Freelance versus Team: who is better to work with?

Statement 1: it is cheaper to work with a freelancer

While wandering through freelance workplaces you may come to the conclusion that a freelancer’s work is less costly. Main arguments in favour of freelance are:

• you don’t have to maintain documentation;
• you can forget about keeping accounting;
• the price of their work is so affordable.

But the question is: are you sure?

Let’s discuss. Can we really compare the quality of a teamwork product with a freelance experts’ one? A team is a group of people who create a multidimensional and multi-layered product and each member of this group has unique experience when a freelancer is a niche expert. Sometimes for a project implementation, you need several freelancers. As a result, the sum of the project will be an equivalent unless the freelancer’s service doesn’t come out more expensive and you won’t need to spend a lot of time searching, everything is at your disposal in a team.

Statement 2: clear accounting

The freelancer’s client could check how fast their work is done. After matching needed time frames with the expected result both communicators continue their activity without continuous reporting.

But could anyone be completely sure about deadlines? The timing may have been agreed and in the tracking app everything is alright, however, the overall project duration may be moved for an indeterminate time lag.

When the team knows exactly what they should do. Transparency is the most important component when working with a team. The crew can deliver results iteratively, which allows you to track progress and understand the next period of development.

Statement 3: the freelancer focuses on the client’s task that he is working with

It usually looks like a freelance specialist works with one and only project, yours. And they should pay full attention to it.

In most cases, freelancers have several projects with which they are working at the same time. A responsible person will do his best to be caught up with every client’s task. But when he is in a hurry his attention is dissipating and errors present in the work. It will be nice if the customer will be able to find out problems and fix them, but you should not count on it. In the team the art director will promptly correct the result or set the desired vector of work. This significantly reduces the final edits and accelerates the execution process.

Statement 4: the freelancer can work directly with customers from any country in the world

The team does the same, but with a project manager, who will take into account the time difference, catch up with deadlines and take into consideration the rest of the external factors that may affect the work. Don’t forget that there are regular calls from clients to performers for a direct discussion about the key points of a project.

Working with a designer directly means you are the last stand. You will need to understand how to form tasks, how to give the right feedback, how to evaluate aesthetics. And we know how busy are start-up founder’s lives are. Design director’s participation will ease some of this pain. Of course not all of it, because you understand your business better than anyone. But if it will reduce your headache by 50% surely it’s worth it?

Statement 5: a freelancer is a creative person who is not always ready for harsh criticism of his work by the client

In any creative profession there exists a pretty big risk of accidentally hurting the feelings of the performer. A freelancer, unlike the “team player”, needs to communicate with customers on their own. It is not worth mentioning that not it is not easy to keep in touch with everyone. In the team for this type of activity is a project manager who, as a diplomat, will settle all existing issues and do his best to reach a beneficial solution. A PM has clear functions and experience in communication with various clients.

Also, when a designer is one and only in the product team he is often losing his grip. Really, we interviewed designers with 10 years’ experience whose works were horrifying. When a team has a pretty big group of experts with different skill sets, cultivating a routine to make shots on Dribbble and regularly hit the top with them, making creative challenges and design battles. So experience exchange and competition are circulating in the air and designer will not rust and becomes sharper and sharper.

Statement 6: freelancers may be tempted by procrastinate

On the whole, freelancers think that they have enough time to complete a task. If they schedule a task for slightly later, nothing terrible will happen. In such a case, procrastination is the most dangerous enemy.

It’s often in start-ups when there is a need to produce more design stuff urgently. Pitch a presentation, conference materials, marketing landing pages. All this needs to be done without the main product design process suffering. One designer can’t rule them all. But as a team, we can add a fighter with a needed skillset and cover it really quickly. And no urgent hiring from your side. We just add count in on an hourly basis.

Then, for the team, there is such an irreplaceable figure as the project manager above the performer. This thoughtful and dedicated person will definitely bring this through. Laziness and procrastination are absolutely out of the question.

Statement 7: sometimes the freelancer vanishes after receiving the prepayment

On the Internet, you could find an extensive portfolio of a qualified specialist. But it may turn out that it is a fake and this performer may disappear after the advance payment. You can only guess that the person did not have the desire or the proper experience to get the job done, but things are messy.

When it comes to the team you have an opportunity to check their work and look at the reviews at various sites, go through to a portfolio with links. It could become a guarantor of competent investments and further cooperation. After weighing up all the pros and cons, you can come to a reasonable conclusion that it is safer to give the same advance payment to the team and be sure that the work will be done.

Conclusion

Finally, it all depends specifically on the project that the person wants to implement and on the task which need to be done. If you need a logo, then using a freelancer is naturally more profitable than hiring a team. But when it comes to product development, it is much more reasonable to get in touch with a cool well-coordinated team that knows how to work with each other. Because one person couldn’t cope with such a “giant” in a short time. On top of that, should be understood that occasionally such things as the time zone and the lack of proper skills in organizing your personal time can eventually lead to deadlines not being met. And the key – with a freelancer you work at your own risk, you risk nothing with the team.

Reading this article gave you little insight into whom you exactly need for your project to be successful? Let`s sort it out together. You can send an email or just DM on one of our social accounts. We promise to answer during a day.