(Editors Note: We’re starting this post with an intro into outsourcing for context, if you want to get straight to the review of TopTal, scroll down to the bolded title, “Toptal Review – What’s this have to do with Toptal?“)

There are plenty of Toptal reviews online, but I feel a lot of them lack context on the outsourcing market, thus spurring the need for Toptal.

The truth is, outsourcing has come a long way. No longer do you have to move your company to a tech-savvy city like Silicon Valley for access to top talent. You can now go online and hire someone from anywhere in the world to write a PHP script or create a brand-new WordPress website, or write a fully blown software application for any purpose imaginable.

The concept isn’t new, it’s evolved from oDesk and Elance (founded in 1998 and 2003, respectively), they’ve since merged to create the mega-company – Upwork. Now we’ve seen many improvements, but a few decades later, the marketplace is still riddled with problems.

I’ve posted many web development jobs over the years, here’s a common scenario I’ve seen with myself and other colleagues (and echo’d by many other reviews of Upwork et. al).

You signup for Upwork, post a job – oh and how convenient, they have a template for web development that you modify a bit before you send it off.

Fast-forward three days.

You’ve got about 80 applicants per platform, and half of these people haven’t even read the document you put together to explain your project. Well, because it’s a generic job description, and a generic job description gets you generic responses.

You create a system for capturing all the different estimates that they’re giving you in Microsoft Excel, (sort by, filter, etc. etc. etc.)… And you finally come down to a couple of reasonable looking estimates that were sent by people who don’t look completely incompetent. As a non-technical business person, you do a little research on how to hire a web developer and decide what the heck, let’s just give it a try… see what happens. Down payment of 20%? No big deal.

Fast forward three weeks.

The contractor you hired has been driving you nuts. When you first hired him, you asked if he had any experience in using php and mySQL databases. He said “Of course of course yes so much experience – many many times”. Now he’s apparently not able to perform an inner join on a couple of tables to retrieve even the most simplistic of data out of this database. And his PHP code is horrendous. Deep breath, focus. It’s game time. You wiggle your shoulders, crack your knuckles, and hunker down to type up a very detailed and specific set of instructions (with a sharper tone) for this “developer.”

2 days later.

Now you’re just pissed off. He hasn’t responded to any of your emails, calls, or Skype chats. This is not going well. You start thinking about your options. You could cancel the project and deny further payment, or you could extend the proverbial “one last chance.”

Either way you’re screwed.

Because the reality is, you’ve already lost a month. And time is precious.  You could’ve gotten it done in a week if were outsourcing it someone competent. The whole purpose was to save you the time and money, and find someone somewhere who magically good get this thing done for pennies on the dollar.

But that’s not reality is it? The truth is, outsourcing is not that simple. We lie to ourselves every time we try to use Upwork, Fiverr or the like, with the expectation that somehow, somewhere in the world, there are programmers with incredible talent that work for under $20/hr.

Therein lies the #1 problem – if you pay peanuts – you get monkeys. 

So this is the part where I’m supposed to come up with some great wonderful solution. I’m supposed to tell you that there’s this magic pill, or new startup somewhere that has told all these problems. Not quite.

Despite what people might say about UpWork, 99designs, Fiverr or any other freelance marketplace… the current outsourcing model isn’t broken.

Each platform certainly has their flaws, but both businesses and freelancers can certainly navigate around them. I’ve talked about this many times before on this blog.

Price vs Value when Hiring Freelancers

Let’s go through a scenario I’ve seen time and time again, a business needs to hire a SEO consultant, which is a popular thing for businesses to outsource.

It doesn’t matter if they’re local, or if they’re overseas. It doesn’t matter if they’re $10, or $100 an hour. You don’t want to pay someone to twiddle their thumbs, if you’re looking for SEO, you want results.

Unfortunately most businesses haven’t been able to separate talent from snake oil, falling for the promise of a first page result for pennies on the dollar. This is such a common scenario that Google has had to warn businesses of their tactics.

Even sadder, I’ve seen some businesses just continue to make the same mistake over and over again.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. – Albert Einstein

Now some businesses eventually understand the value of good talent, but I’ve seen first hand that it’s a lesson that they’ve had to learn… the hard way.

Toptal Review – What’s this have to do with Toptal?

Context. 

Toptal is a value-added marketplace that focuses on the top 3% of talent, featuring the best designers, developers and now they’ve recently added finance experts.

But UpWork isn’t broken. The same freelancers that are on Toptal might be on UpWork as well.

That might seem counterintuitive when you’re reading a post about Toptal, as review posts for premium things tend to be positive in nature. And really, this is no different. My point is that the OG’s, Elance and oDesk (now UpWork) didn’t start with the intention of connecting unskilled labor with clueless businesses… but that’s what happens when a marketplace is driven by price, instead of value.

This is the evolution of Craigslist. A few years old and could use an update with even more companies that are disrupting this area, but nonetheless this graphic is still very relevant.

You see, Craigslist, like UpWork, is a two-sided marketplace. Buyers and sellers. Like the chicken and the egg, you can’t have one without the other.

Like UpWork, Craigslist isn’t broken either. It’s still pretty much the go-to classifieds for buying and selling here in the USA, though apps like OfferUp and and the Facebook Marketplace are taking their share away.

But we’ve seen a lot of companies evolve out of specific verticals from Craigslist.

Let’s take AirBnB as an example. Now valuated at $31 Billion. It grew from a single category on Craigslist. Heck, they even used Craigslist to grow. They did it in a somewhat sketchy way, but hey, you can’t knock the hustle of fledging startup.

About Toptal and How Does Toptal Work?

Taso Du Val (selected by Forbes as one of its 30 under 30 in Enterprise Technology) co-founded the freelance marketplace Toptal in 2010. The company’s investors include Quora’s CEO Adam D’Angelo and the renowned investor, Andreessen Horowitz. They have grown exponentially since 2010 and their wide growing variety of clients includes JPMorgan Chase, Airbnb, Rand McNally, IDEO, HP, Thumbtack, Bridgestone, Pfizer and even a sports team, the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The aforementioned Fortune 500 companies tend to use Toptal Projects, where they essentially take on the entire project. As Du Val would describe:

(Source: Forbes – Toptal Offers a New Arsenal for the War on Talent)

Another interesting tidbit from that Forbes interview was Du Val’s case studies:

I find this interesting because the best engineers (ie. back-end development) aren’t the best designers (ie. front-end development), so Toptal having the ability to pair the best engineers and designers is amazing for executing a web/app development project.

Pros and Cons from Both Businesses and Freelancers Who Have Used Toptal

A majority of the “bad” Toptal reviews are from a lot of developers who don’t like the screening process, and for a lot of different reasons. And perhaps it should be expected for a platform that only accepts the top 3% of talent, that means 97 out of 100 people might be left wondering why. Some didn’t like the process, some didn’t like the coding tests, and perhaps some felt that they were well qualified, but just didn’t make the cut with Toptal, etc. etc. And I found a review from a user on HackerNews (one of the biggest forums for tech startups, software developers, etc.) that seemed very relevant.

Another interesting perspective is from freelance developer Carlos Roso, on How He Got Accepted into Toptal (and other platforms):

Basically, Carlos says that you shouldn’t rely on one platform, he signed up for all the freelance marketplaces and he able to divvy his time up between platforms working full-time (40 hours) making 4 times what he would make as a senior engineer with a local company… and he has much more work-life balance.

The Toptal interview process isn’t easy, but for those who can pass it, it’s certainly worth it.

Finding a Developer (and Toptal Alternatives)

Whenever someone asks me where they can find a developer the answer is always it depends. Every situation is unique, but there are a lot of common scenarios:

• Non-tech business: A lot of people that think they need an expensive developer, actually don’t. It really depends what you need the website to do, if you’re just displaying information, you just need a simple website template. Our guide on How to Launch and Create a Website under $100 goes into a bit more detail on that. Examples of this are most local businesses; restaurants, services, etc. At scale, it might be a little different but for the most part I’d start with a simple website because it’s cheap and if the framework becomes too limiting, then that’s the time to reassess. People who know they need a web/mobile application of some sort, or a tech startup… you’re going to want to start looking at building from scratch.
• Scaling, or Outsourcing Your Web Development Team – You already have a web developer, but you need to scale. Toptal could be a great option for you. If you’re on more of a budget, you can utilize your web developer in more of a project manager role and find additional developers on Upwork.        
• A business looking for local talent: Clearly Toptal, or any other online freelance marketplace isn’t for you. Try local job boards for regular work, or for contract positions try Meetup.com or find Facebook tech groups in your area to connect with local developers. Obviously, you’ll pay a premium, especially if you’re in one of many tech hotspots in the United States.
• The Solo-Founder: This is the boat most will find themselves in. Unless you have a lot of personal or venture funding, I don’t think Toptal is the best option for you. Hypothetically speaking, if you have $10,000 for a business, there are better returns than an app. A lot of people think, “If you build it, they will come” and that simply doesn’t work in business. Even marketplaces that were viral in nature, such as Fiverr, still scaled with marketing. If you’re a solo-founder, you’re going to have to find a way to make it work. If you’re hiring, you’ll have to cut down on billable hours, become familiar with communicating with developer, create a mockup in Photoshop or Balsamiq, etc. If you’re dead set on hiring a developer, I’d look at the $20-50/hr range on UpWork and start with milestones as detailed in this guide on How to Hire a Freelancer. Realistically though, if you’re going down the high-risk, high-reward tech startup route, I’d recommend finding a developer you can partner with. Paul Graham, Founder of the most well known startup incubator in Y Combinator, he listed Single Founder as the #1 mistake that kills a startup, “What’s wrong with having one founder? To start with, it’s a vote of no confidence. It probably means the founder couldn’t talk any of his friends into starting the company with him. That’s pretty alarming, because his friends are the ones who know him best.”
• Tech companies, or companies that are scaling: Web or app development is one of those things that pays to get done right the first time. Toptal comes at a premium at $60-95/hr, but they’ve done the vetting for you. And best of all, it comes with a no risk trial. I’ve seen first hand from working with them that they really do only retain the top 3% of talent. For best results, you should be experienced with project management, or have someone within the company who is. Or better yet, you already have a lead developer that can manage the project. They’re trusted by some of the biggest companies in the world; Google, HP, the aforementioned AirBnB, and the list goes on. Toptal is clearly a really good option, it really just depends on if your company can afford it. And often times, you’ll save a lot of time and money by getting the project done right the first time.

Like AirBnB evolved from the temporary housing category on Craigslist, Toptal was built based on the frustration that businesses were having with finding developers on UpWork or similar platforms. And the no risk trial really means that they stand behind their vetting process for developers. To me, it’s a no-brainer if you have the budget.

It’s like how I felt about 99designs, you either get a logo that you like or your money back. It’s simple. You might pay a little more in price (compared to something like Fiverr anyway) , but the value is that you’re guaranteed to get something you like… and some would call that priceless.

Like that old adage goes, “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.”

There are things you can outsource for dirt cheap, I talked about them in our post on the most popular things to outsource. You need an audio transcription? Fiverr can take care of you for $5. Voiceover? Same thing. You have recurring simple tasks? A virtual assistant can help you out. But when it comes to things that require even rudimentary cognitive skill, like marketing, or software development, etc… It pays to hire good talent.

Upwork and TopTal. Two of the biggest freelance marketplaces, yet each unique in their own way.

I’ve experimented with outsourcing on many other freelance platforms, including 99designs, DesignCrowd, CrowdSpring, et. al., but it seems like I’ll always default back to either UpWork and TopTal. I’ve covered them before, but in this post I’ll dive into a little more details on how and when to use each. First, checkout my previous reviews for a bit of background on this post:

• UpWork Review – Why It’s a Battle Most Won’t Win
• TopTal Review – The Best Way to Freelance or Hire Freelancers?

*Quick note, now if you’re on the talent side, you should be using both platforms and the aforementioned reviews will illuminate why.

Toptal vs Upwork – Which one is best for the budget?

As I detailed in my Upwork review, a lot of the complaints are from businesses who try to hire for pennies on the dollar. As the old adage goes, “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.” If you’re hiring for general admin tasks, yes, you can hire a virtual assistant for under $10/hr. Not a good designer or developer though as your average software engineer makes about $100k+/year, senior positions can be well into the $200k+.

Upwork is the most challenging to find the good talent if you don’t know what you’re doing. I won’t go in-depth because I’ve talked about this many times before. The simple “Brown M&M Tactic” I laid out in my guide on How to Hire Freelancers, is good enough to weed out at least 80% of proposals. Don’t even think about hiring freelancers under $10/hr (try Fiverr for that) and you’ll weed out another host of potential problems. I’d at a minimum start your search in the $20-30/hr range. In my experience, I think that’s good enough if you want to deliver a MVP (Minimum Viable Product), but the best developer I’ve found on Upwork was at $55/hr for a Ruby on Rails developer. They were relatively new at the time (less than 20 reviews), thus they were likely building a portfolio at that price.

We’ve covered how much Toptal costs in our post on How Much Does Toptal pay Developers? Freelancers can essentially set their own rate or participate in one of the engagement models:

• Hourly: $60-$95+/hour
• Part-time: $1,000-$1,600+/week
• Full-time: $2,000-$3,200+/week

Toptal comes at the largest premium, but they’ve already done the vetting for you. And I’ve seen first hand from working with them that they really do only retain the top 3% of talent. And unlike Upwork, it does come with a no risk trial. It’s a win/win situation.

Can’t Afford Upwork or Toptal? Try Fiverr

Fiverr can be quite polarizing with many complaining of lackluster work, plagiarism and straight-up scams. And then there’s the other camp who can find good freelancers, and when they don’t… “Eh, it’s only $5.” In my opinion, Fiverr is best used for quick and short projects, like the ones I mentioned in our guide on The Best Business Gigs on Fiverr. Voiceovers are a great example, because you know exactly what you’re going to get. Simple carrots and sticks, it doesn’t require much creativity. Creative endeavors like graphic design on the other hand, can be a bit more of a challenge. But what do you expect? Freelancers to spend hours on something for $5? But what you can do is take $25, and hire 5 people… and continue working with people you like. Think of it as a mini crowdsourced campaign. Because of my experimentation, I’ve found freelancers that I can routinely come back to for various work, the only problem I’ve run into is that good freelancers can quickly outgrow the platform. Fiverr has a lot of pros and cons, but it can be used effectively, see our Fiverr review for our in-depth guide.

Final Thoughts on Upwork

It’s different for everyone, but in my business I find Upwork really helpful for hiring long-term writers.

Upwork can work for design and development, provided you’re looking to hire in that $20-50/hr range. The hiring process (especially for freelance developers) can be difficult, but follow my guide and implement coding tests and that can weed out a lot of poor talent. I’d also stick to it for shorter projects, for big projects or full-time developers I’d point most people to TopTal…

Final Thoughts on Toptal

Most non-technical people underestimate just how difficult it is to hire a developer, even Google has to get creative when hiring:

Perhaps the easiest of the bunch to use correctly, because they do much of the work for you. They’ve already filtered the talent to the top 3% in the world, for you it’s just about getting started. Toptal has a money back guarantee, so it’s a win/win situation… provided you need to get things done right and you aren’t on the typical “outsourcing budget.” Projects will typically lie in the $60-95/hr range, but remember this is the top 3% of talent in the world.

In my opinion, TopTal is the best option for big projects (100+ hours) that need to be completed efficiently and effectively. With software development, doing it right the first time can often save you a lot of money in the long run.

What are your thoughts on Toptal vs Upwork? How do you use each platform? Let us know in the comments below!

I received an email that asked, “What about Upstack, Arc, Lemon and Hiremotely? They seem to be doing what Toptal is doing for a little cheaper…” 

Honestly, I haven’t used them so I’ll reserve judgement. From a quick look, it looks like both Arc and Upstack offer a risk free trial, and are priced similarly ($60-100/hr). They’re all pretty early and small in comparison to Toptal.

The most compelling for me would be Lemon.io offering pricing from $40-60/hr for freelance developers and they have at least raised a seed round of funding (I couldn’t find funding for the other companies). They also have the most positive news/remarks about them compared to Arc, Upstack and Hiremotely. I’d personally stick with Upwork or Toptal, but if anyone has any experience with Lemon I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Toptal Alternatives: Upstack vs Coding Ninjas vs TopTal

It started with Elance and oDesk, the biggest freelance marketplaces and the pioneers for outsourcing work online. In 2014, they merged and rebranded to Upwork.

Elance and oDesk, much like Craigslist (in the USA) has been the launching pad for numerous other businesses:

The above graphic is the evolution of Craigslist, and the number of businesses that launched from single categories (including Elance/oDesk (now Upwork)).

Upwork has since spawned a number of different freelance marketplaces including Fiverr, DesignCrowd and last but not least, Toptal.

Fiverr was successful because it’s unique differentiator was that it offered sellers a chance to offer inexpensive, short “gigs” to businesses. And because of that, we saw a dozen copycat businesses.

99designs was successful with crowdsourcing, thus we saw the emergence of their competitors including DesignCrowd and CrowdSpring.

Chances are if you’re searching for this post (Toptal Alternative), then you’ve heard of Toptal, the company that hires the top 3% of talent. The model was successful because businesses figured out that for web/software development, it pays to get it done right the first time. No, it’s not the $10/hr developer from India you frequent on Upwork. It’s the filtered and vetted top 3% of talent, and their rates are still relatively inexpensive at $60-95/hr.

With their success, we’re seeing a number of Toptal alternatives pop-up, and this post will dive into which ones are worth trying (for freelancers or developers). Either way, historically we’ve seen that competition is good for the market. And if you’re a developer, provided you can pass the tests for these platforms requesting elite talent, there isn’t any reason to try them all out if you’re looking for freelance jobs.

Upstack – They publicly landed $1.8M in funding in 2017 (likely much more since then), and much like Toptal they do offer a 2-week trial to make sure the developer is the right fit for your team. Their differentiator is that they’ve taken it another step further, promising the top 1% of talent.

For pricing, they simply require a $399 deposit and this is their statement on pricing:

On average, an engineer with Upstack costs about 50% of hiring an in-house engineer. Due to the wide range of engineers we have around the world there is some flexibility, but our pricing is always flat rate and incredibly competitive. Speak with an Account Executive today to discuss in more detail.

Coding Ninjas – A new seed funded startup with offers vetted developers, at lower rates than Toptal:

See their popular post on ProductHunt, and scroll to comments for insights from the CEO.

Though I’d point you to the most popular and reputable platforms first, be on the lookout for these companies as well:

X-Team – Another company promising top talent, though I haven’t found many positive reviews about them. Mostly negative reviews from developers complaining about X-Team’s hiring process, and consequently, pointing you in Toptal’s direction.

BairesDev – Not much info about them, Carlos from CodeBurst reported, “Won’t go through all the details of the interview process because it’s pretty similar to the ones above. I’m honestly not sure whether I’m in or not, but I get several emails a month with job offers from them to do remote work for clients in the US or asking me to move to Argentina.” And mentioned he currently works with Crossover and TopTal.

Crossover – Promising the top 1% of talent, see above for Carlos’ report.

The beauty of freelancing is that you don’t have to put in 40 hours with a single company (assuming that’s how much you want to work). Whether scouring for companies to work with locally or online, the end goal is maximizing happiness and your hourly rate. The beauty of companies like Toptal, Upstack and Coding Ninjas, is that the work comes to you.

Is Toptal worth it in 2023? [My Experience]

Toptal has carved quite the niche is freelance sector – but is it worth it for businesses and freelancers? 

Business are promised top 3% of talent in software developers and designers. Toptal has also recently added talent in a few other niches; finance experts, product managers, and project managers.

For freelance talent, you’ll have to pass a thorough screening/interview process, and as far as pay, we’ve covered the Toptal hourly rate in-depth, essentially you can set your own rate, but the average developer on their platform will make about $50-85/hr. Please read that post for the factors that play into the rates.

Is Toptal worth it for freelancers?

Ask the early adopters of popular social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, etc. Or even freelance platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, etc. There is an early adopter advantage.

If you’re already busy working 40/hrs a week – it probably doesn’t make sense to get started on Toptal.

But if you’re looking for work, and you’re new to online freelancing, I would advise getting started on all the popular freelance marketplaces in your niche. In other words, if you’re a developer, you should be on Upwork, Toptal and other alternatives.

As a freelancer myself, I started (and I’m still on) many platforms… here’s the thing – you’re still a freelancer. You don’t have a boss, you don’t have to take their work. At Toptal, you can set your rate, but businesses hiring on there have an expected rate based on their pricing model. Businesses approaching you directly have no such price ceiling.

On Toptal, the works comes to you. That means you don’t have to frequent every job board, or constantly pitch on other freelance sites. Just something to keep in mind… the non-billable hours that go into that can add up.

Is Toptal worth it for businesses?

Again, it depends – and I have a full breakdown on different scenarios on when to use Toptal, and when to evaluate a less expensive route.

In short, for most businesses, I do recommend Toptal. The “free trial”, the price/value, for most (especially if you’re non-technical), it’s the best route.

My opinion for the best alternative would be hire a freelance developer directly and craft an interview/screening process yourself. That’s essentially the primary value add for Toptal. But this certainly isn’t easy for non-technical business interviewers. It is possible though, I’ve done it. This route you should expect to pay around $40-60/hr, versus Toptal’s advertised rates of about $60-95/hr.

You could also bring in a technical project manager yourself, but then you’d be right around Toptal’s rates.

A Toptal freelancer is pre-vetted, pre-screened and should be more reliable than your average developer on Upwork, Freelancer.com et. al. On the client side of things – Toptal is less of a headache then other freelance platforms.

Another thing to consider is the customer support, of which there are many horror stories on Upwork. Toptal, a smaller, more focused company can provide a higher level of support. My experience with Toptal customer service has been positive – and I’ve even chatted with them over the phone and you get the feeling like they actually care – vs other companies who stick to a script.

Is Toptal worth it?

Overall, whether not Toptal is right for you depends on many factors.

I do recommend it for hiring freelance talent, whether it’s a freelance developer, software engineer, product manager, etc.

For freelancers, it’s a great platform for finding more remote work at an hourly rate of about $50-85/hr. The hiring process can be difficult, but a few hours of your time now can make you a lot of money in the future.

Related: Careers at Toptal

If you’re not a freelancer and actually want to work at Toptal, they’re actually the largest fully remote company in the world. So if you’re interested in remote jobs, more information about careers, and their current openings can be found here.