Even with it narrowed down this much, you may still be struggling to figure out which of these sites to use. Our Ruby on Rails questionnaire can suggest a few of the most suitable sites, but here's a quick guide to choosing based on a few attributes.
- Budget and Developer Experience: If money is no object for your ambitious project, a service like Toptal works amazingly. CodementorX, Rockstar Coders, and Hired are also great choices. If you're not sure what your budget is, you may want to avoid job board websites that require you to set your own prices; nothing is worse than over- or under-pricing a commission.
- Are you a small business on a limited budget? Boards like Upwork and PeoplePerHour let you find a range of developers with lower hourly rates, though this often comes at the cost of experience. Just remember, how much you spend on a developer and their skill level are often directly correlated.
- Individual or Team: Job boards and similar websites are great for hiring individuals, but not as good when you need a team. You can pull it off if you're a good manager, but there's no guarantee two developers will work well with each other -- much less three or five. If you have no experience organizing people, you should either use a close-knit company like Rockstar Coders, whose developers have probably worked together before, or one that organizes the hiring and development process for you, like HireCoder. LinkedIn may be a good choice as well; as it's a professional networking site, it's possible that people with similar skills have interacted in the past.
- Shortlist or Screen Yourself: Do you want the hiring process simplified, or would you rather sort through candidates yourself? GeeksPerHour is the furthest extreme, completely eliminating the lengthy hiring process down to the interviews. Other sites that match developers to you include Toptal, CodementorX and Freelancer (users bid on your job). If you want to take the process into your own hands, Hired has a powerful search engine. Upwork and PeoplePerHour also allow you to search for and screen developers, as well as Stack Overflow and Github's job boards.
- Local or Remote: Most of these listings help you find remote developers, but a select few can help with local jobs. Toptal can help you temporarily relocate people, while CodementorX will work with you to find a local developer. Hired has local freelancers in major cities, and can also help you relocate developers. In addition, most job boards will let you specify it as a local listing.
- Hiring Timeframe: How soon do you need to make the hire? Within months, or days? Many companies don't have a timeframe guarantee, so it's possible no one will respond to your job listing. Toptal, Hired, and RubyNow all list a hiring time of less than a month. It usually won't take that long, but for a more difficult project, expect it to be towards the end of that spectrum. CodementorX and CyberCoders both will get you matched within a few days, while Hire Coder and Freelancer claim that they'll find you results the same day you post.
FAQ
- What does a Ruby on Rails developer do?
- A Ruby on Rails developer is liable for composing server-side web application rationale in Ruby on the framework Rails. Ruby on Rails engineers typically create back-end segments, create connections with outside web services, and bolster the front-end designers by incorporating their work with the application.