Which job search websites are worth your time?

Two or three, not eleven: one large aggregator, one board specific to your field, and one remote-only board if remote matters. Set an alert on each and read the alert instead of browsing the site. Boards die (Stack Overflow Jobs closed twice, GitHub Jobs is gone), so no roundup stays correct, and this one will not either.

Every board roundup has the same failure mode: a snapshot presented as a standing recommendation. The version of this article we inherited listed eleven sites, two of which had already shut down when it went up. The useful part is not the list — it is the shape of the list, and the date each entry was checked.

• Choose by shape — one aggregator, one field-specific board, one remote-only board — rather than by anyone's ranking
• Stack Overflow discontinued its original Jobs product on 31 March 2022 and closed the Indeed-partnered replacement in the United States on 1 April 2026, both announced on Stack Overflow's own meta site; GitHub retired GitHub Jobs in 2021
• Hacker News runs a "Who is hiring?" thread on the first working day of each month, posted by the whoishiring account, and the thread's own rules forbid recruiters and limit each company to one post
• FlexJobs requires a paid subscription to see full listings, which FlexJobs states in its own job seeker FAQ
• An alert you read every morning beats five boards you browse when you remember
• FluxResume has no source field on a job — if you want to know which board produced a reply, you write it in the job's Notes tab yourself

How many boards do you actually need?​

Two, or three if remote is a hard requirement. Past that you are re-reading the same postings, because the large aggregators syndicate from many of the same sources and most company career pages feed at least one of them. The condition that changes this: if your field has a community board where hiring managers post directly rather than through recruiters, add it regardless of the count, because those postings are different rather than duplicated.

Set an alert on each board with two or three keyword variations, then work from the alert email — browsing a board is how an hour disappears. Spend that hour on the channel no board covers, because a referral and a board application are not the same submission even with an identical resume. What professional networking actually involves is the short version of that argument.

Which board suits which search?​

Everything below was checked in August 2026. Treat the date as part of the recommendation.

General aggregators. LinkedIn earns its place less for the postings than for the fact that recruiters search profiles there, so your profile works whether or not you apply. Indeed is the broadest aggregator. Use one, not both, unless the results genuinely differ.

Startup and tech-specific. Wellfound (formerly AngelList Talent) shows the salary band and equity range on the card itself, which saves a conversation. Y Combinator's Work at a Startup covers YC portfolio companies only, listed by function and location, though the full set needs a profile. Built In is best for tech roles filtered by city.

Community threads. Hacker News posts an "Ask HN: Who is hiring?" thread at the start of each month. The rules stated in the thread are why it works: one post per company, posted by someone who works there, no recruiting firms, and the poster is expected to reply. That is a different pool from an aggregator, and it is where roles appear before they are indexed anywhere.

Remote-only. We Work Remotely splits into category boards — full-stack, back-end, front-end, DevOps, design, support, sales and marketing, product — with every posting timestamped, so you can see how stale the board is at a glance. FlexJobs is the paid option: it screens listings by hand, and its own FAQ is explicit that a subscription is required to view full job details or apply.

That is eight boards, and you should be using two of them.

What happened to the developer boards everyone still recommends?​

They closed, and the roundups have not caught up. Stack Overflow Jobs died twice. The original product — job search, saved searches, Developer Story, the salary calculator — was discontinued on 31 March 2022, announced in Stack Overflow's "Sunsetting Jobs & Developer Story" post. A second version launched in 2024 with Indeed; Stack Overflow announced it would stop being available outside the United States on 17 February 2026 and close in the United States on 1 April 2026. GitHub retired GitHub Jobs in 2021, announced in its own sunset notice.

Both still appear on published "best job boards" lists. Whichever roundup you are reading, including this one, open the board before you plan a routine around it.

A third board came off for a weaker reason. We could not load Remote.co to check it, and third-party descriptions disagree about whether it is free or subscription-based. It may well be fine — but describing a board we could not open is the same mistake as leaving a dead one on the list.

How do you spot a fake posting?​

The old signals hold, and a bad posting costs more than a dead board does. Walk away from anything asking for money up front, bank details before an offer, or payment for equipment or training, and be suspicious of a description that names no concrete responsibility or a company with no presence beyond the posting.

Two are specific to boards: a posting sitting at the top of an untimestamped board for months is often not a live requisition, and a role on an aggregator but nowhere on the company's careers page is worth checking before you tailor for it.

How do you tell which board is working for you?​

You record it, because nothing records it for you. There is no source field on a job in FluxResume. What there is, on every job in Pipeline, is a Notes tab — so "found on We Work Remotely, 4 February" goes there, in your own words, when you save the job.

Be clear about what the product reports back. The Insights card on the Dashboard is a weekly table of applications, replies and interviews broken down by weekday. It is not a per-board breakdown, and nothing in FluxResume tells you which site generates the most interviews. You make that comparison yourself at the weekly review described in job search organisation, and it does not take long: twenty applications with a board written on each is enough to see that one source produces every reply and two produce none. Keeping twenty records straight is its own problem, covered in how to track 20+ job applications.

FluxResume's own Job Search sits alongside these boards rather than replacing them — advanced filters, an AI Smart Filter that takes a plain-language requirement, bookmarking that drops the role into your tracker, and Analyze Job Skills before you commit to tailoring. Its public page is Job Portal Search, and the walkthrough of that screen — including what the AI Smart Filter hands back — is Job Search, filters then AI Smart Filter. Comparing platforms as products is a different question from comparing boards as sources, and the platform comparison guide answers that one.

Questions people ask about job boards​

Is LinkedIn Easy Apply worth using?​

For roles you are lukewarm about, yes — the cost is thirty seconds. For roles you want, apply on the company's own site with a resume tailored to that posting. Easy Apply optimises for volume on both sides, so your application lands in the largest pile the employer receives, carrying the least evidence that you read the posting.

Are paid job boards worth paying for?​

Sometimes, and only for a defined period. A subscription board like FlexJobs buys you screening rather than volume, which is worth something if scam postings are wasting your time. Subscribe for the weeks you are actively applying, set a reminder to cancel, and judge it on replies rather than listing counts. If the free boards are already producing interviews, skip it.

Should I apply on the company site instead of the board?​

Yes, where the company site accepts applications. Aggregator submissions sometimes lose the cover letter, mangle formatting, or land in a separate queue. Use the board to discover the role and apply on the employer's careers page. The exception is a board like Hacker News, where the poster is the hiring manager and replying in the thread is the intended route.

Originally published January 2025. Reviewed and rewritten for FluxResume in August 2026.