Should I Hire an Web Designer Agency or a Freelancer To Build My Website?

Say you’re the founder of a business and you wanted to have a website so that you can further promote it online. You already understand that you should pick a professional to do the job, or else you risk getting a mediocre site that viewers would steer away from. But now you are also faced with another dilemma – should you pick a professional web designer to do the job or a web development company?

What’s the Difference?

The most obvious answer for this question would be this – the number people doing the job. A web designer will do the job on her/his own while a company will have a couple of heads working together to give you the website you want.

Hiring a One-Man Web Designer

Hiring a single person to create and develop your site would generally cost less than hiring a whole team to do it. A professional could provide an average looking website if given an ample amount of time.

That’s because in this case, that person needs to handle everything from designing the website to making it SEO friendly. And there’s web content that you need to be mindful as well.

But there are several advantages to working with a sole web designer.

• Cost

The cost of having to work with only one person is the biggest reasons why businesses select a freelancer to create their website. Especially since an individual web designer can set their own rates.

Therefore, the employer can control the cost of their overall project which can be a cheaper alternative to web agency. This is the preferred route that business who are just starting out and needs a simple web presence.

You should only work with a web design agency if you need a custom-designed site. But for new business, you can cut on cost by starting your website with a built on template and letting a web designer handle other functions that you’ll need.

• Involvement

And along with providing you with their own set of rates, freelancers can also set their schedule which can provide you a good timeline for your project.

Whenever you are working with a sole web designer, they’ll be able to devote most if not all of their time to your project in order to get your requests done faster. Whereas, agencies will be managing multiple projects with completely different timelines.

But depending on the agency or your sole web designer, you can expect to experience a more hands-on approach with a freelancer since they are your sole contract with your project.

READ ALSO: Why Hire a Philippine-based Outsource Digital Marketing Company?

• Limited Skillset

As there are advantages to working with a sole web designer, there tends to be downsides as well. And one of the biggest disadvantages of working with them is that you only have access to limited skills and resources of the person.

Think of it this way, building your website is similar to building a house which will require a lot of different skills.

Just like you can’t expect the architect to do the plumbing and construction. You can’t expect one individual to be an expert in web strategy, UX design, and web development.

So we arrive to the question, do I need a web designer or a web developer? The answer depends on your needs.

To give you an overview, a web designer is a graphic artists who creates style objects for the internet and your website. They design how your website looks like. But they don’t do coding.

On the other hand, a web developer develops the applications and your web functionality for the your visitors. So if you want to build a website from scratch, you need a web developer to build your foundation.

Web designers can make them look and feel the way that your brand to be known as and how your users would want them.

But if you are a startup business, you can simply hire a web designer in order to design a template that you can find in web design platforms such as WordPress. You don’t need a web developer to make a website from scratch unless you have the budget.

You can refer to the infographics below in order to know exactly what designers and developers do.

Hiring a Web Design Team

However, when you’re hiring a team. You also need to ready your wallet because they’re going to cost you, especially if they’re all professionals. The good thing is, as the saying goes “two heads are better than one.”

With a team, you’ll be able to make progress much fast and expect even better results. Each person on that team has their own specific skillset – one might be a content marketing expert and the other excels in graphic designs. In other words, you get the best of everything when hiring a professional web design and development team for your site. 

A good web design team can also collaborate with each other, create better ideas and will be able to conduct better judgement on things as well. So in turn for the cost, expect an excellent looking website ready to serve your target audience and customers with.

But why do we say that a web design agency can be the best choice for your company’s project?

• Diverse Experience

One of the major advantages of working with a web agency is that you have a team that’s dedicated to web project that will and should include a web strategist, a web designer, a project manager, and web developer.

Each of these skilled professionals will bring different talents to your project. And you can find that they’ll have a richer experience in their field since these types of agencies have certain standards for their employment and fierce competition in the web industry.

• Credibility and Support

Another advantage of working with an agency is that they have more credibility and reputation to uphold. As compared to a freelancer which is solely dependent on getting new projects and works.

• Expense

But once again, the disadvantages of working with a web agency lies in the expense. You’ll need to invest since an agency’s pricing might also be higher.

But if you are on a limited budget, consider working with a small to midsized agency as they don’t fail to provide the level of quality close to bigger agencies.

The Verdict

When it comes to web designing, the quality makes up for everything. And with a good website that’s tinkered for SEO and mobile marketing, you can get more traffic, more leads and ultimately more sales. That’s something a web design team is more likely to deliver than a single web design professional. 

True, they may cost you a lot, but if you think of it as investment, then it’ll definitely be worth it. You’re likely to get a better ROI with that website than the one made by a single web designer. So if you’re to pick between the two, don’t get tempted by the low costs and get some quality web designing instead. 

Hiring a Professional Web Development Team

The best way to determine a good web design and development team for your website is through their sites as well. A good web design company will obviously have a good site as well.

And you can also check out their testimonials to check for their track records. Nothing like a good reception from their clients to make you feel easy when hiring them.