Freelancers vs Hiring vs SDaaS

Imagine, as a CTO, you need to finish a project in two weeks and there are critical issues that need your attention but a number of secondary tasks are also pending. The client asks for minor UI fixes and your team is bogged down solving critical issues. As a CTO, you will have to focus your attention on the whole project ensuring timely delivery of the finished product.

When the workload exceeds your current manpower, hiring more workforce is a viable solution. You can do this in the form of formally hiring developer/QA/designers depending on your needs or you can hire a freelancer on project-based work. Your final option will be hiring services of SDaaS (Software Development as a Service).

Let’s discuss the pros and cons of each approach and try to evaluate the best way to deal with problems like an overflow of work.

Freelancer:

As a CTO, one of your options for dealing with an overflow of work is to hire a freelancer. A freelancer is someone who completes assigned tasks based on an hourly or project-based rate. The rate will differ as the expertise differs from person to person. Is freelancer worth it? Let’s discuss some pros and cons of hiring a freelancer for a project to help you answer this question

Pros

• Freelancers are usually cheaper as compared to an in-house developer.
• A number of freelancing platforms make it easier for you to find someone willing to work within a specific budget or at an hourly based rate.
• Once the project completes and you don’t need the extra workforce, you can let the freelancer go as there are no employment agreements involved in freelancing gigs.

Cons

• As you can often only interact with the freelancer remotely, finding capable and honest labor is sometimes harder than it looks.
• Sometimes you will come across sub-sub-contractors or people who can’t write a single line of code. Their intent is to get hired for the project by you and then hire someone else to do it. This adds another level of complexity and results in poor communication and even poor finished product.
• A freelancer might be less engaged as compared to an in-house developer or may have to take extra time to get up to speed on a project’s details and goals.
• Another problem with hiring freelancers is that most software is not set-and-forget type and need continuous support and maintenance. Freelancers are not liable to work on maintenance once a project completes, though this can be negotiated as an ongoing project.
  

Hiring Full-time Employees:

Hiring a developer to ease the pressure of work is another option for you as a CEO/CTO. You can always interview and hire new talent to deal with the overflow of work, to ensure that you finish your product on time. Let’s discuss the pros and cons of hiring developer to work for you when your current workforce is ill-equipped to complete the pending milestones

Pros:

• As the in-house developer is recruited after a series of interviews and tests, you will have a reliable addition to your team.
• The developer will surely know the work they were hired for, you will not have to worry about them not being able to do assigned work.
• They are more likely to meet deadlines, as they work in an office environment along with a team.

Cons:

• They usually cost way more as compared to a freelancer.
• Onboarding can take some time (up to 6 months in some cases) which increases overhead and cost instead of decreasing it.
• Sometimes hiring a new hand for an ongoing project is out of budget.

SDaaS:

Your final option to deal with these issues is to get the services of a SDaaS(Software Development as a Service) firm. A number of SDaaS firms offer their services ranging from development, testing, deployment to delivering you with a working prototype. The services an SDaaS firm offers you depend upon your needs. For example, your team is busy with bug fixing and testing and the client requested some changes in the UI. You can acquire the services of an SDaaS to tweak or completely change the UI according to your instructions. Let us go through some of the possible reasons for hiring the services of an SDaaS firm:

• They can start working on the assigned project within two days.
• They offer results-based pricing.
• As they have teams of professionals at their disposal, they don’t compromise on quality.
• They are cost and time-efficient compared to hiring an in-house developing team.
• Their services are scalable; they will assign the necessary workforce required for the timely completion of your project.
  

By going through the article, hope that you are better equipped to answers question like “is freelancer worth it”? or whether to hire a new developer or acquire the services of SDaaS firm.

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