Hire the Author: Nutan B
Gigster provides a service where companies can hire a team of developers to build technology projects on demand. LD Talent is a platform where companies can find diverse vetted developers and hire them based on their rate, skills, location, and experience. Besides the above, let’s find out what sets Gigster and LD Talent apart.
Basic Information
Gigster focuses on developers, project managers, and designers.
LD Talent focuses on developers and some data scientists and designers.
Gigster vets talent from leading tech schools such as MIT, Stanford and Caltech. The talent still needs to go through a screening process, an analysis of their past work experience, an interview, and paid tests to check their coding skills.
LD Talent vets talent from all the top universities around the world to promote diversity, but vets them very carefully. The talent is chosen for their creativity, algorithmic ability, coding ability, responsiveness, and responsibility (i.e. they’ve done large projects).
Gigster does not have a free trial.
LD Talent features a ~5 hour free trial (technically it’s $100 of free credit). Developers are paid but LD covers the cost of the first few hours.
Gigster does not vet freelancers by English ability.
LD Talent only accepts talent who exhibit written and spoken English proficiency.
Gigster does not invest in developers’ education.
LD Talent financially incentivizes developers to engage in lifelong learning.
Gigster and LD Talent both feature international and US-based freelancers.
Gigster does not match the client with the talent. The clients are matched with the project manager who looks after the project and acts as an intermediate.
LD Talent allows the client to search for talent based on their rate, skills, experience and location. Clients can then sign up to invite them. Once the invite is accepted by the talent, they get introduced to them on LD Slack. They can discuss and setup an interview based on each other’s availability.
Gigster does not do full-time referrals. You can only hire developers as freelancers.
LD Talent does do full-time referrals. So, you can opt to hire a developer directly for a finder’s fee instead of hiring them on the platform.
Gigster has an average international developer rate of ~$50K+ (Fixed Price). It takes a 25% cut.
LD Talent has an average international developer rate of ~$20/hr with a minimum of $15/hr. It takes a 20% cut.
Gigsters pays its developers after completion and acceptance of the project delivered.
LD Talent pays its developers 3-7 days after their client approves their work.
Summary Table Comparison
Developer Vetting
Gigster does vetting by a screening process to find the top 1% talent. Their website describes the following.
LD Talent does vetting by:
- recruiting engineers whose alma maters are well-established universities around the country and world, or engineers who have strong presence on Github
- ensuring engineers have passed exams in computer science concepts, coding practicals, advanced algorithms (tests run on their submitted code)
- reviewing engineers’ projects in their specialty area
- having internal algorithms constantly monitor and rank engineers’ knowledge, performance, work session approval rate, ratings, productivity, responsiveness in slack, reliability, and other critical attributes
- using automated and manual validation on the resumé form to ensure that developers that claim a skill have used the skill in a specific experience
- doing video calls with all developers to ensure that they can communicate effectively in English with common idioms and proper grammar and the likes
How it Works
Gigster provides application development for clients who are looking for freelancers rather than full-time employees. They provide the clients with a team of developers on a freelance basis, who are generally working for top companies. As per your requirements, with the help of AI, they create a quote and once you are happy with the quote, they start their process.
Gigster provides you with a project manager handling your team of developers and designers. You can see the status of the project on the dashboard and communicate with your project manager about your needs and if you have any questions. Once the project is completed, the complete ownership will be handed over to you.
LD Talent is similar, with a few specific differences. Namely, you:
- don’t have to create an account to filter their database of developers, designers, and AI/ML talent – you can search for candidates: ldtalentwork.com/client/select_engineers/
- get a 5 hour free trial so you can try candidates without putting down a credit card
- can let developers track time but still get budget control by approving or rejecting work sessions, through the system of slack based time tracking, which are integrated with git commits and don’t require you to review screenshots of a developer’s screen
- only pay for time if you’re satisfied with the work — you can just reject work sessions you’re not satisfied with — you don’t have to file a dispute and argue, like you have to do on Upwork
- if you like a developer you can pay the buyout fee of 1K (international) or 2K (US-based) and hire the developer directly outside the platform
Technical Speciality
Gigster consists of a network of world-class developers, designers, and product managers. Their developers are proficient in Blockchain & NFTs, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, IOT, Cloud Computing, and Custom Enterprise Development.
Similarly, LD Talent also has developers with diverse modern and in-demand skills. For instance, it features developers, designers, and data scientists who cover backend development in Django, Node, RoR, and Laravel, Frontend Development in React, Vue, Angular, HTML/CSS/JS, jQuery, Bootstrap, Native Android, Native iOS, React Native, and Unity, Blockchain, Tensorflow for AI, Machine Learning, NLP, Computer Vision, Deep Learning, Data Science, Web Scraping / Python Selenium Browser Automation, WordPress, Java, C++, CAD, Data Visualization, Matlab, SQL, Python, Javascript, Ruby, Docker Containers, and Chrome Extension Development, to name a few important ones.
Clients
Clients of Gigster include some big names like Airbus, IBM, Mastercard, Fidelity Investments, eBay, and PepsiCo. LD Talent has clients that include startups, large companies like Infosys and Baidu, and universities like Yale, Northwestern, Stanford, and University of Wisconsin.
Talent Network Culture
Particularly given the new normal, Gigster has what we would call a future of work culture. Let’s compare it to LD Talent.
LD Talent has a culture of entrepreneurship, geeking out, HCI, ICT4D, Economic Development, and Digital Nomad Friendliness. Because of its’ intentional features, its critics say that it requires a good amount of involvement since you have to approve / reject the developer work sessions (unless you go on auto-approve mode). That being said, LD’s team are on the LD Slack, available to help on notice.
Budget Control
LD Talent offers budget control through slack based work sessions which are somewhere between developer-friendly unchecked hourly time tracking and client-friendly milestone-based escrow systems.
Here are the reviews of LD Talent and you can see reviews of Gigster as well.
