Should You Hire PHP development Freelancers or a Remote PHP

One result of the current pandemic is that companies are shifting ever more towards a remote working style. Because of this, there’s been a surge in the number of PHP freelancers and PHP companies looking to work remotely. There are many freelancers who have switched from full-time PHP developer jobs to full-time freelancing - and many companies are looking tap into the online remote market where freelancers are thriving.

There are also full-time external PHP teams out there, working with companies that don’t want to hire in-house PHP developers.

Hiring for PHP development requires many decisions in choosing the best person for the project. For remote work, you are faced with two options for hiring:

• Freelancer Developers
• Remote PHP Teams

Both of them come with their own set of pros and cons. Before discussing that, let’s see what they each entail. If you need further assistance beyond this article for selecting the right option, tell us what you need. We can do the work for you and connect you with up to 5 companies within 72h that match your need- all for free.

PHP Development Freelancers

A PHP development freelancer is a person who works for himself, not for a company. They’re also called self-employed PHP developers and may also take contracts for companies. They’re responsible for organising their own insurance, time tracking, invoicing, as well as taxes. They’re not considered employees by the companies, but rather contractors.

Becoming a freelancer is easy, and there are no set entry requirements to the field, so it can be difficult to gauge the level of experience that a given PHP developer has. College students, for example, could easily set up as freelancers - although there are also a lot of highly experienced development freelancers out there. That does mean, however, that there’s a lot of competition in the marketplace, and it’s likely that you’ll find a high number of freelancers bidding on the same projects.

Remote PHP Teams

Remote PHP teams are a bit different from PHP freelance developers. They work directly under a manager but the members of remote PHP teams aren’t necessarily all in the same place, like with a traditional team, and might be spread out around the globe. The bar is set very high to join these remote PHP teams and the team may also have members with other skill sets, which means they may be able to offer a more streamlined one stop shop experience for developing your project.

To understand whether PHP freelancers or remote teams better fit your project, here are a few considerations:

Professionalism

Professionalism plays a very important role in any project of any size. It defines the seriousness, dedication, and attitude of someone in a PHP project. It’s fair to say that when a person works professionally, you can expect a better outcome from them.

PHP is one of the easiest and most popular web development languages among developers which means there will be a wide variety of people all with varying expertise and experience, trying to make money from their skills in PHP coding. As mentioned already, there aren’t any strict entry requirements for becoming a PHP freelancer, which means that you may encounter some unprofessional developers during your search. There are, of course, freelancers who are professional and committed to their work, but you’ll have to do your due diligence through interviews and the rigorous review of their portfolios to ensure that you find someone who’s both suitably qualified and committed.

Now let’s turn to remote teams. It’s fairly difficult to join a remote team as a developer, as many don’t tend to hire entry-level candidates. This means that there’s a certain level of professionalism already in-built to the team. PHP developers have to pass a proper recruiting process to become part of a remote team which saves you the initial filtering process you normally go through with freelancers.

Cost

This is where the PHP freelance developers win the race. Due to competition for freelance projects, and their usually lower operational costs; the quotes from freelancers normally come in at more competitive prices. What’s more, because freelancers can bid on jobs anywhere, regardless of their location, freelancers living in countries with lower living costs can afford to bid for jobs with lower rates.

PHP remote teams, however, can be much more expensive than freelancers. The remote teams normally incur higher operational costs; like the salary of managers, PHP developers, and team management software. Also, given that the PHP developers in remote teams are usually more experienced, their hourly rate or project costs tend to be accordingly high. However, these higher rates may be a worthwhile initial investment for a quicker and more streamlined development experience that may end up saving money in the long run.

Project Delivery Time

Project delivery time is very closely related to professionalism. Developing a PHP application is a very hectic task and needs a lot of planning to meet structured deadlines.

Additionally, when it comes to remote teams, the task of developing an application is divided between the whole team, rather than one freelancer taking on the whole project. With proper communication between team members, it’s likely that a well-organised team will be able to deliver on time - or even ahead of the deadline - when compared with a freelancer.

Don’t forget - we can help you to find the right remote team for your project, whatever industry you’re working in. If you need help selecting the right company, tell us what you need. We can do the work for you and connect you with up to 5 companies within 72h that match your need- all for free.

Communication and Transparency

There is no inherent advantage for this factor with either freelancers or remote teams. Communication and Transparency will rely on their operational business ethics and their individual workflow. The progress of a PHP project should be shared with the client almost every day, or with every feature release. Additionally, the client should have the full rights to know which third-party APIs, PHP libraries, or any PHP framework is being used.

PHP freelancers tend to be more transparent with their work and provide a better communication experience. You can contact them whenever you want to as their schedule is usually fairly flexible and they're the only point of contact, so they have a slight edge here over remote teams.

On the other hand, you usually only have one point of contact in remote PHP teams who may be a manager rather than a developer, so they might not be familiar with all the different technical aspects of the project. Therefore, they might be unable to provide 100% transparency with the project's progress.

Flexibility

Flexibility completely depends on your relationship with the PHP development freelancer or remote teams. A PHP project requires multiple revisions like changes in colour scheme, changes or updates to functionalities, complete database changes, integration of third-party API integrations, the introduction of a better/new library, to name but a few examples.

In general, PHP freelance developers tend to be more flexible in terms of revisions and can offer more affordable or even free revisions. Remote teams, on the other hand, tend to work with more rigid workflows and any new changes can introduce a lot of new costs to the project.

Pros of PHP Development Freelancers over Remote Teams

• More flexible
• Lower cost
• One point of contact with full technical knowledge of the project

Pros of Remote Teams over PHP Development Freelancers

• Higher professional standards
• Larger available skill set for back to front end development
• Higher chances of on-time delivery

Arriving at a Decision

In summary, it completely depends on your requirements and budget as to whether you choose to work with PHP freelance developers or a remote team. They both have their pros and cons, so take into consideration the needs of your project when hiring and use this article to help you decide whether a freelance developer or a remote PHP team can deliver better results for you.