12 Places to Find Remote Software Engineers
Whether your team has been remote from the start or this past year opened up remote opportunities, the first step in hiring software developers is finding qualified candidates who are looking for a job. Unless you want to become a full time recruiter, you’ll want to limit your job postings to the places with the best reach using little budget. How can you know which job board is right for you when it comes to remote hiring for developers? There are three categories of job boards that engineering hiring managers should consider:
- Large job boards
- Software engineering-focused job boards
- Remote-focused job boards
Let’s take a look at some popular places to post your open position with our analysis on which will be the best source of quality candidates.
Large Job Seeker Boards
Indeed
Indeed is considered the market leader in national job boards. Covering a wide range of industries and disciplines, job seekers use Indeed as one of the first stops in hiring and recruiting great software engineers.
Pros: High application volume, wide reach, free job postings for employers, network of sites including Glassdoor (acquired in 2018)
Cons: Not focused on remote, not focused on software engineering hiring, increase in paywalls on candidate and employer side
Pricing: Free postings available. Sponsorship starts at $5/day using cost per click pricing (between $.10-$5.00)
Our take: Indeed will drive a significant amount of applications, due to its site traffic and audience. It is one of the few large job boards that will still allow you to post for free, although they are becoming stricter with paid features. Unless you have strong screening tools after application, you’ll waste a lot of time and effort trying to find quality candidates.
LinkedIn is perceived as the largest professional networking website, but it is much more than a way to connect with your professional peers. With the ability to share posts across users’ networks, LinkedIn is used by employers to post job announcements and updates for professional job seekers.
Pros: Active and passive users, candidate endorsements, updated job listings
Cons: Uninterested passive users, lack of credibility in candidate endorsements, not focused on remote, not focused on software engineering hiring, not as useful for infrequent hiring in small businesses
Pricing: Sponsorship dependent upon daily budget
Our take: LinkedIn is unique because of its exposure to employers’ shared networks and wide audience of users. If you’re in a position to pay for LinkedIn’s features, it’s worth a try. If you’re not able to pay for sponsorship, posting the link in a status update and sharing it with your network will do the trick.
ZipRecruiter
ZipRecruiter is also one of the largest online job boards. Admired for its large audience and partnership with hundreds of job boards, employers turn to ZipRecruiter to find high-quality candidates fast.
Pros: Exposure to hundreds of job boards, applicant and resume diversity, ease of finding ideal candidates
Cons: Limited four-day free trial, costly for small businesses, outdated and unspecific resumes, not focused on remote, not focused on software engineering hiring
Pricing: Base price of $249/month; Sponsorship dependent upon duration of job post, number of postings, and geographic location
Our Take: ZipRecruiter is a steadily growing job board that will supply you with high applicant volume quickly due to its wide reach and exposure to other job boards. If you’re a small business in the technology and engineering space, ZipRecruiter might not be the sole place you consult to find great candidates.
Engineering/Tech Focused Job Boards
Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is considered the gold mine of online technical job boards. It acts as the major hub for developers to collaborate and learn from each other.
Pros: Top tier, high quality candidates, decreased amount of under qualified applicants
Cons: Fairly new platform requiring more traction to meet the supply of jobs to candidates and employers, no free options available
Pricing: Higher than that of competitors, costing $6,000/six month subscription for two job postings
Our Take: On the pricier end of the spectrum, Stack Overflow offers the most concentrated source of senior-level developers. If it is within budget and you are looking for highly experienced candidates, Stack Overflow is definitely worth a try.
GithubÂ
Github is home to millions of developers online to create software and also serves as a hotspot for these engineers to find flexible work-from-anywhere jobs.
Pros: Broad range of talent, strong brand recognition, focus on technical community, helpful in predicting technical ability
Cons: More expensive than competitors, biased data point for early engineers due to underrepresentation of minorities
Pricing: $450 for a single job posting
Our Take: As the largest development platform, Github allows employers to glean information about applicants’ work and gain more insight into how they might fit into your remote team. However, Github’s large audience base of developers comes at a high price.
AngelList
AngelList is an online job board aimed at connecting tech employees to the startup community.
Pros: Free job postings, targeted focus on startup and tech jobs, remote friendly, and straightforward pricing structure
Cons: Not frequently used in spaces other than the technology and startup worlds
Pricing: Free options available, with sponsorship starting at $250/month
Our Take: If you’re in the startup scene looking to hire software developers, AngelList is the place to be considering the free and fairly low pricing model.
Remote-Focused Job Boards
We Work Remotely
One of the larger remote-specific job boards, employers use We Work Remotely as a tool to build remote teams with expertise.
Pros: Maintains a larger audience compared to its competitors, categorically organized jobs, strictly remote jobs posted
Cons: Monthly pricing is higher than similar competitors because of additional features available and large audience
Pricing: Base price is $299/job posting and can increase to $448/job dependent upon additional features
Our Take: We Work Remotely is among the largest remote-focused job boards. Although there are no free posting options, it’s a relatively low cost to get your posting in front of remote engineering candidates.
RemoteOk.io
Similar to Github, RemoteOk is an online job board that focuses on flexibility for technical employees, despite geographic location.
Pros: Larger audience size than other competitors with a global network, flexible and affordable pricing, personalized packages with optional additional features for job postings
Cons: No free options available, limited job postings, and lacks keyword searches
Pricing: Pricing much more affordable than competitors with a single job posting costing $3, and multiple postings ranging from $16-62
Our Take: The focus on remote software engineers and the low cost of posting makes RemoteOk a wise choice for your recruiting budget.
Remotive.io
Another space to find software developers for hire isRemotive: It connects technology professionals to current remote jobs.
Pros: Provides remote-first technology jobs specially selected by real humans, higher quality jobs updated daily because of human judgment, additional features available for job postings
Cons: Higher priced with no free posting options for small businesses, fully priced renewals for postings, a smaller audience
Pricing: $299 starting price for a job posting of 30 days and can increase to $448 dependent upon additional features
Our Take: If free postings on remote-focused job boards doesn’t yield enough candidates, it may be worth giving a paid listing on Remotive a try.
Remote.coÂ
Remote.co uses artificial intelligence to pair job seekers and freelancers on a global scale.
Pros: Free postings available, hundreds of non-industry specific jobs uploaded weekly
Cons: Limited specific search filters, inaccurately labeled remote jobs are not fully remote, lacking geographic/time zone specific searches
Pricing: Free basic job postings and $295 premium job postings
Our Take: While we haven’t seen candidate volume from this site to warrant a premium job posting, it’s worth it to experiment with a free post to attract remote engineering candidates.
Flexjobs
Flexjobs is reputable for its hidden opportunities and vetted, remote job postings.
Pros: Candidate accounts are vetted and approved, up to five free job postings, focused on finding remote candidates
Cons: Free postings are limited to certain criteria, intense vetting process can be time-intensive for hiring managers
Pricing: Five free postings assuming criteria is met; pricing varies based on membership plan
Our Take: Flexjobs has emerged as a destination for job seekers interested in remote positions. Although not focused on software engineers, the option to post up to five jobs for free makes it a no brainer for hiring managers.
Powertofly
Powertofly’s goal is to improve the hiring process for women in technology.
Pros: Focused on hiring remote developers, focused on hiring women in tech, advanced sourcing tools for employers
Cons: Clunky user interface, smaller reach than other sites, no free postings
Pricing: Packages start at $499 with a recurring subscription
Our Take: If you are focused on adding more women to your engineering team, it makes sense to spend in targeted areas. Applicant volume may be too low for the cost if you don’t have budget for candidate attraction.
Final Thoughts
Finding great candidates to apply for an open engineering role is just the first step in hiring the right software engineer for your remote team. Without a consistent way to evaluate a candidate’s full technical skill set early in the recruiting process, you’ll waste valuable time on phone screens and pull your team off projects for too many interviews. Woven helps people just like you figure out who’s qualified for the software engineering positions you’re hiring for. Curious? Try a free trial or talk to someone from our sales team today!
