When you have an idea, that you would like to implement, you start looking for a developer to make it. In fact, finding the right partner for your work is conceivably the most important and hardest part of the entire process. It’s not always an easy choice to decide on who will help bring your plan to life. The dilemma is always about who to hire – agency vs freelancer developer! In this article, we would like to discuss a few pain points of interaction with freelancers and when and why it is better to work with an agency.
Cost
While wandering through freelance workplaces such as Upwork, and Fiverr, you may come to the conclusion that a freelancer’s work is less costly as the prices of their work appear to be so affordable. In fact, you may find freelancers at almost any rate you want for any task – of course, you’ll receive much higher quality if you pay more.
But can we really compare the quality of a teamwork product with a freelance experts’ one? In most cases, a freelancer is a niche expert whereas a team is a group of people who create a multidimensional and multi-layered product and each member of this group has a unique experience. Most often, for project implementation, you need several freelancers, as one freelancer is specialized in a niche skill. As a result, the total cost of the project will be much higher. In such a case, you may consider opting for a development agency to be quite beneficial in both monetary terms and also it will save you the time searching for the rights expert by yourself since everything is at your disposal in a team.
Management
When you hire freelancers, you take on the role of project manager. If you need just one or two freelancers, this is no big deal. But if you are working on a product that needs a different set of skills, you may have to manage a larger team of freelancers. When managing such large teams, it will be up to you to facilitate collaboration, provide guidance, and authorize freelancers to move on to the next stage of the project.
With an agency, project management is minimal. You can expect the agency to handle strategy and determine what tasks need doing according to your targets and end goal. Agency will take away the management hassle from you and you can be involved in the project to exactly the extent you want.
Skills and Scalability
The most common issue with considering hiring a freelancer is that they specialize in just a couple of skills. As a norm, freelancers who have been in the business for several years tend to have a niche. This means in most cases, you may find the exact skill you require for a particular task with a freelancer.
This poses you with a downside as well. It will be more difficult to find someone to carry out a diverse range of activities at a high standard. Most likely, you’d need to hire two or more freelancers which adds the extra hassle for you to spend time searching for the right candidate, onboarding, and the complete management of the team.
Therefore, the ideal option to go ahead if you are looking for a broad range of skills is to choose a developer agency. All you need to do is request a particular service and the agency will find you someone who has the relevant expertise. This is great if you need help with a project with many moving parts.
Dependability
On the Internet, you could find an extensive portfolio of qualified specialists. But it may turn out that it is a fake and this performer may disappear after the advance payment. Obviously, you need to look out for scam artists who will take your money and run. This is pretty easy to avoid by hiring through a freelance platform, as there is built-in payment protection for both you and the freelancer. Still, a freelancer could always disappear midway through a project. Finding someone who has reviews from many satisfied clients will minimize this risk.
A digital agency will always provide you with a dependable service — provided you do choose a legitimate business. If one of the professionals working on your project leaves for whatever reason, the agency will assign someone else who can pick up the work immediately.
To be certain about the legitimacy of the agency you are selecting, you have an opportunity to check their work and look at the reviews at various sites and go through a portfolio with links. It could become a guarantor of competent investments and further cooperation.
Flexibility
As a digital agency can always find someone to take on your project, there is often greater flexibility. Should an urgent task crop up, there will likely be someone available at the agency to finish the work in time.
Freelancers are less flexible. They have other commitments, which means they are only available for certain hours of the day and for a certain number of hours a week. Also in most cases, freelancers have several projects with which they are working at the same time, not entirely dedicated to your project. If you ask a freelancer to take on work with little notice, the quality may be lower.
Conclusion
There’s no clear answer to what is better: freelancer vs digital agency. Typically, if you have a small project that just involves a couple of specialist tasks, a freelancer is going to be your best bet. For example, If you need a logo, then using a freelancer is naturally more profitable than hiring a team. But when it comes to product development, it is much more reasonable to get in touch with a cool well-coordinated team that knows how to work with each other. Because one person couldn’t cope with such a “giant” in a short time. On top of that, it should be understood that occasionally such things as the time zone and the lack of proper skills in organizing your personal time can eventually lead to deadlines not being met. And the key – with a freelancer you work at your own risk, you risk nothing with the team.
Reading this article gave you little insight into whom you exactly need for your project to be successful? Let’s sort it out together. Schedule a consultation with Aiken Labs to get your project going.
