How to source freelance designers and creatives from Behance

Q: How do I know if a Behance designer is open to work?

Check `availabilityInfo` and the hiring flags. `isAvailableFreelance`, `isAvailableFullTime`, `isLookingForRemote`, and `isResponsiveToHiring` come straight from the creative's own Behance settings.

ParseBird·14 Oct 2026

Key Takeaways

What is Behance used for in hiring? Behance is Adobe's portfolio platform for creative professionals. Recruiters, agencies, and startups use it to find designers by their actual work and check whether they are available for freelance, full-time, or remote roles.

What data can you scrape from a Behance profile? Name, occupation, company, website, city and country, creative fields, availability (full-time, freelance, remote, relocation, minimum compensation), appreciations, views, followers, social links, up to four latest projects, and completed freelance projects with reviews.

Can you filter Behance creatives by location and specialty? Yes. Filter by keyword, creative field (for example Graphic Design, Illustration, Branding, UI/UX, Logo Design), and country, state, and city.

How do I know if a Behance designer is open to work? Check availabilityInfo and the hiring flags. isAvailableFreelance, isAvailableFullTime, isLookingForRemote, and isResponsiveToHiring come straight from the creative's own Behance settings.

Why Behance is a strong source for creative talent

Behance (owned by Adobe) hosts portfolios for millions of graphic designers, illustrators, motion designers, photographers, and product designers. Unlike LinkedIn, the profile is the work itself, and many creatives set explicit availability for freelance or full-time roles.

Creative recruiters, design agencies, startup founders hiring a first designer, and marketplaces looking for supply use Behance search, but the site shows profiles as visual cards without availability filters or exports. The Behance People Scraper returns the same search as structured data.

Hiring need	Behance filter or field
Logo designer in the US	`query`, `creativeField` = "199", `country` = "US"
Remote UI/UX designer	`creativeField` = "132", then `availabilityInfo.isLookingForRemote`
Established illustrator	`creativeField` = "48", `sort` = "appreciations"
Freelancer with a track record	`freelanceProjectUserInfo.completedProjectCount`, `reviewCount`
Local photographer	`creativeField` = "73", `country`, `state`, `city`

How to scrape Behance people search

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("parsebird/behance-people-scraper").call(run_input={
    "query": "brand identity",
    "creativeField": "109",
    "country": "US",
    "state": "California",
    "sort": "followed",
    "maxItems": 300,
})
people = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items

Input	What it does
`query`	Keyword matched against names, usernames, and profile text. Empty returns Behance's recommended creatives
`creativeField`	Behance field ID as a string, such as "44" Graphic Design, "48" Illustration, "73" Photography, "109" Branding, "132" UI/UX, "199" Logo Design
`country`, `state`, `city`	Location filters. State and city need a country
`sort`	`recommended`, `followed`, `appreciations`, `views`, `published_date`
`maxItems`	1 to 10,000 profiles

Where do I find Behance creative field IDs? Run a search on behance.net, pick a creative field filter, and read the field number in the URL. The scraper also returns each creative's fields with their IDs in creativeFields, so one broad run shows you the IDs that matter for your niche.

What a Behance profile looks like as data

A trimmed, illustrative row:

{
  "username": "example-studio",
  "displayName": "Example Studio",
  "occupation": "Brand designer",
  "city": "Stockholm",
  "country": "Sweden",
  "website": "https://example.com",
  "isResponsiveToHiring": true,
  "isAvailableForFreelanceServices": true,
  "creativeFields": [{ "name": "Branding", "id": "109" }],
  "availabilityInfo": {
    "isAvailableFullTime": true,
    "isAvailableFreelance": true,
    "isLookingForRemote": true,
    "isOpenToRelocation": false,
    "currency": "USD"
  },
  "stats": { "appreciations": 11665, "views": 107675, "followers": 2598 },
  "socialReferences": [{ "socialService": "Instagram", "url": "https://instagram.com/example" }]
}

The projects.nodes array holds up to four of the creative's latest projects with cover images, which is enough for a first visual screen without opening every profile.

Shortlisting Behance designers who are actually available

A good shortlist filters on availability first, then ranks by quality signals:

const shortlist = people
  .filter((p) => p.availabilityInfo?.isAvailableFreelance && p.isResponsiveToHiring)
  .map((p) => ({
    name: p.displayName,
    profile: p.url,
    location: [p.city, p.country].filter(Boolean).join(", "),
    followers: p.stats?.followers ?? 0,
    appreciations: p.stats?.appreciations ?? 0,
    completedJobs: p.freelanceProjectUserInfo?.completedProjectCount ?? 0,
    remote: !!p.availabilityInfo?.isLookingForRemote,
  }))
  .sort((a, b) => b.completedJobs - a.completedJobs || b.followers - a.followers);

Completed Behance freelance projects and their reviews are worth weighting heavily. They show a creative has delivered paid work through the platform, not just published personal projects.

Can I contact Behance designers directly? Use the creative's own channels: website, socialReferences, or Behance's hire button when allowsContactFromAnyone is true. Keep outreach personal and relevant to their work, and follow anti-spam and privacy rules such as the GDPR for EU-based creatives.

Benchmarking creative rates and talent supply

The same data supports research beyond single hires:

Talent supply by city. Count available UI/UX designers per city to plan where to hire or open a studio.
Rate expectations. Where creatives publish compensationMin, compare it by field and country. For project-rate benchmarks on gig marketplaces, see how to benchmark gig economy pricing with Freelancer and Fiverr.
Marketplace supply. Platforms recruiting creative freelancers can find active, available creatives by niche.

Behance scraper pricing

The scraper charges per profile scraped, about $2.99 per 1,000 profiles on Apify's free plan at the time of writing, with lower prices on paid plans. See the Behance People Scraper page for current pricing.

FAQ

Do I need a Behance or Adobe account? No. The scraper reads public Behance people search and profile data.

Is it legal to scrape Behance? The scraper only reads public profile data. Profiles still contain personal data, so collect what you need for a legitimate purpose, store it securely, and check Behance's terms and privacy laws in your market.

Can it scrape Behance projects instead of people? This actor focuses on people search and includes each person's four latest projects. It is not a full project-gallery scraper.

How is Behance different from Dribbble or LinkedIn for hiring designers? Behance profiles carry explicit availability settings and freelance reviews alongside the portfolio, while LinkedIn is CV-first and Dribbble is mostly shot-based. Many recruiters use Behance to find candidates and LinkedIn to verify employment history.

Browse the Social Media category for more creator and community data tools, or the Jobs category for hiring data.