Toptal

Initially, It was quite easy to confuse Toptal with yet another freelance platform so I was somewhat skeptical about spending any time to pass entry barriers. Luckily for me, I had plenty of time and lots of curiosity. Enrolling as a talent in Toptal changed my way of working forever.
First, it cuts off all the most annoying parts of the hiring process - no paperwork, clear salary expectations, no client distrust with dozens of entry barriers, and a smooth matching experience overall. Once both you and your client expressed interest in cooperation it is almost always a guaranteed hire!
Second – it's a premium quality service. Toptal's managers are always by your side and ready to help, solve any controversial situations between you and the client, or simply introduce your profile as a hire recommendation. It is not always limited to job lifecycle - you can also enroll in learning programs, get some coaching assistance, or dive deep into the community: Toptal always encourages you to grow as a professional and gives just enough tools for that.
Last but not least - you can land yourself some really well-paid jobs here! No compromises - you always get your desired rate. A payout process is so punctual it is simply impossible to overestimate - never have I ever experienced any delays at all. As a neat bonus, Toptal can manufacture a prepaid visa card and deliver it to your country - I am actively using it and it works like a clock!

This platform definitely deserves more attention and the industry should view it as a standard to strive for. At the moment I would not trade Toptal for a classic hiring ever. 10/10

From initial brief to interview with the client and final delivery, working within Toptal is a seamless experience. Toptal works on all the burocracry leaving me to focus exclusively on delivering my best work. There are also several points of contact, making sure that both parties are happy with the direction of the project.

Working with Toptal has been an incredibly rewarding experience. While the platform's rigorous selection process was challenging, I persevered and it has paid off in spades. Today, I have the opportunity to work on diverse and exciting projects with clients from all over the world, while being supported by a top-notch team that empowers me to succeed. Thanks to Toptal, my career has reached new heights, and I'm excited to continue achieving at the highest level as a member of this exceptional talent network.

My experience with Toptal, the freelancing platform, has been a mixed bag. While the platform has its merits, there are areas that require improvement to provide a truly outstanding user experience.

Toptal's greatest strength lies in the quality of its talent pool. The platform boasts a rigorous screening process, ensuring that only top-notch professionals are accepted. As a result, I've had the opportunity to work with highly skilled freelancers who delivered exceptional results. The talent available on Toptal is undoubtedly its most valuable asset.

However, despite this impressive talent pool, there have been some challenges. Firstly, the hiring process can be quite time-consuming. While it's important to maintain high standards, the vetting process can sometimes feel prolonged and repetitive. Streamlining this process would greatly benefit both clients and freelancers.

Additionally, I found Toptal's pricing structure to be on the higher side. While the quality of talent justifies a premium, it can be a deterrent for clients with tighter budgets. More flexible pricing options or clearer communication on pricing expectations could alleviate this concern.

Lastly, customer support can sometimes be slow to respond. When issues arise or assistance is needed, a more prompt and efficient support system would be greatly appreciated.

So far in my experience been a freelancer in Toptal I've connected with client all over the world looking for the best talent to join their team. This opportunity has helped to enhance my skills, feel more confident, and gain more income than working by myself.

I recommend Toptal to any good developers that want to gain more income, meet a lot of companies and continue learning more.

I am really pleased in how engagement went.
It was a rocky start, where at first things weren't defined clearly and completely and first couple of deadlines were short, but shortly after we figured out inside the team how to approach sprints better everything clicked and we did some amazing work.

I am very pleased with Ashwini, I reported to her, both on personal and professional level, she was truly great.

I appreciate opportunity to work for this client, this was good job.

I joined Toptal around a year ago and so far journey is Very Nice. Toptal gave a platform where you can choose your worth by yourself. So far CRM client base is relatively less but its growing. I found the platform very impressive and unique. Compared to other freelancing platforms i found toptal very convenient. There system is very impressive, they have study centres like udemy, there are mentors to guide you to get better jobs. Overall its great platform.

I have worked with toptal for more than 2 years now and got some great opportunities to work on some cool projects. The teams were well organized and it was real fun to work with a remotely spread team.

It's a good network overall. They are very helpful in getting projects and the resources they make available are outstanding.

I have noticed that being myself from the Middle East with most of my experience in the region I haven't been able to land a single interview with Western Hemisphere Cos which makes sense but is a bit frustrating since there aren't many opportunities in my field coming into the toptal network from the Middle East.

Freelancing as a Designer at Toptal has been a satisfying experience so far. The onboarding process is certainly challenging but what is offered in return is being part of a selected network, where you have to deal with high-quality clients, and not a simple marketplace. The support team and the contact points between freelancers and clients allow you to work with more peace of mind and everything from invoicing to communication is taken care of by the team. I highly recommend it.

When I joined the platform, it was great you would have matches reach out constantly, and there were plenty of jobs posted regularly.

June 2023 is an entirely different situation. The jobs listed are often already introduced to the client or filled with candidates.

The rates are not even half of what they used to be. Toptal used to be top talent, not rates that compete with sites like Upwork. When the issues are posted in Slack channels, the talent coordinators take comments privately, then lock the thread and, in most cases, close down the feedback Slack channels entirely.

A couple of things may be the cause:
In light of the recent layoffs across the tech industry, there may be more talent on the network than there are jobs.

In addition, there are lower-cost talent and lower-cost jobs - potentially, Toptal's commission markup is pushing this down too
No one is championing design work with our salespeople and clients. Very few jobs for more senior/experienced designers are posted these days!

The only solution I see is to apply if you want but diversify and leverage other freelance networks, personal, etc.

I hope it's not too late to bring the platform back, it's not what it used to be even six months ago, and that's a shame.

After you go through the vetted process to register in Toptal the process of finding the best project for you is very simple - only two interviews technical and cultural fit. It was a pleasure working for the enterprise client Salt Security. The team is great, the company have very welcoming and inclusive culture. I learned in depth about network configurations. I had the pleasure to work with modern programming language as Go. I learned a lot from my team leader about priorities tasks, organising processes, splitting very big technical task into smaller manageable actionable tasks.

I see there are lots of people getting on boarded which is creating unnecessary chaos and the jobs are limited which degrades the hourly rates of candidates due to competition. I am worried if toptal will become like fiver. Please onboard the right (highly skill full) and limited candidates.

This is my first project completed through the Toptal platform. Everything went smoothly. Toptal provided good client communication and assistance on their end. Efficient platform organization allowed me to quickly complete the project.

As a Toptal freelancer, I had an exceptional experience working with Clever Canary LLC. The project was a success, and I received positive feedback from the client for the quality of my work, adherence to timelines, and communication style. I also want to highlight Toptal's reliable and prompt payment system, which provided financial security and allowed me to focus on delivering high-quality results. Toptal truly offers a seamless freelancing experience with top-tier opportunities and smooth payments. Highly recommended!

The job was good but:
I have a "Profile Champion" and i tried more than 6 month to have a job with Toptal. I was obligated to reduce a lot my daily rate to have a first one. I hope it's because it's the first one, i expect from Toptal a better value for me.

The overall experience using Toptal as a partner to increase the freelancing work with good companies willing to grow and develop.

I have had a great experience freelancing with TopTal over the last few months. The projects and the clients are pretty great and everything from invoicing to communication about the breaks is taken care of by the team, so you, as a freelancer, can focus solely on the work. I love the flexibility and reliability of using Toptal and highly recommend it to anyone in ML as there are really good projects available that you can help the clients with.

Toptal has been a game-changer in my freelance journey as a UX Designer.

First, the number of opportunities here is impressive. Toptal consistently offers a wide array of high-quality projects in lots of different industries that fit my expertise, giving me ample chances to grow my career.

Second, payments are hassle-free. With transparent structures and a secure escrow system, I always know what I'll earn, and I don't have to worry about payment issues or bureaucracy.

Plus, Toptal's community of designers and professionals is a valuable bonus. I've learned from others, collaborated effectively, and felt a sense of belonging here.

I started working at Toptal a year ago, everyone here (Core Team, Clients) is highly supportive. I've had many opportunities to work with highly talented clients, and I've learned a lot of new technologies while working on the different projects from all over the world. With the growing importance of remote work, I feel like Toptal is clearly the Top choice to find top-level projects.

I had a truly remarkable experience as a full stack engineer hired to build a unique E-commerce platform for my Fashion-industry based client. The client was exceptionally professional, supportive, and a treat to work with! We delivered iteratively for a very complex project which will soon hit the markets. I have had the best client and project for my first gig at Toptal, and I'd recommend everyone looking to build their business to start at Toptal for instant kick-off and executing successfully, and I'd highly recommend engineers and designers to join the Toptal network to enjoy the work and ensure everything will remain smooth from the job-hunt to interviews to payments all the way to delivery and closure! Big shoutouts to the team at Toptal including Manish, Yakub, Saurav, Emilia, and many others.

My experience with Totptal has been so "another level", that when I talk about Toptal, I don't even call it a freelancing platform anymore. It is actually a platform to build strong relationships between top professionals and great companies.

Toptal really builds effective and high performance teams, helping both the companies get the job done and the developers to live excellent experiences with great job opportunities.

After years of dedicated study and hard work, I've gained a wealth of experience in my field. Thanks to Toptal, I've had the opportunity to work on international projects, earn a competitive salary, and continue to learn and grow through their courses and collaboration with other talented professionals. I'm truly grateful for this opportunity and can't thank Toptal enough