At a glance
| Wellfound | RealGreatDevs | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Job marketplace | Technical sourcing |
| Pricing model | Free tier plus paid recruiting plans | Self-serve monthly or annual subscription, no placement fees |
| Coverage | Vendor reports millions of candidates who have opted into the marketplace. | 2.5M indexed engineer profiles |
| Data source | Candidate-submitted profiles and stated preferences, including salary expectations. | Public GitHub activity: repositories, languages, contribution history and stated location. |
| Roles covered | Varies by product | Software engineering only |
What each one costs
Wellfound offers a free tier for posting roles, with paid recruiting products above it. Check the vendor's pricing page for current figures.
Plans are self-serve with a free account to start, billed per workspace with seats included and no per-hire or placement fee. Aggregate data like the skill and country pages is public and free to browse.
Wellfound pricing last checked 2026-08-04. Most vendors in this category sell quote-based annual contracts, so treat published ranges as a starting point for negotiation rather than a quote.
Where each one wins
Wellfound is stronger at
- Everyone in the pool is actively open to work, so response rates are high
- Salary expectations are stated up front, which removes a whole negotiation round
- Free to start
Where Wellfound falls short
- Only reaches active candidates, which is a small fraction of the engineering market
- Strongly weighted toward startup roles and startup-inclined candidates
RealGreatDevs is stronger at
- Every profile is backed by public code you can read, not a self-reported skill list
- Filter on activity itself: contribution volume, repository count, language mix and country
- Self-serve, so you can evaluate it without a sales call or an annual commitment
Where RealGreatDevs falls short
- Engineering only. If you also hire sales, finance or design, you need something else alongside it
- Coverage depends on public code, so engineers who work only in private repositories are underrepresented
- Not an ATS or a CRM: it finds and contacts people, it does not manage them through a hiring process
Choose Wellfound if
Startups hiring engineers who are already looking and comfortable with startup risk.
The core difference
Wellfound reaches people who raised their hand. RealGreatDevs indexes engineers whether or not they are looking, which is where most of the market is — and why outreach matters more than a job post.
Frequently asked questions
Is RealGreatDevs cheaper than Wellfound?
Wellfound pricing model: Free tier plus paid recruiting plans. Wellfound offers a free tier for posting roles, with paid recruiting products above it. Check the vendor's pricing page for current figures. RealGreatDevs is sold differently: Self-serve monthly or annual subscription, no placement fees, so a small team can start without a sales call or an annual commitment. For a large team with an existing contract, the comparison depends entirely on the terms you negotiate.
What can Wellfound do that RealGreatDevs cannot?
Everyone in the pool is actively open to work, so response rates are high. Salary expectations are stated up front, which removes a whole negotiation round. Free to start. Startups hiring engineers who are already looking and comfortable with startup risk.
Can I use both RealGreatDevs and Wellfound?
Yes, and plenty of teams do. Wellfound covers job marketplace; RealGreatDevs covers engineering sourcing from public code. They draw on different data, so using both widens the pool rather than duplicating it.
Where does RealGreatDevs get its data?
Public GitHub activity: repositories, languages, contribution history and stated location. Every profile is built from activity that is already public, and the aggregate figures on our skill and country pages come from the same index you search.
Sources
Figures are as published or independently reported at the date noted above. Vendor pricing changes; verify before budgeting.
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A free account gets you into the index. No sales call, no annual contract, no placement fees.