Choosing a partner that will help you with the winning hires has never been easy. That’s why in this article, we will compare top IT staffing companies, uncover their advantages and drawbacks, and analyze their value propositions so that you will be able to determine the best tech talent vendor for your project.
Crucial factors to consider when choosing a reliable hiring partner
When creating the list of the best IT staffing firms, we took into account factors that are essential for choosing a trusted service provider. Here are the most essential ones:
- Destination coverage. The continents and countries the vendor covers are paramount for the companies requiring to hire talent from a specific location and ensure convenient business hours overlap.
- Talent pool available. The size of the talent pool available to the hiring service provider is also important if you would like to hire specific tech specialists or choose the best talent available.
- Vetting process. Discover the vetting process the talent provider follows to select and shortlist candidates. Usually, companies share this information while the vetting itself takes part in several stages, including but not limited to technical assessment, English proficiency test, soft skills evaluation, and ensuring personal fit.
- Understanding your needs. This is one of the most important pillars of effective collaboration with a recruitment company, so the candidates’ suggestions they make should be as personalized as possible.
- Pricing transparency. A trustworthy service provider should have a transparent pricing policy. Usually, customers should pay a fixed fee for each hire, plus developers’ salaries, while the payroll is most frequently the responsibility of the vendor.
- Customer reviews. Pay attention to the online reputation of the talent sourcing vendor. Search for feedback from the customers and the developers working with the company since the latter can also tell a lot about the vendor’s values and attitudes.
Top 5 hiring companies for talent hunting and recruiting
Below are the five globally leading hiring service providers you can choose from. Let’s uncover their specific features, pros, cons, and pricing policies to make the best-informed choice.
Bridge
Bridge is a talent sourcing vendor that aims to connect companies with top remote tech specialists from all over the world. The company stands out with a customer-centric hiring approach, tailoring the engagement models to the customers’ needs and delivering top talent perfectly matched with the job requisition, project specifics, budget, and customers’ expectations.
Bridge features
- A dedicated platform for hiring process management. We have developed a customer-only platform for managing the hiring process, scheduling the interviews, and double-vetting the candidates on your own.
- Interactive salaries explorer. Discovering the average salary rates across the locations is a must for better budget planning, so you are welcome to use the built-in budget calculator to get an idea of the costs for talent recruitment.
Bridge pros
- Multiple hiring destinations. With Bridge, you can hire developers from the US, Latin America, and Europe. Discover the complete list of covered locations to find the ones that suit your hiring goals best.
- Several engagement models. Depending on your project requirements, you can add extra tech talent to your team or get a list of pre-vetted candidates for future hires.
- Hiring speed. Bridge has a pre-generated database of the best-in-class candidates, so selecting the right ones for your project will not take much time. For example, when sourcing data experts for Obvious.ly, we provided 5-10 viable candidates per week.
- Careful candidate validation. Each candidate Bridge suggests for hire is carefully screened and vetted by our local HR manager and technical specialists. Such an approach also allows for communicating the customer’s expectations as clearly as possible to ensure personal fit as well.
Bridge cons
- You have to manage your hired team on your own. Bridge isn’t a development vendor despite some similarities, so after making the hiring decision, you will have to manage and communicate with your remote developers on your own.
Pricing transparency
With Bridge, your project expenses are crystal clear, without hidden costs or overheads. When choosing sourcing-as-a-service, you pay only a fixed monthly fee. When it comes to IT staffing, you are to pay the developer’s salary for the work done.
Destination coverage
Bridge will help you find qualified engineers across 13 countries globally, including the most appealing tech talent destinations like Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and more. And we are planning to cover more.
Customers’ reviews
According to the clients’ reviews, Bridge is a reliable staffing company that can find top-notch experts fast and hassle-free. Take a look at some of them:
“Bridge has been one of the best recruiting partners whom I have worked with in my 15+ years in the industry. They understand the types of people we want to attract and do a spectacular job in matching people to our culture and requirements.”
Troy Barron, Jasper.ai
“The candidates they sourced were technically competent and fit the role I needed to fill well, each week finding upwards of 5-10 viable candidates – more than I had time to interview!”
Benjamin Singer, Obvious.ly
Does Bridge’s value proposition match your hiring goals? Get in touch with us for a consultation now!
Toptal
Toptal platform hardly needs an introduction. This is the most popular freelance platform after Upwork to hire tech talent. However, Toptal takes freelance talent hiring seriously and supports the customers in making the best hiring choices.
Toptal features
Toptal comes with a detailed pre-hiring questionnaire for customers. The questionnaire covers the most important questions about the project and expectations for the future tech team.
Toptal pros
- Great tech and job coverage. Toptal sources tech talent from 140+ countries overall, but mostly from Europe and the USA.
- Instant talent sourcing. It takes “0-3 weeks” to hire software developers on the Toptal freelance marketplace.
- Trial period. There is a two-week trial period which you will have to pay for if you are satisfied with the hiring and collaboration experience.
Toptal cons
- Only 1-2 candidates will be suggested. Toptal stands out with its rigorous vetting process and candidate-job match. It is a significant advantage of the platform, but after filling in a very detailed questionnaire, only 1-2 perfect match candidates will be suggested.
- Toptal charges the highest rate. According to the reviews, the Toptal developers’ hourly rates are $60-250.
Pricing transparency
Toptal has no service fee, but you have to make a $500 deposit that will be applied as a credit after you make a hire.
Destination coverage
According to the official website, the Toptal talent network covers nearly 140 countries across the world.
Customers’ reviews
Based on the clients’ reviews, Toptal has a 4.7 ranking (out of 5) on Trustpilot. Here’s what customers say about the platform.
Turing
Turing platform is the second most popular service for hiring remote developers. In one of our recent articles, we took a deeper look at Turing, uncovering its pros and cons, and researching the developers’ feedback. Long story short, Turing is an Indian company that connects developers with customers looking for tech talent for long-term projects. Let’s review this platform in more detail.
Turing features
- Turing machine algorithm. Turing uses an AI-powered system for vetting the developers and matching them with potential customers.
- Time tracking software. After you have hired a developer on Turing, you can use an in-built time tracking software, plus there is a virtual machine for code and data protection.
Turing pros
- Wide talent pool. Turing sources developers from a 2 million talent pool, covering 100 technologies and 15 job titles.
- Accurate job-candidate matching with AI. With Turing, matching the developers with the customers is fully data-driven, and the expectations of both parties are taken into account by the system.
- 2-week free trial. If you aren’t satisfied with the Turing services and candidates, you can request a refund two weeks after getting started.
Turing cons
- The reviews of developers are controversial. While most reviews shared by the developers who dealt with Turning are positive, sometimes they mention certain issues during the interview and further collaboration.
- Sometimes, Turing is unable to meet the request right now. For example, we have sent a request to hire React Native developers but for the moment of their response, Turing had no candidates available.
Pricing transparency
The price for Turing services is hidden on the getting-started pages. Turing deals with payrolls on its own.
Destination coverage
Turing helps find remote engineers across 150 countries and provides the first candidates in 3-5 days.
Customers’ reviews
More than 900 Fortune 500 companies partnered with Turing, and here is what they think about it.
Andela
Andela is another hiring service you can consider for hiring tech talent remotely. So, how does Andela work? It works like a job posting website, however, its capabilities are more diverse. After the job opening is posted, the system suggests the best-matched candidates based on your requirements.
Andela features
- Job postings. You can use Andela as any other job portal and share your job requisition by filling out a ready-made form.
- Personalized recommendations. After posting a vacancy, you don’t have to search for candidates manually or wait for their responses ‒ the system will suggest the best matches automatically.
Andela pros
- The service is focused on long-term relations between the customers and developers, so it can be a good choice for ongoing projects with a scalability potential.
- There are employee benefits and perks for better engagement. This is another distinctive benefit of Andela ‒ the company values its programmers and prefers retaining the existing candidates instead of attracting new ones.
Andela cons
- The major part of the development pool are Juniors and Middles which can be both an advantage and a disadvantage, depending on the project specifics.
- Tech talent is mostly sourced from South Africa, so keep it in mind when aligning the time zones.
Pricing transparency
The price for Andela services is hidden on the getting-started pages. According to the reviews, the average hourly rate is $25, so it can be an option for startups on a budget.
Destination coverage
Andela sources engineers in more than 175 countries, including such regions as Africa and Latin America.
Customers’ reviews
Andela has a 4.2 ranking on Trustpilot and here is one of the latest reviews about its services.
Arc
Arc promotes itself as a platform, where companies apply to developers directly. That’s why they hire Senior developers only, vetting them in four stages. Like its competitors, Arc also promises to connect the companies with the “Silicon Valley caliber” candidates sourced from the global talent pool.
Arc features
- AI matching. After the company describes its perfect candidate, the system matches the customer with a suitable developer using an AI algorithm.
Arc pros
- Several engagement models. The main benefit of Arc is that it allows for choosing between several engagement models to hire developers.
- Hiring speed. With Arc, you can hire freelance developers (it will take up to 72 hours, as claimed by Arc), full-time employees (it will take up to 14 days), set up a remote development team, or create your own remote hub. Arc also takes care of payroll and compliance.
Arc cons
- The smallest talent pool, when compared to competitors. Arc allows for choosing from 300,000 developers globally.
Pricing transparency
There are no detailed pricing policies on the getting-started pages. The expenses to hire talent on Arc are based on the annual salary of a developer, plus there is an opportunity to match the candidate with the budget expectations. You don’t have to pay in advance but there is a service fee, depending on the engagement model you choose.
Destination coverage
According to the information on the website, Arc sources engineers from nearly 190 countries.
Customers’ reviews
When looking at Trustpilot, the latest reviews belong to freelance developers claiming it’s a nice service to partner with. And here are the clients’ reviews on the official website.
Bridge vs Toptal vs Turing vs Andela vs Arc ‒ comparison chart
Now, let’s take a comprehensive look and compare the top talent sourcing companies according to the most important choice factors.
Destination coverage | Talent pool available | The best fit for | |
Bridge | Latin America, the USA, and Eastern Europe | Choose from the fewer options but get the best ones | Small to medium companies in need of a reliable talent sourcing partner |
Toptal | 140+ countries, mostly the US and Europe | 3% of global freelance talent pool | Companies experienced with freelancers |
Turing | Nearly 150 countries represented | 2 million developers | Companies that want to quickly solve specific development tasks on demand |
Andela | 175+ countries, including Africa and South America | Claims it has a 4-million network of tech specialists | Companies that don’t own any HR software, but eager to hire quickly and at an affordable cost |
Arc | Provides developers from 190+ countries | 300,000 Senior developers, worldwide | Startups with no internal hiring or freelance management expertise |
What makes each provider stand out
So, we have reviewed the most popular services for hiring remote developers. Let’s summarize what makes each of them outstanding so that you can compare the opportunities taking the most crucial factors into account.
- Toptal is the service that sources actually prime talent at the highest cost.
- Turing uses the most advanced set of hiring, vetting, and collaboration technologies.
- Andela is best for hiring mid-level talent at an affordable cost.
- Arc can be a good choice for those in need of hiring support, in addition to talent.
- Bridge offers the best price/quality ratio when it comes to all the factors we have considered.
Given the pros, cons, and specifics of the hiring providers we have reviewed above, Bridge stands out with its flexibility and customer-centricity when it comes to tailoring a certain hiring request to the project’s goal. Let’s find out more about Bridge’s offers and services to find the one that suits your business best.
Bridge IT staffing
Those companies striving to scale their in-house team are welcome to consider our IT staffing services. Following this tactic, you get additional tech talent who will work remotely together with your in-house programmers. Our local hiring and technical specialists would be able to quickly find the best-in-class talent, making sure the potential candidates have the necessary skills, knowledge, and competencies, plus communicate with them in the local language, which ensures there is a personal fit and expectations match.
Ready to gather the first-rate development team? Ask Bridge for qualified help right now!
Bridge sourcing-as-a-service
Sourcing-as-a-service is a top-notсh opportunity for projects that aren’t ready to launch a full-scale hiring campaign but are willing to get a list of vacant candidates and reach out to them on their own in the future. Depending on the destination you choose and the project requirements, we can quickly come up with a complete list of pre-vetted candidates so that you can screen and interview them yourself, avoiding time waste and hiring delays.
Conclusion
There are a lot of ways to hire development talent remotely, but getting in touch with the hiring service provider is the smartest and the simplest one, especially for companies eager to speed up the hiring process and cut operational costs.
In this article, we have compared the leading talent sourcing vendors and suggested the most winning choice for projects from different industries and with diverse hiring needs. Bridge is able to meet highly specific requirements, delivering great talent sourcing experience and ensuring the perfect candidate-project match.
Get in touch with Bridge now and discover what the value-driven hiring process looks like!