You post a job, and then you get a lot of applications. Within 48 hours, you have 60 applications in your inbox. The portfolios of the applicants look very good, and their GitHub profiles are active. Every cover letter seems to be written by someone who really understands your product.

The thing is, a lot of this is not real. Some of the portfolios are made with the help of artificial intelligence. Some of the proposals are generated by ChatGPT, and the code is taken from Copilot. This means that the top of the hiring funnel is not very useful anymore. This is the problem for anyone who is hiring a remote developer right now: you cannot tell how good someone is just by looking at their portfolio and cover letter.

So, how do you find the person for the job?

You need to look beyond the surface. Not long ago, it was okay to just look at someone's GitHub history and their portfolio to see if they were good at their job. Now, even someone with just six months of experience can have a professional-looking GitHub and portfolio.

A 2023 survey by Stack Overflow found that over 70 percent of developers were already using or planning to use AI coding tools. This number is probably even higher today. The question is not whether a developer uses AI or not. The question is whether they truly understand what they are building and can handle problems as they arise.

Most of the time, when you hire a person, it is not because they are not talented. It is because the way you checked them out was not very good.

Here is what you should actually look for when you’re hiring a remote developer:

1. Test understanding, not just output: Ask them to explain why they’d use something like useEffect and what breaks if it’s wrong. Better yet, share a snippet with a subtle bug and ask them to review it like a teammate’s PR.

2. Ask about a hard debugging story: “Tell me about a bug that took longer than expected to fix and what made it hard?” Good developers always remember specifics. Vague answers are a red flag regardless of portfolio quality.

3. Look for continuity and not volume: Three projects that are maintained over months beat twelve built in two weeks. Mainly check for updated dependencies, closed issues, changelogs, and ask directly: “What’s changed in the last three months?”

Where can you find a remote developer who is worth hiring?

There is no single platform to hire remote developers in 2025–26. Each platform has its good and bad points.

1. Toptal is very good at screening developers, so you do not have to do much work to check them out. It is expensive, so it is better for senior hires when you need someone quickly.
2. Upwork has a pool of developers, but the quality can vary. Look for developers who have had long-term contracts in the past rather than just a lot of short gigs.
3. MyNextDeveloper is a strong option if you want the top 3% of pre-vetted engineers without the hassle of screening. It offers consistent quality, purpose-built for startups needing dedicated and on-demand talent. If you want passion-driven developers, not just available ones, start here.
4. Lemon.io and Gun.io are good options if you are looking for someone in the middle range. They are better than looking at Upwork, and they are not as expensive as Toptal.
5. You can also use LinkedIn to reach out to people directly. This is not used much for remote developers, but it can be very effective if used correctly. A developer who writes articles usually takes their work very seriously.
6. You can also look at GitHub itself, especially if you are looking for someone with skills like Rust or Elixir. Looking at the contributors to open-source projects can be a good way to find senior developers. It may take some time, but it is worth it for important roles.

How do you find a software developer in a specific city?

For example, how do you find a software developer in London?

The best way is to use a multi-channel approach. Start with LinkedIn or local communities like Tech London Advocates or Meetup.com dev groups, and then filter by recent activity. A developer who attends meetups and contributes to open-source projects is usually a stronger candidate than someone with a good portfolio but no community involvement.

For roles where the timezone is more important than the location, ask them: “Do you prefer daily standups, async updates, or something else?” Their answer will tell you a lot about how they work.

There are some red flags you should watch out for when you are hiring a remote developer:

These are not necessarily deal-breakers. They are worth asking more questions about:

1. Generic cover letters: A short reference to something specific about your product is better than a long, polished letter.
2. GitHub activity that suddenly increased with no explanation: If someone's GitHub account was inactive for a time and then suddenly had a lot of activity, it may mean they are trying to make their portfolio look better.
3. Difficulty explaining their code: If they built it, they should be able to walk you through the hardest decision they made.
4. Reluctance to do a paid trial: A good developer understands that trust has to be earned. If they are hesitant to do any kind of test work, it is worth noting.

Here is a quick checklist to use when you are vetting a remote developer:

Before you make an offer, ask yourself these six questions:

1. Can they explain a debugging challenge in specific technical detail?
2. Have they updated a project for over six months?
3. Do they have a track record of engagements, not just gig-to-gig?
4. Can they review code critically, not just produce it?
5. Have they asked questions about your project, not just answered yours?
6. Do they communicate clearly in async writing?

The bottom line is that hiring a remote developer has never been easier on paper, but it is harder in practice. There are a lot of applicants. The quality of their portfolios and cover letters is not always a good indication of their skills. The thing that really matters is how they think and work under conditions.

The developers who are worth hiring are not trying to game your process. They are happy to talk through problems, show their work, and tell you honestly where their experience ends. You should build your vetting process around conversations, not credentials. That is where the real information lives.

TL;DR

• AI has made remote developer portfolios easy to fake, so stop screening on credentials. Instead, test comprehension over output (ask them to explain code, not just write it), dig into specific debugging stories, and look for long-term project ownership.
• You should use websites like Toptal.io and Gun.io to find remote developers.
• Watch for generic cover letters, sudden GitHub spikes, and reluctance to do a trial.
• The best way to really get to know a remote developer is to talk to them. That is where you can really tell if they are a fit for your project.

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