The reason to use recruiters, specially as a small company, is that they do the hard work of spamming everyone with an online profile all the time and have buil

The reason to use recruiters, specially as a small company, is that they do the hard work of spamming everyone with an online profile all the time and have build a database of people who you are looking for. Even for the best candidates, it's much easier for them to reply to one of the many messages recruiters are spamming them instead of trying to constantly search themselves, specially when they are not really actively looking but would switch if an interesting opportunity presents itself. Of course, you only get the candidates from the recruiters, even from firms which claim to do some screening for you. Recruiting firms usually work on keyword-based matches and decide whether the candidate is good based on a couple of calls with them or maybe they'll throw in a generic persoanlity test or a coding challange. You still have to make your hiring plan, your own screening criteria and interview for it, test them for your requirements and all the rest of the work involved and you have to pay a handsome amount to the recruiter... which is not fair... but unfortunately, that is how it is given the market. The best way is to find a recruiter who works on success-based business model i.e. they only get paid if the employee ends up working for 6 months, a year etc... so at least you avoid those who will get you the devs, get their commission and immediately start spamming them other opportunities. Good luck!