marketplace. Their per-job rates are doable for smaller projects, and the ability to read previous client feedback is a plus when searching for affordable help.
Both of these websites are incredibly popular with employers and freelancers alike. If you are looking for a cheaper option than FlexJobs, which charges $299 monthly minimum, Upwork is ideal.
Upwork isn’t free, but the $49.99 a month is much more affordable than thousands of dollars a year. However, they do include a 3% charge every time you pay your freelance. Make sure to calculate that into the total cost.
Despite Upwork’s lower cost, they fall short in some other crucial areas. For example, not all of the freelancers are skilled in the areas they claim to be. You may find a quality candidate, but their work could be subpar.
Another common complaint is that Upwork tends to eliminate profiles without warning. If that happens to your freelancer, you will be left hanging.
Nevertheless, Upwork doesn’t require a fee from freelancers like FlexJob. This way, you can access more potential workers. Upwork also has diverse job opportunities.
If you are looking for a freelancer outside of the technology field, Upwork could be viable. Just be prepared that you may need to train the person more than expected.
Indeed began three years before FlexJobs in 2004. Over the past sixteen years, they have grown to include numerous types of jobs. Whether you want to hire someone just for the summer or a long-term freelancer, Indeed can find you a suitable match.
While the types of jobs may be more diverse than FlexJobs, there have been many complaints over the years about customer service and the effectiveness of the site. Of course, posting a job listing never guarantees you a freelancer.
Also, the payment plan is unique. You can sign up and start posting for free. However, to make sure people see your listings, you will have to sponsor the post. With $5 per day, more people will see your post. If you want to reach even more applicants, you can design your own campaign for more money.
The issue with this payment style is that you aren’t guaranteed to find a freelancer.
Indeed has been around longer than FlexJobs, but their reputation has been diminishing. Nevertheless, they are still a popular place to post and find jobs.
The Virtual Vocations freelancer page is very similar to FlexJobs in both quality and quantity. Like FlexJobs, Virtual Vocations offers dozens of opportunities in different fields, from education to legal positions. You can also find job listings from large, reputable companies.
There is a one-time fee of $39.99 to sign up as an employer with Virtual Vocations. Afterward, you can post specific jobs for free.
This company offers quality opportunities mostly located in the United States, just like FlexJobs. They add thousands of listings each week, which speaks to the popularity and positive reputation of Virtual Vocations.
Overall, FlexJobs and Virtual Vocations are incredibly similar. The cost of posting jobs is lower with Virtual Vocations. Other than that, the style and type of employment are all very comparable to FlexJobs.
Hubstaff is a company that provides software with a freelance business on the side. Their program, called Hubstaff Talent, is free to both employers and freelancers.
Unfortunately, since it is free for everyone to join, some reviews have been quite negative. From unskilled workers to low-paying employees, many people have been unhappy with the work form Hubstaff.
However, If you are looking for more places to post your job listing, Hubstaff is still a legitimate choice. There are many remote jobs to reach job seekers from around the world.
If you are looking for a primary freelancer page to advertise your job listings, we would not recommend Hubstaff. FlexJobs, even at a higher price, offers many quality freelancers who do home jobs.
LinkedIn Recruiter is a hiring platform to help you find, connect with, and manage job candidates.
One advantage of LinkedIn Recruiter is that you can get really granular in your search results.
For example, let’s say you are a real estate firm in Chicago and you want to hire a customer support rep. LinkedIn Recruiting makes it easy to do a job search by job categories, skill, and experience. Since they work at home, the rep could live in Colorado or Kansas, be entry-level, or a professional.
The downside of LinkedIn Recruiter is it costs $8,999 per year. At that price, unless you are planning a hiring spree, using a service like FlexJobs will save you a lot of money.
Working Nomads is a relatively new freelancer site. It began in 2014. As such, there are limited reviews on the site. Still, there are well over a hundred thousand visitors each month.
You may not get to pick from as many freelancers as with FlexJobs. However, with the high monthly traffic and thousands of email subscribers, you could still find your ideal freelancer.
The payment options are cheaper than FlexJobs, but they don’t give you as much freedom for the price. Instead of paying monthly, you pay per job. To post one position, it costs $149. Three jobs cost $387. The highest option is $545 for five jobs.
If you are looking to post only one or two jobs, Working Nomads could be an excellent new option. However, for $729 every three months with FlexJobs, you have unlimited job postings.
While most of FlexJob’s jobs and freelancers are in the United States, OnlineJobs.ph offers workers exclusively from the Philippines.
The significant part about this is their significantly lower rates. However, if you are looking for an editor or freelance writing work, you may encounter slight language issues. For a virtual assistant, social media, or video editing job, you can find plenty of freelancers available on OnlineJobs.ph.
Like Toptal, OnlineJobs.ph requires a $500 payment upfront. From there, you can choose between the free plan, the $69 monthly option, or the premium $99 per month plan. Either way, the overall cost is much more affordable than FlexJobs.
The biggest downfall of this website is that they don’t have a vetting process. Even though the company pairs you with your freelancer, you could still end up with someone inexperienced.
If this is your first time hiring a freelancer, OnlineJobs.ph is an excellent, affordable starting place.
FlexJobs is one of the top freelancing sites available for good reason. They offer a variety of jobs and easy navigation. However, the fee is relatively high. If you want to avoid the high cost or find jobs more suited to your industry, one of the FlexJobs alternatives above may be the answer for you.
As you consider your freelancer site options, keep in mind your company’s priorities. Are you more concerned about staying on budget? Is it worth the extra money to find high-quality freelancers? How much time do you have to find someone?
All of these questions will play into your decision on which site to choose. Take some time and keep reading freelancer site reviews while you find the website that works best for you.
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