The 15 best sites to hire SharePoint Developers in 2024

Guide to Hiring Great Freelance SharePoint Developers

In today’s business landscape, authorized users need access to company documents and other vital content from remote locations. Large organizations also need robust intranets to sustain their operations.

Through SharePoint in Microsoft Office 365 or a SharePoint Server Subscription, you can bring modern functionalities and features into your company to streamline processes, enable secure collaboration, and automate workflows. However, you cannot expect the best results if you use mediocre resources. Hiring top SharePoint developers allows you to get the most out of the platform’s multiple capabilities.

Microsoft continually adds new features and updates existing ones to promote user experience. The SharePoint developers you hire should stay up to date with user needs, preferences, and expectations, adapting these emerging technologies to meet them.

Exceptional programmers build their domain knowledge and communication skills to make products that make a difference. They take time to understand what products are essential to their company and where they should put their focus. These developers make the difference between the success and failure of the project. — Szymon Adamiak

The best SharePoint developers understand more than software; they also understand business processes and requirements. Their continuous learning positions them to harness the power of cutting-edge solutions to benefit your organization.

Hiring the right SharePoint development team for your needs is easier said than done. With the high demand for top talent, you need to entice these professionals to want to work on your project rather than someone else’s.

Utilizing freelance SharePoint developers increases the talent pool and provides tremendous flexibility, making this option very attractive. This invaluable hiring guide explains the top sourcing sites, the benefits of hiring freelancers, the skills your development team needs, how to write a compelling job description, top interview questions, and more.

Hiring a Freelance SharePoint Developer

When building your development team, you must choose whether to hire freelancers or employees. While each option has benefits, freelancers offer the most:

• Cost savings

• Fast hiring and scaling

• Niche skill sets that are often unavailable locally

• Flexibility

• No long-term commitment

Many of the world’s most qualified SharePoint developers choose to work in freelance positions. Using the top sites in this guide, you can source top-notch developers who can successfully complete your project.

What Does a SharePoint Developer Do?

SharePoint developers design, create, develop, maintain, and update applications and intranet websites utilizing Microsoft’s cloud-based SharePoint development platform. These statistics underline why SharePoint is so popular, with more than 200,000 organizations and 190 million people using it:

• Average ROI of 301%

• Integrates with over 1,000 apps

• Up to 40% reduction in project timelines

• 17% information management cost reduction

• 90% average user satisfaction rate

You can find SharePoint solutions in 85% of Fortune 500 companies, but it is also suitable for small and medium businesses. The yearly growth rate for SharePoint Online is 38%, increasing the demand for talented SharePoint developers for hire.

Depending on your business goals and needs, your developers can use SharePoint to:

• Create intranet websites

• Embed generative AI capabilities into your intranet

• Integrate various solutions with MS Teams and Viva Connections

• Implement robust governance policies and safeguards to protect your data

• Create solutions that allow multiple users to simultaneously work in real time on the same document

• Automate workflows and business processes

• Enhance collaboration capabilities

• Develop applications to resolve business challenges

• Ensure that your content is optimized for the SharePoint mobile app

Your SharePoint developers need to be intimately familiar with the platform, but they may also need additional skill sets, depending on the nature of your project. Check out our other hiring guides for more information about supplementary skills.

Hiring dedicated SharePoint developers can bring cohesiveness to your company through customized, secure, and shareable internal content. Employees can have remote access, providing flexibility on the go. Your company should see increased productivity and cost reductions.

Why Hire SharePoint Developers?

If you hire developers or utilize internal IT teams unfamiliar with SharePoint, your finished products are not likely to perform to your expectations. You need the right tools and skilled developers to build a successful intranet structure. SharePoint is a robust content management tool, and SharePoint developers know how to utilize its various features and capabilities to create the custom solutions your company needs.

Using this powerful platform, you can add relevant, timely content to make your employees feel included and appreciated. The SharePoint mobile app provides an easy yet secure way to stay in touch from anywhere.

How To Hire SharePoint Developers

Most successful development projects start with a comprehensive plan. Once you decide to initiate a SharePoint project, define its:

• Nature, goals, and scope

• Budget

• Hiring and project timelines, including duration

• Desired and required skill sets

• Team makeup, including the number of SharePoint developers you need and position-specific job descriptions

You must also decide if you will hire developers as employees or freelancers. With these details, you can begin your search for top candidates using the sites and resources in this guide.

Whether you use job boards, freelance marketplaces, recruiters, or talent-matching services, you will notice skill levels listed on applicant resumes. Junior, mid, and senior levels designate how much experience the person has with the specific skill or overall software development.

One skill level is not necessarily more desirable than another, depending on the nature of the project. A dynamic and eager junior-level SharePoint developer may be willing to go the extra mile to make your project a success, while those with higher levels may be somewhat complacent. Do not make your hiring decision solely based on the skill-level label.

Many development teams have members with varying skill sets and levels. Senior-level SharePoint developers may have project management experience and more time working with the platform, but they also cost more to hire.

When deciding which candidates to hire, consider:

• Whether your budget allows for more experienced developers

• Niche skill sets that could enhance your project

• Experience completing similar projects successfully

• Business acumen

• A focus on user experience

The right candidate will have a good mix of technical expertise and desirable soft skills. They will also practice continual learning to stay current with technological capabilities and trends.

If you are uncertain which skills your project requires, consider using a talent-matching service like Toptal. After describing your project, the Toptal team will work quickly to find highly qualified SharePoint developers with the necessary expertise.

What Skills To Look for When Hiring SharePoint Developers

The SharePoint developers you hire should possess the requisite technical and soft skills. Technical skills your development team needs include:

• SharePoint

• CSS, HTML, JavaScript, C#, and .NET programming languages

• Other Microsoft products such as Azure, Office 365, InfoPath, PowerShell, and Viva Connections

• Testing and debugging

• Business process automation

• User interfaces

• User experience

• Cloud technology

• Data, databases, analysis, and documentation

• SQL server or JQuery

• Custom workflows

Your project requirements may dictate other necessary technical skills, which could include industry-specific knowledge, business intelligence, compliance requirements, and specific types of application development. Some developers are Microsoft certified, meaning that they are proficient in specific skills related to SharePoint development processes.

Necessary soft skills are just as important as technical skills. Required soft skills include:

• Creativity

• Innovation

• Active listening

• Fluency in verbal and written communication in the language of your choice

• Attention to detail

• Cultural fit

• Problem-solving

• Critical thinking

• Flexibility and ability to work well under pressure

• Teamwork mentality and honed collaboration skills

• Patience

The candidates you choose should be capable of listening to your needs and providing meaningful SharePoint solutions in formats that your employees will understand and be comfortable using. That means they should understand how your business operates and what tasks your employees need to undertake, and be able to translate that knowledge into fully functional deliverables.

SharePoint developers who have top-notch technical skills but lack the right mix of soft skills will probably not be effective team members. Soft skills are challenging to judge, so consider using a sourcing site that vets its developers for soft as well as technical skills.

How Much Does It Cost To Hire SharePoint Developers?

The U.S. average SharePoint developer annual salary is $113,185, or $54 hourly. Yearly earnings range from $39,000 to $159,500 depending on factors like location, skills, and experience. You can usually realize significant cost savings by hiring freelancers.

Tips for Writing a SharePoint Developer Job Description

In addition to relevant details like job duties, required qualifications, and timelines, your job description should be engaging to make qualified candidates want to work for you. Highlight things like company achievements, culture, current and future projects, and your brand. Think about and include what you would want to know about the position and company if you were a job seeker.

Labor laws require diversity and inclusivity in the workplace, so prepare carefully for interviewing candidates. Create a list of questions and a scoring model to use with each applicant to avoid bias.

Common Interview Questions To Ask When You Are Looking To Hire a SharePoint Developer

Whether you include skill assessments in your application process, use sites that vet candidates, or perform your own technical evaluations, you will need to ask several technical questions during interviews. However, since applicants who make it to the interview stage have the right technical expertise, this is your opportunity to gauge soft skills.

Pay attention to whether candidates understand the question and how they answer to gauge communication skills. Consider asking an open-ended question, leaving out vital details. This technique allows you to assess the candidate’s attention to detail, subject knowledge, and confidence in asking for clarifications before formulating an answer.

Top technical questions include:

• What is the difference between a SharePoint site and site collection? A site’s contents are housed on one server, while a site collection contains multiple related sites with common features.

• How do you test and troubleshoot applications you build? Answers should show thoroughness, a commitment to error-free deliverables, and a consistent methodology.

• How would you use different types of SharePoint sites? Communication sites share information internally in an organization, document centers store files and data, and team sites enable collaboration.

If you are unfamiliar with the technical aspects of your project, some sourcing sites can help you conduct interviews.

How To Find Freelance SharePoint Developers for Hire

Hiring managers may utilize professional networking, participate in virtual job fairs, partner with coding boot camps, use job boards, post in freelance marketplaces, go through outsourcing agencies, or use talent-matching services to find and hire top SharePoint developers. When comparing your options, consider things like:

• The quality you expect

• Your budget

• Your ability to vet technical skills

• How quickly you need to hire

• The availability of required skill sets in your local talent pool

• The amount of time and effort you want to invest in sourcing

• How much flexibility you need

Of the listed best sites to hire SharePoint developers, Toptal is our number-one pick. With Toptal, you can quickly interview and hire world-class talent with minimal effort on your part and enjoy a risk-free trial period to assess your developer’s performance.

An effective hiring strategy to attract top talent starts with research. To achieve a favorable project outcome, you need the best SharePoint developers available. By using the invaluable resources in this hiring guide, you are positioning your project and company for success.