Web Design – Freelance vs Agency
Flexibility
Flexibility is an important point when working with someone who is providing a product or service to you, you want to feel like their number one, so their flexibility needs to be important. You will find with Freelancers that they often have the capability to be flexible as yours may well be the only project they’re working on. This means that if you need them sat in your office working on your website for a week, this can often happen. With an agency it’s likely you won’t get direct access to a developer in the same way and they’re often working on a variety of projects at any one time, but this does offer the advantage of a developer being constantly stimulated by working on different projects with different challenges.
Reliability
Whilst freelancers may demonstrate a sense of flexibility, their reliability can lack. It can be difficult to pin down a freelancer as they could be anywhere at any time, with an agency you have the security and knowledge that the team are onsite and contactable. With an agency, their location and staff are generally quite constant and they are contactable during the usual working week hours, providing an added sense of security for a client.
Price
Price is often a strong consideration when deciding who to work with and often it is dependent on what you’re looking for. As a rule of thumb, freelancers will be cheaper than an agency, and if you’re a one-man band and looking for a quick, cheap website, then working with a freelancer is probably a good idea. Businesses are more likely to benefit from working with an agency, whilst the price is a little higher, a website is an investment, and over time having a high functioning, aesthetically pleasing and well-optimised site will result in increased ROI for your company… you get what you pay for!
Niche
With an agency, you will find they provide an all-encompassing service, with each employee having a niche skill: there is someone for everything, ranging from designers, to developers, to an account manager, to digital marketing. Having a team who each have a particular focused skill ensures each element of the website build is the best it can be. Furthermore, most good agencies benefit from an Account Manager, they’re there to keep things under control, hurry both parties along should the process need speeding up and overall give you the reassurance that all is going to plan! The difference with a freelancer is that you’ll find most freelance web designers have a niche focus themselves, being a freelancer enables them to focus on what they’re really good at. For example, if you were keen to have really intricate illustrations, the chances are, there’ll be a freelancer who can provide this.
Ongoing service
In our opinion, this is often a biggie… with a freelance service, once the job is complete the relationship is usually over and you’re no longer contractually connected with the freelancer. Dissimilarly with an agency an ongoing service is often provided. Us lot at Studio44 pride ourselves in offering ongoing support once the site is live, endeavouring to respond and resolve all issues within the day – absolutely critical if you have a business that relies heavily on your web presence! On top of this, further SEO/digital marketing services are available, too, so you have a one-stop shop for all of your digital services. This is just an added bonus of working with an agency.
Conclusion
One shoe doesn’t fit all and often it depends on the type of business and what you’re after, hopefully the above article will enlighten you to consider different points, but naturally, we’re agency bias as that’s who we are. If you’ve read this article and are now considering your options for a new site, get in contact with us today!
