Remote work isn’t just a trend that will pass with the pandemic. More and more people are figuring out the benefits of working remotely instead of going to the office.
From bypassing crowded streets and not having to commute to the office to popping into your kitchen for a break and checking in on the kids, the benefits are clear. So, it’s no wonder that Buffer finds 97,6% of people say they’d like to work remotely, at least for a period of time during their careers.
One thing that remote work has opened up for companies and recruiters is a global workforce. It’s no longer necessary for talent to physically come into the office to do an interview — they can now do everything via Zoom. But this approach has created challenges as well: where to find the best remote talent.
A great answer is remote job boards.
Which remote job boards are the best? Well, that requires a little more explanation.
In this article, we’ll cover the most popular job boards, what to consider when choosing a remote job board, what are the best remote job boards, how to segment remote jobs categories, and tips and tricks that will help you land talented job seekers.
What are the most popular remote job boards?
People today want to work remotely. That’s why there are quite a lot of remote job boards. Some are general job boards that have remote positions in almost all possible industries while others specialize in certain sectors and roles. Here’s our list of the top 12 top remote job boards and why they rank so highly…
We Work Remotely
We Work Remotely is one of the best remote job boards with great resources for employers to hire remote talent. Companies have to pay a flat fee of $299 per standard job listing.
We Work Remotely’s website visitors are mostly from the US and they have around 300,000 visitors a month. So it’s a good remote job board for recruiters who want to find US talent.
FlexJobs
FlexJobs is a remote job search website that advertises full time remote work and flexible jobs around the world. It was founded in the US in 2007, but companies from all across the world can use it to attract remote job seekers.
FlexJobs has a subscription model where companies can pay to post job ads for one month $399, three months for $859, or a full year for $2,999.
As an employer, you will have a vetting process to go through before posting remote jobs. This makes it a little bit more difficult for companies to post job listings but ensures that the remote jobs site stays scam-free. Also, you’ll receive activity and data reporting from any subscription plan so you can get insights from your analytics.
Remote.co
Remote.co is another remote job search website from Colorado. It was founded by the same person as FlexJobs, Sara Sutton, also known as the “Queen of Remote Work”.
Remote.co is a leading job board that only focuses on jobs that are remote so you won’t find any that are telecommute jobs or on-site jobs. The site has a robust search tool that makes it easy to segment employees into categories.
When it comes to pricing, Remote.co has the following model:
- You can post one job ad for 30 days for $299
- You can post one job ad for 60 days for $598
- You can post one job ad for 90 days for $897
On top of remote jobs, the website also has a blog section where they share valuable resources.
Pangian
Pangian is a remote job site named after the supercontinent Pangea. They named it Pangian to “unite the world by transcending geographical boundaries”. They have a robust list of remote job postings and remote job categories and their talent stretches across five continents to date.
The most common talent on Pangian will be in the following categories:
- Web development
- UX design
- IT/Dev
- Sales
- Teaching
- Content creation
- Marketing
The website has over 85,000 members (job candidates) and it costs only $49 to publish a job ad, making it one of the most affordable options out there.
Indeed
Indeed is one of the biggest remote job boards in the world. The website is available in over 60 countries and it’s the most visited job board in the US.
Their website has a database of over 200 million CVs from professionals all across the world. Although, if you want to access this database, you will have to pay either the standard fee of $100 a month or $960 a year per recruiter. You can also go for an advanced, professional option for $250 a month or $2,400 a year per recruiter.
Their standard job post is free and their sponsored job postings start from $5 per day.
One of the problems with the website is that the free job ads that you post lose visibility quite fast so you may have to invest in a sponsored post.
JustRemote
JustRemote is a remote job search board that was established fairly recently, in 2018, and it’s been trying to connect remote jobs with job candidates from all around the world. The platform is quite easy to use, has a great filter option so you can segment candidates easily, and even has resources that can help many job seekers find remote jobs online.
Their pricing plan includes a single job post at $189 and if you want to do multiple posts, you can even get a discount. Unfortunately, the platform doesn’t allow posting free remote jobs so you will have to “pay-to-play.” But the good thing is that the platform is competitive when it comes to price (they’re more affordable than may of the other job boards mentioned).
Remotive
Remotive is one of the best remote job boards that enables employers to post and manage remote candidates. At Remotive, recruiters can post jobs by region which can really help with pinpointing just the right talent at the right location.
The company was founded in 2014 in Paris, but most of its traffic comes from the US. They have a couple of pricing models:
- A standard job post is $299 per post
- A highlighted ad is $348 per post
- A highlighted ad with the company’s logo is $378 per post
- And a premium version that provides employers with a highlighted job ad, the company’s logo, and a pin on Remotive’s main page will cost you $448 per post
Remotive’s website is really user-friendly. You can easily find employees with their simple interface and can even segment the employees by keywords, remote positions, and job titles.
The platform has around 30,000 tech-savvy remote workers and you can find special offers if you need to do bulk posting. Remotive doesn’t provide a free posting option.
Skip The Drive
Skip The Drive is a remote job search platform that helps remote workers find companies that will enable them to work in industries such as accounting, marketing, healthcare, programming, and even engineering,
The job board was founded in 2013 in the US, but they operate worldwide.
Their pricing plan is quite simple: there’s a standard fee for listing a job on their platform and it will cost you $79. The job post will stay up for 30 days and after that, you can choose to extend the job posting. With Skip The Drive, you can find entry-level remote workers, but also some experienced candidates as well.
One thing that the platform mentions is that you can ask for a full refund if you’re unsatisfied with how they listed your job post. They don’t have a free posting option on their platform.
Outsourcely
Outsourcely is a remote job board founded in 2014 and it connects global talent with remote opportunities.
On the platform, you can search candidates according to their main skills such as writing, design, data entry, administration, software development, customer support, and many more. Features of the platform include options for the employer to have private chats with candidates and conduct live interviews.
They have a free option in their pricing model that allows you to browse candidates on the platform and post one job ad per month. The two other options are $79 for five job posts per month, and $229 for 30 job posts per month.
Working Nomads
Working Nomads is one of the best remote job boards that operates globally. They have a mixture of freelance, remote, and even telecommuting job opportunities so you will find a wide variety of candidates in their talent pool. Some of their candidates want to work remotely and they want freelance remote jobs while others are looking for work they can do between “nomading.”
The pricing model offers three different plans:
- Posting a single job that will cost you $149
- Posting three jobs that will cost you $387
- Posting five jobs that will cost you $545
The platform is really good if you want to find remote employees to help you out during a project. The workers on the platform also search for part time remote jobs. Working Nomads has over 120,000 visitors per month so it’s good to check out their talent pool. They don’t allow you to insert your company’s logo in job posts and they don’t have a free job posting option.
Turing
Turing uses its remote job websites to help employers find amazing engineers all over the world. Forbes recognized them as one of America’s Best Startup Employers for two years in a row (2021 and 2022). It’s no wonder that they’re considered one of the best remote job boards.
They use deep matching intelligence to find the best developers across hundreds of engineering skills. On top of that, they have a rigorous process of vetting candidates on their platform so you will only find the best of the best there.
Their brand of being the best attracts great developers so if you need an expert in React, Node, Python, or Java, check out their job boards.
Turing offers a free, two-week trial period so you can check them out risk-free before deciding if it’s the right website for you.
Gun.io
Gun.io is a remote job search platform founded in 2011 and it focuses on matching employers with candidates skilled in the mobile and web industries. It’s based in Nashville, Tennessee, but accepts candidates and employers from all across the world.
Their network has over 25,000 developers who actively job search on the platform and they’ve successfully completed projects for companies such as Cisco, Tesla, Amazon, and Zappos.
Their vetting process covers both sides — candidates so that you only find the best possible job seekers on the platform, and employers so that their needs are properly met and that their freelancers are paid without the fear of being underpaid. The fee that the employers pay is already included in freelancers’ hourly wages and it ranges from $22-88 per hour.
What to consider when choosing remote job websites
While many of these remote job boards might look the same at first glance, they’re not. There are quite a lot of differences between them and you should choose ones according to your needs. One platform could be the best remote jobs website for an enterprise-level company, while being a complete mismatch for a startup.
When thinking about hiring a remote worker, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- What’s my budget for the role?
- How much time do I have to fill the role (time to fill)?
- What kind of skill level do I need from the candidates?
- How closely do I have to work with the new hire?
- What’s my company’s unique value proposition for a remote position and what makes it exciting to work for?
These five questions will translate into the following:
Budget
When you have an open position and want to hire remote job seekers, you’ll have to figure out what your budget is for the role. This will help you decide whether you’re going to search for a software development engineer on a job board such as Upwork, where a developer charges $15-30 an hour, a remote job listings site like Toptal Developer, where remote job seekers charge $60-250 an hour, or whether it’s worth paying for a sponsored listing on Indeed if you’re advertising full-time, high paying remote jobs.
Time to fill
How much time you have to fill the position will make a difference when choosing remote job websites. The average time to fill a position is 42 days. If you will want to go faster than that, you’ll have to choose a job site that doesn’t have many verification steps, and take a deep look at your recruitment process.
Success score
Success score depends on the skill level you’re searching for. If you need someone with entry-level skills, you will pick a job board that has the most amount of candidates that can fill that position (like Indeed or We Work Remotely). If you need specialized candidates that are job searching, you will go for a job board like Jobspresso.
Geography (time zones)
This depends on how closely you need to work with the new employee. If you need to give quite a lot of direction and require fast back-and-forth communication, then you’ll be looking for someone in or close to your time zone. It’s harder to synergize with someone in a timezone with an 11-hour difference and collaborate with them conveniently. So having remote workers from across the world only makes sense if you won’t need to communicate with them continuously throughout the day.
That will dictate the best job boards for you, limiting you to ones that have candidates operating in your local time or up to a three-hour difference.
Your company status (industry, size, positioning)
There are employees who love to work in a dynamic and fast-paced environment and there are those who want a more stable environment. If you need someone who is great at working at startups, you will go for the AngelList job board to find that kind of talent. On top of this, you will also have to think about your industry (teaching talent is found elsewhere than programming talent) and your mission and vision.
According to Gallup, millennials don’t just work for a paycheck. They need purpose and meaning from their jobs. So make sure that you present your company’s vision in your job listing.
Additional tips and tricks for writing remote job listings
Here are three more tips and tricks to finding great remote talent through job boards.
Use freelancing platforms to snatch good employees
There are a lot of people who are freelancing and would give that up for a good job offer, but they want to continue to work remotely. So don’t eliminate your freelancing talent — they can often turn into great full-time employees.
Fish in the fishing pond
Find your talent where your target audience gathers. If you’re searching for a software developer, get familiar with GitHub. If you want a designer, go to the best job boards for designers — 99designs and their forum.
Use employee-centered copy instead of customer-centered copy
When writing the copy for high-paying remote jobs online, make sure that the copy is employee-centered instead of customer-centered. What employees want to see is what a “day at the office” will look like, what they’ll be doing, how they will work remotely, who they’ll work with, and what benefits and perks they’ll have. So make sure that your job postings mention these things.
Summary
Finding talent for on-site and remote positions can be difficult, so picking the best remote job sites is crucial if you want to get good talent.
In this article, we’ve covered the best remote job boards and explained the elements you need to keep in mind to pick the right one to find the best remote job seekers for your business.
For a detailed guide on how to hire remote workers, check out our Remote Hiring Guide blog post.
