Hiring a Freelance Web Developer vs a Team: How to Choose

A freelancer usually costs less and is easier to talk to. You deal with one person from start to finish. The risk is that everything rides on that one person: their skills, their schedule and their health.

A team costs more and comes with more process. In return, the work doesn't stop when one person gets busy. For most business owners, the better choice depends on two things: what the site has to do, and what happens after it launches.

What one person does well

A good freelancer can be a great hire. Here's what you often get:

• A lower price. There's no office, no account manager and no layers of overhead in the quote.
• A direct line. The person you talk to is the person doing the work. Nothing gets lost in hand-offs.
• Flexibility. Small changes can happen quickly, without a ticket or a meeting.
• Real care. Your site is part of their reputation, and their name is on it.

For a simple site with a clear brief, that can be all you need.

Where hiring one person gets risky

Most freelance projects that go wrong don't fail because the person was bad. They fail because one person is only one person.

They get busy or move on. A bigger client shows up, or they take a full-time job. Your site goes to the back of the line. Months later, you can't reach anyone to change a phone number.

Nobody covers every skill. A website needs design, code, writing, speed and search basics. Few people are strong at all five. Ask which parts they're best at, and who handles the rest.

The site lives in their accounts. Some freelancers register the domain and host the site under their own name. It's convenient at first. It becomes a real problem if you ever part ways.

Support has no backup. If something breaks on a Friday and they're away, who fixes it?

None of this is a reason to avoid freelancers. It's a reason to ask the right questions before you sign.

What a team adds, and what it costs

A team spreads the work across people who each do one part well. Usually that's a designer, a developer and someone running the project.

That buys you coverage. If one person is out, someone else knows your site. It also buys you process: a plan, a schedule and reviews at set points.

The cost is more than money. Bigger teams can mean more meetings and more people between you and the work. You might sell the job to one person and never speak to the one building it. Ask who you'll actually talk to during the build.

Questions that matter more than who builds it

Freelancer or team, the answers to these questions will tell you more than the size of the company:

1. Who owns the site, domain and hosting when you're done? It should be you, in writing.
2. What happens if you stop working with me? You want a site you can hand to someone else without starting over.
3. How much do I pay before I see a working site? A big deposit for a picture of a home page puts all the risk on you.
4. What will I pay every month after launch, all in? Hosting, updates and support. Ask for one number.
5. Who fixes things after launch, and how fast? Get the support terms in writing.
6. Can I see sites you've built that are live today? Test them on your phone and run them through Google's PageSpeed Insights.

If you're weighing a monthly plan instead, read how a website subscription works first. Ownership works very differently there.

Which one fits your business

A freelance web developer is often the right call if:

• You need a simple site with a few pages and no special features.
• You have a clear idea of what it should say.
• You're comfortable managing the project yourself.
• You've checked their past work and they put everything in your name.

A team, or a small studio, is usually the better call if:

• The site has to bring in calls, bookings or quote requests.
• It connects to your calendar, CRM or email follow-up.
• You want design, writing and code handled without managing three people.
• You want support that doesn't depend on one person's calendar.

Either way, count the full cost. Add three years of monthly costs to the build price before you compare quotes. Here's what each monthly line is for.

For the steps a good build follows, start to finish, see what to expect from companies that build websites for you.

Where we fit

We sit between the two. You get the direct line of a freelancer: I'm involved in every build, and nothing goes out until I've reviewed and approved it. You also get what a team gives you: a set process, support after launch, and everything in your accounts, in writing.

I've run development teams for a long time, starting with a '90s team that went head to head with Microsoft. With websites, the problem I see most happens before anyone writes code. The owner pays up front and waits. Only at the end do they find out whether the builder understood the business.

So we build first. You fill out a 60-second application and we have a 15-minute call. About a week later, you see a working first pass of your whole site, live at a link. If you love it, that's when you pay. If you never love it, you never pay.

Custom builds start at $6,000, with payment plans available. Hosting runs $0 to about $20 a month, and 12 months of support is included.

If you'd rather see the site before you pick who builds it, see how our build-first process works.