Magento Freelancer vs. Magento Agency. Choose Carefully!

Magento is quite a complex platform to handle and it’s not easy to find someone who is an expert in Magento eCommerce development. Even if you manage to find a professional, you can’t be sure that you’ve found the right developer for your goals.

Only a certified developer is a right choice for handling the technical task. You can’t expect an operator of eCommerce store to know Magento development. Here we’re going to give some help so that you can make a better choice when searching a Magento developer.

Also, we’re going to review whether it’s worth hiring a Magento freelancer or an eCommerce development team instead, and also, which suits better for which jobs exactly.

Magento development agency or freelancer – the differences.

Many experts have already touched upon this subject in their articles on virtual world, but it’s good to take an in-depth look for a better decision. Let’s know when it’s good to assigning a bigger team with the eCommerce or Magento module development job and when it can be a smart choice to hire a Magento freelancer.

About Freelance Magento Developers

Professionals that are great at one or a couple of areas become freelancers and start accepting individual projects. It’s a notion that hiring a freelancer is not a good choice, but these guys are real experts with amazing capabilities of getting the jobs done alone in a field of expertise. Sometimes they can get the job done that even a team can’t do at times. Well, it might not be true at all times, but dealing with freelancers is really worthwhile only if they are like that.

In case you need some special development that is not of large scale or in case some special problems arise, turning to a freelancer can be a wise choice.

Lower price is another benefit of hiring a freelancer. Working with a team is more expensive, especially when the project is not quite important that thousands of dollars can be spent on it. In case of a freelancer, expenses for eCommerce development are minimal in comparison, thus they can offer affordable pricing than the big development firms.

The biggest disadvantage of hiring a freelance developer may be that they have quite obvious limits:

• They can’t work full time.
• They can’t be experts in all fields.
• You may involve someone else if a new problem arises.

Also, there may be a problem with reliability as these freelancers tend to disappear from time to time. You simply can’t believe on them for a deadline. No matter how flexible they are, communication may still turn out to be more difficult in the end.

About Professional Development Agencies

The team itself is the biggest advantage of the team. Hiring a professional company means that you are hiring a team of experts, which means you don’t need to approach another expert in case some other issues arise. You pay for the access to the knowledge of a lot of people that together can solve practically any kind of problems.

Whether it’s about development, designing, launching or updating, all aspects of the project can be handled in the same place. No need to hire external people, which often results in communication breakdown. Development with a team of Magento eCommerce development experts goes much more smoothly and transparent as well.

What should you pay attention when looking for a professional Magento developer?

Pricing

If someone works for a very low price, then it’s better to be alert in the first place. The rates may vary from country to country. Remember that you’re going to get an eCommerce platform developed, which has to manage products, transactions, deliveries, etc. professionally.

On the other hands, if the price quoted is too expensive, you should as the reason. The high price is often justified, it may happen that you’re talking to a professional team where different experts work together on the projects. Their work may be more reliable and quicker than that of others. They also meet the deadlines.

Knowledge

Magento is one of the most complex systems and a lot of time and energy is necessary for obtaining of proficiency in its development. Most freelancers, whore claiming to be the experts are just scratching the surface and they couldn’t cope up with the latest versions.

Before you start the project, as them things like can you update Magento to next version after they’ve developed a new Magento module, and if yes, what makes that possible? Ask about the details even if you’re not an expert.

Staging Server

A professional Magento development agency prefers to try a development service in its own development environment first. They develop it, integrate it, test its functioning, correct errors and then install on the staging server.

If they want to install a recently developed function on production server immediately, it indicates something is fishy, since we’re talking about a live online shop where thousands of visitors visit every single day.

Project Management

When you hire a professional, you want to be aware of what phase the given project is in precisely at a moment. In case of freelancers, you shouldn’t know about the exact progress report as you are informed via email or because their job has simply gone live without your approval.

Professional agencies, on the other hands, work with tools, which allow clients to check any time what stage the project is at. Also, clients can communicate with the team in a real time.

Conclusion

For simpler development projects, it’s usually worth hiring a freelancer.

If, on the other hands, you need a reliable partner for complex development issues who will help in the long run as well, then a Magento ecommerce development agency is a more fortunate choice.

You might be paying a higher price, because you get the reliability, comfort and diversity in the long run.