Individual Freelancer vs Agency: Pros and Cons
With every technology update and advancement, the world is coming in much closer and is bringing everybody together. For each and everything we see out there, there is a website or a mobile app related to it, be it a product or a service. The individuals or organizations working on these updates and advancements also need to be in sync with each other. In order to grow the business, they will need to put out more websites and mobile apps.
For these software developments, we need specialists to help us create the best possible product. If you need your car fixed, you go to a garage and get it fixed by the one who is an expert in cars. The same applies to the software development industry. You will have to find a professional you can trust with the design, development, and deployment of your software. This is where the question of whom to choose arises. Do you choose a freelancer or an app development agency?
Freelancer or Agency?
There is no correct answer to this question because both of them have their own pros and cons. The major deciding factor for this will be your project and the requirements of it. This could mean that in a few cases it would be better to take help from hire a freelance developer or a development firm would better suit your project.
Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both of them.
Pros of Hiring a Freelancer
1. Expertise. Most freelancers have an expertise in only one thing. This could be a really good thing if you want them to perform only a single task on your website or app.
2. Pricing. Pricing is a one really good thing about a freelancer. Because freelancers don’t share their salary with a team, they also don’t charge too much. An agency would charge 20% high rate than a freelancer.
3. Flexibility. When you are dealing with just one person for your project, handling the process and communication becomes much easier.
4. Easy to find. Freelancers have become very easy to find. There are many online platforms like Upwork and Freelancer that help you find suitable freelancers for your project.
Pros of Hiring an Agency
1. Skills. An agency makes more effort at learning new skills. They constantly update themselves with new technologies and try to offer you the best possible tools for development.
2. Consultation. Because you are working with a team here, you get tips and advice for almost every part of your project as the team will consist of people from different background with different expertise.
3. More coordination. Handling one person can be extremely easy. But when there is a team that handles the whole project, you don’t need to worry about the coordination as the team will have different members assigned for different tasks and this is managed internally.
Cons of a Freelancer
1. Less Control. When you work with an individual you will have to trust whatever information is provided to you. Sometimes the information given to you is outdated or not beneficial. But there is not much control over it.
2. Security. Freelancers often don’t sign contracts. Sometimes it happens that they might disappear in the middle of the project and then you do the same process hiring a new person all over again.
3. Confidentiality. When there is no contract, there is also no non-disclosure agreement. Because of this, there are chances of your ideas and designs being leaked out.
4. Quality. Freelancers often work on more than 2 projects at once and because just one person is handling the projects, the quality suffers.
5. No management. Not all individuals are self-managers, you might end up managing the whole project on your own.
Cons of an Agency
1. Pricing. Agencies also have a downside. We need to point out this one con of an agency, which is, that they are costly. The reason is that an agency offers a full team of expert designers, developers, quality analysts etc. You have access to more experts, more knowledge, more skills. For that, you might have to pay a bit more.
Making the Final Choice
As mentioned earlier, there is no correct answer here. But it is up to you to choose what is correct for you. If you need to talk to an app development agency for help and don’t hesitate and contact us if you have any more questions.
Rajiv Patil is the founder & Managing Director of Nimblechapps, an innovative iPhone app development company. He takes a keen interest in topics related to mobile app development and mobile game development and often like to share his knowledge through informative posts on leading blogging sites.