Working with an offshore development company vs freelancers
You can take a few routes when looking for tech talent overseas. You may partner with an offshore development company to extend your dev team, collaborate with an outsourcing vendor, or hire freelancers.
But how do you decide between one model and another?
In this article, we compare working with an offshore development company vs freelancers and explain the key differences between both approaches to help you make an informed decision.
We hope you find it helpful!
Offshore development company vs freelancers: quick comparison
An offshore development company builds dedicated tech teams for businesses headquartered, generally, in Western regions like the US, Australia, and Europe.
These organisations are located in talent-rich countries like India and help their partners source, hire, and onboard the specialised engineers they can’t find at home.
Professionals hired via offshoring work exclusively for their partners and are aligned with their long-term mission and vision. On the contrary, freelancers are independent contractors who work on short-term projects with multiple clients at once.
Freelancers vs offshore development company: key differences
Now that you know the basics, let’s break down how freelancers and offshore teams differ when it comes to crucial aspects like building lasting relationships and scaling your team.
Level of reliability and commitment
When expanding your tech team overseas, it’s essential you choose a reliable partner that will be there every step of the way, ensuring long-term support and value.
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DOWNLOAD CASE STUDYWhile freelancers are committed to your project until it’s completed or launched successfully, they may not always be available for continued support. This lack of ongoing reliability can leave your organisation needing additional resources to address future challenges.
A reputable offshore development company, however, will support and maintain your software for as long as you need when you hire dedicated developers. Collaborating with an offshore development partner guarantees your in-house team receives ongoing support and doesn’t face gaps in coverage.
Relationship longevity
When looking at the pros and cons of an offshore development company vs freelancers, you’ll need to examine what possibility there is of forming a long-term relationship.
Freelancers may spend considerable time working with your organisation on project development, but strong bonds don’t generally develop due to the fragile nature of the relationship. After all, freelancers tend to work on a project-by-project basis with clients directly to earn better profits, making long-term objectives a more difficult proposition.
See, a freelancer developer may leave your company if a bigger client offers them a better deal. And that’s a risk you can’t afford to take.
An offshore development company has processes in place to quickly find replacements if an employee departs. At The Scalers, we prioritise continuity for our partners’ teams, maintaining a 15% attrition rate compared to 34% at other Indian offshore companies
Unlike freelancers, some of the best offshore development companies seek to build solid relationships with the organisations they work with over the long term. That’s one of the reasons why they offer extra services to their partners, including handling HR, administrative, legal, and other tasks on their behalf.
Specific expertise and quality of work
Freelancers might claim to have niche expertise, but their level of skill and dedication can vary greatly. As independent contractors, they market themselves without any built-in quality assurance that guarantees their knowledge or consistent motivation.
Can’t find the skills you need at home? Stop searching and start scaling
LEARN MOREOften, the quality of their work depends on their current interest in your project.
Let’s say you hire a freelance Senior Software Developer with cloud computing skills. If they are also working on similar projects for other organisations at the same time, their performance at your company can be affected negatively by having to split their time.
Conversely, offshore partners can build software development teams with elite niche engineers focused just on your organisation. Reliable partners source these professionals from extensive talent pools and employ rigorous recruitment systems to ensure the high quality of the engineers they hire for your team.
Data security and privacy
Protecting and securing data is more straightforward when working with an offshore development company than freelancers.
Unfortunately, hiring freelancers poses a threat to confidentiality. As these professionals operate on a small scale — without robust processes or security frameworks — they lack the necessary infrastructure to protect data privacy.
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DOWNLOAD CASE STUDYAn offshore development partner adheres to NDAs, legally protecting your IP ownership. To ensure excellent security, they use advanced security and conduct regular security checks.
Plus, they’ll typically mirror your protocols at home in your offshore development centre.
Some partners have official international security certifications that prove their commitment to protecting organisations’ data, like the ISO 27001 certification.
Quality assurance and processes oversight
It’s quite challenging to verify whether freelancers adhere to the best coding standards since they work independently. As they tend to prioritise the end product over the development process, the quality of their deliverables may not always be their top concern.
The consequences? Buggy releases and the accumulation of technical debt for your organisation.
An offshore development company provides consulting services whenever the project demands excellent care from its partners. They offer high-quality services from project requirements to business process analysis, R&D, technical support, quality assurance, and coding.
A significant advantage of partnering with an offshore development company compared to hiring freelancers is project oversight. While you maintain control over the product and its direction, the offshore company’s senior experts ensure everything runs smoothly by tracking hours worked, monitoring quality, and gathering stakeholder feedback.
Scaling opportunities
Hiring freelancers (typically) means bringing on one person at a time to complete a project. If your project requires multiple experts, coordinating several freelancers across different stages of development can become complex and costly, leading to unnecessary delays.
You’ll find yourself repeatedly searching for new talent to ensure you have the right expertise for ongoing iterations and potential issues.
In contrast, partnering with an offshore development company allows you to extend your team whenever needed. They provide access to a large pool of highly skilled software developers in thriving tech hubs — like the startup-filled city of Bangalore — ensuring you have the proper engineers at every stage of your product development.
Which is right for you?
Freelancers are excellent professionals for temporary tasks, so you can hire them to complete projects that last 2-3 months.
However, if you want a dedicated team to support your long-term growth, you should consider partnering with an offshore development company.
Looking to extend your tech team? At The Scalers, we’ve built over 80 engineering teams for our partners in the past 10+ years with our unique (and proven) offshore model.
If you’re interested in knowing how we can help you find world-class tech talent fill out this form. One of our senior executives will get back to you shortly!
