Who to Hire to Do Web Development?

1. Staff

Pros: easy to collaborate with, having staff on-site all day long.

Cons: value (talent for the cost). Strong engineering talent is very hard to find—you’d have to pay a lot more than you would pay S&F for the same level of talent (if you could even find it). Most likely you’ll find someone junior who will cost about the same as Speed and Function.

2. Contractor(s)

Pros: same as above if on-site. If off-site, contracts can be cheaper because individuals typically spend less time than a team.

Cons: same as the cons if on-site. Off-site, you’ll run into management issues, availability, responsiveness, etc. You don’t get access to specialized talent that comes with the team: you are limited to the knowledge that the individual contractor has.

3. A Team

Pros: you get access to all the skills on the team (QA, DevOps, front-end, back-end, Scrum Master, etc.). The company does development for a living: they will never let you down and they will deliver a product no matter what, as long as it’s funded. They herd the cats for you.

Cons: can be more expensive, since teams come with a management overhead.