In-House or Outsourced Web Development: Which Is Better?

When you're thinking of bringing on an agency to help with your website, plenty of things need to be considered. Has this agency built websites for your industry before? Do you like the work they showcase in their design portfolio?

Plenty of things are considered, but there's one element that people should pay more attention to: the kind of help they'll receive.

Everybody wants to work with a reputable agency, but they don't give thought to in-house vs outsource help. It may not seem like it matters much either way, but there is a big difference between in-house web development and getting help from different sources. Here's why we'll always advocate going down the in-house route.

Timing

With plenty of people working remotely, finding the time to sync up and work on problems can be a little tricky. Sometimes you just want to be able to work through issues in real-time instead of having to go through an email thread.

There's a big difference between working with someone that's 3 hours behind vs someone that's 10 hours ahead. Plenty of places that tend to work with developers that are overseas can find that the time zone difference is more difficult to work around than they had thought. Time matters a lotwhen it comes to productivity, and you don't want to waste what you have.

Make the entire project easier for everyone by working with an agency that uses in-house developers. It'll make coordinating meetings and dealing with issues much easier.

Better Insight

You want to see how project work is coming along outside of your regular check-in meetings. Depending on whether you're relying on in-house development or outsourced developers, that conversation can go one of two ways.

You don't have any issue getting insight from the in-house team. The writer can easily chime into the call with how website content is coming along. The designer can quickly show you how everything is laid out. Developers can give you an exact timeline for when the current sprint will end.

Things don't go quite as smoothly for the outsourced help. First, you have to coordinate a time to talk, and you have to wait a while before you can find the right time. Then you find out that the company you're outsourcing to is also outsourcing some of their help, so you can't quite get an update on content or design.

In-house teams tend to give people better insight into the work they're doing. They're already all working together on the same project, and they can give you an update at any time.

Know Your Team

Outsourcing companies tend to have a core team of people in sales and managing accounts, but the people doing actual production work can change from week to week. Employee turnover may not necessarily sound like a bad thing, but it can make project work more difficult than it needs to be.

Imagine having to get to know 3 different developers over the course of one project. Legacy knowledge gets lost and you spend most of your time explaining things you already told the last person. Then when you think you've gotten everything under control someone else steps in.

In-House Vs Outsource: Quality of Quantity

If you really want to know what the true difference is between in-house vs outsource help, everything comes down to quality. Do you simply want a website to be built, or do you want to work with a team that can help build the best website for your business?

When you work with an in-house team you get the insight and expertise you need to create something great. That's why we only have in-house developers for our web work.

Want to see what we can create together, or just to talk about outsourcing web development? Contact us today so we can start thinking of how to build the best website experience for your company.