This post is aiming to help you decide what works best for you! It will help you to take the right decision.
Deciding a freelancer or a dedicated developer is not same as shopping a product from Amazon where you browse different suppliers of the same or similar products where you look out to the terms & conditions, pricing, discount, ratings and just order it!
There are different phases of app development starting from concept building, wireframing, prototyping, designing, development, testing, launching and post launch push & basic maintenance. It solely depends upon the requirements of your app development that decides what is better for you.
Example,
- You are a software consultant
- You want to leverage mobile or web technology for one of your client's business to help them
- You have an awesome idea Or you already have an app
- You are looking to develop a new app
- You may need to add new features in your existing app & wants to maintain it on regular basis
- You own a software development company
- Your team is occupied with existing projects so you are not able to land new projects
- Your team has a short hand on various mobile technologies and you need a tech support to build your product
So, a proper understanding of your requirements, budget, time constraint, quality aspects will help you to decide what will work best for you!
Mind it, both options has worked pretty well with people having clear requirements.
Let's check the difference between freelancers and dedicated developers for some of the important criteria,
Dedication
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | In general, a freelancer needs to work on multiple projects to maintain their earning. | Dedicated developers doesn't need to worry about their earning as they are on a payroll of an agency. So, they work on single project dedicatedly. |
| 2 | Freelancers spend time on marketing and networking to get projects in parallel to their current development work. | Agency manages the marketing & networking so the developer doesn't have to work anything other than their assigned project. |
| 3 | Working on multiple projects may lead to missing your deadline. | Working on a single project ensures the deadline doesn't miss out. |
| 4 | Any unforeseen situation is a RISK for your business | Agency is responsible for handling any unforeseen situation. |
| Example – A freelancer meets an accident or can't work due to illness | ||
| Impact – Your business will be directly affected | Impact – Agency will immediately provide you another developer to finish your work. Minimum or no impact on your business. |
|
Technical Bandwidth / Expertise
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Freelancers work individually so they are exposed to a limited set of techniques and trends. | Agency builds a team of dedicated developers and keeps everyone upbeat with latest tech trends to meet the requirements of a vast number of their clients and projects. |
| 2 | If a freelancer gets stuck with a problem then he has to rely just on googling & experimenting things. | If a dedicated developer is stuck anywhere then he gets immediate help of senior resources, Team Leader, and Project Manager. |
| 3 | You may not be able to verify freelancer's qualifications. | Agency only hires qualified engineers to ensure they deliver the things. You can ask for verification certificate to the agency. |
Communication
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Freelancers usually don't use any tool and rely on online chat or freelancing website's messaging systems. | Dedicated developer works with a clean process of using Trello, Basecamp or Project management system that helps exponentially for effective communication. |
| 2 | Freelancers may not possess a good command over written and verbal English. | Agency provides a client account manager that is expert in communication to ensure the developer is on the same page with you always! |
| 3 | Freelancers may not report you daily. | Dedicated developer reports you daily with the task status & its progress. |
Collaboration & Availability
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Freelancers always need to juggle between clients. | Dedicated developer works only for your project so collaboration is very easy and effective. |
| 2 | If a freelancer is busy in some other project then he may not be able to take up your small bug or issue in your app in a timely manner. | Dedicated developer is always ready to take up anything smallest in a timely manner. |
Quality of Work
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Freelancer may not be trained with programming best practices & industry standards. | Dedicated developer is well trained with programming best practices & industry standards before s/he is placed on a job. |
| 2 | Freelancers may not undergo the QA check so you may get substandard product or code. | Agency QA team ensures that you get the right quality of work by following the development best practices. |
| 2 | Freelancers work is never undergo to peer testing. | Dedicated developer's work is always verified and tested by another developer from the team to ensure it is up to the mark. |
Reliability, Security & Protection
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Freelancers can not provide you guarantee for the protection of your idea and information. | By hiring a dedicated developer from an agency, you are dealing with a registered entity with an assurance that is backed with an NDA & contract. |
| 2 | App security may be at a much higher risk while dealing with the freelancer. | Hiring a developer from a reputed agency ensures far better app security. |
Resources
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Freelancers always have a limitation in terms of infrastructure, development environment, communication facility, capabilities & backup. | Reputed agency ensures that all required resources are well in place since the beginning as part of their business by default. |
Backup & Peace of Mind
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Freelancer may leave your work in between if they get bigger project or client at the verge of losing your money as they see better profit with someone else! | Agency will never leave your work in between because they do not have a single developer and a single client. They build a pool of developer in their team to deliver your work as per contract without failing. |
No Risk Policy & Trial
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | Usually, you hire a freelancer based on their past work. This is not the best indicator and many time in between of the project, you may feel it's not a great fit for your project. | You can get a 1-week free trial to check if a dedicated developer really the best fit for your project! |
| 2 | You need to suffer if you face quality issues in between of the project since replacement is not so easy with freelancers. | As soon as you report the quality issue, the agency takes care of it by reaching the root cause with a concrete solution. Agency can even provide you an immediate replacement of the developer in a worst case scenario. |
Cost
| # | Freelancer | Dedicated Developer |
| 1 | There is a myth that freelancers are cheaper! Freelancers work usually on an hourly basis. |
Dedicated Developer for Mobile and Web Development starts only from US$ 1399 per month from Hire Mobile Developer. No other charges. Period. |
| 2 | You have to track their hours and quality both for billing. | You do not need to track anything for billing. |
Harshul Shah
Harshul Shah is a tech geek with more than 15 years of software development experience on mobile and web technologies extensively. He is also a founder of various technical ventures including Hire Mobile Developer that provides the bespoke mobile application development services and product development to clients across the globe. Harshul has acquired in depth understanding of mobile app designing, development, marketing and app store optimization and helped numerous clients across the globe that includes some of the patent pending startups, small to mid scale businesses and fortune 500 companies.
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