Maintaining your digital store is unviewable in the 21st century for a business to stay afloat. Virtual store maintenance includes SEO ranking practices, a well updated and functional website, and persuasive content. A well-structured website aids in better leads and conversions.
Website development is a one-time investment for long-term benefits but the main question is who would develop your website? You have two options: a website development agency and a freelance developer.
Both sides of the development sector are contributing to the optimum growth of the business. However, both sides have some pros and cons based on effectiveness, functioning, and project duration.
The concept of freelancing gained proper recognition in 2014 and since then individuals have started to opt for freelancing as a long-term career opportunity. Since 2019 there has been an evolution within the freelance economy. Freelancers are growing their community with the top experts. Often freelancers also have extensive agency experience and offer you well-acknowledged services. A freelancer has the liberty to choose the working hours, the projects, and the pay rate as well as the delivery time in most cases.
However, there has been uncertainty around hiring freelancers due to a variety of scams. Mainly for the growing business, it is hard to decide whether an agency or a freelance developer is the best choice. For you, we have created an elaborating comparison.
Team Management and Mobilization:
The majority of the agencies try to build long-term relationships by offering you web development services followed up with maintenance, and other digital marketing services. Several agencies in the USA will give you a good all-in package. On the other hand, freelancers work on a short-term basis. They work on a project, deliver it, address your post-development concerns if any and then that’s about it. After the payment, the two parties would rarely be in contact unless the payer has another project.
Another valid comparison between them both is the availability or mobilization of the resource. An agency has a complete team to assign you and several other companies. The delivery speed of the agencies is faster than a freelancer. It’s not that a freelancer would procrastinate on your project but being a one-man army they have only a limited capacity of handling projects. This is why the top-rated freelancer is either too expensive or rarely accepts projects quickly.
Communication and Customer Service:
Agencies are obligated to maintain a certain level of communication and customer service standards due to the high competition in the industry as well as the probability of a negative review on the popular customer review websites. Agency communication and customer services are maintained by a separate individual or a team of representatives dedicated to customer service only. Which guarantees that all your concerns will be addressed.
On the other hand, good communication is an individual trait when it comes to a freelancer. Communication and customer service completely depend on the work ethics of the freelancer. Since a freelancer works independently, there is no guarantee the individual would have time to aid your concerns all the time because of their deadlines of your and multiple projects.
Ongoing and Post Development Security:
Every agency has a privacy and security project for the clients. These policies are written and state the terms of confidentiality of the information and the security of the product data in the future. In case of any security breach, you can gladly sue the company for maintenance money. Since court cases cost a significant amount of money, the majority of the companies are extremely vigilant in maintaining the privacy and security of the client’s project and information.
While you can easily find trustworthy freelance web developers across platforms, there is always a minor chance of fraud since the contract is not documented. If you own an established or registered company, you can create your disclaimer contract and get it digitally signed. However, it’s unlikely that in case things go south you will have to receive damage maintenance money.
Cost-effectiveness and Development Efficiency:
Comparatively, agencies are expensive in terms of money. An agency cost estimation is based on the resource pay, company share, and the distribution of the right software as well. The finances of an agency are complicated. On the other hand, a freelancer only charges you for the development of the project and expertise which is often more affordable for start-ups and small businesses.
As far as the development efficiency is concerned it depends on the portfolios of both the parties. If you have a particular project type in mind, you have to look at whether each party had worked on similar projects before. In this segment, it is easier to find a freelancer with particular expertise and portfolio but it’s harder to narrow down agencies since they claim to provide every service it’s unlikely to have a separate portfolio.
Adaptability to Industry Standards:
The web development industry is continuously evolving. The most prominent contributors are the several open-source libraries that aid faster, cheaper, and more functional web development.Â
With every trendy new technology, agencies move fast to hire the relevant expertise to increase their credibility in the market. Hiring an agency for the relatively new technology is safer as they take accountability for the actions and a refund is a possibility.
In this case, with a freelancer, you can either get too lucky or it will get too expensive for you. Freelancers with acquired new technology skills are often very expensive as they are available in minimum numbers handling a few projects at a time only. To hire an excellent freelancer you might have to wait months till the slot is open. One downside is that there is less accountability taken by a freelancer and the refund chances are lower.
After the comparison, how to choose between them both?
Budget and project requirements are two of the major factors influencing the decision to opt for either of the parties. Always remember the difference between cost-effective services and cheap service. Any agency or freelancer offering your rates below the market standard shouldn’t be trusted.
Check several review platforms to specifically look for the negative reviews. Businesses hide reviews on their business page but not from independent platforms. Similarly, freelancers can’t remove reviews from platforms such as Fiverr, Upwork, Toptal, etc. Always hire from a reputable platform or web development agency.
