No matter the size, managing extensive workflows and large-scale projects can be a challenge for any organization. While there can be several reasons for it such as futile team collaboration, tight deadlines, or last-minute changes in project requirement, the most frequent is a scarcity of the right professionals skilled in a specific technology. In such cases, businesses may need to hire an individual(s) or an agency to get the work done. We call it outsourcing and it is a highly popular and widespread trend on and off the internet.

However, it is important to find the right outsourcing services provider (an individual or an agency) to ensure that your project is in the best of hands. That’s where having a tried, tested, and trusted outsourcing strategy makes sense.

An effective outsourcing strategy can bring huge benefits to your business. While it saves businesses a hefty price to train their in-house teams on new technologies, it also saves them time at attaining perfection in it.

Finding the right candidate for your job can be tough, thanks to a large pool of talents with experience in mixed technologies. A recent report by Statista confirms that

An estimated 86.5 million will be freelancing in the US in 2027, which will make up a majority of the total US workforce.

Well, that is about one country. Leading outsourcing platforms such as Upwork and Freelancer allow business owners to hire resources from any part of the world.

And that raises a complete spectrum of questions.

We are talking about the charges, culture, work hours, and communication gaps between you and the freelancer or agency you partner with.

There are more significant questions that haunt you such as the benefits of hiring a freelancer. Will a freelancer be enough to do the job or will you require a team? What additional benefits will you have with an entire team? Is the price worth it?

Through this blog, we will address all your queries and discuss the best approach to outsource your job.

Hiring a Freelancer
Hiring a freelancer means getting an independent consultant who single-handedly executes all your tasks. Freelancers are professionals who once had or still have a regular 9-5 job.

They are experts in the field with years, maybe decades, of experience.

Pros:
Expertise in their field:
Heard about the Fox and Hedgehog story? A freelancer is the hedgehog - knows one thing, but with perfection. They excel and develop in one specific field.

They offer quality service in their area of expertise which makes them an ideal choice for projects confined to one technology.

Cost-efficient
This comes as a major advantage while hiring a freelancer. Most freelancers market themselves independently.

There is no sales manager to be commissioned and no hidden charges are applied during negotiations, making them a budget-friendly option to hire.

When you opt for a freelancer, you opt to pay an individual and not a team and that makes all the difference.

Flexibility
Scheduling tasks with an individual is easier than with a complete team. No third person is involved between your instructions and them.

You can ask them to fix meetings at your convenience or quicken project delivery.

Freelancers are solely answerable to you which makes the executions faster.

Cons:
Skills are confined:
The hedgehog approach limits the project delivery abilities for a freelancer. When you hire a Content Writer, you can expect only content.

You can’t expect them to create pixel-perfect graphics to support the write-up.

You are more likely to end-up hiring another resource who is skilled in Graphic Designing and can meet your expectations. You have to communicate your ideas and the content writer’s idea to the designer.

That multiplies your involvement in the project.

Quality being compromised:
There’s a popular saying among software testers “A code that cannot be tested is flawed.” The quote, however, applies to every other field as well. Until and unless a task is cross-checked, it almost always has hidden flaws and will affect you in the long run.

Moreover, as you have hired an individual developer, you can’t expect them to wear the hat of a QA engineer.

Reliability:
This comes as a major drawback at hiring a freelancer. A freelancer is the only point of contact and their absence in any circumstance means leaving your project midway.

There can be several reasons for it such as medical emergencies, project priority, and so on that leads to delays or at worst, discontinuation.

They can’t offer a backup here.

Require more inputs:
A freelance developer is an expert at writing lines of codes. If they are stuck somewhere or lose direction, you have to take things in your control and guide them to help find a workaround.

A freelancer lacks brainstorming that is generally offered by in-house Program Managers and BAs.

Hiring an agency
Businesses can otherwise hire a team for complete development. When you hire a team, your project is assigned to front-end developers, back-end developers, project managers and QAs.

Leading freelance platforms like Upwork and Freelancer let you create enterprise profiles making it easier for you to find.


Pros:
360-degree approach:
One of the biggest merits of hiring an agency is receiving more than just the desired service. The agencies are industry experts who know the technologies better.

They understand your requirements, the scope of the task and the latest trends with the technology. If you want an online store, they are proactive enough to provide you with a simplified admin dashboard and the extensions that you will need.

They have a PM to brainstorm the project before it’s started and QA engineers once the assigned task is accomplished.

High Reliability
Agencies love building long-term relationships with clients. This is a win-win condition for both parties.

On one hand, agencies are concerned about the reviews and feedback they are offered once the project is delivered. On the other hand, the client now has a remote team that is more like an extension to the company.

If your developer is unavailable or has left the agency, you will be assigned a new resource who is equally skilled and understands the project. As a result, the team continuously works on your assigned tasks and it is delivered before the timeline.

Polished Product:
Agencies offer a complete team for your tasks. They have specialized teams who brainstorm the frameworks and technologies best suited for your job and the challenges that they need to overcome.

They have seasoned developers who can deliver the project with perfection and finally QA engineers to ensure that the deliverables are duly met.

The project undergoes a series of tests and bug-fixing to assure that quality and performance of the project isn’t compromised. You really don’t have to worry about constant inputs and can still monitor the daily progressions.

Time-efficient:
Agencies, in general, have developers from every walk of life. There are chances that your requirements aren’t new to them.

They have developed a similar solution in their past overcoming the same challenges that you are facing now.

As a result, they save hours at building a solution from the ground up. You can thus have a highly functional solution much before the decided timeline.

Aftersales Support:
There is no one size fits all kind of solution, when it comes to software development. In general, clients hire third-party developers to improve their existing infrastructure which varies from a company to another.

The custom solutions are more likely to show bugs in the first couple of weeks of integration. At this, agencies offer support and maintenance services to ensure that their solution is best-in-class and as per industry standards.

Cons:
Agencies too have their fair share of disadvantages, a reason why freelancers are still in demand despite the demerits they have compared to teams. The biggest disadvantages are:

Price:
On average, agencies charge 25% more than freelancers for the same service. They have reasons for the additional costs.

When you hire a freelancer, you pay an individual. When you hire an agency, you pay for the developer, the sales team, the marketing team and the office space along with the project managers and QA engineers.

The list is long based on the scope of the project.

Rigid timing:
An agency in itself is a company that has fixed working hours. The working hours won’t hamper much if time zones are relatively the same.

However, for a US-based company that hires an agency from India, the time gap is roughly 12 hours. While some agencies might agree to work round the clock, you can’t monitor the job in real-time for the rest.

What shall you choose- Freelancer or Agency?
On papers, agencies have a clear-cut edge over freelancers. But that will vary for every organization, the assigned tasks, their priorities and their control over the project.

There will be instances when a freelancer can fit in perfectly. Before you conclude which is your best card, we leave you with some factors:

Budget Constraint:
Agencies are expensive. If you are running low on budget, freelancers make the best option here.

Size of the project:
Freelancers lack a 360-degree approach to any problem. The vision is limited, so are the resources.

An individual freelancer might not fit in for large projects.

An agency, on the other hand, has skilled developers for every task. You want a Magento store, the agency has Magento developers.

You want a Headless Magento store, the agency offers frontend developers. You want to extend the store abilities for mobile users, the very same agency has mobile app developers.

You can expand your needs to every dimension and the agencies are prepared for that.

Handling the project by your own:
Freelancers possess great skills in one specific area. Nothing less, nothing more. If you are prepared to brainstorm and instruct them exactly how you see the project, they make an excellent choice.

If you take a tour of the reviews offered by clients on any leading outsourcing platform, you will easily realize the communication gap between freelancers and the client. The clients generally aren’t very much clear about their requirements.

BAs and PMs of an agency fill the void by suggesting the trends and the best approach to crack their problems.

Transparency:
Remote working has its share of cons. You lack the tools to confirm if they really are working.

Freelancers have a tendency to procrastinate and fake working hours. And you really can’t question their productivity.

On the contrary, agencies offer transparency to daily progressions. They manage project management tools like JIRA to keep a check on the milestones and further checkpoints.

They have deadlines for every task to ensure they are duly met.

Final words:
Freelancer or Agency? Price or Quality?

This is a never-ending debate with no perfect answer. Each has its own share of pros and cons.

In the end, you will end up with a high-quality product. What matters the most, is the journey to get there.

Was it smooth or demanded more than you anticipated?

Author Bio:

Kunal Khullar is a Co-Founder at The Brihaspati Infotech, a leading IT consulting & service provider. He holds 10+ years of experience with providing software services, development and team management with diverse offshore software consulting firms all across the globe.

He is passionate about technology and believes in serving today’s diversified business world with his knowledge and expertise.

For more information:

www.statista.com/statist…lancers-us
www.brihaspatitech.com
www.brihaspatitech.com/blog/in…-magento-2