IT contract job boards in Germany compared: which board lists the most IT freelance projects?
In Q3 2026, Projectmatch counted 39,296 new listings for IT contractors and freelancers on the 5 German IT project boards it reads – per board in the months it was read completely. Most listings appear on freelancermap.de (52%), followed by freelance.de (35%) and gulp.de (8.1%). This page shows how many projects each board lists per month and what its listings state: a freelance contract, employee leasing (ANÜ) or employment, remote work, German, the rate, the posting company and the developer roles asked for.
Which job board lists the most IT contracts in Germany?
Most listings appear on freelancermap.de (52%), followed by freelance.de (35%) and gulp.de (8.1%). Counted are the new listings per month, over the months in which Projectmatch read a board completely. Not read completely for the whole quarter: freelance.de (from August 2026), solcom.de (from August 2026) and projekt-pool.de (from August 2026); for them the average of the months read completely counts. The chart shows each board's share of all listings per month.
| Project board | July 2026 | August 2026 | September 2026 | Per month | Share | Text read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| freelancermap.de | 8,227 | 7,105 | 8,284 | 7,872 | 52% | 100% |
| freelance.de | 774* | 5,097 | 5,438 | 5,268 | 35% | 19% |
| gulp.de | 843 | 1,625 | 1,220 | 1,229 | 8.1% | 86% |
| solcom.de | 514* | 695 | 709 | 702 | 4.6% | 75% |
| projekt-pool.de | 59* | 29 | 24 | 27 | 0.2% | 100% |
* The board was not read completely this month (its reading started or widened); the month does not count towards the monthly average.
"Text read": the share of listings whose text Projectmatch could read; only these count for what the sections below report.
The figures show how many listings a board publishes – not how many different projects are behind them. Recruitment agencies often post the same project more than once: again on the same board days or weeks later, or on several boards at the same time. Each of these listings counts here, as each is a way into the project; how many different projects there are is shown in the next section. How the listings spread over weekdays and hours is shown in When are IT contracts posted in Germany?
How many projects are listed on one board only?
The same project often appears more than once: on a second board, because the agency posts it there too, or again on the same board. Of the 29,892 listings on all boards whose text Projectmatch could read in Q3 2026, the same project had been on another board in the 14 days before for 14%, and 10% repeated a listing of the same board from the 90 days before; a listing can be both. New – neither a repeat nor a copy – were 80%: 24,013 distinct projects first listed in the quarter.
On average across the compared boards, the project of 14% of the listings had been on another board shortly before. This is clearly more frequent on solcom.de (41% vs 13% on the other boards), gulp.de (34% vs 12% on the other boards) and freelance.de (19% vs 14% on the other boards). Clearly less frequent on freelancermap.de (9.6% vs 31% on the other boards). On average across the compared boards, 10% of the listings repeat an earlier listing of the same board. The listings on solcom.de (28% vs 9.4% on the other boards) and gulp.de (26% vs 8.2% on the other boards) do so clearly more often. Those on freelance.de (1.5% vs 11% on the other boards) and freelancermap.de (7.8% vs 19% on the other boards) clearly less often.
| Project board | Listings read | Distinct projects | Repeat on the same board | Already on another board | Of which first on | New (neither repeat nor copy) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| freelancermap.de | 23,616 | 21,765 | 7.8% | 9.6% | freelance.de 4.6%, gulp.de 3.4%, solcom.de 1.6% | 85% |
| freelance.de | 1,978 | 1,948 | 1.5% | 19% | freelancermap.de 11%, solcom.de 6.3%, gulp.de 2.2% | 80% |
| gulp.de | 3,188 | 2,356 | 26% | 34% | solcom.de 20%, freelancermap.de 11%, freelance.de 3.3% | 56% |
| solcom.de | 1,057 | 763 | 28% | 41% | freelancermap.de 27%, gulp.de 13%, freelance.de 1.5% | 55% |
| projekt-pool.de | 53 | 53 | 0% | 7.5% | freelancermap.de 7.5% | 92% |
| All boards | 29,892 | 24,013 | 10% | 14% | – | 80% |
The table shows per board how many distinct projects its listings read contain (without its repeats), how many had been on another board before, and on which; the "All boards" row counts every project once, also when it was on several boards. A project counts in the quarter it was first listed; its repeats and copies in a later quarter do not count it again there. So if you follow one board only, you do not see every project; if you follow several, you see some twice. Only what could be read is compared: on a board with few listings read, duplicates go undetected too. How Projectmatch recognises the same project is explained in the method.
Where are the most freelance contracts? Contract type per board
projekt-pool.de has too few listings read for the comparisons below (fewer than 200 in the quarter) and is left out of them. On average across the compared boards, 17% of the listings offer employment (employee leasing, fixed-term or permanent). The share of employment is clearly higher on freelancermap.de (19% vs 7.7% on the other boards). It is clearly lower on solcom.de (1.6% vs 17% on the other boards), gulp.de (7.8% vs 18% on the other boards) and freelance.de (11% vs 17% on the other boards). On gulp.de (80%), more than half of the listings state no contract type – a low value there mostly means that the listings say nothing about it.
The shares reflect what the listings state as their contract type – in the board's own field or in the text. What sets the contract types apart and how their share develops is covered in Freelance vs employee leasing. The value on the right is the share of employment; the shares of every contract type are written below.
Which job board has the most remote IT contracts?
On average across the compared boards, 63% of the listings explicitly offer full or partial remote work. The listings on freelancermap.de (74% vs 23% on the other boards) do so clearly more often. Those on gulp.de (16% vs 69% on the other boards), solcom.de (26% vs 65% on the other boards) and freelance.de (33% vs 66% on the other boards) clearly less often. On gulp.de (80%), solcom.de (66%) and freelance.de (61%), more than half of the listings state no remote share – a low value there mostly means that the listings say nothing about it. A remote offer is an explicitly stated remote share above 0% – fully remote or partly, such as two days on site and three remote. How much remote work IT freelance projects allow overall is shown in How remote are IT freelance projects in Germany?
Which job boards list IT contracts without German?
On average across the compared boards, 50% of the listings explicitly require German. The listings on freelancermap.de (55% vs 33% on the other boards) do so clearly more often. Those on gulp.de (17% vs 55% on the other boards) and solcom.de (42% vs 51% on the other boards) clearly less often. On gulp.de (82%) and solcom.de (52%), more than half of the listings name no language – a low value there mostly means that the listings say nothing about it. Counted is a required language level or German as a required skill. How many projects need no German is covered in English-speaking IT contracts in Germany.
Which developer roles do the job boards list?
On average across the compared boards, 31% of the listings are development projects. Their share is clearly higher on freelancermap.de (32% vs 26% on the other boards). Clearly lower on solcom.de (22% vs 31% on the other boards), freelance.de (27% vs 31% on the other boards) and gulp.de (28% vs 32% on the other boards). Development projects are projects with development work, as the analysis of the most in-demand developer roles defines them – for Java, SAP, DevOps, test or embedded roles, for instance; the others are consulting, project management, administration or IT operations, for instance. The table names up to three most frequent developer roles per board with at least 10 listings each, and their share of the board's development projects.
| Project board | Development | Most frequent roles (share of development) |
|---|---|---|
| freelancermap.de | 32% | DevOps / Platform Engineer (15%), Test Engineer (8.3%), Java Backend Developer (8.2%) |
| freelance.de | 27% | DevOps / Platform Engineer (15%), Test Engineer (10%), Data Engineer (8.7%) |
| gulp.de | 28% | Embedded C/C++ Developer (11%), DevOps / Platform Engineer (10%), Test Engineer (8.9%) |
| solcom.de | 22% | Embedded C/C++ Developer (21%), PLC / Automation Programmer (18%), Test Engineer (10%) |
Rates and posting companies
An hourly or day rate is stated by 3.7% of the listings read on the compared boards; the overview table below (column "Median hourly rate") shows the median for every board with at least 100 stated rates. Which rates IT freelance projects state is covered in IT contractor rates in Germany.
Most listings on freelancermap.de (98%) and solcom.de (100%) name the posting company; on freelance.de, gulp.de and projekt-pool.de it is not shown in a field of its own. The posting company is almost always a recruitment agency or project broker, rarely the end client. Which companies post the most projects is shown in IT recruitment agencies in Germany.
freelancermap.de, freelance.de, gulp.de, solcom.de and projekt-pool.de at a glance
The table sums up per compared board what its listings in Q3 2026 state: the listings read, the contract types and how many state none, how many offer remote work and how many state no remote share, how many require German or explicitly need none, the share of development projects, how often a rate is stated and how often the posting company. The last row shows all compared boards together.
| Project board | Listings read | Freelance | Leasing (ANÜ) | Fixed-term/permanent | No contract type | Remote offered | No remote statement | German required | Without German | Development | Rate stated | Median hourly rate | Company named |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| freelancermap.de | 23,616 | 81% | 16% | 3.1% | 0% | 74% | 22% | 55% | 6% | 32% | 4.2% | €75–80 | 98% |
| freelance.de | 1,978 | 57% | 8.6% | 2.3% | 32% | 33% | 61% | 52% | 9.5% | 27% | 1.8% | – | 0% |
| gulp.de | 3,188 | 13% | 6.2% | 1.6% | 80% | 16% | 80% | 17% | 1.2% | 28% | 2.4% | – | 0% |
| solcom.de | 1,057 | 55% | 1.5% | 0.1% | 44% | 26% | 66% | 42% | 6% | 22% | 0.1% | – | 100% |
| All compared boards | 29,839 | 71% | 14% | 2.8% | 12% | 63% | 32% | 50% | 5.7% | 31% | 3.7% | €75–80 | 81% |
Board shares quarter by quarter
The boards' shares of the listings per month are evaluated per quarter. The series starts with Q3 2026; from the next quarter on, this paragraph names the shares that changed clearly.
Which is the best job board for IT contractors in Germany?
That depends on what you are looking for – and the figures rate no board: they say nothing about usability, the cost of access or the quality of placements. They still help you choose: if you only want freelance contracts, the contract-type chart shows on which boards the share of employment is low; if you want to work remotely, where remote work is often offered explicitly; if you want to work without German, the overview's "Without German" column shows where that is more often possible; if you look for a particular role, the role table shows which boards list many projects for it. And if you follow several boards, you will see some projects twice, as they are listed on more than one board.
Projectmatch reads every board named here hourly and shows the current IT contracts from all boards in one place; it matches new projects against your profile automatically. Try it now.
See also: IT recruitment agencies in Germany, Freelance vs employee leasing, When are IT contracts posted in Germany? and IT freelance market report.
Method
Projectmatch reads the boards hourly from 06:00 to 18:00 every day and counts every listing it finds for the first time – also one whose text could not be read later. A board counts as read completely in a month when Projectmatch read it the whole month the way it reads it today; a board's first day takes in every listing already on it and is therefore left out. Per board, what is read:
- freelancermap.de – read completely since 31 May 2026: every new listing with a location in Germany (the board's country filter)
- freelance.de – read completely since 31 July 2026: every new or updated listing, unfiltered; before, only listings filtered by skills
- gulp.de – read completely since 23 May 2026: every new listing; those forwarding to solcom.de count there
- solcom.de – read completely since 22 July 2026: SOLCOM's board with all of SOLCOM's open projects; the first reading took all of them at once
- projekt-pool.de – read completely since 3 July 2026: the public list of the latest 23 or so projects, read hourly
What the listings state rests on the listings read: 29,839 on the compared boards in the quarter. Not every listing's text could be read – for instance because fetching the project pages failed for a while or a listing forwards to another website: the share of listings read was 19% on freelance.de, 75% on solcom.de and 86% on gulp.de. A board's shares rest on its listings read. Contract type, remote share, German and rate count only when a listing states them explicitly – in the board's field or in the description, which an AI model reads; the posting company counts when the board shows it in a field of its own or publishes only its operator's projects. Roles and development projects are those of the developer-roles analysis.
Two listings count as the same project when they have the same title (ignoring case, punctuation and "(m/w/d)") and near-identical descriptions: at least 90% of the words of the shorter one occur in the other, not counting numbers such as project numbers and dates; descriptions of fewer than 20 words must match, and a listing without a description matches none. A repeat follows an earlier listing of the same board by at most 90 days, a copy follows a listing of another board by at most 14 days; a reworded title or a later reappearance on another board counts as a new project. It is the same text rule as for the repeated listings in the analysis of recruitment agencies, without its condition that both listings name the same company: here listings naming no company are compared too, and same-titled, near-identical listings of different agencies count as one project.
Compared are the 4 boards with at least 200 listings read in the quarter. "Clearly" higher or lower means: a board's share differs from that of the listings on all other compared boards by at least one percentage point, and the difference is too large for random variation (two standard errors); the changes between two consecutive quarters are tested the same way, only for boards read completely in every month of both quarters, and as shares of their listings. Every listing has been evaluated this way since July 2026. A quarter is the sum of its three months, the latest complete quarter is shown, and the series starts with Q3 2026. The analysis rates no board.
The figures are updated monthly and published under CC BY 4.0: you may reuse them freely, also commercially, crediting "Projectmatch (projectmatch.io)" and, online, linking to this page.