Should You Hire A Mobile App Developer Or A Mobile App Development Company?

In recent years, there has been a debate that every company will need to confront when launching new projects and products: Should we hire a professional development agency or ?

When it comes down to it, both working with freelancers and development agencies have their advantages, and the choice ultimately comes down to your objectives and the services required to achieve them. Regardless, the debate is relatively complex and making a decision can be challenging. To lead you in the right direction, we have outlined some of the pros and cons when you hire a mobile app developer vs professional development agencies. 

To begin, before making any decisions to hire a mobile app developer, you should ask yourself a few questions about

• What is my finished product’s vision?
• How difficult is my project?
• What is my financial situation?
• Do I have a project manager on staff to oversee the process?

With this information in hand, we can begin analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of each option. For the purposes of this article, we will assume that both options (freelancer and professional agency) are highly reputable and excel in their respective fields of expertise.

The Benefits of Employing a Freelancer

Specialized

Oftentimes, a professional chooses to become a freelancer because they excel at a particular niche skillset. For instance, if your web or mobile project requires an interactive video or illustration, you can likely locate a freelance artisan who is up to the challenge.

Cost 

While this is subjective, freelancers typically have lower overhead than professional agencies and are frequently the least expensive option. However, keep in mind that you get what you pay for, and outsourcing to multiple freelancers can quickly result in a large bill.

Flexibility

Because we’re dealing with highly skilled experts, freelancers can adjust their schedules to your needs and priorities, which may include traveling to your office and working outside of regular business hours.

Hiring a Freelancer Has Its Drawbacks

Limitations 

You often employ a freelancer with a specific task in mind, but in most circumstances, unforeseen adjustments or revisions to your project may happen, putting you at a disadvantage when dealing with a freelancer. While a freelancer can handle some menial chores, full-scale solutions that are handed to a multidisciplinary team that works together can yield considerably superior outcomes.

Reliability

Unexpected disruptions such as illness, time zone variations, or family issues can keep your project stuck in neutral, no matter how talented, competent, or committed a freelancer is. Working with a professional agency removes this danger because the team can adjust for the loss of one of its employees while still meeting its deadlines.

They’re strangers 

In an ideal world, the freelancer you hire would be intimately familiar with your firm, market, and customers; yet, the freelancer you recruit will almost certainly be unfamiliar with all three. Building an effective working relationship with a freelancer, especially one who does not work in-house, can be difficult.

The Benefits of Hiring a Professional Agency

There is no “I” in the team 

The main benefit of hiring a professional firm is having access to a full multifaceted team that can handle all of your design, development, and marketing needs. Furthermore, because the entire project is handled by a single team, the end product is more consistent and polished than if you hired numerous freelancers who were not working together.

Speed, Experience, and Efficiency

Along these same lines, professional agencies have accumulated essential experience working together to provide complete, high-quality projects for their clients. They have a system in place, can play off each other’s strengths, and can accurately predict the resources and time required to meet your objectives. When you have a tight deadline, a professional agency will be able to meet your needs considerably more quickly.

Service & Help 

Depending on your project’s size and scope, most companies offer continuing support such as SEO, marketing, and analyzing user input for future editions. This is especially critical now as digital and mobile projects are becoming more complicated and overlapping with other business units.

Excellent product

Award-winning websites are uncommon among freelancer-designed websites. Teams create all the stylish, quick, smooth, and appealing solutions. Hiring a freelancer for anything other than a spiced-up template is probably not an option.

The Drawbacks of Hiring a Professional Agency

Cost

Hiring a Professional Agency Has Drawbacks Working with a design and development organization is often more expensive than hiring a freelancer for any given function. However, because agencies can package many services together and work as a team to accomplish the deliverable in the quickest amount of time, it might be argued that they provide the most value for your money.

Location 

Professional agencies normally have their own offices, which can be rather far from a client’s location, necessitating more planning before meetings. Most meetings and any emergency may be handled remotely using programs like Skype, Google Hangout, GoToMeeting, and others.

Extended timeframe

Companies do not act quickly, and it is not because they do not want to. Internal communications and processes simply take longer. While the firm may be able to offer a superior end result than a freelancer, it will almost certainly take twice as long.

Miscommunication

If you hire a corporation, the majority of your ideas will likely be communicated through a single boss, while the real job will be done by people you’ll never meet. This inherently raises the likelihood of anything being misinterpreted. Written roadmaps and documentation can help, but there is always the possibility of failure.

Conclusion 

When it comes to choosing between a professional development agency and a freelancer, there is no absolute right or wrong answer. In general, freelancers perform best when contracted for a specific task, but professional development agencies excel at delivering whole digital solutions, particularly when the project isn’t fully specified.

Remember that everything is dependent on your specific project and needs. Examine your project’s objectives, timeframe, internal skill sets, and budget in detail, and use them as a guide to identifying the best possible partner.

We like to say at Apptunix that we’re not an agency. To provide personalized solutions with the same flexibility as a freelancer, we integrate ourselves with our client’s operations and core philosophy. Our clients love how this approach combines the expertise of a professional agency with the flexibility of a freelance solution. Learn more about our philosophy and methodology.