It is worth choosing between an offshore development company and a freelance developer, especially in the situation that you come up with a new project idea to set up a new website that requires some software development skills. Your decision will influence the process implementation as well as the success of your project.
How to have the right decision? If you read this article, you will have a deep insight into the pros and cons of those two kinds of software development partners. Therefore, you can know who is the better option for your business.
Let’s firstly take a look at a general overview of the offshore development company and freelance developer!
Overview about offshore development company and freelancer developer
Table of Contents
About offshore development company
An offshore development company is an overseas agency or outsider who develops software products or services. For example, you are a European company and you are hiring companies from India, Vietnam, or China to do your project. It means that the companies mentioned are offshore development companies. Currently, many companies tend to choose Vietnam to hire offshore developers. While others might lean towards software development Europe for its structured processes and strict regulatory standards, offering an alternative for projects requiring high compliance.
CLICK here to know why should choose Vietnam to hire offshore developers: https://bsscommerce.com/blog/hire-offshore-developers-in-vietnam/
The main advantage of this practice is the lower production cost. Since most of those agencies are located in countries with low operational costs, this creates opportunities for customers to optimize their business without investing too much.
Offshore development services include custom software development, website development, mobile application development, and much more.
About freelance developer
About freelancers, they are considered as self-employed people who can design or develop a website, application. However, they are not a regular employee in a company.
The main benefit of this practice is the flexibility in working as the freelance developer can easily manage their timetable as long as they can ensure the deadline of each project.
Let’s move on to the pros and cons of each type of partner. With the detailed information, it will be a great support for you to give the final decision. After that, we assure you that you can know which will be the more suitable partner for your business.
Pros and cons of an offshore development company
When talking about cooperating with an offshore development company, this kind of partner has its benefits and drawbacks. All information about it will be reviewed below.
Pros
Reliable long-term cooperation
An offshore development company tends to provide high-quality services over the long term. When cooperating with them, they will give you careful consulting to the technical support of the project. Therefore, they can be reliable partners.
Well-organized development processes
When you choose to hire a software development company, you do not need to monitor their work constantly. Those companies usually have a highly organized process to show their high level of services. In addition, they also focus on building their reputations and customer review to make their brand become nearer to the customer.
Up-to-date technology
It is undeniable that outsourcing software development companies always invest a lot of money in modern technologies. Since the technology market is becoming more and more competitive, those companies prioritized staying up-to-date with new trends and bringing customers up-to-date technologies.
Dedicated and certified professionals
The offshore development company can give you a dedicated development team of experts who are certificated and highly skilled in many different fields professionals. Many offshore development companies are likely to have unique talents, such as blockchain developers, experts in machine learning, or specialists in IoT.
Seamless management
When cooperating with those companies, you will allow feeling the simplicity of communicating with experienced developers and the satisfaction of reports. You will not have to worry about your partner failing to meet deadlines because they will give you an experience of professionalism, high quality, and perfect production.
KNOW more about how to work effectively with an offshore team: https://bsscommerce.com/blog/work-effectively-with-an-offshore-team/
Legal entity
Each company is known as a legal business entity. Therefore, they are always available to provide you with the list of documents you would want to take a look at, such as certifications, business licenses to make sure that they are trustworthy partners.
24/7 customer support and maintenance
When you choose to cooperate with an offshore development company, you will receive ongoing customer support and maintenance. Those companies often have a department for customer support and maintenance, therefore they will take time to support your project. A website development company can help you to fix bugs, support your website and take care of its updates. Not only those mentioned problems but also any further problems will be taken care of carefully.
High-quality product
If you want your website to become much more impressive, it is necessary for you to hire an offshore website development company. They will be the best choice for you to have a spectacular website as they always focus on how to bring their customers a high level of product.
Specific expenses and timeframe
It is really necessary for you to know how much time a software development company would take to build your website. When you choose a software outsourcing company, you will have a list of all expenses and timeframe. They always have a careful estimation about the project process in the time and workflow aspects in each period. Therefore, you can control the progress of your project.
Cons
However, an offshore development company is associated with many challenges. Take a look at some main points.
Higher cost
It is clear that the cost of the service provided by software development companies is higher in comparison with the freelancers. In addition, the cost will depend on the region where they operate. Therefore, it is the main reason why many enterprises consider hiring a freelancer rather than an offshore development company. Whenever each company makes a choice, the cost is one of the main factors that they would consider. But, there is also the fact that only a development company can be able to meet all of your requirements. Remember that a lower rate will lead to higher risk, therefore with the higher cost, you will get the wanted project.
Flexibility
It is evident that offshore development companies have strict working hours as they have to clock in and clock out timely. In the situation that you need to fix a bug in the night, maybe you need to wait until the next morning. If your partner and your country are in different time zone, you will have to wait about a few hours for the problem to be solved. Therefore, you need to make preparation for any rising differences when working with offshore development companies. However, when cooperating with an offshore company, you will get a guarantee that your project will be an outstanding website in the timeframe you have determined.
Competitive market
The competitiveness of offshore development companies that provide the same services is extremely high. Therefore, those companies will have to show their strengths and raise their brand awareness in the market to become the choice of customers. If you are not an expert in software development, it is quite difficult for you to make the right choice. However, with a long list of companies, you need to take a lot of time to research the company’s information, customer testimonials, and completed projects.
Speed
Some offshore development companies do not provide speedy development services. The internal processes and communication process will strangle the whole process. It is easy to understand that if such a company can deliver you high-quality products, it will take up longer to complete the development project.
Pros and cons of freelancer developer
Pros
There are some benefits of hiring a freelance software developer that we have listed below. Let’s inspect each benefit.
Lower cost
The main advantage when many entrepreneurs choose a freelance developer is the lower cost in comparison with an offshore development company. You can save about 20-30% on the cost of software development. It is due to the independence of contractors as they do not have to pay for as many additional expenses as a software development company. For example, freelancers do not have to pay for renting offices or salary for their employees. It is the reason why they can offer you lower rates for their provided services.
Time flexibility
When working with freelance developers, you will not need to worry about the binding terms in the contract that you sign. These contractors can create their own schedule and their working time is not restricted to 8 hours a day. They can work whenever they are free or you require. This leads to faster project delivery and more effortless adaptability, especially in case the clients and the freelance developers are in different time zones.
Speed
As self-employed developers, they are motivated to complete the project as soon as possible. Therefore, it is a nice advantage for many store owners who want to hasten the speed of the project. In addition, it is also their interest to meet your time expectations to become a reliable contractor.
Cons
In each choice, there are some disadvantages related to this option. In addition, you also prepare to deal with certain problems and find a way to deal with them.
Belief
Yes, it is really a problem that you should consider. Freelancers usually deal with a few projects at the same time. They tend to take on more projects than their ability to control all of them. Therefore, it is a fact that they can give you the results that are under your expectation.
Risks
When you hire freelancers, you can sign a non-disclosure agreement. However, you can not influence how they deal with confidential information and your users’ personal data. It can lead to several problems in the future and even compensation for the breach of confidentiality. In addition, they are freelancers and they work independently. Therefore, they can personally decide to terminate your project without saying anything at all.
Difficult to manage
Cooperating with freelancers means that you can not control their work and assure that they are working on your task at the moment or not. In addition, they also have problems with organization and time management. So, it is really difficult for you to manage them.
Narrow-focused expertise
Freelancers are able to offer you specific skills. If you require a project that is over their ability as described in their portfolio, some risks will appear.
Low-quality product
As we have mentioned, freelancers desire to take on as many projects as possible. This will lead to unpredictable results for the project. The contractor can fail to provide high-quality services as they just focus on doing many projects in a short time and their own profit. Therefore, you can deal with many problems in the future if you intend to scale it further as they do not pay more attention to necessary details such as quality. In addition, you also have to hire a new contractor to fix bugs as they do not provide ongoing support and maintenance as offshore development companies. You might have to find them again if there are any rising problems and support.
Timeframe
When you hire freelance development, you will not have an established timeframe. Freelancers can not successfully organize the working process and meet deadlines. This will negatively impact the results of the project as there will be significant shifts in the delivery of the final version of your project.
Although currently, the market is full of freelancer platforms, it is quite difficult for entrepreneurs to find a real professional. In addition, it also comes with many risks as well as many benefits. Therefore, you should consider carefully before going to your own decision.
Between offshore development company and freelance developer – what to choose?
There will be no selection that can be definitely suitable for all kinds of business. The best option depends on many factors that can influence the development process. Therefore, to find the best choice, the entrepreneurs should carefully consider about criteria. For example, if you want to decrease the expenses for the project, you can choose a freelance developer who can offer you the project at lower rates in comparison with an offshore development company.
In addition, whether you choose to cooperate with the offshore development company or freelance developer, you should bear in mind that your partner should be based on your goals and the project tasks. For instance, if you have a simple project that needs basic skills, you can just opt for a freelancer. However, if you look for a partner who can deal with a bigger and more difficult development project or a long-term engagement, an offshore development company can be a better choice.
When you have to choose a partner to cooperate with, let’s take a list of criteria from the most important factor to the least important factor. Then, you can have the selection that is the most suitable for your business based on your list.
BSS Commerce – a reliable offshore development center
If you are finding an offshore development company, BSS Commerce will be a worth considering partner. With more than nine-year experience in the eCommerce industry, BSS Commerce is an ideal decision for any business of any size. We have cooperated with 21,000+ customers worldwide with 500+ successful projects.
Why should you choose BSS Commerce as a partner? We think you have already thought about this, right? Below are the reasons why you should cooperate with us.
- Dedicated services and a pool of eCommerce products: when working with BSS Commerce, you can benefit not only from our dedicated services for agency and for store owners, such as offshore development services but also from the variety of eCommerce products provided by us, such as apps, extensions…
- Dedicated and certified development team: our experts are equipped with tech knowledge and committed to providing our customers the top-quality products and services with the highest coding standard and security. In addition, we are also proficient in English to maintain ongoing communication. Web developers from BSS Commerce are asked to have enough certifications to be worked in this aspect. Moreover, our experienced ISTQB testers can deal with all eCommerce website cases to detect problematic bugs.
- Competitive cost: we do not offer you the cheapest price but we do offer you the most competitive price with high-quality services and products.
EXPLORE more about BSS Commerce offshore development center at: https://bsscommerce.com/offshore-development-center.html
Let our dedicated development experts involve your project to deal with all the challenges with the best-optimized technology solution. Our process is extremely quick and easy to adapt to any urgent request. BSS Commerce proudly provides a full range of software development services during our 9-year journey.
CONTACT NOW to let us know your problems. We will always be willing to support you as soon as possible.
