In-House Freelancer Agency Firm Comparison
In-House, Freelancer or Agency Development Firm? Choosing the “type” of resource is sometimes difficult. As always, attention to the details is critical to your success.
Sometimes the in-house software development team is overloaded, financially constrained or skill set challenged for a new software development project. Or maybe this time, you just need minor assistance. Or maybe you need a team of people that you just cannot find in your local area. Here’s a cheat sheet comparing in-house, freelance or a commercial development firm. This table based comparison chart of pros/cons is based upon our 485 years of combined custom software development experience by our VP’s and developers. For the software development firm, we provided our own information.
Note this content is biased, but biased in a good way. For example, when hiring an offshore freelancer, most people do not check the security of the hardware being used by the freelancer, the power stability (offshore power outages are common), how many clients the freelancer is working on simultaneously, etc. Nor do they examine the Freelancer’s PC (browser history, applications installed, who uses the PC (maybe kids, or teenagers use it). Also, is the freelancer using a firewall? Do they have anti-virus protection? Do offshore freelancers provide a legally enforceable guarantee? These are common concerns that you need to consider. As such, we rated the concerns below based upon how most companies hire their own in-house people, how they contract freelancers and overall expectations of an enterprise class professional software development firm.
| Resource Concern | In-House | Offshore Freelancer | Campbell Software Canada |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tech Stack Experience: | Mid-Level (70% competent) | 40% competent | Wide Range, High Expertise, Retained Knowledge |
| Ramp Up Time: | Not Usually Required | Slower than Expected | Quick (accustomed process) |
| Trust Level: | High | Sometimes good, sometimes not | High (A+ BBB Rated) |
| Reliability Level: | Good | Varies | Excellent (resource backups) |
| Team Resource Size: | Smaller Static Team | No Team | Large Dynamic Resource Pool |
| Security Knowledge: | Medium | Low to mid-range | Enterprise Class |
| Firewall Security: | Mid-Level Appliance | Minimal or none | Enterprise Class (CISCO) |
| Anti-Virus Protection: | Usually | Unlikely | Symantec Cloud |
| Mail Protection: | Usually | Unlikely | Barracuda, Symantec Cloud |
| Source Code Repository: | Public GitHub | Low | Private TFS Commercial Repository |
| Power Backup: | Battery (limited) | Battery (limited) | Commercial UPS + Diesel |
| Workstation / Server Backup: | Battery (limited) | Battery (limited) | Disk, Tape and Offsite (daily) |
| Separate Development Environment: | Usually | No | Yes |
| Separate Staging Environment: | Not Usually | No | Yes |
| Network Backups: | Usually just Servers | None | Everything: Disk, Tape and Offsite (daily) |
| Local Time Zone Availability: | Local Business Hours | Usually 12 Hour Difference | 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM |
| Daily Coding Focus: | 75% of Work Day | 50% to 80% – Other clients? | 90% of Work Day |
| Milestone Based Payment: | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| Bug Fixes: | Paid by Employer | Usually billable (extra) | Free Fixes for 30 days |
| Impersonation Concern: | None | Did they outsource to someone else? | None (Legal commitment) |
| Used for Next Project: | Probably | Usually never rehired | Likely |
| Legally Enforceable Guarantee: | N/A (no guarantee from employee) | Non collectible promise | Yes (via legal enforceable agreement) |
| Personal Use of Equipment: | Sometimes (e-mail, Facebook) | 1 PC for wife, kids, porn, business.. | Never (Immediate Dismissal Policy) |
| Turnover (knowledge loss): | 15% Annual Turnover | 100% | 3% Annual Turnover |
| Project Wide Concerns | |||
| Project Manager: | Internal | No | Yes, Included at no additional cost |
| Team Lead: | Sometimes | No | Yes, Included |
| Separate Code Reviewer: | No | No | Yes, Included at no additional cost |
| Separate Builder: | No | No | Yes (special knowledge) |
| Deployment Specialist: | No | No | Yes (special knowledge) |
| Separate QA Team: | Self tested by coder | No | Yes – Professional Testers & Process |
| Post Deployment Verification: | Sometimes | Not usually | Always – Included at no additional cost |
| Project Management Portal: | Sometimes | Not usually | Yes – Included at no additional cost |
| Language: | English | Difficult to understand | English |
| Business and Tech Speak: | Fair to Good | Mostly Just Tech | Excellent in both “Languages” |
| Stakeholder Updates: | Occasionally | Not usually | 2x per week or more |
| Rate: | $60k per year + benefits & holidays | $25 USD per hour | $35 to $50 per hour |
| Primary Benefit: | Internal Control | Cheap | Legal Guarantee: Quality Software Faster for Less Extensive Experience, Wide Skill Range Available When required Dynamic Team (can shrink or expand anytime) Proven |
About Gary Campbell
Gary Campbell is the founder of Campbell Software, a Custom Software Development Company. He and his company provide commercial custom software development to USA and Canadian clients across North America. His developers and management have nearly 500 years of COMMERCIAL experience. Commercial experience is different than in-house experience. For example, a person who was employed by 3 companies over 10 years knows 3 tech stacks. But a team of commercial developers who have worked for 200 clients over 10 years have experience with 200 unique tech stacks. They also ramp up extremely quick and they have a much deeper and wider expertise than an in-house developer. To view all content at Campbell Software, view our Sitemap.