Freelancer or IT company. How to choose an artist?
It’s a paradox: the choice of performers in the IT field is huge, but out of all this diversity, finding the one you can trust is not at all easy. And the more the range of alternatives expands, the more difficult it is to choose a reliable contractor. Why this mechanism works on the principle of direct proportionality is quite obvious: the number of performers is growing, but not the quality of their services.
A short introduction. It’s no secret that for the last few years, becoming an IT specialist has been a cherished dream, both for very green schoolchildren and already self-sufficient adults who are not satisfied with their current field of activity. And no matter how much analysts, experts and other wisest people in this world tell you that the “IT bubble” has burst and a crisis is coming in the IT sphere… just look at these numbers.
On the eve of Digital Learning Analytics Day (February 29), analysts from the financial marketplace Sravni studied the demand for online education programs. The most popular areas in 2024 were programming (21% of all programs), design (15%) and marketing (8%). At the same time, the demand for programming courses has increased by 34% since September 2023.
People continue to want to “get into IT” and that’s a fact. But can they accept this entire stream of graduates from the courses who, most likely, did not have experience working on even one large-scale project? Of course not. Companies, in general, are willing to hire junior specialists and view them as a kind of investment, hoping that over time they will grow into experienced professionals loyal to the company. But not all juniors manage to get official employment: the number of resumes exceeds the number of vacancies. Based on the results of 2023, hh.ru shared statistical data on this issue.
For every talented designer who applies for a job, there are 8.2 others just like him. Let's be honest: the company will choose the most potential one in its own opinion. Where should the rest go? Here we come to the main topic of this article.
Most likely, these people will discover freelancing.
We do not claim that every single freelancer is one who has not been able to build a career within the framework of working for a company. There are opposite situations: a specialist is so experienced, with an extensive network of word of mouth, powerful cases that speak for themselves, that in the end he outgrows a specific company and goes to a free schedule with the workload that he has chosen for himself. But there are only a few of them, and these are literally the “stars” of freelancing, the cost of whose services can exceed the work of the entire IT agency team.
And so we come to the thesis from the beginning of the article: there are many performers – there are few professionals with experience and the necessary skills. Many programmers, designers, testers, etc. who take the advertised online course need real experience in large projects, good mentors and an understanding of how to work in a team.
No, we will not say that working with a freelancer is a lost cause. The purpose of this article is to put an end to the question “when do you need a freelancer and when do you need a company?” Next, we present to your attention 6 critical differences between the two phenomena: working with a freelancer or working with a company. Choose from the list what is important to you and make a logical decision.
1. Formal agreement
Freelancer: in theory, it is possible to conclude an agreement with a self-employed person, a freelance individual entrepreneur, or even an individual. In practice, everything is not so rosy. Many freelancers refuse to formalize their services to avoid paying taxes. And even when concluding a contract, there is no protection that the contractor will not get lost and will not miss all the deadlines of the project.
Company: With any digital agency, you enter into an official contract, which stipulates the terms, obligations of the parties, and guarantees. This is the confidence that your budget and your time will not be wasted.
2. Meeting deadlines
Freelancer: Freelancers often have difficulty meeting deadlines. And the point is not always that the performer turned out to be unscrupulous. Freelancers are ordinary people who have unexpected circumstances in their lives, and these circumstances can affect your project.
Company: IT companies also employ the same ordinary people, but when one team member is unable to complete his part of the work due to unforeseen circumstances, another employee will always come to support him, and the project continues its development.
3. Project scale
Freelancer: Teamwork on a project is something that a freelancer cannot do. Often, even a really cool freelance specialist is a professional who knows one or two tools. This is a person who will solve a specific problem, but will not be able to efficiently implement a whole range of services. You can, of course, hire freelancers with strengths from different areas, but most likely the budget for the project will be even higher than when working with an agency. There will never be perfect synergy between disparate freelancers, just as there will never be a common holistic view of the project. However, outsourcing a small task to a freelancer is a perfectly reasonable approach.
Company: IT companies practice an integrated approach to solving problems. You can be sure that no side of the project will fail, because a whole team will work on it, not just one person. It is companies that can be entrusted with a large, large-scale project.
4. Managers
Freelancer: Freelancers don't have managers. Many people strongly consider this to be a plus. There is no intermediary between the client and the contractor – this is great. You can communicate directly with the person performing the task without delays for the manager to process the information.
Company: There is another opinion. This “intermediary,” or rather the project manager, is a person who is not a barrier, but a connecting link. This is the person who is able to understand your idea and translate it into a language understandable to the performer. Not every IT specialist has communication skills and has an idea of how to correctly convey their thoughts to the client.
If you are well versed in the specifics of the IT sphere, if you have a clear and specific vision of the finished product, you can clearly convey your idea and assign a task to a specialist, and are also ready to independently monitor deadlines at all stages of work, then in your case the connecting link in the form of a project -the manager may well be absent.
5. Further support of the project
Freelancer: Lack of future support is a common complaint from those who have entrusted a project to an unscrupulous freelancer. We very often hear from our own clients something like “the site was created by a freelancer, then it disappeared and no one else maintained the site.” After all, a freelancer can end his professional activity at any time without transferring his clients to another specialist.
Company: A company that respects its reputation will never be able to “disappear” as a freelancer. There is an official agreement, there are obligations from which the agency cannot escape. If you are interested in further cooperation after the completion of the main work, there is an address of the company’s office, a mailbox and a telephone number. You can always contact and continue working. If specific employees who led your project leave the company, then in any case it will be handed over to other specialists with a full introduction to the matter.
6. Urgency of the task
Freelancer: Here we give a clear plus to freelancers. If deadlines are pressing and the tasks do not require the attention of many experts with different specializations, then the best option would be to turn to a freelancer. If all the details and priorities are correctly discussed, then a freelancer, unencumbered by formalities and independently calculating his workload, is able to complete the task as quickly as possible.
Company: It won’t work with companies on the “here and now” principle. Yes, according to the contract, all deadlines will be met, but before the main work begins, there is still a mandatory stage of drawing up a commercial proposal, agreeing on the project structure, concluding a contract and issuing an invoice. And only after going through all these steps and confirming your payment, your project gets underway. When starting cooperation with an IT company to develop any web resource, application or any other digital product, it is important to take into account all these points and allocate time to go through the required initial stages.
As a conclusion, I would like to summarize: If you have a large-scale project that will require further management, contact an IT company. If you need to complete a specific task, and you know how to communicate with IT specialists in the “same language,” then collaborating with a freelancer is the best option.
Returning to the beginning of the article, let us once again remind you how important it is to take a responsible approach to choosing a performer. Nowadays it is really difficult to find an experienced and responsible specialist. This is especially true, unfortunately, of freelancing. Therefore, pay attention to any little details, collect feedback from friends, study the portfolio, ask to complete a test task. All this will help save your finances, time and nerves in the future.
