Hiring a Website Design Agency vs. a Freelance Web Designer

Website Design Agencies

Design firms are often publicly recognized as leaders in their field. This means that if you are having your work done by a firm, you are seeking the best of the best. Firms are typically made up of a team of workers as opposed to a single designer.

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Advantages to Hiring an Agency to Design My Website

There are many advantages of hiring a design firm that can sometimes be overlooked.

For starters, they will know what they’re talking about. Firms are comprised of a team of design experts that specialize in the kind of work you are looking for. And if you’re working with a reputable firm, it shouldn’t be a gamble. One of the biggest advantages of hiring a web design firm is that they are reliable. Unlike freelancers, you have a team of specialists behind you that have an exact plan of action in order to meet your business goals. If one employee is out sick, someone else on the team will be able to pick up the slack, decreasing the chance for holdups on your project.

Firms are also able to carry out a project from points A to Z. This is not to say that freelancers won’t work with you every step of the way, but it’s certainly not guaranteed. It is much easier to rely on a team of individuals to go over lengthy plans than it is to trust a single freelancer with your extensive project. It is a firm’s job to ensure that you get the most out of your experience—and to ensure that, they will be a part of every stage of development. You will brainstorm with the team and be the go-to for much of the decision making, since it is your project in their hands. You will work together to make the end result exactly what you had hoped for.

Overall, design firms know they have to uphold a reputation for the well-being of their company. They know how to run a business and they know the importance of working closely with their clients, keeping their word, and great customer service.

Hiring a firm to take on your project is also a good idea if you are working to create a long-term relationship with your designer. If you plan to completely overhaul your site, a firm is definitely the way to go.

Chances are, a design firm won't let you down.

Disadvantages to Hiring a Website Design Agency

One of the only drawbacks to hiring a design form is budget. If you know that your budget is going to be tight, an agency's web design cost may be outside of your options.

If you are running a small business that you hope to get off the ground by creating a website, it might also be fair to assume that you don’t have an unlimited budget to do so.

It can definitely cost a pretty penny to hire a design firm to work on your website, but it will well be worth every cent. The firm will work to make every detail just as you imagined, and if you keep them onboard, they will continuously optimize your site for the best results.

How Much Will a Web Design Agency Cost?

Check out our website design cost calculator to find out how much the average price for website design could be for your website with a design company like WebFX.

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Freelance Website Designer

Freelancers are individuals that sell their work to businesses without being a part of a larger firm. Their work is totally their own and they set their own prices.

Advantages to Hiring a Freelancer to Design My Website

One advantage of hiring a freelancer is that they often have negotiable prices. Most of the time, freelancers are simply looking to put their work out to anyone with interest, in order to grow their reputation. This allows them to be far more negotiable with pricing in comparison to design firms. Even if they aren’t willing to negotiate on price, they are still usually cheaper.

When you register a domain name, your contact information is passed along to the registrar’s “WHOIS” database, as they’re required to maintain records of every webmaster. Often times, this information is publicly available. This means spammers and hackers will have access to your name, email address, and so on.

Creativity is another aspect of freelance that doesn’t always come with firms. Though they have their own team of designers, if they are swamped with work, they might tend to give a more cookie-cutter style. Freelancers tend to be extremely creative because they work within niches to provide exactly what you want.

Disadvantages to Hiring a Website Design Freelancer

Though freelance can be a good place to start for a small business, if your company has the budget to hire a firm, it would be far more beneficial.

One of the disadvantages of hiring a freelancer is that there is typically only one person overseeing the job. This means if your designer becomes ill or takes a vacation, your project could suddenly be put on hold. Freelancers sometimes take longer on your projects because they often work alone.

Freelancers, especially if they are just starting out, don’t have a huge reputation to uphold like some design firms. This means that not always, but sometimes, freelancers won’t see anything wrong with lack of communication and will sometimes drag out your projects. This is a huge downfall when your project has a deadline, which they usually do.

If you want to build a long-term relationship with a freelancer, which will be far more difficult than it would be with a web design firm. Freelancers are usually a resource for smaller projects that you won’t need to continuously work on. A logo, for example, would be a great job for a freelancer because it is a smaller job and fits into a niche that freelancers often work with.

It’s also sometimes difficult to tell a real-deal freelancer from a bogus account. This could leave you wiring your credit card to a freelancer that won’t even put in the work you asked for, or any at all. This can be a scary concept if you are a small business that doesn’t have a large budget to work with in the first place.

Also keep in mind that if you pay a freelancer to do work that you’re not satisfied with, you will most likely have to hire a design firm anyway, causing you to invest more money than if you decided to go the more professional route in the first place.

How Much Will a Web Design Freelancer Cost?

Freelancers can charge anywhere from $20 an hour to upwards of $85 an hour. In the grand scheme of things, when you do the math, with just 50 hours in on the project you are already paying $1,000-$4,250 to a freelancer that you could have put toward a real-deal firm that would guarantee you fantastic results. Fill out our website cost calculator to compare freelancer costs with web design agency costs.