Freelancer or Agency: The Honest Answer (From a Freelancer)

The assumption that costs businesses money

The default assumption: agency means professional, freelancer means risky. Agencies have offices, processes, and teams. A freelancer is one person with a portfolio. When you're spending real money, "safe" wins — and the agency looks safer.

That logic isn't crazy. It comes from other categories: you hire a law firm for complex litigation, not a solo lawyer. You use an accounting firm for a major audit. The pattern seems to apply to web development too.

What the pattern misses: web development is a craft. Unlike legal or accounting work, a website is built by one person at a keyboard. The quality depends almost entirely on that person's skill — not on what company they work for.

What agencies actually sell

An agency sells a structure: project manager, account manager, designer, developer — all coordinated under one roof. For the right project, that coordination is genuinely valuable.

The catch: you pay for all of it, even when you only need one part. If all you need is a developer to fix your WooCommerce store's speed, you're still paying for the project manager and the account manager — even though neither of them will touch your code. That overhead is a cost, not a feature.

The part agencies don't advertise: the senior developer who impressed you in the pitch isn't the one who works on your project. Mid-size projects go to junior developers. The senior reviews the deliverables — they don't write your code. This is just how agencies stay profitable. But it matters if you thought you were buying the senior.

What freelancers deliver — and where they genuinely fall short

When you hire a freelancer, you talk directly to the person writing your code. A decision that takes two days at an agency — routed through a PM, queued in a sprint, waiting for sign-off — takes 20 minutes in a direct message.

The person who built your site is the person who fixes it. No handover document, no "the developer who did this has left" problem. Six months later, the full context is still in one person's head.

The real limitations: a freelancer is one person. If they get sick or overloaded, your project slows down — an agency can absorb that. There's also a breadth ceiling: a WordPress specialist isn't the right choice when you need a mobile app, server infrastructure, and a full rebrand all delivered at the same time.

The decision framework

Choose an agency when: budget over £60K; the project needs multiple disciplines at the same time; you need formal SLAs and contractual guarantees; the engagement spans 12+ months.

Choose a specialist freelancer when: you need a specific skill set — WordPress, WooCommerce, LMS, performance optimisation; budget under £40K; you want to speak directly with the developer; you've been through the agency experience and know the account-manager layer adds nothing for your type of project.

The most common mismatch: a £15K WordPress project going to an agency with a £30K minimum. Result: half the project, same money.

The one question to ask before signing anything

"Who specifically will write the code on my project — and can I speak with them before we start?"

A good agency will introduce you to the developer. They won't dodge the question. If the answer is "our team will handle it" with no names, you don't know what you're buying.

A freelancer who can't give you a straight answer about their current capacity and active projects is overcommitted.

The answer tells you more than any proposal or portfolio. The work is done by individual people. Their skill is the only variable that matters.