7 Websites to Find a Programmer for Your Startup
Hard to find local startup programmers? It’s not just you. The majority of startups that are looking for developers turn to remote hiring through online job boards, matching services, and tech vendors. We analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of Daxx, Upwork, Remote.io, Toptal, LinkedIn, AngelList, and Stack Overflow — the most effective resources for you to find a programmer for your startup who would match your skill set requirements, budget, corporate values, and be fully dedicated to your product.
1. Daxx
Daxx is a tech company that helps startups find experienced programmers for long-term cooperation by recruiting each candidate for a specific position, providing retention services, and locating them in modern remote offices.
While on the local tech market Daxx is known as one of the top employers for its approach to talent retention, on the global market it’s famous for the high quality of development, acknowledged by the Microsoft Gold Certification as well as the ISO 27001:2013 and ISO 9001:2015 Certifications.
Vetting process: Daxx’s recruiters do pre-screening and, if requested, exercise due diligence on each candidate. Then, they share matching CVs with clients. After the clients have picked suitable CVs, they interview the candidates and hire those who match the required hard and soft skills sets and team dynamics.
Dedication: The startup programmers you hire through Daxx work for you just like your in-house team and are 100% dedicated to the development of your product.
Salaries: Working with Daxx, you’ll pay a vendor fee and the developer’s monthly salary, which is $1,300–$1,900 for a junior startup programmer and around $1,900–$3,600 for a middle developer. Meanwhile, in the US and Switzerland, a developer will cost you around $9,000 and $8,000 respectively.
Recruitment and Retention: Daxx is a good match for tech startups that haven’t got recruitment and HR managers onboard. From the very first day, startup programmers you hire with Daxx work from our offices in Ukraine’s largest tech hubs in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Lviv.
Services: With Daxx, you can build a dedicated team of startup programmers and other tech specialists, and make use of additional services, such as security testing, DevOps, quality control, and process consulting.
Pros and cons of working with Daxx
Pros of Daxx
You can find middle and senior startup programmers with rare skills for a reasonable remuneration
All the developers in your team work from the same location
Daxx sets up workstations and all the necessary software required by the client
You manage the developers as your in-house team, they share your values and foster corporate culture
A tech startup can work with Daxx’s recruiters and HR managers to hire top tech talents
You can grow your dedicated team from 1 to 100+ people
Transparent fees — you know exactly what you pay for
21 years of experience on the market and hundreds of satisfied clients
Cons of Daxx
You need to have tech expertise to manage your remote developers on a daily basis
2. Upwork
Upwork is a freelance marketplace known for its robust search filters, candidates’ work history, and a large database of candidates.
Vetting process: Upwork has no pre-vetting process. Candidates fill in their profiles by themselves. Clients can read reviews about their previous projects on the candidates’ profile pages. After they find a suitable candidate, they schedule an interview.
Dedication: Upwork lists candidates who offer both full-time and part-time engagement. One of the drawbacks of the platform is that clients have no guarantee that developers they hire through Upwork are fully dedicated to the project, which raises security concerns. Productivity tracking is only available for programmers who work through the hourly payment method.
Salaries: Upwork has candidates from different parts of the world, which means salary ranges differ a great deal. An hourly rate can be as low as 3$ or as high as $170 depending on the candidate’s seniority level, the rarity of skill set, and location.
Recruitment and retention: The platform doesn’t offer assistance in the selection, recruitment, and retention of startup developers. All these functions are to be performed on the client’s side. On the bright side, clients get a two-week trial period.
Pros and cons of working with Upwork
Pros of Upwork
You can post your positions fast
Advanced filters (experience, feedback, location)
Suitable for short-term collaboration
You can see freelancers’ experience and read feedback
The platform covers the billing process
Best for hiring middle or junior individual developers
Cons of Upwork
The client has to take care of all the security measures and other administrative hustles
High failure rate and a time-consuming vetting process
Lack of engagement, dedication, and low productivity
Requires deep tech expertise and a clear vision of the product
Hiring a whole team and scaling it is highly problematic
You have to work within the Upwork environment, any cooperation outside the system is prohibited
3. Remote.io
Remote.io is a job board for remote job seekers from all around the world.
Job posts that you publish on Remote.io also get reshared on Nomadic and Google for Jobs, which increases the number of viewers.
Remote.io provides great convenience to remote programmers by offering integrated tools such as Top Resume, Resume Atelier, edX, Canva, OneSimCard, Airbnb, Crypto.com, G Suite, and Trip.com — each of them covering a part of a digital nomad’s routine like booking dwelling and purchasing currency.
Vetting process: Remote.io doesn’t officiate that they provide any pre-screening or vetting of the candidates. On the surface level, it seems that the job board only provides a large database of job opportunities but doesn’t go any further from there.
Dedication: The platform lists jobs with full-time and part-time engagement but doesn’t offer any integrations of productivity tracking tools, which means that clients are responsible for managing the productivity of their freelancers.
Salaries: Salaries depend on the job seeker’s preferences and are not balanced by any local market.
Recruitment and retention: The platform works as a job board where clients post their job descriptions and developers apply for them. Since Remote.io only lists job posts, the recruitment process is managed on the client’s side.
Pros and cons of working with Remote.io
Pros of Remote.io
Large database of resumes and job postings for full-time and part-time jobs
Free employer dashboard to track job listing
You can look through job posts free of charge
Cons of Remote.io
The client has to take care of all the security measures and other administrative hustles
The job board doesn’t refund costs for published online job listings and pre-purchased job listing credits
Hiring a whole team and scaling it is highly problematic
Asynchronous working hours
Inconvenient search filters
How Outstaffing Helps Businesses Grow During Challenging Times
What businesses think about working with remote teams and how outstaffing helps companies stay competitive during the lockdown.
4.Toptal
Toptal is a matching service that operates with a community of vetted freelancers. Toptal, on the one hand, offers a database of vetted tech specialists. But on the other hand, it limits the choice so that clients can only choose from the candidates in the database.
Vetting process: Toptal takes pride in vetting and pre-screening each programmer who applies for membership in the community. The vetting process includes analysis of soft skills including ethical values, attitude, education, and English proficiency.
Dedication: Toptal offers collaboration on an hourly, weekly, part-time, and full-time basis and sends bills twice a month.
Salaries: Since Toptal works exclusively with middle and senior programmers, you can expect quite high rates and monthly salaries, all of which will be followed by vendor fees. The service invoices clients twice a month and allows them to review invoices before paying them.
Recruitment and retention: Toptal doesn’t charge either recruitment or termination fees. Clients are offered a probation period to decide whether a candidate matches their needs.
Services: Besides recruitment, Toptal offers additional services such as taking care of paperwork, managing weekends, vacations, and terminations.
Pros and cons of working with Toptal
Pros of Toptal
As a customer, you can use support and relocation services
You work with applicants who went through a vetting process
Toptal mitigates risks by covering expenses connected with failed collaboration
Initial deposit of $500
Cons of Toptal
Building a cross-functional team takes a long time
Developer rates start from $60/hour
The client has to take care of all the security and administrative hustles
5. Linkedin
LinkedIn is a social network for professionals. Each profile is structured like a resume, so employers can see an up-to-date work history of potential candidates.
LinkedIn offers the LinkedIn Recruiter tool for improved search of candidates. However, even the free version has enough filters to find a programmer.
Vetting process: LinkedIn has no vetting process.
Dedication: The level of dedication of programmers you hire through LinkedIn depends on your negotiations since the platform doesn’t regulate it.
Salaries: The salaries of freelance programmers you hire via LinkedIn are negotiable. Most likely, the salary of a programmer will be similar to the average salaries common to the specific area the programmer comes from.
Pros and cons of working with LinkedIn
Pros of LinkedIn
Large database of programmers and informative profiles
Employers need to be aware of the peculiarities of local talent markets to successfully hire developers
You can use LinkedIn Recruiter for advanced search
Cons of LinkedIn
You need to have a tech specialist, a recruiter, and an HR to search for, reach out to, and interview startup programmers
You have to manage all the primary and support processes by yourself
Much easier to find a full scale provider than a small team
6. AngelList
AngelList, also known as Angel.co, is a remote jobs marketplace that matches tech companies with startup programmers and marketers.
Vetting process: The platform doesn’t moderate the vetting process. Instead, developers create profiles and apply for jobs via the platform. Startups look through applications and answer suitable candidates.
Dedication: Startup programmers who use AngelList can be engaged in product development on a full-time and part-time basis.
Salaries: The salaries of startup programmers vary depending on the extent to which they’re engaged on the project, years of experience, location, and personal preferences. So they can be as low as $45,000 or as high as $200,000 per year.
Services: Besides listing job positions for startup programmers, the platform also offers venture investment opportunities. Recruitment and retention, however, aren’t among AngelList’s services.
Pros and cons of working with AngelList
Pros of AngelList
Large database of registered startup programmers
You can schedule interviews through the platform
Recruiters have a dashboard that gathers data about candidates and creates a funnel
Recurring $250 fee for each hired programmer
Cons of AngelList
Dedicated account manager is only available if you’re using the paid plan
All the admin work is managed by the client
Finding a team is hard, but possible
7. Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is a digital platform for finding a programmer for a startup using an AI-based matching algorithm.
Vetting process: Startups receive a list of the best-fitting startup programmers. After that, the vetting process and all the stages of recruitment are conducted by the startup. Stack Overflow, however, helps recruiters build pipelines and track candidates in a convenient tool.
Dedication: Dedication of startup programmers depends on the needs of a startup. You can hire programmers for full-time and part-time collaboration.
Salaries: Stack Overflow has a database of programmers who command a wide range of salaries. One more thing you want to consider is the initial fee Stack Overflow charges. Though the exact price isn’t mentioned on their official website, some users inform that it can reach up to $5,000, which equals a monthly salary of a top startup programmer in Ukraine.
Services: Besides a convenient talent management tool, Stack Overflow allows employers to advertise their job posts and build employer brands.