Freelancer vs Software Development Company: What Is Your Best Bet?

Just right after you`ve estimated your budget and set certain goals for your product development, a question can be raised: how do I find a performer. Should I contact a professional website development company? Or go for a freelancer? Although there are a lot of articles and statistics on the web, the question is still viable.

Set Your Goals for the Website

First of all, you should clearly understand the purpose and business goals of your product.

There are two types of clients that usually come to TopDevs: 

• they know exactly which website they need (for example, a corporate company website or a small media outlet);
• they are just not sure about the product.

You can choose a software development partner based on that. However, there are other things to consider, so let`s take a look at the pros and cons of each option.

Pros and Cons of Hiring a Freelancer

The first thing that comes to mind when looking for a freelancer, is a very limited budget.

Due to great competition, individual performers do not set the highest rates, so finding an affordable option is usually not difficult.

Read also: How Much Does It Cost to Make an App in 2021?

This is perhaps the only significant advantage of a freelancer.

Say what you like, but website development is a difficult task, not everyone can adequately cope with it. Accordingly, this option has significant disadvantages.

Choosing a freelancer based on the cost of website development services alone is fundamentally wrong.

Why do you need a website? Well, in order to attract new customers you may say. It is the site itself that is almost the main advertising tool for modern companies. And online advertising on a daily basis can attract hundreds and thousands of new customers. For this to happen, during the web development process it is necessary to take into account a huge number of factors: from structure and functionality to design.

By the way, the design itself is not only the beauty of your website design but also an important tool that affects the behavior of visitors and turning them into customers.

Professional designers are well aware of the psychology of the average visitor behavior and know how to draw attention to the main elements. They can benefit from knowledge about the target audience and use them to create psychological triggers that directly affect the execution of an order or other target action.

As you already understood, to develop a website is not just about programming and layout, but a whole range of diverse works and each one has its own tricks. Only professionals know them. It is very, very difficult to identify such an expert among freelancers.

A portfolio usually helps to complete this task, though even if it was provided by freelancers, website development for large brands with world-famous names is unlikely to be on the list of their works.

Pros and Cons of Hiring a Software Development Company

By analogy with the previous example, the financial issue can be decisive in the case of contacting a web development company that provides services for the development and maintenance of sites. To be more precise, many immediately abandon this option, considering it unprofitable.

Should you though? Not really. Simple projects can really cost a little more, but you should understand that they will be done much faster, since in any case several specialists of a narrow profile, who know their job perfectly (programmers, designers, project managers), are involved in the process. 

That is, some work is carried out by different specialists, which greatly speeds up the process, while a freelancer conducts all the website development process alone, or, in extreme cases, in a company with another freelancer (for example, a programmer + designer).

As for large projects, such as corporate website development or a large news portal development, and technically complex projects with unique functionality, freelancers most likely simply won't take up such a job. 

Only the specialists of one of web development companies who already have such experience and a number of big names in their portfolio can ensure the proper level of quality. The same thing applies to apps development.

And it's time to return to the topic that we mentioned at the very beginning of the article. If you have not decided on the look and concept of the site, only the website development company can help you with this. Specialists will independently analyze your needs and projects of direct competitors, improve the SEO of the website, and after that, they will develop a draft of the future site.

Read also: Mobile App vs Mobile Website: Pros and Cons of Each Approach For Business

Conclusion

Given all of the above, it will be easier for you to choose an IT services provider.

Despite the fact that freelancers will do the work cheaper, they will not be able to give you any guarantees for the full implementation of the project, delivery on time, and quick response at the stages of work.

You can turn to a freelancer for a technically simple site (for example, a simple landing), and it will be better for you to understand how to build sites yourself.

Web development companies can be trusted with a site of any complexity, as the company comprehensively approaches the creation of the site, different specialists are responsible for the quality and timing of the project, and all the necessary project details are fixed in the contract.

If you've decided on a reliable contractor for your project, let's discuss all the web development details now!