Since the last decade, the IT industry has experienced winds of drastic change. It has become a widely growing field and suddenly made software development a lucrative job that everyone wants to opt for as their career. Software developers are currently highly demanded professionals. And businesses often seek to hire dedicated software developers online or through offline means.
While there are many ways to get a skilled expert to get your job done, people, especially those with a non-technical background, can understand how it is difficult to decide whether to go for a freelancer or a full-time developer. You need to make the right choice to cut costs and have effective software for your business. And hence you need to ponder on the following points.
How will they approach their work?
Freelancers
Since freelancers don’t associate themselves with only one organisation, they don’t dedicate themselves completely to your project. Most probably, they carry on multiple projects simultaneously. This divides their attention, which sometimes hampers your project’s quality and delivery time. Moreover, they won’t be motivated to prove themselves by putting extra effort into making your software better. Rather they will only do what has been decided to do. However, this is not the case with every freelancer. Some might want to establish longer relationships with their clients and may go the extra mile.
Full-Timers
Full-time developers work in a competitive environment, which will reflect in their work as well. If you create a good company culture, they will cultivate a sense of belonging and connection to your business. These things will motivate them to be more dedicated to their job. If they feel they are a part of this organisation, they will strive to make it prosper. The competitive environment will enable them to continuously improve their skills and be better developers than they used to be a day before. They will have a sense of dedication towards your every project.
What can you expect from them?
Freelancers
You should be aware of the fact that freelance developers won’t be as dedicated to your software development project as full-time developers would be. You are just one of several clients to them. Most freelancer developers work certain hours of the day on your project and won’t offer extra time to finish the job. They chose to freelance to work on terms of their own organised timeline. They prioritise work-life balance and won’t put your project at the front of their life, and would rarely work an hour more than what is specified earlier when hiring.
Full-Timers
Full-time developers understand more about the responsibility they have taken and would put extra effort into completing the work before the stated time. Full-time developers’ job descriptions often state longer working hours, which means they will have less free time. Your interview questions should revolve around this commitment and ensure that the employee is willing to work on such terms. Still, it is important to acknowledge their efforts with rewards. Moreover, you should try to help them with proper work-life balance and offer them all the basic necessary employment facilities.
Where do you need to invest in training?
Freelancers
Most freelancers can’t keep themselves up-to-date with the current trending technologies. They prefer working within the bounds of their comfort zone by taking on projects that they are familiar with. However, there are some who regularly strive to hone their skills. They use their free time to learn current trending technologies and improve their skill set, establishing themselves as experts in the industry. Having these freelancers in your team could fill the talent gap. It also enables you to bring the outside vision to your company and build cutting-edge solutions for your company. This leads your business software to success.
Full-Timers
Full-time developers would hone their skills all along in the working environment as they work on the projects. Companies associated with the development field have to go through drastic changes to methodologies, technologies, and approaches to create in-demand solutions. This sometimes requires companies to provide employee training as well. Offering training to freshers and new employees is like an investment that pays you well afterwards. The more skilled and better a developer you have, the more positively you reflect this on your work.
Which is a safer option for your business?
Freelancers
When it comes to business security, freelancing won’t be a good option. The level of security freelancers offers is limited. And if you are more concerned about critical business information, you should seek out a full-time employee. However, you can work with freelancers on terms of a non-disclosure agreement, but still, it can’t guarantee that your data is safe. An employee, on the other hand, dedicatedly works within the boundaries of your physical and digital boundaries, and you can easily keep an eye on them. Since they are fully committed to the company and do not engage with other employers, they are less likely to be harmful to your business.
Full-Timers
In-house developers or full-time remote developers are the safest options when it comes to the security of your business. They not just offer assurance to keep your data confidential but also add all the security layers to your application. In-house developers are responsible for strengthening the app’s security, and they are the ones who will be held accountable if any breach happens.
How much do they cost?
Freelancers
In terms of cost, freelancers are much less costly than hiring a full-time employee. Even if you hire the highest charging freelancer on an hourly rate, it would be 30% less costly on an annual level. This is because you don’t have to pay for their expenses such as technical equipment, electricity, internet, and such. Additionally, since freelancers are not your employees, you are saved from paying for their sick leaves, vacationing, health insurance, social security, and other employment facilities you generally offer your in-house employees. However, this does not include remote full-time developers, and you have to treat them as your employee.
Full-Timers
As we have stated in the preceding point, full-time developers are costlier than freelancers. However, cost alone shouldn’t be the parameter to hire a web and mobile app developers. Rather you would like to focus more on the skills and experience the developer possesses and the dedication they offer towards your project. Oftentimes, freelancers take on multiple projects at the same time and juggle between them. This can have a negative impact on your project’s progress and quality. A full-time developer, since they don’t engage in other projects than yours, provides utmost attention and dedication to your project and is likely to deliver on time.
So, which is best to choose?
The distinction between freelancers and full-time developers is vital to understand for businesses who want to virtualise their working process. Freelancers are good if your project is short-termed, but if your project involves long-term commitment and much complexity, it requires dedicated developers who commit themselves to bringing your project to success.
There are multiple ways to acquire a skilled expert. You can hire dedicated developers online through various means and methods. So many companies are out there offering outsourcing services to organisations worldwide. Hiring full-time offshore developers would be a better option than hiring in-house developers. Such developers can effectively handle all your work without your intervention and boost your project’s productivity and efficiency, increasing the quality of work.
