The question is not “who is better” but “what is the task”
The holy war of “freelancers cut corners / studios overcharge / an in-house dev slacks off” is endless because the arguers are solving different tasks. The right framing is: what is the scope of work, how critical is the site to the business, and what will happen in a year. Let’s go through the options honestly — yes, we are a studio, but we respect freelancers and in-house folks too: each has their niche.
A freelancer
The economics: from ₽1,000–3,000/hour or a fixed price per project. A landing page — ₽30–80k, edits — hourly. Cheapest of all for small tasks.
Strengths: price, flexibility, direct communication without intermediary managers.
Risks:
- The bus factor: one person = a single point of failure. They got sick, took a job, disappeared — the project stalls. A classic: “a freelancer made the site, he disappeared, there is no access” — people come to us with this regularly.
- One person cannot be strong at once in design, markup, backend and SEO — something will be mediocre.
- No replacement and no guarantees beyond their word.
When to choose: small tasks with a clear spec, a limited budget, non-critical deadlines. A must: the access is yours, the code is in your Git, payment in stages.
An in-house developer
The economics: a mid-level salary of ₽150–300k/mo + taxes ~30% + a workplace + vacations and sick leave. The real cost is ₽200–400k/mo, and you have to pay it regardless of the workload.
Strengths: full immersion in the business, instant reaction, expertise accumulated in-house.
Risks: the same bus factor (while it is one person), expensive with an incomplete workload, and it is boring alone — strong developers leave “solo at a small company” for teams.
When to choose: the site/product is the core of the business, there is consistently more than a full-time load of tasks, you plan to build your own team.
A web studio
The economics: projects from ₽150–300k, support — from ₽20–50k/mo for a package of hours. 30–70% more than a freelancer.
Strengths:
- A team: a designer, developers, SEO — each in their own area.
- Processes: a contract, deadlines, stages, warranty obligations.
- Replaceability: one gets sick — another does it, the project does not stall.
- Experience: a studio has done dozens of similar projects and knows the pitfalls in advance.
Risks: more expensive; in bad studios — a conveyor belt and a manager who just passes things along. How to choose a studio — we have a separate article with 10 criteria.
When to choose: a project more complex than a landing page, deadlines and predictability matter, you need the full package (design + development + SEO + support), and you have no desire to manage contractors yourself.
Real-life scenarios
- “Need a landing page for ads in 2 weeks” → a freelancer or a studio with a streamlined service.
- “An online store with 1C and deliveries” → a studio: too many areas of responsibility for one person.
- “The site works, needs edits a couple of times a month” → studio support on an hour package or a proven freelancer.
- “A SaaS product, development every day” → an in-house team, with a studio for the start (MVP) and reinforcement.
Takeaway
A freelancer is about saving on small tasks, in-house is about the product as the core of the business, a studio is about a predictable turnkey result. The main thing with any choice: the access and code belong to you, payment in stages, a contract that fixes the scope. If you need a predictable contractor — we’re here.
