Top 7 Robert Half Competitors for Hiring Remote Developers in 2026

Digital technology has become so indispensable to many business sectors that practically everybody needs a software developer’s services. Estimates indicate that the demand for developers will be up 22% by 2029, and global talent markets are already experiencing a shortage.

Companies can no longer rely on traditional hiring methods. Today, remote is the preferred mode of working. It also benefits businesses by allowing them to source talent from other regions, including emerging markets in other countries.

Robert Half is one of the oldest and most established platforms providing remote hiring services in this space. An international human resources consulting company founded in 1948 in Menlo Park and San Ramon, California, Robert Half provides remote staffing for job positions in many sectors, including technology. 

If you’ve been looking to hire remote developers for your startup or project, chances are Robert Half has been mentioned. But it’s not the only platform for finding remote developers—and it may not be the best resource for you. Here, we’ll describe the services the company offers, its limitations, and Robert Half competitors to consider that may be better suited to your needs.

What Are Robert Half’s Features? 

Robert Half is one of the largest remote staffing companies in size and scope. Here are the features it offers:

• Robert Half provides staffing for many IT infrastructure and software development positions. The services include various types of developers, from database and wireless network managers and desktop support professionals to telecommunications support specialists and full-stack developers. 
• The platform is quite flexible, offering several hiring options. It provides full-time, freelance, and short-term staff. Robert Half also allows you to switch employees from temporary contractor status to full-time employees. 
• Not many Robert Half competitors have been in the recruiting market for as long as it has. That means that Robert Half brings considerable industry experience to recruiting and hiring.
• If the developer you hire from Robert Half turns out to be a poor fit for the job or is a headache to work with, the company will provide you with a replacement developer pronto. 

Why Should You Consider Robert Half Competitors?

It’s also important to consider the drawbacks of Robert Half’s platform: 

• In theory, the platform brings plenty of industry experience. However, that experience doesn’t translate into a great UX. The website is difficult to navigate, making the hiring process difficult from the get-go. 
• The not-so-great state of the website makes it difficult to directly glean much information about Robert Half, especially its pricing. And if our experience of the site is any indication, you won’t find the info either. This lack of transparency is certainly a downside.
• Robert Half doesn’t provide only tech development staff; it also has staff for sectors like accounting, finance, legal consultancy, and creative arts. In fact, finance and accounting roles were its original recruitment and hiring focus until it added tech, legal, and creative professionals several decades after its founding. Since the platform now has such a broad focus, it’s a bit too widely focused and fails to offer niche or robust services in any single sector, especially tech talent hiring. In contrast, many Robert Half competitors specialize in tech hiring. 
• It can take ages to hire a developer on Robert Half, depending on the developer’s skill level. The hiring process can take anywhere from five weeks (for entry-level developers) to 11 weeks (for senior and elite developers). By the platform’s own estimation, the 11-week duration is up 57% from 2021, which means the timeline is trending toward longer hiring times. 
• The platform does not handle the onboarding of developers, which is partly why it has more wrong fits per developer posting than any of the Robert Half competitors. You have to handle onboarding your new hires by yourself, and you may have to deal with a few not-quite-right matches before you get the best fit. 
• Robert Half is not fully global in its recruitment or hiring process. It only provides staffing in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland, UAE, the US, and the UK. These are also the locations where it recruits its staff. 

Best Robert Half Alternatives for Hiring Software Developers in 2024

Now, let’s take a look at the top Robert Half competitors to explore.

1. Terminal.io vs Robert Half

Terminal is a remote hiring platform that identifies the fastest-growing developer talent markets, offers nearshore hiring, and has a robust pipeline to connect the best of its markets with companies from around the globe. With offices in San Francisco (US) and Lviv (Ukraine), Terminal.io specializes in sourcing and hiring developers from the fast-emerging Latin American, European, and Canadian developer markets. 

Terminal is a superior option to Robert Half on many levels:

• Terminal.io does not have the jack-of-too-many-trades problem that Robert Half does. Its hiring services focus entirely on developer talent, meaning it can channel all its resources toward offering a robust hiring service. This is evidenced by how many more developer jobs Terminal can cater to compared to Robert Half. Terminal offers everything from full-stack, data science, frontend, and backend engineers to DevOps, design, QA, and mobile developers. 
• While Terminal recruits developers from Canada, Europe, and Latin America, its developers are globally hirable. In contrast, Robert Half only offers its developers for hiring in the same 20 countries from which it recruits developers. 
• Unlike Robert Half and its near-complete neglect of developer onboarding, Terminal’s full-package hiring service handles the developer onboarding process for you. Terminal also leverages smart technology to optimize workflows, streamline testing and interviews, and assist you with candidate selection. Paired with Terminal’s more robust developer vetting, these factors produce a reliable hiring process. The platform offers even more quality assurance; you’ll receive a 14-day trial period and a free replacement policy for the first three months after hiring. 
• While Robert Half does not appear to post its pricing scheme online, Terminal’s pricing is publicly available. It’s also very affordable, costing between $4000 and $12000 monthly. Additionally, the fact that the platform recruits from the regions of Latin America, Europe, and Canada results in cost savings of up to 40% less than US developers.
• Terminal.io is one of the fastest-hiring Robert Half competitors. While Robert Half may take up to 11 months to complete the hiring process for a senior developer, Terminal can hire a developer in less than 45 days, regardless of the developer’s skill level or expertise. 

2. Gun.io vs Robert Half

Gun.io offers a developer talent pool vetted by an in-house team of experienced software engineers. Although other platforms like Terminal also leverage AI technology to streamline hiring and vetting, Gun.io is particularly heavy on artificial intelligence. Along with machine learning, AI is among the development sectors in which Gun.io software engineers are proficient. 

As a Robert Half alternative, the platform offers several advantages: 

• Gun.io is a tech-focused hiring talent solution company, which implies that it can channel its service-offering resources more effectively. For example, its recruiting team is specially trained in tech talent hunting and can vet developers more effectively.
• Due to its more efficient use of its resources, Gun.io hires much faster than Robert Half. If you request a hire, you will meet your candidate within 24 hours, and you can finalize the hiring process within two weeks, tops. 
• Gun.io has more transparency regarding its pricing than Robert Half, though much less than Terminal. Gun’s non-standardized retainers begin at $5000, including the hiring fees, which are not disclosed. 
• As a global talent agency, Gun.io sources developers from more countries than Robert Half. 

On the other hand, Gun.io offers fewer advantages than platforms like Terminal because:

• Gun.io does not take care of the onboarding process. Should you hire from the platform, you have little assistance in integrating your new developer into your team. 
• There are no trial periods mentioned on the platform’s website. 

3. Kelly Services vs Robert Half

If you prefer platforms with a long track record in the remote staffing industry, you will find Kelly Solutions a much better option than Robert Half. Kelly Solutions was founded in 1946 and is based in Troy, Michigan. 

At the time of writing this article, the platform ranks as the Number 1 temporary staffing agency in the US, claiming to connect over 450,000 job seekers with work annually. Let’s compare Kelly Services to Robert Half to highlight where the former outperforms the latter. 

• Kelly Services has a greater geographical scope of recruitment, sourcing talent from over 24 countries, including Australia and some African countries, and making them available to clients around the globe. By contrast, Robert Half sources talent from 19 countries and only provides staffing. 
• Like Robert Half, Kelly Services is not a tech-focused company. However, it still provides a more robust tech talent hiring service than Robert Half. It has developers from all technology fields, including web development, systems analysis, backend testing, and database administration. 
• Kelly Services appears to have an onboarding service, although there isn’t much information about it on the site.
• Compared to Robert Half, you can hire much faster on Kelly Services (the average hiring time is 27.8 days).

While Kelly Services is superior to Robert Half in the areas we have just highlighted, it’s still lacking compared to other competitors like Terminal in the following ways:

• Kelly Services may offer a better tech developer hiring service than Robert Half, but it still lags behind Terminal, which is more specialized. 
• Kelly Services is not very transparent about its pricing since it doesn’t seem to have any webpage laying out relevant costs. 

4. TEKsystems vs Robert Half

TEKsystems is a globally operational IT solutions company based in Hannover, Maryland. The company aims to accelerate business transformation by providing solutions to complex business issues through expert staffing and technology. Though a much younger company than Robert Half (it was launched in 1983), you may find it a better tech staffing option in several ways:

• As the name already implies, TEKsystems is a more technology-focused talent-hiring platform than Robert Half. It covers multiple industries, from telecommunications, technology enablement, and energy to media and gaming. Developers from the platform are also skilled in many more technologies. 
• Like the other Robert Half alternatives we discussed, TEKsystems is a faster hirer. It typically takes 18.44 days to hire a developer from the platform. 

However, there are some boxes TEKsystems doesn’t check: 

• The platform does not have quality assurance measures like trial periods, nor does it handle the onboarding process.
• The platform is not transparent about its pricing structure. 
• The hiring options are not very flexible. Only full-time and part-time options are available. You’ll have to turn to other Robert Half competitors, such as Terminal.io, for freelance, contract-to-hire, and project-based arrangements. 
• While a more tech-focused company than Robert Half, TEKsystems still provides staffing for business sectors like transportation, healthcare, and retail/consumer packaged goods. Jack-of-many-trades limitations consequently apply. 

5. Aerotek vs Robert Half

Aerotek is a global remote talent recruiting and hiring company with offices in the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The company offers everything from clinical solutions and government services to workforce management in tech, construction, manufacturing, and production. It also handles distribution, logistics, and maintenance business with over 13,000 companies worldwide. 

Here are some reasons to consider Aerotek over Robert Half for hiring developers:

• Aerotek boasts enhanced onboarding capabilities in addition to its experience in recruitment and hiring. 
• Aerotek has many more hiring options than Robert Half. According to the website, the platform has previously offered remote and hybrid remote jobs with part-time, freelance, temporary, and alternative schedule arrangements. However, it is not clear whether it hasn’t dropped any of those since. 
• Aerotek still focuses heavily on tech talent, unlike Robert Half.

While Aerotek may offer these advantages, it’s still worth considering the drawbacks.

• Aerotek is not a tech-specialized hiring company, making it inferior to tech-specialized Robert Half competitors like Terminal.io.
• Aerotek offers no information on its pricing—at least not until you apply and start discussing terms for a new hire. 
• Aerotek has no trial periods or similar quality assurances. 
• While not as slow as Robert Half regarding hiring time, Aerotek is still considerably slower than all the other Robert Half competitors we have listed. The platform does not state its hiring time, as far as we could find, but client reviews indicate it can take up to three months to get a hire.

6. BairesDev vs Robert Half

Operating entirely remotely, BairesDev is a nearshore tech talent hiring company that sources clients from Latin American countries like Argentina, Colombia, and Brazil. It provides nearshore hiring in Canada and the US and offshore hiring in and beyond Western Europe. 

Here are some reasons to consider BairesDev over Robert Half: 

• BairesDev specializes in recruiting and hiring software developers and other tech talent. That means that its candidate vetting is much more rigorous, and it has candidates for many more tech jobs, including QA assurance testing, UX/UI design, and custom software development. 
• BairesDev’s hiring process is much faster than Robert Half’s. It takes up to 37 days to hire a developer on the platform. By comparison, Robert Half’s timeline is just a month shy of a year. 

BairesDev may be a better alternative to Robert Half, but it does have the following drawbacks:

• Clients are price-blind going into negotiations because the platform does not make its pricing known on any of its pages. 
• BairesDev has neither trial periods nor onboarding services to offer. 
• BairesDev does not offer the same flexibility as the other Robert Half alternatives. It doesn’t provide short-term, full-time, freelance, or contract-to-hire options. 

Final Thoughts on the Top Robert Half Competitors in 2025

Competition can be very cutthroat in the world of software development. That’s why it’s essential to always be ahead of the curve in providing digital products and services. That can be difficult to do when you’re simultaneously struggling with talent recruitment challenges.

Based on our assessment of Robert Half, the platform has too many inadequacies, making it a poor hiring choice compared to its competitors. If you want to get the most value out of a tech talent recruitment platform, alternatives are the way to go. Terminal.io is the clear winner.

Terminal offers a more flexible and robust developer hiring service that covers everything from recruiting and initial vetting to matching, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding. Its pricing is the most affordable and transparent for the many services offered. It also provides solid quality assurances should the developer you get turn out to be a poor fit—even if Terminal’s track record suggests that probably won’t even be necessary. 

FAQ

What is the top Robert Half alternative?

Terminal is the top Robert Half alternative. The platform is solely focused on software engineering talent, sourcing candidates from Latin America, Canada, and Europe. It offers both contractors and full-time hires and handles the entire vetting, recruitment, and onboarding process, freeing up time for you to focus on other business needs. Unlike Robert Half, Terminal fills positions quickly and is transparent about its pricing model. 

Why should I consider Robert Half competitors for hiring remote developers?

While Robert Half has a solid track record of helping businesses hire remote developers, it does have some shortcomings. For example, the hiring process is typically very long, the platform is not specialized in tech hiring, and Robert Half doesn’t handle onboarding. That’s why you should consider alternatives, some of which don’t have these drawbacks.