Should You Hire React.JS Development Freelancers, or an Outsourced React.JS Developer Team?

Hiring React.JS developers can feel like searching for a highly skilled needle in a vast haystack. As one of the most popular frameworks in software development today, ReactJS and JavaScript are in high demand. Tech giants are consistently competing to recruit top JavaScript developers for their in-house apps and services, making these developers one of the most sought-after resources in the industry.

With major players like social media platforms, streaming services, and delivery apps all vying for the same talent pool, finding the right developer for your team has never been more crucial. Whether you're considering an outsourced ReactJS team or a freelance developer with diverse experience, the decision depends on your company’s needs and project demands.

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What is React.JS

In the simplest possible terms, React is a front end JavaScript library for building user interfaces. React exists to define the interactions users have with services and applications. The advantages of React come primarily from its extensive developer community, backing from Facebook, and the flexibility it affords developers in creating industry-leading user interfaces with a short time-to-market.

React.JS developers, whether professional freelancers or outsourced teams, have experience and expertise in leveraging the library’s features to build intuitive and responsive UIs.

A component-based library by design, React interfaces are built to be easy to maintain, re-use, and customise in the future. The unique abilities of the React library pay dividends when hiring both freelancers and remote teams as it allows for apps to be reconfigured, extended, and maintained in discreet and isolated stages far easier than most technologies.

When thinking about the appropriate hiring route for your next React.JS developer, it’s important to consider more than just the engineer or technology. You should investigate your own requirements first, before taking your search external to look for your future developers.

Questions to consider before deciding between a freelance React.JS developer and an outsourced React.JS team should include:

• Do you prefer close and careful monitoring of your project or self-sufficient progress?
• How much time can you invest in seeking out developers and performing sufficient due diligence to invite them into your team?
• How likely are you to require the same team back for future additions, modifications, and maintenance on the project? Is a long-lasting working relationship a critical asset to be relied upon later?
• What does your hiring budget for the next 12-18 months of the project look like?

Hiring React.JS Freelancers for your project

Hiring freelancers for your React.JS project provides a lot of advantages upfront. There are a wide variety of specialised skill-sets and disciplines to choose from, and the entire process—from the first stages of hiring through to initial app development— can be completed surprisingly fast.

Today, connecting with available freelancers has never been easier. If you are still trying to figure out how to reach out to them, you may be interested in our guide to hiring React.JS developers. It takes you from creating an online presence and using contemporary recruitment tools, to advertising your requirements to help find the right candidates complete with a job description template.

Freelance React developers are ideally suited for small to mid-sized projects and tasks. Their ability to come in, often at very short notice, for discrete units of work can be a huge advantage for companies looking to get the most out of a limited budget.

React’s component-based architecture plays into this model of work well. It allows developers to work on independent components in isolation, get up to speed early and wind down fast while leaving clearly defined components for other developers to interface with. Few technologies are so well matched to the requirements and preferences of freelance development as React.

Many of the drawbacks of hiring freelance developers come, not from the development side, but from project management. Time tracking and billing are made much more difficult by introducing new parties into the mix. Auditing bills and accounts for freelancer time is made even more difficult still.

The most significant challenge of using freelance React developers typically comes from meeting deadlines and developer accountability. Keeping tabs on progress, without direct oversight, can feel like a never-ending task of chasing down emails and previous communications.

In more recent years, the drawbacks and pitfalls of freelance developers have gotten easier to deal with. Using the right tools, technology solutions, and communication strategies can give you a head start towards effective React projects using freelance developer talent.

Advantages of a Freelance React.JS Developer

• React.JS freelancers can provide a low-cost point of entry into application development.
• Businesses can customise billing per-hour, per-task, or per-project.
• You can hire highly specialised talent for a particular project or assignment.

Disadvantages of a Freelance React.JS Developer

• Since they work remotely without any supervision, the guarantee for the project deadline can be blurred and more susceptible to falling through.
• Coordination with multiple teams like UI/UX, QA, etc., becomes difficult.
• Extra time taken to find and evaluate candidates can often be better spent elsewhere.
• Effective communication can be very challenging, particularly if done across multiple different time zones and languages.

Hiring an Outsourced React.JS team

The advantages of hiring an outsourced React development team are felt more broadly across the business than a freelance React developer. Sometimes these benefits are seen as immediately as bringing in a freelancer, but they will certainly be felt in the years and months that follow.

The short-term benefits to the business are the immediate addition of specialised skill sets previously lacking or not yet introduced into the firm. It’s akin to adding an entire department to a business without the additional overheads or management.

An outsourced React.JS team, one who works on React-based projects almost exclusively, will be more productive and efficient than developers with generalised knowledge or those who require the time and resources needed to get up to speed.

In many cases, outsourcing companies have libraries, tools, and frameworks of their own that are designed to improve productivity and create more stable, reliable, and attractive client applications in a reduced time frame.

The most significant advantage outsourced React development has is its ability to provide project management and oversight in addition to just developer talent. Outsourced teams are typically already experts at tracking time and work, resource management, and providing ongoing status updates to the client business. Rather than one freelancer spinning many plates, outsourced teams often contain specialists in every facet of application development, who can skillfully juggle everything you throw at them.

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The process of outsourcing development requirements brings with it the need to formalise communications. This formalisation can be both helpful to the understanding of a project, and at the same time a hindrance to rapid progress. While an essential tool that speeds up progress it’s rarely a complete replacement for the kind of informal discussions that take place with in-house teams.

These formalized communications are a double edge sword and the primary drawback of outsourcing React.JS development. Before you have trouble wielding this sword, we recommend you read our article on The Do’s & Don’ts of Managing an Outsourced React Development Team, it will guide you with what you need for managing an outsourced team that produces React apps to meet your requirements.

Advantages of an Outsourced React.JS Team

• Application professionals can get more done in less time. Outsourcing can be a key method in cutting long term development costs, particularly in large and complex projects.
• This work model allows you to outsource certain aspects of project management to keep tabs on progress and time.
• It will provide you with expert experience in design, development, test, deployment, and management.
• Outsourced teams provide the simplest possible interface between experienced professional developers and business management.
• You will significantly reduce time-to-market compared to other development routes.

Disadvantages of an Outsourced React.JS Team

• Communication, compared to in-house developers and freelancers, can be more of a challenge.
• Internal security can be a concern and should be vetted before granting access to IT systems and sensitive data to external parties.
• Businesses often fear losing control over the direction or details of a project when bringing in an outsourcing firm. Shareholders should employ consistent communication and set clear goals and deliverables to ensure the project stays close to its original intention.

React.JS Developers to Fit Your Business

Both freelance React Developers and outsourced React teams can provide cost-effective ways to deploy effective applications that will make an impact on the marketplace. Both, done well, will bring in highly skilled developer talent to work on your project.

How you do this and which option you choose, will depend as much on the shape of your business and its requirements as on the specifics of your project and what you need to accomplish.