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The 15 best sites to hire Rust developers in 2023

Updated on September 27, 2023
Platforms to find talented Rust developers Toptal
What we liked the most:
  • World-class talent
  • Two-week trial period
  • No-risk engagements
Kelly Wilson
Written by Kelly Wilson

Strategist and entrepreneur, with experience in hiring developers across various industries. Kelly has established herself as a trusted expert in identifying and recruiting top tech talent. She shares advanced tips on how to identify the right talent, create hiring strategies, develop your tech teams and much more.

Expertise: IT Recruiting, Tech, Marketing

Looking to harness the power of Rust for high-performance applications? Our comprehensive hiring guide equips you with the knowledge and strategies to find skilled Rust developers. Discover expert insights, practical tips, and a step-by-step approach to evaluate candidates and build a top-notch Rust development team. With insights into assessing technical proficiency, reviewing project experience, and exploring top talent platforms, our guide empowers you to create powerful and efficient software solutions.

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Here are the top 15 sites to hire freelance Rust developers:

Based on facts publicly available as of 01.01.2023

1. Toptal

Toptal only accepts 3% of the coders who apply, but world-class talent is not the only reason this site snags our top position. On average, Toptal matches businesses with a developer candidate within 24 hours. With each potential hire, Toptal sets up a brief programming trial. If you do not like the developer’s work, you pay nothing. Toptal also takes on several tedious but necessary tasks such as non-disclosure agreements, benefits and unemployment insurance. By allowing clients to focus on programming missions, Toptal merits strong consideration for any business aiming to hire a Rust expert.

Key points:

  • Hire selected developers and start onboarding in 48 hours.
  • Scale teams easily to keep up with changing project needs.
  • World-class talent matching earned Toptal a 98% success rate.

2. X-Team

Heading into its second decade, X-Team has earned respect from Fortune 500 companies and many smaller businesses. X-Team aims to build long-term relationships with clients. The company proclaims that many of its coders have worked exclusively with the same client for years and the talent pool comprises more than 70 countries. If your business needs a cohesive team of remote Rust developers for long-term projects, X-Team is among your best choices.

Key points:

  • X-Team employs less than 1% of applicants due to stringent vetting.
  • Hire X-Team for projects lasting 90 days or more.
  • Ask your dedicated account manager to help scale your team as needed.

3. Upwork

Over two decades, Upwork has built a strong reputation among freelancers and the businesses that hire them. The site offers two methods to connect businesses and developers. For less time-critical projects, you may post a job and invite proposals from Upwork’s stable of Rust developers. If you have urgent needs, an Upwork Talent Scout can curate a shortlist of developers and set up virtual interviews. Response time for the Talent Scout service may be as brief as 48 hours.

Key points:

  • The only developers Upwork vets receive Expert-Vetted status.
  • To find developers with experience on similar projects, ask Talent Specialists for help.
  • Benefit from secure payments, free tools, and fixed-price protection.

4. Hired

If your business needs to hire Rust developers for fixed time periods on a rotating basis, Hired may be worth a look. The site offers four pricing tiers, with each level offering more detailed productivity analytics. Premium, Hired’s highest tier, allows you to work in real-time with a candidate on a virtual whiteboard to assess coding proficiency and teamwork skills. You can view a demo of this service before committing to a subscription.

Key points:

  • An annual subscription allows you to make unlimited job posts.
  • When weighing candidates, compare their various skill assessment results.
  • Hired offers talent matching as an optional service.

5. Gigster

With Gigster’s rigorous screening, only one out of every 500 developer applicants survives the cut. This rigor has in turn earned the trust of several Fortune 500 companies. Gigster serves projects that require teams of developers, and the company rotates developers as needed while a project progresses. Your business will need a project budget of at least $300,000 to work with Gigster. For businesses seeking a turnkey programming solution, Gigster merits serious consideration.

Key points:

  • Gigster prepares a free technical proposal based on your project parameters.
  • Hiring fully managed teams addresses quality, budget, and completion concerns.
  • Work on your project usually begins in approximately 14 days.

6. Freelancer

Freelancer serves a worldwide community of remote workers in many endeavors, including programming. The site’s flexible search engine makes it easy to search for developers with multiple proficiencies, such as Rust and Node.js. Alternatively, post your project and let developers make offers. With Freelancer’s built-in milestone capability, you can ensure that your application meets specs before issuing payments. For small businesses, Freelancer is among the best sites to hire Rust engineers.

7. Gun.io

Focused exclusively on software developers, Gun.io numbers Amazon and Cisco among its clients. The average experience level for the company's developers is eight years. Gun.io allows clients to hire developers as salaried employees or month-to-month workers. For salaried workers, the company’s fee is 20% of a developer's first-year salary. Gun.io takes on much of the bookkeeping burden for their hires, allowing your business to focus on the core software mission.

8. Arc.dev

With a talent pool spanning 12 countries, Arc accepts fewer than three developers among every 100 who apply. Beyond a vetted talent stable, Arc aims for speed. The company claims it can match clients with freelancers within 72 hours and put full-time Rust developers to work within two weeks. For businesses in the budgeting stage, Arc makes it simple to view the salary or rates for programming subspecialties. With time-sensitive projects, Arc is among the better hiring resources.

9. Guru

With offices in Pennsylvania and India, Guru enters its third decade as a freelancer marketplace. Guru boasts a large stable of software engineers, and an excellent search engine simplifies finding programming specialties. For employers who pay by eCheck, there is no charge to hire on Guru. Your hires can go to work very quickly with Guru, but vetting, trial assignments and non-disclosure agreements are in your lap. For businesses with small budgets to hire Rust developers, Guru deserves a look.

10. PeoplePerHour

With over 1 million hires, United Kingdom-based PeoplePerHour boasts a vibrant pool of freelancers across business tasks. Unsurprisingly, PeoplePerHour serves clients with short-term needs. Businesses may post a project and invite offers or search the site for programming specialties. The site also allows clients to post offers, essentially paid auditions to judge talent. PeoplePerHour is an excellent option for small businesses.

11. DistantJob

With heavy hitters such as Microsoft, AMD, Intel and Nvidia on its client list, DistantJob is an online remote recruiter worth a look to hire Rust developers. Beyond capable coding chops, DistantJob aims to recruit candidates who fit a client’s unique culture. To refine its selection process, the company regularly checks with clients to evaluate the success of new hires. For companies recruiting for long-term projects, DistantJob is among the best sites to hire Rust developers.

12. Indeed

Indeed features nearly one-quarter million resumes on its site, with more than a few posted by capable Rust developers. For employers, the site offers many resources to streamline initial vetting and interviews. Indeed’s hiring templates ensure that your business will adhere to national and local labor laws. If your business cannot afford one of the curated programming sites, Indeed is a proven alternative.

13. Fiverr

A worldwide marketplace for gig workers, Israel-based Fiverr boasts some highly capable Rust development talent. Developer candidates post their skill set and price, making Fiverr a viable hiring option for small businesses. Selecting the “Pro Services” toggle on the site’s search page narrows your choices to Fiverr-verified candidates. For businesses looking to hire Rust developers for a quick proof of concept, a Fiverr search is worth the time.

14. LinkedIn

Part talent marketplace and part social media site, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn occupies a unique slot in the hiring ecosystem. LinkedIn’s worldwide reputation has allowed the site to build a massive list of top-drawer talent for every programming niche, including Rust developers. The upside for LinkedIn is inexpensive access to that talent pool. Along with that low cost, however, your business will need to assume nearly all of the hiring chores.

15. Turing

California-based Turing specializes in developer jobs with a talent pool spanning 150 countries. Each developer must survive a five-hour battery of tests to advance. As an aid to businesses aiming to hire Rust developers, the company’s posted resumes offer far more detail than most of its competitors. Regardless of worker or client location, Turing guarantees that every hired developer will be available for at least four hours of the client’s workday. This service offers a two-week free trial to new clients. If daily communication is vital for your project, check into Turing.

Guide to hiring great freelance Rust developers

Introduced in 2012, the Rust programming language quickly won a passionate following among early adopters. The successful deployment of many software solutions written with the language has led to higher demand for Rust developers.

What Rust Developers Do

Naturally, the heart of a Rust developer’s mission is writing code in the Rust language. Rust hits a sweet spot among programming languages. It preserves many of the virtues of C++ while liberating developers from onerous memory management chores. This memory safety is a boon for end users. Applications compiled in Rust present a smaller attack surface to cybercriminals.

Rust’s compiled code runs nearly as fast as C++ and much quicker than Java. Rust squeezes maximum performance out of hardware, making it ideal for the fast-growing Internet of Things market. The language also shines for applications that work with massive databases. As systems administrators have discovered Rust’s virtues, demand for top Rust developers has grown. SlashData reports that Rust adoption tripled from 2020 to 2022.

How To Hire Rust Developers

Hiring a remote worker allows your business to tap worldwide developer talent. The options for your hiring process fall into three categories:

  • Full-Time: With a full-time hire, you gain exclusive access to a developer’s services. To retain the best Rust developers, you will need to offer a competitive benefits package on top of salary. With a full-time employee, your business will likely need to handle income tax withholding.
  • Part-Time: If your business needs occasional programming advice on short notice, hiring a consultant on a part-time basis is a cost-efficient solution. With this arrangement, a well-defined non-compete clause is essential in the employment contract.
  • Freelance: When you need to hire Rust developers and you need flexibility, tapping the freelance pool solves the problem. Worldwide (not only in the Silicon Valley), freelancers run the gamut from computer science students to systems engineers with a half-century of experience. Typically, freelancers handle health insurance and income tax issues by themselves.

While freelancers and consultants typically quote an hourly rate, this number usually applies to the estimated time necessary to achieve a programming milestone — a defined task for an application. The back-and-forth process of setting these milestones lets the company andthe remote rust developer set interim fees for the duration of a project.

What Skills To Seek When Hiring Rust Developers

Rust is a computer language that works in harmony with other programming languages. This feature has helped drive Rust’s recent growth spurt, and you may need a Rust programmer with extensive knowledge of other languages.

Nearly every Rust developer has command of C++, JavaScript, MySQL and Node.js. One of the sources of Rust’s recent momentum is refactoring existing Java code into Rust. This conversion process sometimes slashes execution time by as much as 90%. If your business aims to take advantage of this capability, you will want to hire a Rust developer with strong Java skills.

Here are a few other factors to consider:

  • For server-side projects, look for proficiency in MySQL databases.
  • With IoT projects, look for proven experience in writing compact code for embedded systems.
  • If your project needs multiple front-end Rust developers, ensure that all members have proficiency with your preferred programming framework.
  • Does the developer have experience working with a project manager or he can self manage

The Cost To Hire Rust Developers

In its 2021 survey of United States and United Kingdom developers, O’Reilly found salaries for full-time Rust developers ranging from $100,000 to $150,000. For remote Rust developers, ZipRecruiter pegs average annual pay at $124,000, just under $60 per hour.

Thanks to the language’s recent surge and a scarcity of developers, Rust coders are among the highest paid of all developers. If your business has recently hired PHP, Ruby or Python developers, expect to pay at least 20% more to land comparable Rust talent.

Choosing the Right Site To Hire Rust Developers for Your Project

With so many hiring sites and a bevy of developers with varied skill sets, plucking the needle from this haystack may seem overwhelming. Some common sense steps will bring focus to your search.

The Case To Hire Rust Developers

Hiring a Rust developer empowers your business to harness two valuable advantages of the language. First, a Rust application’s execution speed makes for responsive applications. Snappy performance gives your application a measurable competitive advantage.

Second, Rust yields highly secure code, making it far less likely that your business’s name will become associated with a high-profile cyber breach. Considering these practical advantages, it pays to hire a top Rust developer before your competitor does.

Things To Consider Before Hiring

  • Understand Rust’s strengths and weaknesses.
  • Nail down your budget.
  • Formulate a vision of your software’s use case.

How To Find Great Freelance Rust Developers

Our top 15 list comprises sites with solutions for a variety of programming missions and budgets. With several sites, you’ll work with a program coordinator, while others will put you in direct communication with developers. If your programming task requires a managed team, working with a coordinator makes enormous sense.

Conversely, if your business faces a narrow and well-defined task, working directly with a single remote developer is the way to go. This approach is more cost-efficient and makes it easier to hit interim milestones. Every programming situation is unique, but here are basic principles to follow:

  • Eliminate sites that exceed your budget.
  • Build a required skill set list for developer candidates.
  • Define a bi-weekly milestone list for the project’s duration.

Using our top 15 list as a starting point, you can hire Rust developers able to deliver a compact, fast and secure software solution.

Hiring Rust developers - FAQs

How Do I Hire Rust Developers?

Because Rust has such diverse capabilities, these developers often specialize in particular types of applications. Rust developers typically need other technical skills, including proficiencies with:

  • Programming framework
  • Database architecture
  • Project management
  • Embedded systems

To find the right developers for your positions, define your project’s goals, nature, budget, scope and timeline. Whether you need one or a team of full-time, part-time or freelance Rust developers, you can use top sites to connect with qualified candidates. Post your project’s description and open positions, use talent matching services or view developer profiles and portfolios.

Are Rust Developers In Demand?

The robust programming language’s popularity continues to expand, with many developers preferring its simplicity and versatility. The demand for Rust developers nearly tripled in 24 months, from 2020 to 2022. Projections indicate that the job growth for Rust developers should continue by at least 25% until 2031.

Why Should You Hire a Rust Developer?

Software, web pages and various other technologies rely on multiple programming languages. Many of these languages have specific uses, while others are multi-purpose. Sponsored by Mozilla, Rust is an extremely popular, scalable general-purpose systems-level language with several benefits:

  • High performance and efficiency
  • Concurrency
  • Simplified memory safety
  • Multi-paradigm
  • Enhanced security

Operating systems, gaming engines, user interfaces, IoT applications and browsers are examples of Rust uses. Companies including Amazon, Microsoft and Dropbox use Rust. If you have a large-scale systems project, hiring a Rust developer can save time and money while producing effective, high-quality products.

How Much Does It Cost To Hire a Rust Developer?

The U.S. average pay for Rust developers is $104,840 per year or $50 per hour. Annual compensation ranges from $18,000 to $180,000 depending on skills, location and experience. You can save on overhead and payroll costs by hiring freelancers.

Where can I find Rust developers for hire?
  • Toptal
  • X-team
  • Upwork
  • Hired
  • Gigster

Explore more sites in our comprehensive list of top companies.

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