Is it better to Develop a Website In-House or Outsource to a Web Development company ?

Do you want to build a website? If so, you have two options. You can go for in-house development or outsource the project. Both the methods have their benefits and cons and it is very important for you to know what would be most suitable for you to ensure quality-driven custom website app development. In this blog, we are offering a detailed review of both methods. You can choose any method that would support your business. So, let us begin:

In-house website development 

In-house web development refers to hiring a team of developers, QA specialists, designers, and other IT professionals required for a project. You can either hire an entire team or individual professionals as per the task requirement. Under in-house development, you are providing employment to the professionals officially. As per the labor laws in your country, you are required to provide them employment benefits and accommodate them at your office or work remotely whatever is preferable to you. 

The in-house team would be on a full-time role. Even if you are hiring someone in another country, as an offshore resource and officially employ them it is still considered in-house development. It can also be referred to as offshoring. Offshoring is a very common practice in in-house development. It all depends on where your employees are more comfortable working and how productive they are as per their preferred working conditions. 

Remote working is becoming a new normal. There are many tools and software available to track the work progress, measure employee productivity, monitor internal coordination, and promote communication.  

The success of any enterprise does not depend on the location from which the employees are working. The goal is to develop a stress-free environment for the free flow of creativity and innovation that would prove beneficial for your business. So, in-house or remote if you officially hire people, it is an in-house development. 

Why hire an in-house website development team? 

Now that you have a basic understanding of in-house development, let us check out the benefits of hiring in-house resources vs benefits of outsourcing web development -

1. Work hours: 

By employing internal resources you get more work hours. Which means more productivity and faster development. Standard work hours would ensure you that the professional is working 8 hours a day and five days a week. 

2. Easier working, efficient operations:

One of the benefits of hiring an internal team is communication. Communication gap is a prevailing challenge in outsourcing and most of the time people find it difficult to manage the resources that they cannot see or stay in constant touch with. A team that stays by your side always and is specifically working on your project is rather easier to talk to. Also, effective communication helps in improved productivity, knowing weaknesses and fears, and encouraging employees.  

3. Clear definition of the goal: 

If you have hired an entire team to work on your project from top to bottom, your team has an in-depth understanding of the product which helps them make better decisions. It allows them to coordinate with other resources to work on certain features. Also, they make quick decisions such as redoing a particular feature or handling any bugs or other design-related issues. Also, mistakes happen a lot less as they can instantly approach other professionals working on the project to understand the code architecture and implement features without causing any problems in the internal working.

4. Develops corporate culture: 

In-house resources are motivated. If you have an internal team you would find them attached to the company’s vision, mission, goals, and values. Also, if you have a good work culture you would be able to encourage your employees to give their best at the common goal shared by the employees. 

High productivity and performance of your employees would start churning good results. You can also use this as a mark or a bar to analyze the performance of the employees or when it comes to hiring new resources. 

What are the cons of hiring an in-house team? 

By far you might feel, that in-house development is what you have been looking for and you cannot wait longer but hire the professional team of your choice. But not so soon. There are some disadvantages as well of hiring an in-house team, which might sway you in the direction of outsourcing. Let us see what are they: 

1. Expensiveness: 

Having an internal team would burn a hole in your pocket. It is a lot more expensive than outsourcing development. Not only do you have to cover employee salaries but think about the other organizational expenses such as employee benefits, recruiting process expenses, legal employment, maintaining an office at your location, and more. 

2. Long preparation time: 

If you have decided on hiring an entire team. Imagine the time it would take for you to consider all the skillsets you require, experience bracket, posting requirements, interviewing candidates, and more. It is a very lengthy process especially if you are going to hire them only for one project that is not going to extend for long. 

3. Management skills: 

If you would employ an internal team, you would have to serve as their leader. Meaning most of your time would be spent coordinating with the internal team and you would not be able to focus on the core requirements of the business. If you have little to no experience in managing a product development team and have no understanding of the product development process, you are more likely to do it wrong. And it is always better to outsource the project to experts who have all the required technical skill sets, and the project managers that are experienced. 

An in-house development team is a good opinion for products such as software development or a cloud application where there would be regular developments and improvements. But choosing an in-house development team for a website would delay the process and also would be too expensive. It is a good choice for businesses that are looking for a more intimate development experience and would like more control over the team. But you will still have to learn project management. 

With in-house development, you can get more charge of the product and you can openly discuss how you want to take the project forward. But employing an entire team is a big responsibility, so consider all the aspects we have mentioned above before making any decision. 

Outsourcing website development 

Outsource web development work refers to giving the development work to an external vendor. You can outsource a part of the project, or you can outsource the project completely depending on the specific tasks. A project is partially outsourced when you don’t have an in-house resource to work on a particular task. But outsourcing a complete project means you don’t have any in-house employees that can do end-to-end custom website app development. 

You can hire an experienced custom web development company. You can check out their reviews online and also learn about their technical expertise. Once you have discussed everything about your project you can proceed to sign the legal documents and begin the work on the website. Outsourcing not only means delegating the task to a company, but you can also hire a freelancer to do the job. Freelancer or a web development company both are .fairly easy processes that do not take much time when compared to in-house development. 

Benefits of outsourcing website development 

Outsourcing is delegating your project to an expert company without having to get into the grains for the development process. It is hassle-free and simple, and you can easily hire a talented company or resource for end-to-end development or task-based development as per the requirement. 

1. Cost-efficiency: 

The biggest benefit of outsourcing web development services is that it costs you much less as compared to the in-house development team. There are many countries where you can easily find talented developers at low hourly rates. The hourly charges of the resources depend on the country, charge, quality of work, experience, etc. 

You can save a lot of money on the maintenance of the office, recruitments, sick leaves, employee benefits, etc. All these organization expenses can be saved as you have not legally hired anyone.  

2. Talent pool: 

Web development outsourcing allows you to choose from the best. You are not constrained by geographical boundaries and you can choose from a worldwide list. Looking for specialists near you means choosing from a very small pool of developers and designers. But with outsourcing your search has no bounds. You can look for freelance web development services or a custom web app development company in a different city, or a different country. There is no shortage of talent. Also, outsourcing would allow you to choose people that are talented, qualified, and also fit your budget. 

3. Team Scalability:

Outsourcing gives you more flexibility in terms of resizing the team. Once your website is built most of the resources would not be required and thus you would have to let them go. But with outsourcing, you can sign a maintenance contract where the company still serves you and maintains the site. 

Also, during development, you can scale the team anytime. You can engage more developers to finish the development work faster and deliver the product on time. Since it is an affordable solution you would find it a very nominal expense in comparison to what you would be paying for in-house development. 

4. Easy Management: 

Managing outsourced development is fairly easy. You can communicate your ideas easily to the development professionals through the appointed point of contact. An experienced team would be highly professional and would deliver the product on time and provide your reports on the progress at all intervals. You don’t have to micromanage or guide them throughout the process. Their experience and expertise make it easy for you to communicate your ideas better and they make sure they are implemented. Hence, satisfaction. 

What are the cons of outsourcing website development? 

Like every coin has two faces, outsourcing too has its good and a bad side. However, it all comes down to your project and how comfortable you are with any of the two methods. You can weigh the pros and cons of the two methods precisely before coming to any decision. Here are some cons of outsourcing web development:

1. Time difference management: 

If you are going for offshore development and outsourcing the work to a company that sits in another corner of the world consider the time difference. The time difference is a very important factor as communication would be affected majorly by this. If the company is in a different time zone, ask them about the work hours, and how they are going to manage your queries if they are not available as per your timing. 

However, since it is not a new challenge many web application development companies have a well-implemented communication channel. You can easily contact the development team through calls, emails, or chat. And most of them have 24*7 customer support. 

2. Safeguarding the intellectual property: 

When you are working on a unique idea you need all support from the development team to not disclose the project details to anyone. It is absolutely necessary to protect your idea and this might put you on the backfoot while thinking about outsourcing. 

However, things are not that bad. You can request the company to sign an NDA with you before you begin discussing the project with them. This way you can ensure the data and ideas are protected and you can freely disclose the details of your project. 

3. Quality issues: 

While you are looking for companies you might come across some that have been rated and reviewed badly based on their services. This might make you feel that outsourcing is not the right choice. But there are mainly two reasons for these complaints. First, you are hell-bent on finding a cheap resource for your project despite knowing your project requires high-end skills. If so, you would end up with people that lack the experience of working on leading technologies and have just started their careers. They are bound to make mistakes and take their own time to understand the problem and derive a solution. While hiring a company that has proven experience in building solutions for your domain and having worked on a similar project is what you should be looking for. Try to understand why good companies are charging you in a certain bracket. Communicate your cost concerns they would provide you with better guidance. Even if you go with a bad development team, you might end up losing the money. And think about the time lost. It is better to go with a reliable solution provided in one go.

Secondly, outsourcing your project to multiple freelance resources can sabotage the development work. Although the freelance team would have the experience. Coordinating with other people becomes a difficulty especially if people are from different time zones and speak a different language. Rather than finding individual resources try and find a company that has the knowledge, experience, and all the resources required by you.   

If done by a textbook, outsourcing web development your project to an experienced offshore web development company can help you cover everything and that too in a hassle-free manner. You don’t have to handhold the team throughout the project, they have experience knowledge and expertise in the tech domain, and they can deliver well. But do take regular updates from your project manager. Guide the team whenever required, provide feedback faster and make sure the development team is working on the changes that you require. Also, the company that you choose should be very transparent. A lot of offshore development companies have hidden charges which can increase the development budget. Make sure that you read the contract carefully before signing and clarify everything in advance. Also, invest in the necessary tools for tracking the progress and monitoring the work. 

Also read - Top 3 Effective Website Design Tips to Create an Impressive User Experience

The verdict

Clearly, outsourcing your project puts you at a major advantage. There are many good web development service providers available worldwide. And you can engage with a company that has a good reputation in the market for building similar solutions as you want. More and more companies are opting for outsourcing web development vs in-house hiring to cut the cost, and access the worldwide talent pool. Also, people are finding outsourcing more manageable as compared to in-house development. With the advent of advanced tracking tools and monitoring tools, you can make sure the resources are working diligently on the project and things are on track.