Best Remote Laravel Job Sites in 2023
In 2023 I changed jobs. For my next position, I was interested in two things: 100% remote work and Laravel. Thankfully, my job search was successful and I found exactly what I was looking for: a small, remote-first company with good culture and very nice people, that uses Laravel.
If you're looking for work in a specific stack, I recommend narrowing your search to focus on sites that specialize in that stack. Likewise, there are remote-only job sites which should be high on your list, if remote is important for you.
Unfortunately, the "classic" job sites such as Monster, LinkedIn, etc have fallen behind in terms of user experience and actually helping you find what you need. There is one exception where I actually found this position, but I'll get to that in a minute.
Here's a short list of job sites that I found most helpful in my search.
LaraJobs
LaraJobs is the official Laravel job search site and my go-to recommendation if you're set on working in this stack.
The cool thing about LaraJobs is that you're guaranteed to find Laravel jobs instead of noise and chaff, like on other sites.
Unfortunately the site seems a bit unfinished and the user experience is lacking. For example, you can't apply multiple filters at once. I can't search, say, for "TALL stack" + "Full Time" at the same time. Also, there doesn't seem a way to filter by location. Even for remote work, I would like to filter jobs on another continent.
Despite the downsides, LaraJobs is razor-focused on Laravel jobs, and is updated regularly.
LaraDir
LaraDir is a Laravel-focused discovery-based job directory. It's different from others on this list in that you create a developer profile and then companies can find you, so it's more company oriented. It sounds like an interesting approach, but I just came across it, so I haven't used it.
RemoteOK
RemoteOK is a job site that focuses strictly on remote work. It's a great place to find remote tech jobs in general, but it's not limited to Laravel. So if the tech stack is not that important for you, RemoteOK is a great place to start.
RemoteOK has a lot more filters than LaraJobs. You can filter by multiple criteria, including salary and location. You can also search by keyword and sort the results by various parameters.
The site is made and operated by Pieter Levels, the NomadList guy.
Indeed
Indeed is a classic job site that has been around for a long time. Surprisingly, it has been updated since the last time I was looking for a job, and it feels fresh, modern and easy to use. You can create alerts with certain keywords, and you will receive emails with matching jobs.
The filtering is very good, and helps you narrow down the results.
This is where I found my current job, and that makes me a happy user.
A word on LinkedIn
TL;DR LinkedIn is only useful for researching companies; don't use it as your primary job search tool.
LinkedIn used to be at the top of my list (next to Indeed) for job searching in the past. However, it has become a mess. The user experience is terrible, and the site is full of spammy content and nagging/clueless recruiters.
The email alerts are pretty awful, despite requesting to receive only the most relevant jobs. I would receive emails with jobs that were not even close to what I was looking for.
I would avoid LinkedIn for job searching, unless you're looking for a specific company.
LinkedIn, however does have one redeeming feature. It's (still) a good place to research a company.
You can make sure the company is legit, check out how many employees it has, and drill down to the individual positions of the people who work there. As a software engineer, I like to see the developers and managers who work there, and try to form a mental picture of the company culture.
Companies also have various links, posts, and information on their LinkedIn page, which can be helpful.
A word on recruiters
In general, I avoid recruiters. Most of them like to spam me on LinkedIn, but unfortunately they are only wasting my time with irrelevant positions.
The only recruiters that I will talk to are: 1) those whom I've worked with successfully in the past, and 2) those who have clearly done their research, and are presenting me with a relevant position.
I would recommend turning off the "I'm available for work" flag if you want to avoid dealing with recruiters.
Types of companies to avoid
Here comes a very personal, intimate, and wholly biased opinion.
Having either worked for, interviewed with, or had some form of close contact with these types of companies, they are at the bottom of my wishlist (unless they have something very special to offer).
- Software/client agencies
- Marketing agencies
- Companies that are not tech-focused
- Companies that treat software development as a cost center
Obviously, each of us has their own preferences, and it's up to you to decide who you want to work for.
The Laravel job market is 🔥
My perception is that the Laravel market is not just doing well, but growing at a rapid pace the past few years. Ironically, the massive tech layoffs of 2022/2023 seemed to have had zero impact on the Laravel job market.
If I were to guess why this is the case, I would say that a lot of companies have started to realize how much you can get done in this stack, so Laravel has become a boon for any sort of startup that wants to iterate fast and be quick to the market. Larger companies are not immune to this either, as there are countless internal tools that can be built quickly with Laravel, even when the company hesitates to use it for their main product.
There are plenty of Laravel jobs out there for all experience levels, although this guide is biased towards senior and mid-level developers. I've had the luxury of deliberately filtering out positions that didn't agree with me in one way or another.
Another side effect of working in the Laravel ecosystem is that the community leans heavily towards remote work, thanks to several high-profile companies that have been pushing the concept for years, but also let's not forget the flexibility of the stack and plentiful documentation that facilitates asynchronous work.
I hope these pointers will help you find your next Laravel/remote job in 2023 and beyond!