11 Hidden Gem Upwork Alternatives for Faster Hiring

If you’re tired of sifting through hundreds of generic proposals on Upwork, you’re not alone. While the platform has its place, many hiring managers waste hours sorting through unqualified applicants and waiting for responses. The good news is that several lesser-known platforms offer faster, more direct ways to connect with skilled freelancers. These hidden gems often have tighter communities, better vetting processes, or specialized niches that make hiring faster and more reliable. This list focuses on options you might not have heard of yet, but that deliver real results when you need to move quickly.

Legiit
Legiit operates differently from most freelance platforms because it focuses on pre-packaged services rather than custom project proposals. Freelancers list specific services with set prices, deliverables, and timelines, which means you can browse exactly what you’re getting before you buy. This structure eliminates the back-and-forth negotiation phase that slows down hiring on other platforms.

The platform started with a strong focus on digital marketing and SEO services, so it has deep expertise in those areas. You’ll find specialists in link building, content writing, social media management, and web development who have built up solid reputations through verified reviews. Because services are pre-priced and clearly defined, you can hire someone in minutes rather than days. The community is smaller and more engaged than massive marketplaces, which often translates to better communication and faster turnaround times.
Gun.io
Gun.io takes a highly selective approach to developer vetting, accepting only the top 2% of applicants who pass their rigorous screening process. This means you’re working with pre-vetted senior engineers and developers who can start contributing immediately. The platform handles all the initial technical assessments, saving you weeks of interview time.

What makes Gun.io particularly fast is their matching process. You submit your project requirements, and their team personally matches you with developers from their curated network. Most clients get matched within 48 hours. The platform specializes in contract-to-hire arrangements, so you can test out a developer on a short project before committing to a longer engagement. While the rates are higher than general marketplaces, the quality and speed often justify the cost.
Contra
Contra positions itself as the commission-free alternative to traditional freelance platforms, which attracts high-quality freelancers who are tired of paying 10-20% fees on other sites. The platform has a clean, modern interface that makes browsing portfolios and hiring feel more like LinkedIn than a typical gig marketplace.

The speed advantage comes from Contra’s focus on independent professionals who treat their freelance work as a serious business. You’ll find fewer hobbyists and more established freelancers who respond quickly and deliver on time. The platform also includes built-in contracts, invoicing, and payments, so you can move from discovery to hiring without jumping between tools. Contra works particularly well for creative roles like design, writing, and marketing where portfolio quality matters more than certifications.
Mayple
Mayple focuses exclusively on marketing freelancers and agencies, which gives it a depth of expertise you won’t find on general platforms. They manually vet every marketer on their platform and match you based on your specific industry and marketing channel needs. If you need a Facebook ads specialist with e-commerce experience, they’ll connect you with someone who has proven results in that exact niche.

The matching process typically takes 24 to 48 hours, and you’ll receive three to five qualified candidates to choose from. Mayple also provides ongoing performance monitoring, so you can see actual results and ROI from your hire. This accountability layer means marketers on the platform tend to be more responsive and results-focused than those on open marketplaces. The platform works best for small to mid-sized businesses that need marketing help fast but don’t have time to vet dozens of applicants.
Working Not Working
Working Not Working started as a private community for creative professionals and has maintained that exclusive feel even as it has grown. The platform focuses on designers, art directors, copywriters, and other creative roles, with a membership that includes people who have worked at major agencies and brands. Getting accepted as a freelancer requires an application and portfolio review, which keeps quality high.

For hiring managers, this means you’re browsing through a curated selection of talented creatives rather than sorting through thousands of generic profiles. The platform shows you who is currently available for work, so you’re not wasting time reaching out to people who are already booked. Many members are open to short-term projects or freelance sprints, making it ideal when you need creative talent quickly for a specific campaign or launch. The community aspect also means freelancers tend to be more professional and communicative than average.
Kalo
Kalo takes a different approach by functioning as both a hiring platform and a compliance solution for international contractors. If you need to hire someone outside your country quickly, Kalo handles all the legal, tax, and payment complexities that usually slow down the process. They operate in over 150 countries and can get contractors set up and paid within days.

The platform maintains a network of pre-vetted freelancers across various fields, but you can also bring your own contractor and use Kalo just for the compliance and payment infrastructure. This flexibility makes it faster than trying to navigate international hiring on your own or through traditional platforms. Kalo also provides templates for contracts and handles invoicing automatically, removing common bottlenecks in the hiring process. It works particularly well for companies that need to scale their remote teams quickly without getting bogged down in administrative tasks.
Worksome
Worksome combines a freelance marketplace with workforce management tools, making it especially useful for companies that need to hire multiple freelancers quickly. The platform pre-screens all freelancers and provides detailed profiles with skills assessments, past project reviews, and availability calendars. You can see immediately who can start work this week versus next month.

What sets Worksome apart is the ability to create talent pools of freelancers you’ve worked with or want to work with in the future. When a new project comes up, you can quickly tap into this pre-approved pool rather than starting your search from scratch. The platform also handles all contracts, timesheets, and payments through a single dashboard, which significantly reduces administrative overhead. Companies that hire freelancers regularly find that Worksome cuts their hiring time in half after the first few projects.
Speedlancer
True to its name, Speedlancer is built specifically for small tasks that need to be completed quickly. The platform focuses on micro-projects that take between one and five hours, with most tasks completed within 24 hours. This makes it perfect for those urgent jobs that don’t justify the time investment of a full hiring process on traditional platforms.

Freelancers on Speedlancer are evaluated based on their response time and completion speed, creating a culture of fast turnaround. You post your task with a fixed budget, and interested freelancers apply within minutes. The platform works well for things like quick graphic design tweaks, short writing assignments, data entry, research tasks, or basic website updates. While it’s not the right fit for complex projects, it excels at getting small jobs done immediately without the usual platform overhead.
Lemon.io
Lemon.io specializes in connecting companies with pre-vetted developers, with a particular focus on startups and small businesses that need to move fast. Their vetting process tests both technical skills and soft skills like communication and reliability. Only about 1% of applicants make it onto the platform, so you’re working with genuinely skilled developers.

The speed comes from their personalized matching service. You fill out a quick form about your project needs, and within 24 hours, you receive profiles of developers who match your requirements. You can interview these candidates and typically have someone starting work within a week. Lemon.io also offers a no-risk trial period, so if a developer doesn’t work out in the first few weeks, they’ll find you a replacement at no additional cost. This guarantee makes hiring feel less risky and helps companies move faster on their decisions.
Bunny Studio
Bunny Studio (formerly Bunny Inc) focuses on creative services with a managed service approach that removes most of the hiring friction. Instead of browsing individual freelancer profiles, you simply submit your project brief and their team assigns it to the right creative professional from their network. Most projects get assigned within an hour.

The platform covers a wide range of creative work, including voiceovers, video editing, graphic design, animation, writing, and translation. All freelancers are pre-vetted, and Bunny Studio provides project management and quality assurance, so you’re not managing the freelancer directly. This layer of management speeds up the process because you’re not dealing with miscommunications or missed deadlines. You get a single point of contact and a guaranteed delivery date. The approach works particularly well for companies that need reliable creative output but don’t have time to manage freelancers closely.
Konsus
Konsus operates as a managed service platform that handles common business tasks through a subscription model rather than per-project hiring. You get access to a team of specialists in areas like graphic design, presentation creation, market research, and content writing. When you need something done, you submit a request through their dashboard, and it gets routed to the appropriate specialist.

This model is faster than traditional hiring because there’s no search, vetting, or onboarding process for each new task. You’re essentially pre-hiring a team that’s ready to jump on your requests immediately. Most tasks are completed within 24 to 48 hours. Konsus works best for companies that have ongoing needs for support tasks but don’t want the overhead of hiring full-time staff or managing multiple freelancers. The subscription approach also makes budgeting simpler and more predictable than paying per project on traditional platforms.

The platforms on this list prove that faster hiring doesn’t always mean sacrificing quality. By focusing on specialized niches, rigorous vetting, or managed service models, these lesser-known alternatives cut out much of the friction that slows down traditional freelance marketplaces. Whether you need a developer in 48 hours or a designer who can start immediately, there’s likely a platform here that fits your specific situation better than the big-name options. Try out a few of these services for your next project and see how much time you can save.