Remote OK remote job board review

Remote OK was founded by Pieter Levels, who is well-known for being an early advocate for digital nomads. Levels also founded the popular website Nomad List, which helps location independent workers to find the best places to live and work.

Being one of the earliest purely-remote job boards on the internet, Remote OK was "first to market" and wasable establish themselves well without much competition. The site shares their visitor traffic publicly, getting an impressive 600-800k visitors per month!

All that traffic comes with the biggest price tag we've seen. Job posting starts at $599 but can quickly shoot up to $4,143 for a single job post. Many of these add-ons, such as the option to show your company logo alongside your post (+ $49) should be included in a starting price of $599, but aren't. Further, the price changes regularly as Levels is always testing price elasticity and how much he can charge at different times.

There's no denying Remote OK gets a lot of traffic, which may or may not justify the price of a job post. What really lets the site down, however, is the horrible design and user experience. As a job seeker, using the site can be a downright nightmare. The search and filters not only lack basic functionality, such as timezone filters, but are incredibly difficult to navigate and use. The overwhelming color palette and messy UI don't help. We believe this will be the downfall or Remote OK, which can only rely on their well-established name for so long. As remote work becomes the new normal, new competitors offer a much better experience for job seekers and companies, as well as much more advanced features.

Highlights:

• Huge traffic
• Large newsletter subscriber base
• Used by large companies
• Employers can specify that only U.S. applicants may apply
• Email alerts sent to subscribers
• Recently introduced basic job seeker profiles
• Up to 50% discount when you buy 100x posts ($29,950 – $227,100)

Shortcomings:

• Ridiculously expensive, with pricing changing constantly
• Job seekers missing basic filtering features like timezones, job types, salary ranges, and companies
• Job seekers are limited to fixed job keyword searches
• Search is buggy and doesn't return accurate results
• Basic features like adding a company logo are charged extra
• All higher-visibility add-ons are charged extra
• Their job listing "auto renew" after 30 days and you have to turn this off before you're charged twice
• Website design is messy and user experience is very poor for job seekers and employers
• Featured jobs styling (+ $49) is confusing and makes it hard to see the most recent job postings
• Company branding styling ($449) is distracting, very bad for accessibility, and hard to read for job seekers
• Even with the most expensive add-ons, job postings are limited to 2x social media posts
• Job seekers are limited to only "full-time" and "contract" job types
• No information on company tech stacks
• No information on company perks and benefits
• Employer accounts are still new and not mobile-responsive
• Hiring managers have to add their company information each time they post a new job
  

Reputation:

Remote OK has been around since 2015 and has become a well-established name in remote jobs. The site clearly receives a lot of traffic, but it's no secret that it can be buggy, hard-to-use, and expensive for employers. We believe this disregard for UX tarnishes Remote OK's reputation a little, especially as newer job boards are growing fast with much better user experience. The competition is already here and they're investing much more time into better features and user experience.