Freelance developer or an agency? (what to choose)

Side by side

	Freelance developer	Agency
Price	Lower: no office, sales team or account managers	Higher: the team and overhead are in the price
Communication	Directly with the person who writes the code	Through a project or account manager
Team	One person — designers or testers added when needed	Designers, developers, testers and managers
Best size of project	Bots, websites, MVPs, focused web apps	Large products with many parallel workstreams
Risk	Depends on one person — check portfolio and get the code regularly	Spread across a team, but a higher bill

Choose a freelancer ifthe project is focused, you want direct contact and a lower price, and you receive the code as you go.

Choose an agency ifthe product needs several specialists working in parallel and a manager to coordinate them.

How do I reduce the risk with a freelancer?

Agree on a written scope and price, pay in stages, and get access to the code and servers from the start.