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More often than not, both companies and individuals, find themselves in situations when instead of employing someone, they would much rather hire a remote worker or even find a freelancer to help them with a project or two. In fact, over the past few years, the idea to outsource work has become so popular that numerous professionals turned into freelancers and remote service providers themselves. Gradually, what once was an industry-specific trend ended up going mainstream. If about a dozen of years ago you would primarily find designers and translators engaging in freelance work, now almost every industry engages freelancers at point or another. One recent analysis by CareerAddict revealed that among the top 10 best-paying opportunities you’d find such “jobs” as:

1. Legal services expert (paying up to $120 per hour)
2. Web developer (landing $60 per hour)
3. Internet security specialist (averaging $50 per hour)
4. Search engine optimization expert (also at $50 an hour)
5. Copywriter ($47 per hour)
6. Voice(over) actor ($46 per hour)
7. Recruiter ($46 per hour)
8. Teacher or tutor ($41 per hour)
9. Translator ($31 per hour)
10. Game developer (also at $31 an hour)

With the growing demand for remote workers, the supply quickly followed and today you will find a myriad of websites targeting both those who are looking for freelancer gigs, and those who offer remote jobs. Our list seeks to help you navigate these websites (and services), and we have narrowed the plethora of availabilities to our already-customary “Top Ten”.

Best Websites to Find Remote Workers and Online Freelancers

1. Fiverr

Founded back in 2010, it owes its name to the idea of $5 jobs or projects. With time the five-dollar principle has gone away, but Fiverr stayed. In fact, according to their own website they currently represent “the world’s largest marketplace for digital services” and freelancers. We use them frequently and do recommend that you check them out too.

2. Upwork

Formerly known as Elance-oDesk, but smartly rebranded into Upwork in 2015, this is another great global freelancing platform that connects businesses with independent professionals looking for remote work. One impressive fact is that by using this service “freelancers are earning more than $1 billion” each year.

3. Freelancer

Headquartered Down Under, this crowdsourcing marketplace is, actually, older than Fiverr. Freelancer.com was established in  2009 and it also labels themselves as the “world’s largest freelancing and crowdsourcing marketplace.” If you look ‘under the hood’ you’ll find more than 30,000,000 employees and freelancers being connected through this platform.

4. Guru.com

Formerly branded as eMoonlighter.com, Guru.com seems smaller than the above-listed three online marketplaces, but, at the time of this publication, it still has more than 3,000,000 worldwide users/members and payments made to experts through this platform have already crossed $250,000,000. It is definitely worth a look.

5. Toptal

What makes this player unique is their truly rigorous screening process through which they separate out the chaff, approving “fewer than 3%” of their applicants into their network. They guarantee that every freelancer on Toptal “has a proven track record and elite industry experience in design, business, or technology” (from companies like Google to schools like Wharton and MIT).

6. FlexJobs

We like the way they brand themselves – as “the quick answer” to “telecommuting, part-time, freelance, or flextime job”. They aren’t only about part-time opportunities though. You will also find full-time opportunities there. Plus, they offer some great content (such as job search checklists, expert skill tests, webinars, and more) which really sets them apart.

7. microWorkers

Though significantly mode modest than the preceding competitors, this player is still worth a mention here. They focus on what they call “microjobs” or projects most of which can be “completed in a few minutes”. Whenever you have something like this to outsource, take a look their website.

8. Outsourcely

Positioning themselves as a tool for startups and businesses they help employers find a perfect candidate either (a) by searching remote workers by skill, or (b) by posting a remote job. In both scenarios you may then review the “pool of viable candidates” sorting them by skills, level(s) of expertise, availability, desired pay, and a number of other criteria. Some cool tools for two-way “real-time communication for interviewing candidates” are also embedded into the platform.

9. PeoplePerHour.com

Unlike the above-listed options, this “freelance marketplace” is (based in and) targeting primarily the UK. It’s a solid platform which is worth exploring if/when you’re interested in the British market.

10. Damongo

Damongo is one of very few remaining places where one can still find a remote worker only for $5 or $10. They focus on microjobs and do a good work providing these to their talent, while connecting the latter with the right “buyers”.

As you may have noticed, we have limited our list to online marketplaces with vast pools of freelancers with diverse expertise. There are many worthwhile services that connect you with experts in very specific fields – from Folyo and 99Designs for graphic design to Gigster and Pangara for website and app development, and to ProZ for translation, and so on – but we didn’t want to go industry-specific here. We are aware of these (and many other) great expertise-specific online networks, but we wanted to cover the broader marketplaces out there.

Also, as with every list, there is always a risk of leaving out someone’s favorite player. Have we missed yours? If so, please do take a moment to mention them using the “Comments” area below.

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