Agency versus freelancer. What’s better?

You have a project that’s ‘‘hot’’ and you are looking for reliable partner to help you finish it? Naturally you would come to two options for your problem: agency or freelancer.

But which of them will complete your task better than the rest? In this blog post we will go through some of the ideas on whether freelancer or agency services are better.

Before delving into details we want to underline that in this text we will speak about long term partnership. As logically you wouldn’t go to agency if you need a simple PNG picture or an icon. This can be easily solved on websites like Upwork, Freelancer or Fiverr 

We will focus on projects that take a month or a longer period, have more details and require time and expertise.

Freelancer

With internet and globalization now everyone has a chance to sell their services to anyone who’s eager to pay. Basically a freelancer is an independent person who has the experience  from working for someone else in the past and now is offering their services independently. Of course it can be a person who simply gained knowledge in a specific area and now offering their services even if they are bound by working contract with employer.

Agency

It’s a creative company, like us Casino Design Professional, who offer various services to the marked. In our case, we offer online casino game design and animation services. Their, goal is same as freelancers, to earn money by delivering design services. The difference from freelancer services is that agency, consists of a group of people, while freelancer is a sole proprietor of his business. This group of people can provide a variety of services, each of them related to specific tasks. In our case, we have a team of professionals, who specialize in casino game design, background, levels, characters, icons etc. and animators who create stop motion images for online casino games.

So far so good. So basically a freelancer is a specialist of some narrow field and an agency is a business that has a hierarchical system and is made of group of people.

Why we think, that agency services are better that freelancer?

Here are the reasons:

  • Narrow field of expertise. Of course they might have gained insights from previous projects or collaborations with other specialists, but in general they can’t tell you more than they know in their field.
  • The big picture. As they are specialists of one narrow field, it’s hard for them to see and give advice on the big picture. This will be your task to understand, how their work is related to next task or a task done before. It is you who is going to connect the dots and it is you who has to understand how one task influences another.
  • Time and economy. It’s hard to find a good professional who is reliable and trustworthy. And if you find one keep in mind that their time might cost more than you have planned in your budget. So not only you risk over drafting your project budget, but also risk wasting time with less professional candidates.
  • Project management. Yes, it will be your responsibility to be on top of the project and make sure that all deadlines are met, all agreements are fulfilled, all mistakes are corrected. Not only that, but you have to have expertise on how to manage projects and people.
  • You are not their only client. Keep in mind, that these people get paid per project, so the faster and more projects they do, the more money they have. The better they can take care of their families, themselves. Imagine, that your project is 80% finished, the freelancer want to received their payment, but you will pay them only when 100% is complete. Time is running, they do last 20% in a rush, which causes errors not only in work, but in communication as well. They need the money, you want your project to be done perfectly. And you get a deadly combo: the more pressure, the more errors. And it might last to infinity.
  • Clear communication. As a freelancer is in any way not related to a team member, you have to be very specific on what outcome you want to achieve. As even the slightest details will stop you online casino game from developing further. And this happens often due inexperience of customer and the need of a freelancer to finish project as fast as possible.
  • Not clearly defined deadlines. Same as with communication, you have to be specific on deadlines. As mentioned above, the more jobs freelancer is doing at the same time, the bigger the possibility that they will forget or it will take more time for them to finish your project.
  • Pricing. We spoke about pricing earlier, here we want to bring your attention to payment flexibility. Agencies tend to be more flexible on payment options, than freelancers. You can agree to pay for agency services in partial payments, while you pay a freelancer all at once.

Of course, there are many points were a freelancer can be a better option than an agency. Pricing for instance. Yes, they can do it cheaper than agency. But we hope that this blog post will convince you to stop an evaluate whether freelancer is best option for your case.

Got an online casino game and you want to get best design and animations? Leave your contacts below and we will help you make it outstanding.