How to find freelance developers for your project

Good software developers are hard to find, and even after you find them — they do not always stick around. I’ve been working as a freelancer myself and with other freelancers in the past 9 years, and I’ve been asked recently quite often — “how do you find, source and screen freelance devs to work with you on regular basis?”

A short and practical guide.

Where to look for freelance software devs?

If you have a first-hand recommendation developer, that’s always the best. Try to ask your friends for a recommendation.
If you don’t have any particular recommendations, gig-platforms like Upwork, Freelancer and Fiver would be great for a budget project and Toptal and Turing if you’ve got more money on your hands.

How to filter for software on gig-platforms?

• Location: Look for someone with a convenient timezone and cultural similarity. For example, I’m based in Tel Aviv, so I’ll look for someone in Eastern Europe or some parts in the Middle East. Someone from Japan might find better solutions around South East Asia, in contrast.
• Budget: If you’ve got the architecture already drawn in advanced and need good hands to help out the product, anywhere between $15–50 is reasonable, depending on location, budget, and seniority. If you are completely clueless about software architecture, rates will rage much higher — $50 to $120 an hour in some cases, depending on location and experience.
  You can find developers for less than $15/hour but I doubt they will generate more value than damage. On the other hand, price isn’t always a guarantee for quality.
• Keywords: Really important not to just look for any “software developer” or “web developer” as you might get thousands of irrelevant results. Be specific with the stack and the tasks you would like to get. For example, “React.JS Next.js node.js”.

How to screen freelance software developers?

• Read Reviews. If you are using a gig platform like Fiver, filter these only with good reviews (minimum 4.7–4.9 stars).
• Ask for their portfolio. CV is nice, but a portfolio is better. Ask your candidates to show you real work examples they have done for previous clients. If they couldn’t, or they give you odd excuses, such as that they’ve signed a strict NDA with the Pizza restaurants around the corner they’ve been previously been hired by, get them out of your list.
• Communication. You can figure out quite quickly if someone speaks a sufficient level of English and if they communicate well. I cannot stress how important this factor is. If you have a hard time communicating well during the screening process, it probably isn’t going to work down the road.
• Ask them to estimate. In development, one of the most expensive factors is time. You’d like to know how fast your candidates could execute tasks.
  What I do in order to figure out if the candidate can estimate a task correctly, is to give them a task I have done before and I know how much time it takes to make. Then, I and ask them to estimate. After you’ll do this, one of the following will happen:
  - They’ll overestimate
  - They’ll extremely underestimate
  - They’ll have no idea what you are talking about
  - They’ll try to BS you
  If non of the above happens with a candidate during the screening, consider him as a potential good freelancer.

It is important to realize that a relationship with a freelance dev is like any relationship you have. If you feel that you’ve found someone honest, talented, and responsive — this will likely be your right choice. But keep in mind you should behave the same — respond to their messages, share your honest motivation and make it fun and transparent to work with you — so they’ll keep working with you in the future.