These days, no business should go without a sleek, functional, and intuitive website.
That’s because building a strong online presence is critical for brand growth and recognition – a solid website is the cornerstone of this effort, an “online storefront” that tells the world what your company’s all about while also driving conversions.
That website will only be effective, though, if it’s designed effectively. This means you need to hire the right team or individual, which brings us to the focus of this post: should you hire a web design agency or a freelance web designer?
The answer depends partly on what you’re hoping to achieve. While freelancers can certainly be effective, we feel there are many reasons web agencies tend to be – in general – the better choice. Below, we’ll go over some of the most compelling ones.
1. Multi-Skilled Team
First, regardless of what they might tell you, no single person is an expert in every area of web design. A team, on the other hand, delegates different tasks to different people when building your website – for instance, one person will focus entirely on user experience while another deals with SEO and web strategy.
The fact that each person on the team works on a specific area of web design gives them a focused expertise that freelancers simply don’t have the time to develop. This is probably the most significant reason web design agencies are preferable to freelancers: when you have multiple people with varied expertise working together, each component of the website is as good as it can be. All these features come together to create an outstanding website.
2. Faster Response Time
Any in-demand freelance web designer has a lot on their plate – if you reach out to them, it can take many hours or even a few days for them to respond.
While that might not be a huge inconvenience, WAITLISTS CAN BE. A freelance web designer has to do all the work on their own, which means they can only concentrate on one project at a time. Depending on how many clients they have lined up, you could be waiting months for work on your website to even get started.
With a website design agency, you don’t have either of these problems: more employees means a overall faster response to inquiries and the ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously.
3. Better at Answering Questions
Not only will you get faster response times from web design teams, you’ll also get more comprehensive answers. This is thanks to the expertise of each individual team member mentioned earlier. If you ask one contact a question they’re not sure about, they can simply ask their co-worker who will know the answer (one they don’t have to quickly Google as a freelancer without specific knowledge might!).
4. Ongoing Support
Provided they put some effort into learning, anyone can become a freelance web designer – you won’t always know if the person you’ve hired has been operating for 10 years or if you’re their first client.
This is compounded by the problem that freelancer reviews tend to not be public or easy to find.
As companies that do hiring and firing, website design agencies are usually staffed by people with years of experience. This makes a whole lot of sense when you consider how competitive the web design industry is!
5. More Experience
Provided they put some effort into learning, anyone can become a freelance web designer – you won’t always know if the person you’ve hired has been operating for 10 years or if you’re their first client.
This is compounded by the problem that freelancer reviews tend to not be public or easy to find.
As companies that do hiring and firing, website design agencies are usually staffed by people with years of experience. This makes a whole lot of sense when you consider how competitive the web design industry is!
6. Access to Better Tools and Resources
Web design teams are fully fleshed-out companies with budgets and bottom lines, and any agency worth their salt will have funds set aside specifically for tools and resources. These include web editors, prototyping tools, and software geared towards E-commerce.
While freelancers may buy programs, they most likely won’t have enough income to pay for their own expenses along with all the latest software.
7. Greater Professionalism
Freelancers can be very professional, but it’s safe to say this is a feature found more often in agencies than in freelancers.
That’s because a major part of professionalism is accountability. Think about it: a freelancer is their own boss – if they’re feeling tired or unmotivated, they may take off from working for a few days while telling you they’re still concentrating on your site.
An agency is a team with set deadlines and a manager who make sure everyone’s doing what they’re supposed to. This means you’re not paying more than you owe and always get your website completed within a reasonable timeframe.
Are you looking to launch your first website? Red Spot Design is an affordable website design agency that puts emphasis on all the qualities listed above. We work with you to bring exactly what you have in mind onto the screens of customers in your local area or around the world.
