Searching for the perfect designer to meet all your web-designing needs? Well, we’re here to tell you exactly where you can find them.
We understand just how difficult it can be to put all your brilliant ideas together into one website while trying so hard to convey your vision to a global audience. To help you navigate through what you would like to preach through your website, you need the help of an expert web designer.
Contrary to common misconceptions, a web designer isn’t just there to help you make your website look pretty and appealing. Web designers plan, create and code Internet sites, designing the layout of a webpage, determining technical requirements, and sometimes even writing and editing content.
Since all of these duties are to be undertaken by one person, you must make sure that this person is up to the task. With this issue in mind, Time Doctor has a compiled list of applications that you can use to keep track of your productivity and web & app usage features for you to know which website designs and features are in high demand now and which to avoid.
But first, let’s address a few frequently asked questions regarding web designers.
What is the difference between a web designer and a web developer?
Although ‘web designer’ and ‘web developer’ are very commonly used terms in the world of technology, they are not interchangeable with each other.
Website designers are the creative force behind the formation of a website. They mainly focus on the style and format of the webpage and use software like Photoshop and codes like HTML and CSS to create their designs.
Web designers usually have certain specializations, such as User Experience (UX) design, User Interface (UI) design, and Visual design – which is a mixture of both UX and UI.
On the other hand, the role of a web developer is to turn the web designer’s concepts into reality. This is done by building a framework of the website using software such as JavaScript and JQuery. Much like web designers, developers to have certain specialized roles.
They usually come in three categories – Back-end developer, Front-end developer, and Full-stack developer.
Should I hire a freelancer or a full-time employee?
Your decision to hire a freelancer or a full-time employee depends entirely on the kind of work you are advertising and the money you are willing to pay.
Although there is certainly more job security and accountability for full-time workers, various online marketing platforms are currently seeking to turn the tides by providing employers with skilled, reliable freelancers who get the job done just as well as full-time employees.
If you are concerned about managing your employees, particularly freelancers, through virtual means, we suggest reading this article on Virtual Project Management.
The 10 best sites to hire a web designer today
Now that we have cleared up any confusion regarding this issue, let’s move on to the 10 best sites where you can hire the perfect web-designers! Here is our list of the top platforms to find the best designing talents out there:
Toptal
When it comes to the best websites for hiring web designers, Toptal is undoubtedly our top pick. Founded in 2010, Toptal is a leading freelance platform that allows businesses to connect with software engineers, web designers, and business consultants.
This platform boasts the best selection of freelance talents from around the world – hiring only the top 3% of global freelance talent. Every applicant at Toptal undergoes a rigorous vetting process, where they are carefully judged on their personality, technical knowledge, customer service, language, and project management skills.
Since Toptal was created with technically skilled engineering candidates in mind, designers working here are experts in the fields of programming languages, with JavaScript, CSS, HTML, WordPress, Python, and PHP under their belts.
They also specialize in areas of web design, including UX, UI, Product Design, and more.
Toptal allows you to select freelance designers according to your particular needs, based on their areas of specialty. If you have a uniquely specific set of skills in mind and are having trouble finding suitable designers, Toptal allows you to schedule a call with them to help cater to all your designing needs.
With the help of Toptal, you can be sure to find competent, experienced, and widely-known designers with just a few clicks on your screen.
99designs
Next up on our list is 99designs – an Australian freelance platform that aims to connect graphic designers with various clients.
This unique platform uses an unconventional method of selecting designers through hosting a contest where designers from around the world can propose their ideas about what your site could look like.
You’ll be able to skim through dozens of different submissions and hire the designer whose proposal you like best. 99designs allows you to choose your desired designer level from three categories – top-level, mid-level, and entry-level.
The platform accommodates designers in over 90 different skill sets. You will be able to find web and app designers working in a variety of criteria, including web page design, WordPress theme design, landing page design, social media page design, and more.
You can also choose from several payment plans to hire your preferred designer while sticking to your budget.
Upwork
The third site on our list is Upwork – one of the world’s largest marketplaces for registered web developers and designers. Formerly known as Elance-oDesk, this freelance platform hosts over eighteen million registered freelancers and five million registered clients.
As a well-established and certainly well-known public platform, Upwork claims to have the largest pool of reliable, top-rated web designers out there.
The platform certainly attracts a lot of reviews, which vary from person to person, so you can only tell how well it worked for you after checking the platform out first-hand.
To find a suitable designer on Upwork, you will have to post a description of the job you are offering and a price range you are willing to pay for the work to be done. You may either invite specific freelancers or make a general post inviting responses from anyone interested.
After getting several excellent responses within 24 hours, you will then be able to choose someone you would like to work with based on their Upwork profile and ratings.
The Upwork website provides a detailed guide on effective tips and tricks to use when hiring web designers on the platform, including which skills you should look for in the desired candidate.
Designers on Upwork are equipped with a wide range of skills, from Graphic Design to Web Programming.
Top-rated designers are skilled in web fundamentals (which include HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), have a good knowledge of strong UI design and basic UX design, know how to use design platforms such as WordPress and Squarespace, and can communicate well with developers, graphic designers, and writers.
Envato studio
Coming in fourth on our list is one of the largest online marketplaces for web design and WordPress themes – Envato Studio. The Studio accommodates both freelancers and agencies and offers several different design packages in easily affordable price ranges.
Envato Studio allows you to search for web designers across several different categories, based on price range, turnaround, and location, and also provides you with community recommendations.
You can compare prices and portfolios to find a designer you are interested to work with and simply send them your inquiry and provide a briefing of the job. The Studio will handle monetary transactions and will hold off payment until the job is done and you are satisfied with the outcome. It is an easily accessible way to hire designing talents from around the world.
Behance
Number five on our list is the social media platform, Behance. Owned by Adobe Systems, Behance is the world’s largest network for showcasing and discovering creative work.
This award-winning platform is home to several freelance web designers and agencies, which you can easily explore through a quick search on their webpage.
Designers on Behance usually post video presentations of their work as samples on their profile, as well as a list of their skills and specialties, which allows you to get a clear idea of their designs. If you’re looking for web designers who use the Adobe Creative Suite, Behance is the best place to find them.
PeoplePerHour (PPH)
The sixth site on our list, PeoplePerHour, is a UK-based company that functions as an online platform allowing businesses to access freelance workers. Initially designed to help small businesses, PeoplePerHour helps you to connect with local freelancers, particularly in the European market, at easily affordable rates.
This platform is unique in the sense that it hosts various contests and allows its freelancers to post their fees at an hourly rate as pre-priced packages called “Hourlies”.
Freelancers on the site can post a list of their skills, a brief description of their areas of expertise, as well as reviews and recommendations from previous clients.
The top designers at PeoplePerHour are well equipped with a wide array of technical and creative skills. These include WordPress design, graphic design, website development, content management, and e-commerce website design. You can also find designers here who can design UI or UX apps for your Android or iOS device with UX prototyping services.
Freelancer
Next up on our list is Freelancer, one of the largest freelance marketplaces around. This platform provides you with a variety of hiring options through contests, job posts, or specific searches in over 1800 different categories. These include Website Design, Graphic Design, e-Commerce, PHP, HTML, JavaScript, Python, CSS, WordPress, and more.
Their website provides a very detailed guide on hiring website designers, with a host of recommended articles and showcased works of their freelancers. You can find consummate professionals here through a quick look at their portfolios and previous works, along with reviews of their work.
Once you post a job, you’ll receive several bids from interested freelancers within seconds. You can view these bids and select someone you would like to work with.
When working with your chosen freelancer, you will have the opportunity to track their progress and keep up to date with them through a live chat system. The website also provides 24/7 support in case of any queries.
One of the unique features of this platform is that it charges both the freelancer and the client for initiating a project. This ensures a sense of accountability on both sides by making sure that they both have collateral. You will get to pay for the work done once it has been completed and you are fully satisfied.
Hired
Number eight on our list is Hired – an online job platform where you can recruit interested candidates to work for your company. On this website, you will be able to invite talented designers to work for you, based on their Hired profile.
This profile shows a candidate’s background, job interests, and skillset, in addition to a full-fledged resume. The site will match you with suitable candidates for your job, and you will be able to propose a salary upfront. Hired yields very high acceptance rates, with over 84% of candidates accepting a job offer they received on Hired.
This platform is the way to go if you are looking for full-time designers to hire rather than freelancers. Hired is home to a variety of differently-skilled designers, including Graphic Designers, Product Designers, UX Designers, UI Designers, and UX Researchers.
Stack Overflow
Up next on our list is Stack Overflow – a question-and-answer site for professional and amateur programmers. Although this website is primarily a knowledge-market similar to wiki and Reddit, it also has a job section to connect employers to aspiring developers.
This platform will provide you with tools to brand your business, advertise job openings on the site, and source candidates from their database of interested developers.
As a hub of programmers, tech experts, and web developers, Stack Overflow receives millions of visitors every month, guaranteeing that your job advertisement is sure to receive a ton of exposure to the best programmers and developers out there.
The site employs three systems for businesses to get in touch with talented developers. These are – a Private Q&A session to find and share internal knowledge, a search procedure known as Talent Solutions to help you find the perfect candidate, and a highly efficient advertising platform to speed up the search for a potential new employee.
With these applications, you will be able to find a suitable developer to join your development team in no time!
Dribbble
The last (but certainly not the least!) site on our list is Dribbble, a self-promotion and social networking platform for digital designers. Created in 2009, this website serves as both a platform for designers to share their works and for employers to recruit designers for new jobs.
Web Designers on Dribbble can be found as individual freelancers or as members of a designing team. On each designer’s profile, their displayed works appear in the form of “shots”, allowing you to explore their range of designs.
To hire a suitable designer, you can post a job opening, search for specific designers, or post a freelance project. The site also has a Job Board to help you find your desired designers with various payment packages.
Dribbble is the only online platform dedicated solely to designers, and as such, accommodates a variety of designers with a wide range of designing skills. In addition to Web Designers, the site also hosts Product Designers, Typographers, Animators, and Illustrators.
Conclusion
So there you have it – a comprehensive guide to the 10 best websites out there to find the perfect web-designer! With just a few clicks, you can find hundreds of talented web-designers who are waiting eagerly to turn your vision into their mission. All you have to do is choose one!
