Should You Hire Ruby Developer Freelancers, or an Outsourced Ruby Development teams?

The power of Ruby development is in unlocking robust, reliable, and efficient web services at scale. Used in conjunction with Ruby on Rails, it’s one of the most stable and mature web development platforms available to engineers. In short, Ruby can do a lot to enhance and promote the services that make up your business. The biggest choice you have to make is how to build your development teams to take advantage of it.

Choosing between hiring a freelance Ruby developer or bringing in an outsourced Ruby team is about maximising efficiency, output, and cost-effective app production for your firm.

It’s perhaps disappointing then that, like most things in tech, there’s no easy answer in choosing between the two. Neither solution can provide a one size fits all approach to Ruby application development. Neither can solve every problem or achieve every task. Finding the right approach means weighing up the requirements, practices and future direction of your business.

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Questions to Answer before Hiring a Ruby Developer

The first and most obvious question to ask is what development tasks you’re hiring for. While this may seem too obvious at first, many developers will have first-hand experience on projects that have reached an advanced stage using the wrong technology solution. It's a surprisingly easy trap to fall into. To make sure that Ruby is the right technology solution for your project, make sure to give our article on the pros and cons of Ruby development a look.

Know what you plan to develop, how long you expect it to take, and what you want to accomplish before embarking on either development option.

Also consider how many internal resources you have to allocate for the duration of the project. Think about how much time you can allocate today to evaluate the skills and experience of multiple freelancers and how much time you’ll have in the future for ongoing project management and updates.

Concerns over time and resource management should be balanced against the financial implications of both options. Outsourced developers often incur a higher up-front cost, but lower the requirements for internal management and resources.

These questions over budget and allocation will very often be the deciding factor between either approach.

Ruby Freelance Developer

A freelance Ruby developer can often offer maximum expertise for the lowest possible cost. Typically, freelance Ruby developers specialise in producing web applications and web components for businesses looking to improve their online presence quickly.

An effective Ruby Freelance developer should come equipped with a rich portfolio of previous work and a variety of options and opinions to move your project forward.

Advantages of a Ruby Freelance Developer

• Instant Expertise. Freelance developers can often be brought in at very short notice to solve immediate problems and make quick progress on pressing challenges
• Low cost. A freelance Ruby developer typically charges less than a specialist team
• Short term. The entire goal of freelance development is to be brought on for a single project, component, or task and move on to another soon. This means minimising the use of resources in the start-up and wind-down phases of a project

Drawbacks of a Ruby Freelance Developer

• Management overheads. While finding a freelancer with Ruby experience is comparatively easy, the time taken to do the due diligence in evaluating their skills and code can be prohibitive. The ongoing challenge of keeping tabs on deliverables and deadlines can be even more challenging still.
• Variable quality. Even after appropriate vetting, the quality of work produced by freelancers in any field can be highly variable. High coding standards and good working practices aren’t guaranteed by any means. To help you in this risky vetting process, we’ve prepared a guide on how to interview a Ruby developer that you may be interested in.
• Communication. One of the biggest concerns, keeping in close contact with freelance developers can be an ongoing challenge. Freelancers often have to drop one thing to do another, making checking in on a regular schedule difficult and costly.
• Maintenance. Future changes, upgrades, or updates will very often have to be taken over by a different team. Despite building a strong working relationship today—there are no guarantees that a freelancer will be available, or even still working in the same field, when you require them again in the future.

When to Hire a Ruby Freelance Developer

A freelance developer is ideally suited to small-scale applications and one-off additions to a project. Implementing a small component within a larger service, extending an existing application, maintaining an ageing codebase, or fixing an unexpected bug are prime candidates for freelance developers.

When there’s an inherent time-crunch, or a glaring omission in your in-house teams, freelance development talent may be the ideal solution to the problem.

Outsourced Ruby Development Team

An outsourced Ruby development team can, in comparison, offer a more complete package with developers and management working together to achieve a common goal.

While both freelancers and outsourced teams offer many of the same services, dedicated firms are often thought of as the more ‘heavyweight’ solution to undertaking projects. Outsourcing development often comes complete with project management, communication resources, multiple developers working together, and appropriate quality assurance on a project.

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It’s a solution more similar to adding an entire Ruby department than onboarding a sole Ruby developer.

Advantages of an Outsourced Ruby Team

• Management expertise. The most significant advantage to the wider business is in the in-built project management that comes with an outsourced team. Adding accountability and resources to keep tabs on the time spent on tasks takes many of the headaches out of externalising development projects.
• Communication. With responsibilities distributed across a larger team, outsourced development companies don’t have to halt progress on another task to communicate updates on a regular schedule. Most often, a project manager takes care of those requirements with effective tooling and presentation as an added bonus.
• Flexible scalability. An outsourced team is typically more well suited to adapting a project as it develops in scope and scale. This can take place as the project develops or even in the weeks, months, and years after its release.
• Future proof. Outsourced development businesses typically offer a more consistent presence in the marketplace over freelance developers. Forging a business relationship with an outsourced development company usually means one that will last for years to come.
• Safe hands. The added years of combined knowledge and experience of a typical outsourced Ruby team makes it one of the safest options to take when pursuing Ruby development.

Drawbacks of an Outsourced Ruby Team

• Project Control. One of the most significant concerns organisations raise when undertaking outsourced development projects is being able to maintain control and direction. Outsourcing companies are often seen as ‘taking the reins’ when implementing technical solutions. It’s often feared that there will be comparatively little opportunity for further input from owners.
• Time Management. Time-zone conflicts and barriers brought about by crossing borders and continents are often thought of as highly restrictive by managers. In reality, these drawbacks rarely become significant factors with modern tools and effective communication strategies—two things that outsourced teams excel at.

When to Hire an Outsourced Ruby Development Team

Outsourced development teams are ideally suited to projects with an extended duration or inherent complexity. Bringing a wider and deeper skillset to the challenges faced enables long-lasting solutions to be sought and implemented for more effective services.

When professionalism, management, and accountability are of utmost importance—outsourced teams are an easy option to take.

Choosing the Right Approach for the Right Problem

Because there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, there are rarely any easy answers that solve every problem. The considerations that matter most to you will, hopefully, steer you towards the most suitable and effective solution to get the most out of Ruby development after reading this guide.