Finally, you have decided to outsource your software development projects to a reliable outsourcing partner. However, finding the right and trustworthy outsourcing partner is like finding a needle in a haystack. Since freelancers have taken over, it has become more difficult for organizations to choose between freelancers and agencies.

Deciding over which one’s best and right for you without understanding what each approach offers is like sitting in a rowboat without oars. There are certain considerations while outsourcing your software development projects that you’d have to take care of.

Here, the team at ashutec presents the pros and cons of outsourcing software development to freelancers and Agencies.

What are freelancer’s jobs?

A freelancer is a self-employed person who works for clients on a project- or contract-by-project basis. Freelancers frequently work for several different clients and are free to select their own tasks and working hours.

When experienced craftsmen and artists offered their skills to many towns and cities during the Middle Ages, the history of freelancing began. With the growth of the gig economy and the internet in the 20th century, freelancing spread more widely. Freelance employment is now available in an increasing range of professions and industries, making it a popular career choice for many people.

One can work as a freelancer and provide many different services, such as writing, graphic design, programming, consulting, photography, and more. Freelancers can operate from any location. Freelance online work is expanding in technical fields, there are many freelance developers that provide services to many clients.

What is the difference between freelancing and outsourcing?

When someone works as a freelancer, they are hired to provide services on a project or contract basis. Freelancer typically has more freedom to select their projects and work schedules in this type of relationship. Freelancers are in charge of their finances and office duties.

The practice of employing a different business or person to carry out a given task or service is known as outsourcing, on the other hand. With the outsourcing company handling administrative and financial responsibilities, outsourcing is frequently used to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Freelancers frequently focus on a certain topic and offer knowledge in that area. On the other side, outsourced businesses may have a team of experts with a larger range of expertise, making them a better option for big, complicated projects.

Freelancers work alone, whereas outsourced businesses often have a team of experts working together. The size and scope of the projects they can handle may be impacted by this.

Freelancers frequently speak with their clients directly, adding a personal touch and increasing accountability. A professional project manager who serves as the main point of contact for outsourced enterprises can streamline communication and guarantee a more organized approach.

Pros of Outsourcing to Freelancers

1. Freelancers are Cheaper

Economical reasons play the biggest factor while outsourcing software development. We all know that outsourcing is more cost-effective and affordable than in-house development. As freelancers work independently, it is even more affordable and cheaper in comparison to the agencies offering similar development services.

2. Skill Specialists

Freelancers are individuals with specific skill sets. Oftentimes, small-scale projects require only professionals that hone their expertise and skills in one of the areas. In such situations, you can handpick the best out of all freelancer professionals for the task. Agencies also do have experts in specific skillsets too. But it’s no guarantee that all the agencies will have the expert professionals your project demands.

3. They are Flexibility to Work With

You can hire freelancers whenever you want. They provide you with the flexibility to hire them for whatever number of hours you need on your project. Often they don’t have requirements such as minimum engagement level or long-term contracts to hire them. Further, you can hire multiple freelancers with different skill sets to carry out large software development projects.

Cons of Outsourcing to Freelancers

1. Unreliability

Freelancers work with multiple clients and on multiple projects at times. Oftentimes, you’ll find them juggling between different projects, which may delay your project’s deadline. This unreliability of project completion is why most organizations don’t consider outsourcing to freelancers.

Further, the overworking nature of the freelancers makes them rush project delivery with poor performance. Thus, you’ll often find yourself compromising on the performance front of your software project.

2. No Senior or Supervisor

As freelancers work independently, there’s no senior developer or supervisor to inspect the work or quality of the project. Additionally, it’s hard for you to make them understand your brand identity, expectations, and project deadlines. Thus, it becomes vital for you to have some level of oversight over your freelancers.

What this means is you’ll have to take time to communicate, review the work and quality standards, offer your feedback, and decide on project deadlines, which may increase your workload.

3. Too Tight Work Schedules

Freelance developers sometimes work on too tight schedules, thus managing them often feels like climbing a mountain. It takes a lot of effort from your side especially when you choose to work with multiple freelancers simultaneously. Many times, freelancers may not be available to work on your projects when you need them the most.

What is an Outsourcing Agency?

Software outsourcing agencies are businesses that focus on offering businesses software development services. These agencies have a staff of programmers, designers, and project managers who may assist businesses with a range of software development tasks, including planning, creating, testing, and maintaining their software.

By outsourcing, businesses may acquire the skills and knowledge they need to create and deliver high-quality software in a flexible and economical manner.

Companies concentrate on their core company operations while contracting out the technical components of software development to a reputable and skilled outside source.

In general, the goal of software outsourcing companies is to give businesses a flexible and scalable means to obtain the software development expertise they require, while also increasing cost efficiency and reducing the demand for in-house staff.

Pros of Software Outsourcing to Agencies

The major factor why software companies outsource to agencies is the reliability they get in return for their project’s completion. Thanks to this reliability, companies prefer to work with well-established businesses rather than individuals. Let’s see other benefits of outsourcing software development to an agency:

1. Accountability and Less Oversight

Outsourcing to agencies is a more trustworthy choice and requires less oversight. They would never do such things as compromising on quality, or performance, not responding to your queries, or even quitting projects midway that tarnishes their image and reputation. Furthermore, you won’t be as invested in project management.

Agencies have professional project managers tasked to attend to each client’s requests and report development progress. They are responsible for streamlining the project communication and completing project milestones within deadlines.

2. They have a Good Track Record

Well-established agencies have experience and a great track record of working with many clients in past. They may have completed projects similar to your niche and have built an extensive portfolio, case studies, testimonials, and reviews. 

Further, agencies want to retain their clients and form long-term relationships to sustain their workload rather than finding new clients same as freelancers. To form a long-term relationship, they’ll work to prove their worth again and again.

3. Streamlined Project Management

As opposed to freelancers, agencies have specialized teams and departments to take care of your project requirements and keep it on track. They are better at project management, especially the larger ones because of the large team size than an individual freelancer.

Moreover, the specialized team of agencies can organize the workflow for you and offer access to enterprise resources. Thus, large projects with high complexity levels are better handled by agencies.

Cons of Outsourcing to Agencies

Hiring agencies have certain drawbacks as well. Let’s have a look at them:

1. Expensive Than Freelancers

As mentioned, freelancers are cheaper than outsourcing to agencies because of the overhead fees and taxes agencies charge. Also, salary payouts to professionals and non-billable people to account for factor-in to make outsourcing to agencies more expensive than freelancers. Such factors create a vast difference in the per-project and hourly rates of agencies and freelancers.

Even though agencies are more expensive than freelancers, outsourcing to agencies in countries like India is still a cost-effective option and saves a significant amount on your software development.

2. Communication Delays

You are not only outsourcing to an agency but the whole corporate administration. They have multiple people involved in a project, which is oftentimes great but leads to communication delays. Many agencies allocate a project manager or account manager to handle all the communication with the clients.

But sometimes such a single point of contact may lead to communication delays as passing on the client requests depends only on them. To overcome this communication gap, many agencies allow direct access to resources working and delivering the project.

Freelancers Vs Agencies: Who’s the Winner?

While freelancers are the cheapest option to outsource your software development project, they are not as reliable as outsourcing to a well-established agency like ashutec. Freelancers are more trusted for small-scale, short-term projects to outsource which many big agencies wouldn’t be interested in.

However, large, complex, and long-term projects require multiple hands of experts such as designers, developers, QAs, writers, etc., which agencies can easily fulfill. They can deploy multiple skill sets required on a project for which freelancers are incompatible. Thus, agencies are the right choice to outsource your large-scale, complex software and product development projects.

Ashutec Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is one such agency with multiple experts having various skill sets ready to be deployed on your software project with high complexity level. Further, outsourcing to the ashutec team in India has many advantages over other geographies like Ukraine. We have a large portfolio and a good track record of working with small to large enterprises.

Moreover, we offer unique, scalable, and maintainable software and product development services at cost-effective rates. Write to us at connect@ashutec.com to discuss your software project outsourcing needs further in detail.