Gigster

Gigster is a platform for building custom software using a managed, distributed workforce of vetted developers, designers, and product managers. Founded in 2014 and acquired by cloud services company Virtasant in 2024, Gigster offers two main models: fully managed project delivery, where it scopes the work, assembles a team, and takes responsibility for shipping a defined product, and talent on-demand staff augmentation, where clients add pre-vetted individual contributors to their own teams. It layers project management practices, reusable accelerators, and increasingly AI-assisted tooling on top of the freelance network to make distributed delivery more predictable than hiring freelancers directly. Gigster has historically focused on enterprise clients, including large companies that need to move on digital initiatives, proofs of concept, or modernization work faster than internal hiring allows, and it emphasizes areas like AI and data engineering, application development, and cloud work. The network spans tens of thousands of screened professionals across many countries, and engagements are priced per project or per contributor depending on the model. Gigster competes with development agencies and other elite freelance marketplaces, positioning its managed option as a middle ground between hiring an agency and assembling a contractor team from scratch.