Top 13 Freelance Job Boards in the UK—Discover Top Performers Faster

Freelance work is on the rise, and businesses are fighting over skilled independent workers. The best ones are getting snagged as you’re reading this, so acting quickly is crucial to securing top talent.

Online job boards are an excellent way to swiftly discover expert freelancers and find the perfect match for your vacancies. To help you avoid digging through numerous platforms, we’ve reviewed the 13 best freelance job boards UK candidates frequent to scout for open positions.

You’ll learn how each of them works and why they’re worth considering, so you can make an informed decision and find the best job board for your hiring needs. 

#1 Wired Sussex

Wired Sussex is a growing community of businesses and freelancers from various niches, particularly focused on the media, digital, and tech industries. The platform gets 200,000 unique visits per month, which isn’t mind-blowing traffic, but it’s enough to help you find experts for various positions.

As the name implies, the board is centered around the Sussex area, but many candidates are remote workers. Freelance jobs are largely remote anyway, so this shouldn’t impose any significant restrictions.

Wired Sussex doesn’t allow free job posts, but it has a unique pricing model—plans have varying costs depending on your business’ size. Large businesses (50+ employees) pay the regular price:

1. Standard job—£369 +VAT
2. Enhanced job—£429 +VAT
3. Premium job—£499 +VAT

Source: WiredSussex

You can save up if you opt for bundles:

1. 5 posts—20% off
2. 10 posts—30% off
3. 20 posts—40% off

Startups and SMBs (small and medium businesses) are also eligible for generous discounts:

1. 1–10 employees—75% off
2. 11–50 employees—45% off

This means small companies can pay as little as £92 for a job post, which isn’t a lot considering you’d get 8 weeks of post visibility with targeted email alerts sent to prospective candidates. Higher tiers get you useful extras like the Featured Job status and resume access. There’s no applicant tracking, though, nor can you integrate a third-party system.

#2 If You Could Jobs

If You Could Jobs is a smaller board with over 80,000 visitors a month, mainly focused on the creative industry. You can find other niches on the platform, but the number of available industries isn’t as high as that of larger boards.

The board features a clean, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to get started if you don’t have prior experience with digital job boards. Free posts aren’t available, and the pricing structure might be a bit complicated.

Namely, you buy credits to post an ad, with each credit being valid for one post. The credit price varies depending on the type of post:

1. Basic job—£95 per credit
2. Standard job—£145 per credit
3. Premium job—£225 per credit

You get 25% off Standard and Premium jobs if you buy a five-credit bundle. The credits are valid for two years, so it might be a good deal if you plan on hiring more down the line.

Source: If You Could Jobs

All three plans offer a spot on the board and email alerts. The first two tiers will get you a secondary position on the board and newsletter, while the Premium tier puts you at the top. Higher tiers include features like social sharing, promotions in weekly articles, and branded listings with your logo.

There’s no resume access or any applicant tracking features, which might be a bit limiting for advanced recruiters.

#3 The Dots

Focused on tech, design, and creative jobs, The Dots is a highly popular UK board that prioritizes inclusivity and diversity. Out of its 750,000 freelancers, 68% are women, 31% are ethnic minorities, and 16% are members of the LGBT+ community.

Posting an internship is free, and charities approved by the platform can also advertise jobs free of charge. Other businesses can post per the following prices:

1. 1 job—£195
2. 3 jobs—£525
3. 5 jobs—£775

Source: The Dots

Besides posting a regular job, you can subscribe to the Recruiter Pro Plan for £75 per month. It doesn’t come with a job post—you’ll get advanced candidate and project searches, direct messages, and candidate shortlisting features for existing ads.

While the plan isn’t expensive, posts involve a significant investment already. Having to pay extra to unlock additional features isn’t ideal if you’re on a budget. Another potential drawback is that The Dots doesn’t partner with other boards, so you can’t tap into candidate pools beyond it. Still, it has a large number of users, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding talented professionals for your job.

#4 Freelance UK

Freelance UK isn’t strictly a job board as much as a community of UK freelancers. It’s been around since 2006, and it’s a go-to for many English professionals looking for gigs and resources for growing their small businesses.

The platform’s main advantage is that it features a completely free job board. You don’t even have to sign up, but you do need to leave contact info so freelancers can reach out. Once you submit the job description, Freelance UK will post it on the community notice board. 

Freelance UK recommends searching for freelancers before posting the job as the feature is also free of charge. You can filter candidates by skill, location, experience, and keywords. Freelancers from various industries frequent the site, so you should have no trouble finding the right fit.

Because it’s not a job board per se, Freelance UK lacks many advanced tools some recruiters need. It mostly works like a forum without screening features or options to make your ad more prominent. Plus, anyone can post a job or create a profile, which increases the chance of poor-quality or fake candidates. The platform has many positive recruiter reviews, though, so this doesn’t seem to be a common issue.

#5 Jobsite

One of the UK’s largest hiring sites, Jobsite partnered with Totaljobs to give recruiters access to over 21 million jobseekers. While they’re not all freelancers, the massive candidate pool is bound to yield some highly skilled per-project workers.

You can’t post a job for free—the platform offers two paid options:

1. Job ad+—£169 (£89 for first-time users)
2. CV database (without job posts)—£270 (£135 for first-time users)

Jobsite also supports managed service, for which you’ll get a custom offer. You can inquire about the services and terms by requesting a callback. 

Source: Jobsite

When you post an ad, it’ll be visible for six weeks on Jobsite and Totaljobs’ boards. You’ll also get recommendations for the best-matching candidates, so you can speed up the selection process.

Besides the lack of a free trial or job posts, the Jobsite’s main disadvantage is the expensive resume access. It might be justifiable if you’re looking to make multiple hires. One-offs might not be worth the money, though, especially since other boards offer a similar service for less.

#6 Simply Hired

Simply Hired is a global job board and aggregator founded in 2003. Due to its popularity in the UK, the platform launched a country-specific site in 2008. Since then, it’s attracted millions of jobseekers and reputable UK companies like Waitrose and Primark. 

Powered by Indeed, Simply Hired lets you post a free job to its vast network of over 100 job boards. If you want your ad to stand out, you can promote it through a pay-per-click service.

Simply Hired offers various resources for creating compelling job descriptions, which makes it great for less-experienced recruiters. The platform also sends all applicant resumes to your email and dashboard, so you can use any third-party ATS to manage candidates. You can also leverage the board’s native tracking and scheduling system.

The main issue recruiters have encountered is a lack of dedicated UK customer support. Even in countries where support is provided, users have complained about the quality of their service. There’s also no resume database, so you’ll need to rely on applicant turnout.

Additional 7 Freelance Job Boards in the UK

If you want to expand your job ad’s reach even further, check out these additional seven job boards for freelancers in the UK:

Check Out the Most Popular Job Boards in Countries Across the Globe

If job boards in the UK don’t fit the bill and you feel you need to look for candidates outside its borders, explore our reviews of the best job boards in various other countries around the world and source your next batch of candidates from any spot on Earth.