Freelance.nl rebuilt its chat experience with TalkJS. We spoke with developer Matthijs Schuttel to learn how they made it happen.
Company: Freelance.nl
Industry: Freelancing marketplace/Recruitment
Country: The Netherlands
Key products or services: Freelance.nl connects independent professionals with recruiters and organizations across the Netherlands, enabling project-based work through a trusted, user-friendly platform.
The challenge: Outdated in-house messaging system
As one of the Netherlands’ largest freelance platforms, Freelance.nl has been a market leader in connecting freelancers to organizations for over two decades. Its mission is rooted in a core belief: that people are truly happy when they work from their talents, and that organizations can grow faster when they tap into that talent.
“At Freelance.nl, we connect freelancers with recruiters from a wide range of organisations, so reliable communication is essential.” – Matthijs Schuttel, Software Developer at Freelance.nl
During a full platform rebuild involving a 15-person development team, Freelance.nl identified its legacy chat system as a major bottleneck. Efficient and meaningful communication is key to connecting the right freelancer to the right project. However, originally built in-house, the existing messaging feature lacked the modern interface, scalability, and flexibility needed to support their fast-evolving platform.
Key challenges faced:
- Scalability & maintenance: The legacy chat system took up significant developer time to maintain.
- User experience: It lacked the intuitive UI/UX users now expect from modern messaging apps.
- Infrastructure limits: Managing and hosting real-time chat in-house became increasingly complex and inefficient.
The goal: Scalable, flexible communication
Freelance.nl’s mission goes beyond finding the right matches between freelance workers and organizations. It’s about creating happiness through talent-based work and accelerating growth through meaningful connections. To continue delivering on that promise, they needed a chat solution that could:
- Be developer-friendly, allowing smooth integration into the new platform.
- Be customizable to reflect their strong branding and varied user roles (such as freelancers, recruiters, admins).
- Scale effortlessly to support thousands of daily users without performance issues.
- Offer essential features like system messages and email notifications.
The solution: TalkJS integration
One option Freelance.nl considered was rebuilding their messaging system from scratch. Yet they soon realized that this would absorb significant developer capacity. After considering several alternatives, Freelance.nl chose TalkJS for its developer-centric design, managed infrastructure, and flexible customization options.
Key features & benefits delivered by TalkJS:
- Seamless integration: Minimal friction during proof of concept; launched quickly within the new platform.
- Custom branding & role-based UI: Chat interfaces tailored for both freelancers and clients, aligning with Freelance.nl’s UX goals.
- System messages: Automated updates, such as assignment status changes, to keep users informed in real time.
- Managed infrastructure: Offloaded the burden of hosting and scaling real-time messaging.
- Reliable email notifications: Boosted user engagement and message response times.
The results: A modern, reliable messaging experience
Freelance.nl now delivers a communication experience that aligns with its core mission of efficiently connecting freelancers and organizations so that both can grow through the exchange of expertise.
Key outcomes:
- Improved communication reliability: Email alerts and system messages now ensure timely interactions and a better user experience.
- Reduced developer overhead: Freed up dev resources to focus on core platform improvements.
- Actionable support: The TalkJS team delivered fast, actionable support, especially around bulk data imports and bounced email management.
A long-term partnership: Future plans and wishlist
With a modern communication layer in place, Freelance.nl continues to enhance the user journey. As they scale, they’re exploring:
- Improved search: In-chat user search to support quicker, direct connections.
- Enhanced reporting: More visibility into email delivery logs and failure diagnostics.
- HubSpot integration: To enrich lead and communication data across systems.
Conclusion
By implementing their TalkJS-powered messaging system, Freelance.nl modernized a vital piece of its communications infrastructure. While keeping a focus on its overall goal: to support workers to build and use their professional strengths and enable organizations to bring in freelance expertise. With a scalable, customizable, and reliable messaging foundation, Freelance.nl is now better equipped to support its growing freelance network and further solidify its position as the Netherlands’ trusted independent connector.
