Where to Hire Remote Developers in 2026: Platforms Compared
Published 28 April 2026. Updated 22 October 2026
If your company needs to hire a remote software engineer, there is no single best platform: the right one depends on the engagement you want (hourly work, a full-time engineer billed monthly, or a permanent employee on your payroll) and on how much of the screening you want to do yourself. Job boards and open marketplaces cost the least to start and leave the screening to you. Vetted networks such as Arc, Gun.io, Lemon.io and Toptal, AI hiring platforms such as Wild.Codes and employer of record services such as Revelo screen engineers before you meet them and charge for that work.
By the Wild.Codes editorial team. Wild.Codes wrote this page and is one of the services in it. We group services by type and list them alphabetically inside each type, without ranking them. Every fact about another service comes from that service's own website, linked where it first appears. We read those pages on 15 October 2026 and re-checked the Andela, Arc, Landing.jobs, Revelo and Toptal pages and five redirects on 22 October 2026. If you are a developer looking for remote work, this page is written for the hiring side.
A remote developer hiring platform is a service that finds, screens or employs software engineers for companies that hire outside their own city. It differs from a job board, where you only get applicants, and from an open marketplace, where you pick freelancers yourself. Our guide to what a remote developer hiring platform is and how it works covers the category in detail.
Key takeaways
- Pick the type of channel first. The type decides who screens, who employs the engineer and when you pay.
- Arc, Gun.io, Lemon.io and Toptal all interview engineers before you meet them. None of the pages we read says you can watch that interview.
- Arc and Gun.io both charge 20% of salary for a full-time hire. Toptal publishes no engineer rate on the four pages we read.
- Speed figures measure different things. Arc and Toptal name only where their clock stops, not where it starts.
- Some hiring addresses now lead somewhere else. Turing's developer hiring page leads with AI lab work, and youteam.io redirects to Toptal.
On this page:
- Where can you hire?
- What can you see first?
- What does it cost?
- What do speed claims measure?
- The services
- Which names moved?
- Which type fits?
- What should you ask?
- FAQ
- How we put this together
- Sources
Where can you hire?
We sorted the services we read into five types. The table shows what you do yourself in each one and what the service does for you.
| Type | Who finds and screens | What you see before your own interview | Who employs the engineer | When money moves | Services we read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Job boards | Applicants come to your post. You screen them. | Whatever applicants send. You run every interview. | You, or an employer of record you choose | Per post, per monthly plan, or when candidates view the post | Landing.jobs, LinkedIn, We Work Remotely, Wellfound |
| Open marketplaces | You pick freelancers. You screen them. | Profiles and proposals. You run every interview. | A freelance contract through the marketplace | Per contract and on each payment | Freelancer.com, Upwork |
| Vetted networks | The network screens its own pool, then you interview. | The network's verdict. Its interviewer saw the engineer; the pages do not say you can watch it. | A contract through the network, or your payroll on a full-time hire | Hourly, weekly or prepaid hours, or a percentage of salary on a full-time hire | Arc, Gun.io, Lemon.io, Toptal |
| AI hiring platform | An AI hiring engine, checked by a talent manager, then you interview. | In the full search, a timed video interview for your role that you watch first. | The service on the subscription, or your payroll on a permanent hire | No cost until you hire | Wild.Codes |
| Employer of record and nearshore | The service, then you interview. | The service's screening. Buyer access is not stated. | The service employs and pays the engineer | Revelo: month to month, with a 2-week trial. Landing.jobs EOR: not stated. | Revelo, Landing.jobs EOR |
Sources: each service's own website, read 15 October 2026; Andela, Arc, Landing.jobs and Revelo re-read 22 October 2026. Terms change, so check them before you sign.
The first two types are the cheapest place to start if your team already has someone who can screen engineers well. The other three cost more because the service does work your team would otherwise do. The difference between them is mostly about who employs the engineer and how much of the vetting you can see.
What can you see first?
How do you judge a senior remote developer before a full-time contract? Most services interview engineers before you meet them, so the useful question is what you get to see of that interview.
Lemon.io's homepage says, "Every candidate is personally interviewed by a senior engineer before you meet them." It adds that you "just show up to interview 2-3 engineers who made it." Arc's how-it-works page describes "a one-hour expert interview or pair programming session" and says 2% of applicants pass. Toptal's remote developers page says its screeners "interview each remote developer" and set live exercises, followed by a test project that takes 1-3 weeks. The Gun.io FAQ says all developers on the platform must pass "a live technical interview with a senior engineer."
None of those pages says the client can watch the interview or read what was said in it. You get the network's verdict, and then you run your own interview, so your engineers still spend their time on first rounds that can end in a no.
On job boards and open marketplaces nobody interviews the candidate before you do.
Wild.Codes, which publishes this page, works differently in its full search. Engineers take a timed video interview for your role, with AI + human review, and you watch it before your own interview. Each shortlisted engineer also gets a scored written assessment. The limit is that this belongs to the full search, which starts when you confirm the role. The pre-selected engineers you see right after describing a role are a preview of who is free today, each with a monthly rate.
What does it cost?
These are the fee models each service publishes on its own pages. They are not a cost estimate for your role. Where a page gives no figure, we say so.
| Service | Fee model on its own pages |
|---|---|
| Arc | $15 to $110+ an hour for freelance hires. 20% of annual salary for full-time hires. Trial of up to two weeks. |
| Freelancer.com | 3% or $3.00, whichever is greater, when you award a fixed-price project. 3% of each payment on hourly projects. |
| Gun.io | No standard prices. The full price is shown on each developer's profile. 20% of first-year salary for full-time placements. |
| Landing.jobs | Plans from 499 EUR a month on yearly billing, with a 499 EUR hiring fee on that plan. |
| Lemon.io | No upfront recruitment or setup fees. You prepay the developer's hours. Paid trial of up to 20 hours. |
| LinkedIn job posts | You set a budget and pay when a candidate views your post. |
| Revelo | Month to month, with a 2-week trial, paid only if you're happy. |
| Toptal | $79 a month subscription once matching proceeds. A fixed weekly price per engagement, with no figure published. |
| Upwork | $0.99 to $14.99 per new contract, plus up to 7.99% of payments on the Basic plan (3% with a qualifying US bank account). |
| We Work Remotely | $299 per job post. |
| Wellfound | Job posts are free. A recruiter plan costs $500 a month per open role plus 10% on hire. |
| Wild.Codes | No cost until you hire. A monthly rate on each match card for the subscription, and a one-time fee for a permanent hire (see the Wild.Codes entry below). |
Arc's how-it-works page uses the heading "No cost until you hire," the same line Wild.Codes uses. On Arc it means "You pay a fee based on the candidate's annual salary only when you decide to hire." Whoever uses the line, ask what the fee on hire is.
What do speed claims measure?
"24 hours" on one site and "14 days" on another usually measure different events. A match, a shortlist and a hire are three separate moments. Arc and Toptal name only where the clock stops.
| Service | Figure | Clock starts | Clock stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arc | 72 hours (freelance), 14 days (full-time) | Not stated | Hire |
| Gun.io | 13 days on average | You request a candidate | Hire |
| Lemon.io | Within 24 hours for most founders | You submit project requirements | First candidate profile |
| Revelo | 72 hours on its hiring page, two weeks in the FAQ on the same page | You share your spec | Shortlist |
| Toptal | Under 24 hours | Not stated | Match |
| Toptal | Under 48 hours | Not stated | Hire |
| Job boards and marketplaces | You set it | Your post | The end of your own screening |
Wild.Codes has two figures, and neither is a start date. On the subscription, the first shortlist from the full search arrives within 47 hours of confirming the role. For a permanent hire, the first vetted candidates come within 5 workdays.
Gun.io, Lemon.io and Revelo name both ends of the clock. Revelo gives two different shortlist figures on one page, so ask which one applies to your role. For the vetted networks side by side, with Toptal as the baseline, see our comparison of Toptal alternatives.
The services
Job boards
Landing.jobs is a tech job board for Europe. Its plans start at 499 EUR a month on yearly billing with a 499 EUR hiring fee, and its top plan has no hiring fee. It also runs an employer of record service, covered below.
LinkedIn job posts work on a budget you set. LinkedIn says, "Pay only when a candidate views your job post," and estimates how many applicants your budget should bring.
We Work Remotely is a remote job board. Its homepage offers to "Post a job for $299." You screen everyone who applies.
Wellfound lets you post unlimited jobs for $0. If you want recruiters to source for you, it charges "$500 per month per open role, plus a 10% placement fee when you make a successful hire."
Open marketplaces
Freelancer.com charges 3% or $3.00, whichever is greater, when you award a fixed-price project, and 3% of each payment on hourly projects.
Upwork charges a Contract Initiation Fee of $0.99 to $14.99 on each new contract. On the free Basic plan it adds a Client Marketplace Fee of "up to 7.99% on all payments you make to freelancers," or 3% if you are in the US and pay from a qualifying bank account. Vetting is yours to do.
Vetted networks
Arc's pricing page lists freelance hires at $15 to $110+ an hour and full-time hires at 20% of annual salary, with "a risk-free trial period of up to two weeks." Its how-it-works page offers a free replacement during the first 3 months if you are dissatisfied. Arc's homepage says "Hire in 72 hours" for freelance contracts and "Hire in 14 days" for full-time hires.
Gun.io says each engagement "begins with a structured assessment: technology review, constraint mapping, and delivery risk identification." Its FAQ says, "We don't have standard prices on Gun.io," and that you see the full price on each developer's profile. It handles contract, contract-to-hire and full-time hires, and on average clients hire within 13 days of requesting a candidate.
Lemon.io hires from Europe, LatAm, the US and Canada. You prepay hours in a 160-hour block, which it describes as one month full-time or two months part-time. Its full-stack hiring page offers a paid trial of up to 20 hours and a free replacement if you want a different developer.
Toptal's FAQ says it accepts "fewer than 3%" of the more than 200,000 people who apply each year, starts each engagement with "a trial period of up to two weeks," and lets you trial up to three people per position. It charges $79 a month once you proceed with matching, and its Why Toptal page describes a fixed weekly price, with no figure published. The homepage says, "Average time to match is under 24 hours." Our page comparing Wild.Codes and Toptal goes through the two services point by point.
AI hiring platform
Wild.Codes, which wrote this page, is an AI hiring platform for engineering teams with two ways to hire. You describe a role and see pre-selected engineers who are free today, with a monthly rate on each. When you confirm the role, the full search starts: our headhunter agent searches for your role, the engine proposes a shortlist of 2-3 candidates, engineers take a timed video interview for your role, and a talent manager makes the final selection.
On the subscription, the first shortlist from the full search arrives within 47 hours of confirming the role. The subscription has a 1-week trial, lifetime replacement and a 160-hour monthly minimum, and Wild.Codes handles payroll, contracts, compliance and PTO. You can also hire a permanent employee onto your own payroll for a one-time fee from 12% of annual salary, paid on the engineer's start date, and there is no cost until you hire. Subscription engineers come from Eastern Europe and LATAM only.
Employer of record and nearshore
An employer of record is the legal employer of an engineer who works for you. Landing.jobs' EOR service puts it this way: "We become the legal employer, managing compliance, payroll, taxes, and contracts so you can hire internationally without opening an entity."
Revelo offers to "Hire vetted senior engineers across Latin America, with payroll, compliance, and local employment handled." Its pricing page offers a month-to-month model and says, "Try for 2 weeks, pay only if you're happy." Its hiring page adds that it handles hardware, office space and legal compliance for your LatAm engineers.
Which names moved?
Some hiring addresses now lead somewhere else. On 22 October 2026 we checked five of them: hiring paths on the Turing, Andela and Revelo sites, and the youteam.io and clouddevs.com domains. This describes what the URLs showed that day, not the companies' plans.
Turing's hire-developers page answered with the title "Turing | Accelerate Superintelligence" and the line "Turing drives real economic progress from AI by helping frontier labs improve models and enterprises deploy agentic systems." Its old /services/teams address redirects there. If a list sends you to Turing for a developer, ask Turing directly whether it will staff your role. Our Turing comparison page has more on the service.
On 22 October 2026, Andela's homepage was titled "The Human Layer Powering Production AI" and listed "Deploy AI-native engineers" among its services. Its /hire-talent address redirected to /ai-engineers and then to a page titled "Assess agentic AI adoption across your engineering teams". If you need a general software engineer, ask Andela whether that is still part of its offer.
Revelo's /hire-developers address redirects to its nearshore hiring page, and Revelo still offers developer hiring there. The youteam.io domain redirects to Toptal's developer hiring page, so a search for YouTeam ends at Toptal. The clouddevs.com domain redirects to hiredevelopers.com.
Which type fits?
Here are five situations, with the types whose own terms match them.
- Your first or second engineering hire, with no recruiter and nobody to run technical interviews. A vetted network or an AI hiring platform does the first screen for you. If you also want to judge the engineer yourself before the first call, ask each service what you can watch or read first.
- Open roles to fill in under 30 days. Look at the clock table above and ask each service when its clock starts. Gun.io, Lemon.io and Revelo say it plainly, and the others say only where it stops.
- A company of around 150 people with engineers abroad that wants less recruiting overhead. Employer of record services such as Revelo and Landing.jobs EOR take over employment, and the Wild.Codes subscription covers payroll, contracts, compliance and PTO.
- A permanent employee on your own payroll. Job boards are the cheapest start if your team can screen. Arc, Gun.io and Wellfound's recruiter plan charge a share of salary on hire, and Wild.Codes charges a one-time fee for a permanent hire.
- A short, well-scoped task. Open marketplaces and hourly vetted networks fit here, since you pay per contract or per hour and can stop when the task is done.
If watching an engineer's interview for your role before you spend your own interview time is what you need most, describe the role on Wild.Codes and see pre-selected engineers with a monthly rate on each. Confirm the role, and the full search starts with interviews recorded for it. No cost until you hire.
What should you ask?
These six questions work for any service. You can paste them into an email before a sales call. Next to each is what a clear answer looks like, taken from a service's own terms. For more on testing a service's claims, see how to check a platform's claims against what it delivers.
- How long is the trial, and do I pay for it? Toptal and Arc each describe a trial of up to two weeks. Lemon.io's is a paid trial of up to 20 hours, and Revelo says you pay only if you're happy after 2 weeks.
- What can I watch or read about the engineer before my own interview? Most services can tell you their interview happened. Ask whether you can see it.
- What exactly do I pay, and when? A clear answer names each charge and its trigger, like Upwork's per-contract fee plus a percentage of each payment, or Wellfound's monthly fee per role plus 10% on hire.
- What happens if the engineer does not work out? Arc says it will match you with another engineer free of charge during the first 3 months. Lemon.io offers a free replacement.
- Who employs the engineer? Revelo and Landing.jobs EOR say they handle payroll and compliance. On a marketplace or a job board, that is on you.
- When does your speed figure start and stop? Gun.io's answer is "within 13 days of requesting a candidate." An answer without a start event is hard to plan around.
FAQ
What is the best platform to hire remote developers?
There is no single best one. Job boards and open marketplaces such as We Work Remotely, Wellfound and Upwork are cheapest if you screen yourself, while vetted networks such as Arc, Gun.io, Lemon.io and Toptal screen engineers first. Choose the type by the engagement you want and how much screening you can do.
Where can startups hire remote engineers?
Startups can post on job boards such as Wellfound (free job posts) or We Work Remotely ($299 per post), hire freelancers on Upwork or Freelancer.com, or use a vetted network such as Arc, Gun.io, Lemon.io or Toptal. AI hiring platforms such as Wild.Codes and employer of record services such as Revelo also screen engineers before you meet them.
How much does it cost to hire a remote developer through a platform?
It depends on the fee model. Arc lists $15 to $110+ an hour for freelancers and 20% of annual salary for full-time hires, Upwork charges up to 7.99% of payments on its Basic plan plus a per-contract fee, and Toptal charges $79 a month plus a weekly price it does not publish. Ask for the engineer's rate and every fee in writing.
How can I vet a senior remote developer before a full-time contract?
Ask what you can see of the service's own interview, and use the trial. Toptal and Arc describe trials of up to two weeks and Lemon.io a paid trial of up to 20 hours. In the Wild.Codes full search, engineers take a timed video interview for your role and you watch it before your own interview.
Which platforms publish their rates?
Arc publishes an hourly range for freelancers, Gun.io shows a price on each developer's profile, and Lemon.io's full-stack hiring page offers a "Check the hourly rate" option. Wild.Codes shows a monthly rate on each match card. Toptal publishes no engineer rate on the pages we read.
Is Turing still a place to hire developers?
On 22 October 2026, Turing's hire-developers page led with helping frontier AI labs improve models and enterprises deploy agentic systems. Ask Turing directly whether it will staff the role you have.
What is the difference between a job board, a marketplace and a vetted network?
On a job board, applicants come to your post and you screen them. On an open marketplace, you pick freelancers yourself and pay through the marketplace. A vetted network screens engineers before you meet them and charges for that.
How we put this together
Wild.Codes wrote this page in October 2026 and is one of the services in it, so facts about other services come only from their own websites. We read each service's homepage, pricing, FAQ or help pages on 15 October 2026, saved a copy of each, and quote them where the wording matters. On 22 October 2026 we re-read the Andela homepage, Arc's how-it-works page, the Landing.jobs homepage and pricing, Revelo's pricing and hiring pages and the Toptal homepage, and re-ran the HTTP checks for the five names in "Which names moved?". Andela's hiring address had changed since 15 October, so that section describes 22 October. Some sites block automated requests, so we opened those in a browser. Where a page says nothing on a point, we write "not stated" and do not use third-party estimates. The Wild.Codes facts come from our current terms. This edition replaces an earlier version of this page that ranked Wild.Codes first.
Sources
- Andela, homepage, https://www.andela.com/, and agentic engineering assessment page, https://www.andela.com/assess/agentic-engineering (where /hire-talent redirects), read 22 October 2026.
- Arc, homepage, https://arc.dev/, read 15 October 2026.
- Arc, pricing, https://arc.dev/pricing, read 15 October 2026.
- Arc, how Arc works, https://arc.dev/how-arc-works, read 15 October 2026, re-read 22 October 2026.
- CloudDevs, clouddevs.com, HTTP redirect to hiredevelopers.com checked 22 October 2026.
- Freelancer.com, fees and charges, https://www.freelancer.com/feesandcharges, read 15 October 2026.
- Gun.io, homepage, https://gun.io/, read 15 October 2026.
- Gun.io, FAQ, https://gun.io/faq/, read 15 October 2026.
- Landing.jobs, homepage, https://landing.jobs/, read 22 October 2026.
- Landing.jobs, business pricing, https://landing.jobs/business-pricing/, read 15 October 2026, re-read 22 October 2026.
- Landing.jobs, employer of record, https://landing.jobs/business-employer-of-record/, read 15 October 2026.
- Lemon.io, homepage, https://lemon.io/, read 15 October 2026.
- Lemon.io, hire full-stack developers, https://lemon.io/hire/full-stack-developers/, read 15 October 2026.
- LinkedIn, post a job, https://www.linkedin.com/talent/post-a-job, read 15 October 2026.
- Revelo, homepage, https://www.revelo.com/, pricing, https://www.revelo.com/pricing, and hiring page, https://www.revelo.com/clients/hire-nearshore-elite-developers, read 15 October 2026; pricing and hiring page re-read and /hire-developers redirect checked 22 October 2026.
- Toptal, homepage, https://www.toptal.com/, read 15 October 2026, re-read in a browser 22 October 2026.
- Toptal, FAQ, https://www.toptal.com/faq, read 15 October 2026.
- Toptal, Why Toptal, https://www.toptal.com/why, read 15 October 2026.
- Toptal, remote developers, https://www.toptal.com/developers/remote, read 15 October 2026.
- Turing, hire developers, https://www.turing.com/hire-developers, read 15 October 2026, title and /services/teams redirect re-checked 22 October 2026.
- Upwork, What is the Contract Initiation Fee on Upwork, support.upwork.com, read 15 October 2026.
- Upwork, What is the Client Marketplace Fee, support.upwork.com, read 15 October 2026.
- We Work Remotely, homepage, https://weworkremotely.com/, read 15 October 2026.
- Wellfound, recruit pricing, https://wellfound.com/recruit/pricing, read 15 October 2026.
- YouTeam, youteam.io, HTTP redirect to toptal.com/developers checked 22 October 2026.
- Wild.Codes, homepage and current terms, https://wild.codes/, read 15 October 2026.
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