5 free sourcing platforms for tech recruiters [Bonus inside]

Looking for candidates for niche roles can be tough, especially when those candidates are not active on platforms like LinkedIn. That’s why recruiters need diverse sourcing channels.

We’ve listed our top five free candidate sourcing tools and platforms helping recruiters find the best talent in the tech niche.

1️. Recruit’em

Briefly: a free recruitment tool for passive candidate sourcing

Recruit’em is a great and super-fast free sourcing tool that allows recruiters to access candidate profiles across six popular social media platforms. It doesn’t even require you to log in directly to start searches.

Core features and tasks:

• Search on six platforms: LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Dribbble (best for online designers), GitHub (for programmers), Xing (leading online jobs network in German-speaking countries), and Stack Overflow (also for programmers).
• Limit your search by criteria such as keywords, skills, education, keywords to exclude, etc.

Auto-generate lists of profiles and view them through Google search results.

How to use Recruit’em:

Choose candidate sourcing channels from which you want to find profiles. Next, specify candidate search by keywords and hit “Find the right people on [your selected platform]”.

The tool will automatically generate a candidate list which you can access directly in Google search results.

Best for:

Recruit’em works well for hiring top talent in tech-heavy roles across various countries and industries. This tool is great for recruiters focused on passive candidate sourcing on specialized platforms like GitHub for developers or Dribble for designers.

2️. Wellfound

Briefly: a freemium recruiting tool for tech startups

Wellfound is a recruiting platform that connects tech companies with a talent pool of 10+ million professionals. It showcases job seekers who are ready to join startups, that’s why talent search there has a high response rate. Its free account allows recruiters to post unlimited job listings and screen candidates.

How to Use Wellfound:

To start using the recruiting platform, complete a short sign-up form and create a free account. Next, recruiters can post jobs and review applicant profiles. Additional features, such as custom screening questions and advanced applicant filters, become available with an account upgrade.

Core Features and Tasks:

• Unlimited job postings in the free version.
• Access to profiles of candidates of any professional background and qualifications.
• Supporting branded company profiles.
• Built-in applicant tracking system.

Best For:

Wellfound is a great talent acquisition channel for startups and tech-focused companies looking for the best minds in the US and other English-speaking countries.

3. GitHub

Briefly: a free platform for sourcing developers

GitHub is a popular platform for developers collaboration, connecting over 100M professionals sharing code. It has not been built for active job search. However, it can be a gold mine for recruiters willing to find skilled developers with specific tech stack and expertise.

How to Use GitHub for Sourcing:

Recruiters can use the GitHub search bar to input relevant skills, locations, or technology keywords to narrow down their candidate search.

For a more detailed screening of selected candidates, in case you want to learn more about their technical expertise and experience level, browse their open-source contributions.

Core Features and Tasks:

• Access to over 100 million developer profiles, with the majority based in the United States, India, and China.
• Detailed search options based on skills, location, and technology.
• Possibility to view candidates’ open-source code.
  

Best For:

This platform is ideal for tech recruiters seeking highly skilled developers, especially in software engineering, web development, and data science. GitHub is widely used worldwide, which makes it suitable for global tech talent acquisition.

4️. Kaggle

Briefly: a free platform for data scientists and AI/ML enthusiasts

Kaggle is a data science competition platform owned by Google, serving 5 million avid AI/ML enthusiasts in the community. Recruiters may take advantage of this resource for discovering prospective employees with skills relevant to data science, analytics and machine learning.

How to Use Kaggle for Sourcing Talents:

You can browse Kaggle’s competitions, datasets, models, and user profiles to locate talent with the skills they need. The resources are free to access without registration.

In each section, you can review user rankings based on their participation and points gained in competitions. Recruiters can assess real-world examples, evaluate each candidate’s problem-solving skills, and spot top performers whom they can approach with a tailored job proposal.

A quick hack: using Google’s search operators helps refine further candidate searches (for example, type in Google: site:kaggle.com “joined ago” London python).

Core Features and Tasks:

• Free access to 5M data science and machine learning experts.
• Community-driven competitions and datasets, showcased under each user’s profile.
• Search tools for filtering candidates by location, expertise, and industry.

Best For:

Kaggle can become a great resource for recruiters looking for talents among data science and machine learning professionals.

5️. Stack Overflow

Briefly: a free platform for sourcing developers

Stack Overflow is a Q&A platform where developers ask questions and share technical knowledge. As a passive candidate sourcing tool, Stack Overflow is the right place for recruiters to get in touch with developers contributing to discussions.

How to Use Stack Overflow for Hiring:

Recruiters can use the platform’s search functionality to filter profiles by skills, tags, and location. Candidate contributions can give a clue to their experience level and expertise in specific technologies.

Besides, the company also works to reintroduce its Stack Overflow Jobs, a job site for technical job seekers. The current version (powered by Indeed) is available in the United States only, but the company is studying the possibilities to expand to more countries.

Core Features and Tasks:

• Free access to a highly skilled community of developers.
• Advanced search filters for skill sets and geographic location.
• Possibility to evaluate candidate expertise by their answers and activity on the website.

Best For:

Stack Overflow works best for tech recruiters sourcing mid to senior-level developers and engineers. It is a go-to place for companies hiring tech talents in the US, but can also serve as a passive candidates sourcing platform globally.

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BONUS

As promised, we’ll share a couple of quick life-saving hacks for fast search of candidates on various recruiting platforms. First of all, wisely use hashtags on social media when sourcing candidates.

📍Use different categories of hashtags:

• Content-specific hashtags like #CV #opentowork
• Country-specific hashtags like  #France #US
• Industry-specific hashtags like  #web #development
• Company-specific hashtags like #Juggl #Deel

📍Check different spellings of hashtags, e.g., #GraphicDesign, #GraphicDesigner, #GraphicDesigners.

📍Find how popular the chosen LinkedIn hashtag is using the LinkedIn search box.

📍Use the Google Chrome extension Hashtag Analytics and sort the most convenient and popular hashtags from a drop-down list.

ONE MORE BONUS

Find even more latest recruiting tools in the market (270, actually) here. The list includes automated candidate sourcing like scrapers, browser extensions, AI candidate sourcing tools, and more.

Last but not least, read our comprehensive guide to successful hiring. It sums up the best practices that should help you streamline the recruitment process and find candidates faster.