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The 4 Advantages of Hiring Freelance Software Developers

In the world of globalization the majority of companies are eager to transform their businesses into digital ones. To achieve this they require the assistance from a competent development team. Making the wrong choice and setting unattainable goals could cause lower levels of competitiveness, as well as unexpected economic or social cost (e.g. the loss of loyalty to customers or tests).

What are the pros and cons when it comes to hire freelance software developers?

Today, business owners can choose from a variety of picking the most suitable people to join their teams for development employing full-time employees or hiring outsourcing companies as well as having software developed by freelance individuals.

The idea of hiring employees internally sounds more affordable, but over the long term it can cost you a significant amount of money for training employees to create the product you want to sell. The second option is more popular due to the wide variety of options (e.g. digital cloud computing or business solutions) and the various technologies (e.g. Python, Java, or PHP) are offered. Costs are largely based on how outsourcing companies become involved in a project as well as on the scale of the project. Therefore, bringing on additional staff to complete certain tasks usually costs less than hiring agencies for the complete project.

Software development on a freelance basis is the only option available to develop software products. It is the primary topic of this post. Learning the basics will help you understand the way software freelancers operate and the advantages or drawbacks you could reap when you hire them freelancers.

A brief overview of Freelance Software Development

Utilizing an independent developer or team to create software is now a popular. There are plenty of sites for software development that are freelance which allow you to find developers of various levels with a variety of technical abilities.

Based on Evans Data Corporation, the 2022 year saw a total of 36.4 million software developers around the world. There isn’t any statistics on the number of them worked on freelance software development, but it’s certainly not an insignificant amount. As with full-time workers and outsourcing companies freelancers are typically responsible for developing the software, testing it the software, updating it, and developing the software.

The 4 Benefits of hiring Freelance Software Developers

1. Sometimes, you can save money

The price of full-time software developers can be more expensive than their freelance counterparts. To be clearer, we must do some calculations and compare basing them on their salary within the USA.

A full-time worker with a minimum of 5 years work experience will earn USD$112,921 for the median annual salary. The freelancer’s annual wage is calculated by multiplying their hourly rate by the average amount of working hours (1790 hours as defined through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Therefore the Australian software freelancer could be able to charge you as much as USD$132,000 while the Ukrainian has a minimum amount of $76,970.

Another factor to take into account is that you don’t hire full-time freelancers. Therefore, the cost of building applications for freelancers can be less. Additionally, business owners will have to deal with other expenses like company-sponsored benefits (e.g. insurance, paid leave or tax on employment training) or overhead costs when they employ full-time developers. Thus, hiring freelancers is cheaper.

2. Spend more time with business

Like outsourcing software companies, freelancers could aid clients to focus on the core business tasks. Particularly, when the development of software with diverse programming skills isn’t their forte, hiring out will prevent any unexpected costs that may arise in the process of development.

3. Get a chance to connect with an array of talents

Software freelancers are rounded to be a part of 5 platforms (e.g. Guru, Upwork, LinkedIn, Indeed’s Resume Board, and Peopleperhour) in the USA in the United States alone, not to mention any other software development websites. This means that working with these freelancers is an excellent way for you to connect with professional tech experts and also to collaborate on various projects.

4. Freelance software development is able to provide products more quickly

They operate on the basis of a flexible timetable. They are thus more focused to produce the final product within a shorter period of time.

The 4 disadvantages from Freelance Software Development

1. Unreliability

Being a freelancer is a double-edged sword. In addition to the benefits that are provided freelancers may also fudge in their spare time and fail to complete their tasks within the timeframe they promised. The reasons behind this issue may differ. Many people have multiple projects to complete at once or find the current project difficult and boring. In the end, they are unable to finish their assigned tasks and then drop projects half way through.

Thus, businesses themselves need to sign non-disclosure agreements with specific terms and conditions to ensure that everything is running smoothly; or A Plan B is required for the case that freelancers are unable to complete tasks on time.

2. Quality

Employing freelancers with experience will not guarantee the efficiency of software development. If you need them to take charge of more work than they can manage, or both parties lack communication, they’ll provide low-quality services.

3. Planning

An outsourcing business usually operates in a specific schedule and time frame. Freelancers too can do the same but some aren’t, and they don’t manage their work processes effectively. They are then unable to meet no deadlines.

If you work with independent developer, you must treat them as full-time employees. This implies that you require them to develop and adhere to a thorough plan of action, in addition to the inclusion of specific clauses into the non-disclosure agreements if there are any.

4. Confidentiality

This could be the most significant issue for all businesses. The survival of business depends heavily on the confidentiality of their data and privacy, and nobody wants their personal information or personal data to be hacked. This is the reason why hiring freelancers can come with greater risks.

To prevent any unanticipated issues concerning secrecy, you’d better look over reviews of freelancers through an online platform before making any employment decision.