How to Choose Between Freelancer Vs Web Development Agency
Every business has its own business needs and hence its digital transformation process. Are you looking for the digital transformation of your business? When it comes to developing a new web app or website or needing a digital transformation, most businesses face some common challenges, such as finding the right partners, allocation of a reasonable budget, tracking the process of development and implementation, etc. In this article, we shall discuss choosing between a web development agency and a freelancer.
Businesses must have a successful online presence. However, you cannot achieve your goals by only having a website or web app. If you want to grow your business, enterprises need a web platform that is a great combination of usability, attractive visual design, and engaging content. Also, you will require to implement proper SEO and paid marketing tactics to outperform your competitors. So, developing a functional business web app or website requires experience, knowledge, and skills. Considering all the above points, you need to hire the right professional or team of professionals to design and develop your digital platform.
Now when it comes to creating a digital platform or you can say web app or website, you have two options:
Hire a Freelance Web Developer
Web Design/Development Agency
If you’re ready to start a new website/web app or transform your existing web presence for your business to a more efficient one. In this context, the first and foremost decision that you will need to make is whether to work with a freelancer or a web development agency. Making the right decision Whether it’s a new website or app to be developed from scratch or a digital transformation of existing tools and solutions, it’s important to find a match between available resources and an appropriate solutions provider. can be an important factor in the success of any business. To make the right decision, you need to understand the pros and cons of both options. Before starting of figuring out all the pros and cons of these two options, let’s understand the fundamental and technical differences between the two main types of available options.
Difference between a Freelancer and Web Development Agency
The process of digital transformation is quite complex including process mapping, redesigning and developing existing web apps or websites, content creation, SEO, and more. A freelancer is a self-employed individual who isn’t committed to any agency or company. These individual professionals might work as web designers or web developers or content writers, and even bloggers. A freelancer is a person who usually works from home and works on several projects for different clients at a time.
On the other hand, an agency is a full-service company that specializes in designing and developing web applications and websites. Such a company consists of a team of professionals who work towards a common goal of digital transformation of your business’s online presence. An agency has professionals in a wider range of domains in their role who come up with specialization in different aspects of web development such as graphic designers, web developers, copywriters, SEO specialists, and more. The division of labor is apt and well-coordinated and suits very well for medium to large size projects. Let’s check out the all pros and cons of hiring a freelancer or a web agency.
Pros and Cons of Hiring a Freelancer
The major and foremost benefit of working with a freelancer is cost, you can hire the freelancer at a low cost and with great skills as they have no other additional expenses compared to the agency. There are so many small businesses going with hiring a freelancer because it’s cheaper compared to a web development agency. Freelancers have their rates and are mostly more flexible with the price. Freelancers charge less as they don’t have to figure out overhead costs like staff salaries, office rent, and maintenance. Apart from this, freelancer allows business to get more involved in the creative process. You can expect more time and attention solely to your project by freelancers.
Besides these pros, there are also some serious disadvantages/cons of hiring a freelancer for your project.
A freelancer is a single individual who doesn’t have a large team with different specialists and also, they do not have any control which means you are at the mercy of their schedule. It is also mandatory that you will have to hire multiple freelancers specializing in different aspects of digital transformation or online presence. Most freelancers have slow turn-around times because they mostly juggling with multiple projects at a time. Moreover, a freelancer is less credible than an agency because they are not registered professionals and you can rarely see any public reviews online of individual freelancers.
Pros and Cons of Working with a Web Development Agency
Web Agencies consist of more reputations than freelancers in the industry as full-fledged companies are registered with respective state legal authorities and they have a reputation to uphold within their community and among their industry peers. Agencies are listed on the top review sites like Yelp, Good firms, Clutch, Upwork, etc… that hold them accountable for their work. Full-service web development and digital marketing agency will have their staff with specialization in content writing, web designing, and development, system architecture, documentation, and SEO – all these services under one roof. Though you have to pay more to an agency than a freelancer, you can save the cost of hiring multiple freelancers to complete one project. It will be difficult to manage different people for one project but with an agency when different specialists with a central reporting framework work together on your project you get better results in less time. Also, agencies have access to advanced technology and better design materials to provide you with better support.
The only drawback of an agency is the cost as they have a physical office space and employees with multiple specialists so, their rates might be on the higher side.
The Verdict: Freelancer vs. Web Agency
Looking at the above points, both options have some pros and cons. Now, you have to decide between hiring a freelancer or an agency, depending on factors like the services you need, your project scope, your budget, and the time frame that best suits your project. If you consider the pros and cons of both options, it is obvious to hiring a web development agency is a better option. As compared to a freelancer, web development agencies have the resources and support to take on a full-scale digital transformation or web development project. You don’t need to hire and manage multiple freelancers for your single project, the agency can take care of everything- from planning through deployment. Most web development agencies also provide digital marketing services and can manage your digital presence for years to come with timely and proper maintenance and up-gradation.
Hence it’s a decision that needs a detailed analysis of the budget, the complexity of the processes involved, and in-house tech support available for after support. According to experts, freelancers can handle small-size projects, however, if you are looking for end-to-end support and value-based services a web agency is your best bet.
