Freelance web developers are independent contractors that run their own business. As such, they’re subject to a bunch of different incentives and procedures than regular employees and web design agencies. Those incentives can often result in your website getting live on the internet faster. Plus, it can often mean less work and back and forth communication for you. A win-win situation? Yes, it is possible.
Continue reading on to discover why if you want a website fast, you need to hire a freelance web developer.
Now, How Fast are We Talking?
First off, when we talk about a web design project getting completed fast, we don’t mean to imply that speed takes priority over quality. For us, quality is always the most important factor, and considering your business's website is on the internet for the entire world to see, it better damn well be.
What we mean to say is that a freelancer has a different schedule, process and incentive structure that can all contribute to your project getting done faster than it would have if you hired a web design firm. Now that we’ve gotten that potential miscommunication out of the way, let’s get into it.
Skip the Corporate Nonsense
Freelance web developers are simply able to provide you a more customized and streamlined service than their corporate counterparts. The reason is simple. When you hire a freelancer you are dealing with one person. When you hire a firm, you are dealing with multiple departments and point of contacts for each separate part of the project. Every project is different, and every client has different needs.
A freelancer can look at your project and tailor their process to your specific needs to speed it up where they see fit. While an agency may have hard and fast rules that require you to come in for meetings, design reviews and require your approval at every turn, with a freelancer the process can be adapted for you. And since you’re likely only dealing with one person, it will be easy for you to tell the freelancer how you want to communicate during the project and how much you’d like to be involved. Nothing gets lost in translation or more likely, super long email chains.
Freelancers Need You More Than You Think
To a freelance web developer, you represent more than just your project. You represent a glowing testimonial, maintenance, and web updates and of course, future referrals for new projects. This isn’t to say that they are going to be distracted and think about other projects. Trust us, web developers at agencies are going to be working on even more projects than their freelance counterparts.
This is to say that they have a boatload of incentives to provide you with high-quality service and meet your needs at every turn. If your top priority is speed, freelancers are better able to provide that due to their flexible schedule, process and incentives. Remember, they are business owners and it’s their name on the door if anything goes wrong.
So, when do I know if I should hire a freelancer?
In general, if you are a small business owner then its very likely a freelancer can do just as good a job for you if not better than an agency. A web design agency should only start to be considered if you are working on a large project with lots of moving parts. For example, if you are looking to do produce videos of your company to use for the website, an agency is likely the better choice since they have those production capabilities or if you're planning to support your website with an extremely large marketing campaign afterward, then we would recommend an agency.
But remember, an agency is going to have a lot more overhead than a freelancer, and those costs are always going to be passed on to you. With a freelance web developer, you're getting a much more personalized, one to one service that can produce the same website in a shorter time frame. Plus, they have lower rates than agencies, saving you quite a bit of money.
All this being said, at the end of the day it comes down to your projects needs and what you feel comfortable with. So shop around and weigh your options carefully.
