Agency or freelancer
Hiring a freelanceror a studio
The honest difference is not talent. Plenty of freelancers are better engineers than plenty of agencies. The difference is what happens when one person is unavailable and the work still has to move.
The verdict
The short answer
For a small, well defined piece of work with a clear finish line, a good freelancer is usually faster and cheaper and you should hire one. For anything your business will depend on, the question stops being cost per hour and becomes what happens if that one person takes a job elsewhere, falls ill, or simply stops replying. A studio costs more because it is carrying that risk instead of you.
Freelancer
One person, working directly with you.
Where it wins
- Lower cost per hour, with no overhead priced into it
- You talk to the person doing the work, with nothing in between
- Can start quickly, often within days
- Ideal for a scoped, self contained piece of work
Where it stops
- One person is one point of failure, for illness, holidays and better offers
- Rarely covers design, engineering, infrastructure and testing equally well
- Reviews their own work, because there is nobody else to review it
Studio or agency
A team, with the work split across people who each do it properly.
Where it wins
- Design, engineering and infrastructure covered by people who do each daily
- Work is reviewed by somebody who did not write it
- The project survives any one person being unavailable
- A company to hold to an agreement rather than a person to chase
Where it stops
- Costs more per hour, and some of that is genuinely overhead
- Larger agencies often put a layer between you and the builders
- Not worth it for a small, tightly scoped job a freelancer can finish
Side by side
Freelancer against Studio or agency
| Freelancer | Studio or agency | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per hour | Lower | Higher |
| Cost of it going wrong | Carried by you | Carried by them |
| If they are unavailable | Everything stops | Work continues |
| Range of skills | Strong in one or two areas | Covered across the board |
| Who reviews the work | The person who wrote it | Somebody who did not |
| Speed to start | Days | Usually a week or two |
| Support after launch | Depends entirely on availability | An agreement |
| Best suited to | A defined piece of work | Something the business runs on |
Which one is yours
Tick what sounds like you, and watch it decide
Same statements as any comparison list, except this one answers back. Nothing is sent anywhere and nothing is stored.
Tick whichever statements sound like you
Nothing selected yet. The meter moves as you go.
Hire a freelancer when
0/4Hire a studio when
0/4Zyfrr
Where we come in
We are deliberately small, so you talk to the people building your software rather than to an account manager who relays it. What you get from the studio side is cover, review and an agreement. What you keep from the freelancer side is direct access.
- You speak to the engineers doing the work, not a layer above them
- A fixed price and a fixed date, agreed before anything starts
- You own the code, the accounts and the infrastructure from day one
Questions
Questions people actually ask
Not sure this is a studio sized job?
Send us the scope. If a freelancer could do it well for less, we will say so, and we will tell you what to check before you hire one.