I’m sure I’m not alone as a freelancer in having a hard time finding a steady stream of work from good clients. Having to wonder whether you’ll have enough money to pay this month’s bills is hard, especially when you live in a crazy expensive city like Vancouver.

I have recently been looking into premium freelancing sites, such as Toptal and Codeable. These sites offer companies looking to hire access to a pre-qualified group of top-tier talent. Codeable claims only the top 2% of applicants are accepted, while Toptal claims the top 3%. However, what can they offer a freelancer like myself wanting to use their service to find work?

from Codeable:

• a steady income with a guaranteed minimum hourly rate ($60/hr)
• working with great, loyal clients
• being a part of our reputable expert community

Toptal offers little in the way of information for freelancers, it is primarily geared towards companies looking to hire talent.

They both have a vigorous application process, including interviews, testing, code reviews, etc., so it looks like they both do their due diligence in terms of screening.

I attended a session at WordCamp Vancouver by Nathan Ello called 5-figure freelancing in which he went into detail about how he was able to bring his freelance income to the magic 5-figure level. He mentioned during the talk that he works primarily with Codeable and had high praise for the platform. A referral like this by a prominent WordPress developer is definitely one plus for their service.

A quick Google search led me to some blog posts by other developers who have worked with Toptal.

• My Experience with Toptal (drakuwa on WordPress.com)
• My Experience with Toptal (Doug Sparling)

From these and a few others, the freelancers who took the time to write about their experience seemed satisfied.

I’ll be submitting my application to both of these services, and we’ll see how things go. If you have any experience with these or other premium freelance services, please leave a comment.