How to Choose a Web Developer

Freelancers and Individuals

Freelancers can potentially provide great flexibility in your solutions and usually do custom work that matches your goals accurately. Good freelancers take the time to understand your business and may even offer creative solutions for development and ongoing management of your project. The greatest advantage of using a freelancer or individual for your project is their low overhead and relatively lower cost.

The pitfall of working with freelancers is that their professionalism or skill level may not match that of your company. For instance, their availability may be greatest when they are selling you their services, and may decrease as the project progresses. Also, you may end up doing a lot of management on the project; freelancers’ low overhead often does not account for the planning it takes to get a project done in the most efficient way possible. This is especially true for complex projects.

While it certainly isn’t always the case, freelancers may be experts in one area, like database design, but no very little about a different area, such as interface design. As a result, there may be built-in limitations for your project or you may end up paying your freelancer to learn skills from scratch.

Lastly, going with a freelancer poses uncertainty for support of your project in the future. Since you’re relying on an individual – whose professional status is more susceptible to change than a larger firm – there is a greater chance you could be saddled with a custom product that only they can help you with.

Interesting to note: Most good developers start out as freelancers who realize that in order to keep their customers happy – and themselves sane – they must choose to either start their own company (with a talented support staff) or join an existing company.

Companies That Provide "Boxed" Web Solutions

There are some great online software packages out there that allow you to build functioning websites without actually knowing how to program. Their primary advantage is usually low cost: it’s less expensive than a custom solution because the software company is able to leverage their expenses by having many users contribute to the total production cost.

However, proceed with caution. Since you get a “one size fits all” solution, you may be stuck with a set of design templates or business requirements that do not match your needs – now, or, more importantly, in the future. There may be features that you don't need since the product is meant to work for many, many businesses. If the software you invest in cannot meet your needs, and there isn't an option to pay for an improvement, you'll likely have to start over at some point.

Since "boxed" products have an inherent lack of flexibility, you may run into a dead-end in terms of what you can do with your site or never even be aware of options that could increase your business profitability and efficiency.

Companies Who Provide Custom Web Solutions (like us)

Custom web developers usually provide a full-scale solution that merges all the needed aspects of a successful project. Good custom developers will focus on the individual needs of their clients and apply Web development and marketing ideas that can be leveraged by the clients themselves.

Depending on their experience and professionalism, they have very few limits on creativity and capabilities. This is the biggest advantage of this type of solution because you get the personal attention needed to capitalize on what your business already is doing so that your website can support it best. This type of solution is most likely to help your company grow.

Custom web developers usually have organized business procedures and a full staff of experts to ensure that their clients’ needs are met. This means that there are never “dead ends” and that there’s always more creative and experienced thinking on your project. All of which increases the positive impact that your website can have on your business. Finally, good custom developers will have a large portfolio and a list of satisfied clients who will be able to recommend them.

The drawback of a full-scale custom developer is most often the cost. This is due to higher overhead: they must pay for facilities, managers, employees, and benefits in order to meet all the potential needs of their customers. Because the cost of using a custom web developer is higher than a freelancer or boxed solution, be careful to manage your costs as a customer. Use only custom developers who are willing to give you cost estimates, and make sure your developer is basing them on an actual plan, your goals, and your budget.

If you want your website to be an investment tool to help your business grow, then you should find a custom web developer who has proven clients and methods to ensure you get fair costs and great results.

Companies That Outsource

These companies say they do web development, but actually just hire it out. This is more and more common in our increasingly global society. One of the most common outsourcing scenarios is when graphic design or traditional marketing company accepts a request for development from their client and then outsources the project to a third party as they don’t have the development team necessary to do it themselves.

The upside of this arrangement is a potentially lower price. However, you don’t know anything about the third party that’s actually working on your project and your “middle man” doesn’t have direct control over their work. So, you’re relying on the judgment of the company you’re working with that their relationship with the third party will result in an on-time, cohesive project, all while paying a (often undisclosed) mark-up for the third-party’s work.

If you're going to use a company like this, we recommend finding a group that has a long-standing strategic partnership already in place with a custom web developer. This way you can avoid the unknowns associated with the group the company outsources your project to.