Toptal Blog
The Toptal Blog is the top hub for developers, designers, management consultants, executives, and entrepreneurs, featuring key technology updates, tutorials, freelancer resources, and management insights.
Featured in
World-class articles, delivered weekly.
How to Create a Swipeable UITabBar From the Ground Up
Apple’s iOS SDK features a bevy of built-in UI components, but what happens when you decide you need a bit more? What if you need to create a swipeable UITabBar?
In this post, Toptal iOS Developer George Vashakidze explains how he tried using a third-party library, and why he chose to create his own solution instead.

George Vashakidze
George is an extremely motivated and hardworking mobile developer with extensive experience working with iOS and Android.
A Road to Better Agile Testing
The yearly World Quality Report created by Capgemini shows that 42% of survey respondents list a “lack of professional test expertise” as a challenge in applying testing to Agile development. While the advent of Agile has brought the increased speed of iterations for software development, in some cases this has come at the cost of quality.

Vytas Butkus
Vytas is a professional project and product manager leading products and projects in education, 3D graphics, eCommerce, and adtech.
How to Approach Modern WordPress Development (Part 2)
WordPress code, especially back-end PHP code, is often a mess—even in WP core! But legacy code is no excuse. Find out how to develop WP customizations the right way, so your code is readable and maintainable.

Andrey Shalashov
Andrey is a full-stack web developer and WordPress expert. Lately, his focus is on serverless computing and JAMstack.
UX Myths – Prototyping, User Testing, and UX Deliverables
Prototyping, user testing, and UX deliverables are important to the design process, but there are some UX myths that can put these processes at risk of being devalued by clients.

James Tucker
James is a problem-solver who fuses cognitive science techniques with interaction design to make products people love.
ELK to AWS: Managing Logs With Less Hassle
The ELK stack boasts a range of impressive capabilities, but in some scenarios, it can be difficult to configure and maintain.
In this article, Toptal DevOps Engineer Fabrice Triboix explains why he decided to shift to a serverless solution that requires less maintenance and allows for superior scaling.

Fabrice Triboix
Fabrice is a cloud architect and software developer with 20+ years of experience who’s worked for Cisco, Samsung, Philips, Alcatel, and Sagem.
Will JS Frameworks Spark a Front-end Revolution?
Are Vue.js, React, and Angular actually delivering a good developer and user experience, or are they used simply because they’re the current de facto standard? Discover some exciting approaches to web development.

Kevin Bloch
Kevin has 20+ years among full-stack, desktop, and indie game development. He lately specializes in PostgreSQL, JavaScript, Perl, and Haxe.
What Is Strategic Design Thinking and How Can It Empower Designers?
Designers are not mere pixel pushers. If they improved communication and employed their skills more effectively through strategic design thinking, they could make a bigger impact with their work.

Kent Mundle
Kent is a globally recognized environmental designer who uses design and writing to create innovative and transformative experiences.
A Deep Look at JSON vs. XML, Part 3: XML and the Future of JSON
In Part 1 and 2, we took a closer look at the evolution of the web, how XML and JSON arose, and the differences between the two standards.
In this final part of our series on JSON vs. XML, Toptal Freelance Full-stack Developer Seva Safris looks at XML as a data interchange format and how well it supports complex requirements. And finally, he will discuss the future of JSON as well as explore solutions that bring the strengths of XML to JSON.

Seva Safris
Seva is a veteran of both enterprise and startups and a UC Berkeley graduate in EECS and MSE with 20 years of industry experience.
A Deep Look At JSON vs. XML, Part 2: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Both
Nearly all computer applications rely on either JSON or XML. Today, JSON has overtaken XML, but is it better? In part 1 of this series on JSON vs. XML, we take a closer look at the history of the web to uncover the original purpose of XML and JSON and analyze how JSON became the popular choice.

Seva Safris
Seva is a veteran of both enterprise and startups with 20 years of industry experience and a UC Berkeley graduate in EECS and MSE.
Most-read Articles

An Angular 5 Tutorial: Step by Step Guide to Your First Angular 5 App

Adobe XD vs. Sketch – Which UX Tool Is Right for You?

The History of Remote Work, 1560-Present (with Infographic) (Updated)
World-class articles, delivered weekly.
Toptal Developers
- Android Developers
- App Developers
- AWS Developers
- Azure Developers
- BigCommerce Developers
- Blockchain Developers
- Coders
- Database Developers
- Embedded Software Engineers
- Flutter Developers
- HTML5 Developers
- Java Developers
- Joomla Developers
- Kubernetes Developers
- Laravel Developers
- Magento Developers
- .NET Developers
- Next.js Developers
- Odoo Developers
- Outsourced Developers
- PHP Developers
- Power BI Developers
- Prototype Developers
- Python Developers
- React Developers
- React Native Developers
- Remote Developers
- Ruby on Rails Developers
- Salesforce Developers
- Security Engineers
- SharePoint Developers
- Shopify Developers
- Software Developers
- Squarespace Developers
- Startup Developers
- Svelte Developers
- Twilio Developers
- Vue.js Developers
- Web Developers
- Web Scrapers
- WooCommerce Developers
- WordPress Developers
- View More Freelance Developers
Toptal Designers
- Accessible Web Designers
- Adobe After Effects Designers
- Adobe Illustrator Experts
- CAD Designers
- Canva Designers
- Data Visualization Designers
- E-commerce UX Designers
- E-commerce Website Designers
- Fintech Designers
- Graphic Designers
- Illustrators
- Interactive Designers
- Landing Page Designers
- Logo Designers
- Mobile App Designers
- Mobile UX Designers
- Photoshop Experts
- Presentation Designers
- Product Designers
- Prototype Designers
- Responsive Web Designers
- Shopify Designers
- Startup Design Experts
- SVG Designers
- UI Designers
- UX Designers
- Visual Designers
- Web Designers
- Webflow Designers
- WooCommerce Designers
- View More Freelance Designers
Toptal Management Consultants
- 409A Valuation Consultants
- Bankruptcy Consultants
- Blockchain Consultants
- Business Consultants
- Business Plan Writers
- Cash Flow Consultants
- CFO Consultants
- Corporate Finance Consultants
- CPAs
- Crowdfunding Consultants
- Excel Experts
- Financial Consultants
- Financial Managers
- Financial Modelers
- Financial Planning Consultants
- Fintech Consultants
- FP&A Analysts
- Fractional CFOs
- Fractional COOs
- Fundraising Consultants
- Hedge Fund Consultants
- Interim CFOs
- Interim COOs
- Interim Financial Controllers
- M&A Consultants
- Market Research Analysts
- McKinsey Consultants
- Part-time CFOs
- Pitch Deck Consultants
- Pricing Consultants
- Private Equity Consultants
- Quantitative Analysts
- Salesforce Consultants
- Small Business Operations Consultants
- Startup Consultants
- Startup Funding Consultants
- Stock Market Experts
- Tax Professionals
- Virtual CFOs
- View More Freelance Consultants
Toptal Project Managers
- Agile Coaches
- Agile Consultants
- Agile Team Leads
- Blockchain Project Managers
- Business Delivery Managers
- Delivery Managers
- Digital Project Managers
- E-commerce Project Managers
- ITIL Certified Service Delivery Managers
- Jira Experts
- Mobile Project Managers
- Monday.com Experts
- PMP Project Managers
- Program Managers
- Project Management Consultants
- Scrum Coaches
- Scrum Masters
- Solutions Architects
- Startup Project Managers
- Waterfall Project Managers
- Web Project Managers
- Wrike Consultants
- View More Freelance Project Managers
Toptal Product Managers
- Agile Product Managers
- App Product Managers
- Artificial Intelligence Product Managers
- Business Analysts
- Contract Product Managers
- Data Product Managers
- Digital Product Managers
- E-commerce Product Managers
- Finance Product Managers
- Fractional CIOs
- Ideation Consultants
- Interim CPOs
- Outsourced Product Management Professionals
- Principal Product Managers
- Product Consultants
- Product Development Managers
- Product Leaders
- Product Management Consultants
- Remote Product Managers
- Robotics Product Managers
- Scrum Product Managers
- Scrum Product Owners
- Virtual Product Managers
- View More Freelance Product Managers
Toptal Marketing Experts
- Amazon SEO Experts
- Blog Writers
- Community Managers
- Content Managers
- Conversion Rate Optimization Experts
- Copy Editors
- Copywriters
- Customer Journey Mapping Consultants
- Digital Marketers
- Digital Media Specialists
- Display Ads Specialists
- E-commerce Consultants
- E-commerce Marketers
- Event Marketers
- Event Planners
- Fractional CMOs
- Google AdSense Experts
- Google Ads Experts
- Influencer Marketers
- Integrated Marketing Strategists
- Local SEO Experts
- Mailchimp Experts
- On-page SEO Experts
- PPC Experts
- Press Release Writers
- Salesforce Pardot Consultants
- SEO Audit Specialists
- SEO Copywriters
- SEO Experts
- Shopify SEO Experts
- Social Media Managers
- Social Media Marketers
- Video Editors
- Wordpress SEO Experts
- View More Freelance Marketers
Join the Toptal® community.











