TL;DR — Freelancer for small tactical work; agency for anything strategic or multi-disciplinary.
Head to head
Agency
Wins on:
- Redundancy (illness, attrition)
- Multi-discipline team
- Formal process and QA
- Long-term partner
Freelancer
Wins on:
- Lower cost for small projects
- Fast decision-making
- Personal accountability
- Simple contracts
The verdict
Freelancers are the right answer under $3,000 of work or for a single specialised task. Agencies win on anything that needs design + engineering + QA, or anything that outlives a single persons availability.
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