Reviewed & Fact-checkedThe gig economy has grown a lot in the last few years, and this could expand more with advances in technology. All you need is a computer and internet. Already, companies that offer delivery services and management tools for remote teams have seen significant growth. These days, developers working on delivery management software are literally saving small and medium-sized businesses. This will increase freelance coding jobs at a fast pace.
On top of that, being a freelancer now is a lot easier than 10 years ago; there are many available tools to manage your career.
Further Your Coding Career
If you are a freelancer or just starting in the software development world, this is the perfect time to further your career. This article will give you a list of the best sites to look for freelance coding jobs, alongside tips to land the job of your dream and strategies to find success as a freelancer.
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- Research and identify the most in-demand programming languages and frameworks to build your skills around them.
- Build a strong portfolio by contributing to open-source projects or creating your own projects and sharing them on platforms like GitHub.
- Utilize various online job platforms and job boards to find freelance coding jobs, and consider building relationships with clients for repeat business.
1. Upwork
Upwork, known as one of the largest platforms in the freelance industry, requires new users to create an account and submit a profile for approval. They then approve the profile based on the user’s skill set and the current demand for certain skills. Once approved, freelancers can send out proposals to seek coding jobs, both long-term and short-term.
The platform boasts over 12 million freelancers and five million clients, offering approximately three million jobs annually. It provides a wide array of opportunities, a vast list of job openings, and multiple payment options. Upwork also offers payment protection, ensuring secure collaboration between clients and freelancers.
However, Upwork imposes a flat 10% service fee. Freelancers need “connects” to submit proposals, which they must purchase. For security purposes, Upwork mandates that all work communications take place on its platform. Freelancers must weigh the benefits against the drawbacks to decide if Upwork is suitable for their needs. There are many sites like Upwork.
2. FlexJobs
Professionals seeking remote and flexible job opportunities across various industries recognize FlexJobs as a reputable platform. Since its establishment in 2007, FlexJobs has consistently provided legitimate job listings from credible companies, ensuring job seekers have access to quality opportunities. The platform makes it easy for job seekers to sign up and create profiles that effectively showcase their resumes, skills, and work preferences.
FlexJobs provides several subscription options, including monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans, with longer-term commitments offering more favorable pricing. The latest update in September 2023 introduced revised subscription rates, ranging from 14-day access at $2.95 to an annual payment of $71.40 upfront, which equates to $5.95 per month. Notably, the cost-effectiveness of a FlexJobs membership increases with the length of the commitment, an advantage given the daily updates of job opportunities. Additionally, FlexJobs reassures new members of the value of their services with a 14-day money-back guarantee.
The platform prides itself on offering a wide array of job types including 100% remote roles, freelance opportunities, and part-time jobs, among others. FlexJobs differentiates itself by not only catering to traditional job seekers but also to those who may need work flexibility for specific reasons, such as working parents, freelancers, digital nomads, and individuals with disabilities, thereby tapping into unique and diverse talent pools.
However, it’s worth mentioning that while FlexJobs does require a subscription fee for access to its full database of job postings, the platform offers a wealth of additional resources to its subscribers. These include advanced search filters, skills testing, detailed company profiles, and career development resources such as webinars and career coaching, all aimed at enhancing job seekers’ chances of landing suitable remote and flexible job opportunities.
Overall, FlexJobs positions itself as a valuable resource for professionals seeking flexible and productive career paths in the realm of remote work, offering access to legitimate job opportunities and a suite of tools and resources to support career development.
3. Coding Ninjas
Coding Ninjas is known for its high-quality instructional material, designed by experienced educators and industry experts, to ensure comprehensive learning. They emphasize practical, real-world applicability through project-based assignments and provide interactive learning tools for an effective learning experience. The courses cater to both beginners and advanced learners, covering fundamental to complex coding concepts.
Coding Ninjas also offers a supportive learning environment with features like unlimited doubt resolution sessions, peer interaction, and community engagement, making the learning process more collaborative and enriching. While the platform does offer courses with job guarantees, such as the full-stack web development course, it focuses on skill development and education rather than direct project matching for freelancers.
For individuals looking to enhance their coding skills, Coding Ninjas presents a structured yet flexible learning path with various courses accommodating different budgets. The value derived from comprehensive course material, expert instruction, and an interactive learning environment justifies the investment, making it a worthwhile option for those aiming to advance their careers in the tech industry.
4. SolidGigs
Find yourself searching hours upon hours for freelance coding jobs? It’s a full-time job in itself — good thing there’s SolidGigs. They are a gig-finding service that scours the web for the top freelance jobs and send them directly to your inbox. No more wasting time — just do what you do best, and they’ll find the jobs for you.
Additionally, you’ll have access to 127 courses, videos, lessons, tools and more to help you take your freelance career to the next level. Try it now for only $2.
5. Freelancer
Freelancer is a platform to find all kinds of freelancing opportunities. The first step is to create a profile with relevant details such as your experience and skill set.
Then, look for job postings that meet your requirements—in terms of duration, length, and price—and make a bid on it. The client will then select a freelancer that best fits their needs out of all the bids made.
Freelancer offers a complete across-device platform where you can manage all your work relationships. One of the major perks of using this platform is that it has more than 43 million users, which means it’s a big community with a lot of opportunities.
However, this also means more competition. Freelancer charges a fee between 10% to 20%, depending on the type of assignments. The basic membership is free until you find your first project.
6. Gun.io
Gun.io is a platform for elite freelance developers. It has a thorough vetting procedure for its clients to ensure only top tech leaders are listed on its website. The platform doesn’t accept clients that fail to accept the US market rates for starters.
It looks for clients that offer interesting development challenges, that want to build lasting relationships, and that can pay top prices for top professionals. If you are an industry expert and are looking for freelance coding jobs, Gun.io may be a great option.
Gun.io doesn’t charge a direct fee but it adds a certain amount on top of the rate you set for work. The platform helps market your profile by highlighting skills and relevant experience.
You can also submit a video of yourself to better promote your service. The site, however, requires you to commit at least 20 hours per week to be eligible. Depending on how you look at the situation, that can actually be a good thing.
7. Fiverr
Fiverr is a marketplace for freelancers to “sell” their services and skills. The main difference with other platforms is that freelancers get to post their own gigs—what they can do, for a certain amount—and meet those interested in their services.
This way, you get to set your own rates and plan your own gigs. It should be noted that in order to post a gig, you are required to set up three different plans with varying prices and scopes each.
Fiverr is a huge and competitive community so you have to be an excellent seller to make some money. The company charges a 20% fee for all orders. One of the downsides is that it can be challenging to gain visibility among sponsored and seasoned sellers.
8. MeFi Jobs
MeFi Jobs is a subsite of the Meta Filter website that was created in 1999. To create a profile, you just have to pay a one-time life fee of $5 and that’s it. With MeFi Jobs, you can list down your expertise and set your availability, so employers know if you are looking for a job.
You can find full-time, part-time, internship, freelance, volunteer, and contract positions near you by saving your location in your profile.
One of the pros of MeFi Jobs is that you only have to pay once and there is no additional fee if you find a job there. Also, MeFi doesn’t supervise or participate in the working relationship after a job opening is posted.
All it does is help make the first contact between employer and freelancer. While MeFi is a good choice to find freelance coding jobs, the site’s UI could be a little more user-friendly.
9. PeoplePerHour
In spite of its name, the platform helps you find both per-hour and per-project positions. To be a part of PeoplePerHour, you have to go through an application process to verify your skills and experience.
Once accepted, the platform will show you job postings that suit your credentials. You can make 15 proposals per month for free and additional proposals will cost you credits.
A big difference with PeoplePerHour is that it uses the Euro as the main currency when other platforms commonly use US dollars. PeoplePerHour charges a service fee between 3.5% to 20%, depending on the lifetime billing amount per buyer. The platforms have around 50 job openings for developers at the moment.
10. Guru
Guru is relatively similar to other freelance platforms—you sign in for free and you can start looking for jobs after creating a profile. The platform offers workrooms, a designated space that is specific to each job that was hired on Guru. It allows clients to communicate with the freelancer and it also provides updates on the progress of a project.
To ensure transparency, Guru offers a feature called SafePay, which is a shared account between the employer and the freelancer. The latter will only start working once the former funded the SafePay account. However, the money from there will only be disbursed to the freelancer once the job is completed.
Guru’s free account allows you to make up to 10 quotes per month and it charges a 9% commission for every paid invoice. The platform allows for your account to be scalable—it offers four different plans at different price ranges to make your freelance business bigger if you desire.
11. Stack Overflow
Stack Overflow is the biggest platform for programmers to share knowledge and build their careers. The platform was created in 2008 and it now receives over 50 million visits per month.
Stack Overflow has a subsite called Jobs with more than ten specializations to pick from, such as full-stack developers and product managers.
Stack Overflow makes sure every job posting is legitimate. You can search by technology, salary, posting date, location, remote work, or even visa sponsorship opportunities. The platform is not only for freelance coding jobs but for other industry-related professions.
12.Vollna
Vollna’s mission is to make freelancing simple and hassle-free. Vollna crawls the best websites 24/7 to get the best job listings specifically tailored to your freelance business. Created by a fellow freelancer, you get all the latest freelancing jobs posted on freelance platforms such as UpWork, Freelancer, Peopleperhour, etc straight to your inbox or your mobile phone; anytime and anywhere.
6 Tips to Landing More Freelance Coding Jobs
To land more freelance coding jobs, follow these proactive tips:
- Building an outstanding portfolio is the most crucial step in securing freelance coding jobs. You might need to work for free initially, but having a solid portfolio is essential to demonstrate your experience. Employers look at your portfolio to assess if you can meet their job expectations, so start building one that stands out.
- Seek recommendations from your previous clients or employers. Reaching out to them for feedback on your services can lead to valuable testimonials, which you should add to your resume or portfolio.
- Enhance your digital presence by contributing to popular developer communities or taking on side projects. This not only showcases your skills but also helps you earn extra income.
- Marketing yourself is crucial in the freelance coding world. Create a personal brand and website to represent yourself more authentically than a generic portfolio site would.
- Develop strategies to proactively reach out to potential clients, both online and offline. Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you; instead, actively seek them out using the best technology available to coding programmers.
- Engage with your peers and other tech professionals by attending tech meetups, conferences, or events to expand your professional network.
Bonus Pro Tips
- Focus on mastering a specific niche. While it’s tempting to learn everything, specializing in one area at a time can make you an expert and more attractive to employers.
- Establish clear working rules and maintain a disciplined schedule to balance work and personal life effectively.
- Understand and value your skills. Research the market to set a minimum rate for your work and stick to it, ensuring you don’t undersell yourself.
- Contribute to open-source software to improve your skills, connect with the community, and enhance your resume. Platforms like GitHub offer numerous opportunities to get involved in open-source projects.
Now Go And Get Coding Jobs
There are various platforms like FlexJobs, MeFi, Coding Ninjas, Gun.io, Freelancer, Upwork, Guru, PeoplePerHour, Fiverr, and Stack Overflow Jobs, each offering unique opportunities for freelance coders. Choose the one that best fits your needs and preferences.
To thrive as a freelancer, maintain an impressive portfolio, become an expert in your field, know your worth, continuously improve your skills, and have a solid strategy for securing jobs. Also, don’t forget to build a digital presence through articles, guides, and tutorials. Good luck with your freelance coding career!
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