With the growing popularity that of the gig economy increasing numbers of CTOs, CEOs, and HR managers are asking what the future might look like. Is it more efficient to replace your employees from within by freelancers? Should you instead try to augment your own team with outside talent?
One thing is for certain. the gig economy increasing in strength each year. From 1997 to the present the average has been 2.6 percent growth per year. In comparison, the regular payroll was only 0.8 percent per year over the same time frame.
This is three times the rate of growth of regular jobs! Consider that 47 percent of millennials prefer working in a freelance manner. In this scenario it is expected that freelancers will comprise most of US economy in 2027.
This trend is inevitable. The most effective option is to place your company in a position to make the most of it.
How Does This Affect Engineering Hiring
The major advantage engineers have over other professionals in freelance work is that programming work is able to be performed via remote access. Additionally, remote supervision of code work is possible. Thus, hiring engineers is one of in the greatest benefits from this gig economy.
We’ll briefly discuss the advantages of employing freelancers. We’ll also discuss the benefits of hiring in-house staff. We’ll then go over a closer analysis of what’s most likely to transpire. We’ll then provide advice on how to position your business to get the most benefit from these developments.
Let’s get going!
Benefits of replacing employees in-house By Freelancers
In-house workers can be replaced by freelancers. offers the following advantages:
Get access to an international talent pool
More specialization
Faster turnarounds (faster output and recruitment)
Lower costs
One of the major benefits of hiring freelancers is the ability to get talent from all over the world. There is no need to be restricted to the geographical region that is closest to you.
Because many freelancers specialize in one particular area and you’re able to search for what you are looking for. For instance, if you’re seeking to incorporate the latest technology in your stack, like Vue.js it is possible to find the most skilled expert on this particular technology. Also, a very specific, unique project that requires Alexa expertise as well as sophisticated Machine Learning will benefit from freelance talents.
Furthermore, freelancers manage their own business. This means that they’ll work more quickly than an employee who earns the same salary each month. Research has shown that freelancers are generally more focused than regular employees.
If you’re looking for an engineer for a short period of time and you’re looking for an independent programmers, then an independent developer is the most suitable option when it comes to hiring. In reality, with freelancers, there is no need to go through a lengthy hiring procedure.
You don’t have to be concerned about any other benefits you need to provide to your regular employees. The issue of severance pay is not an issue and you’ll likely pay less taxes to pay. Thus, reducing the bureaucracy involved in hiring will make the process easier and faster.
Additionally the freelance engineer tends to be less expensive over the long term. It is possible to save as much as 50% of the cost by using freelance engineers.
Advantages of keeping employees in-house
The most important benefits are:
Direct supervision
The loyalty of the company
Maintaining the work on a continuous basis
Employees in-house are easier to manage directly. If your project requires the creation of your own sophisticated software design, then an internal engineer can be a great option. In such instances you may want to outsource just the non-core elements.
You can, however, manage freelancers remotely. There are many sources control options employers have access to. This includes the likes of GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket.
Additionally supervision is possible by using different tools for managing projects. We’ve covered the most effective tools for managing projects you can utilize!
Another distinction, as Engineer Thomas Jost shared, is that freelancers perform better, while employees are more concerned about the company’s needs. Since freelancers run their own companies the performance of their businesses is crucial in securing employment. They’re more inclined to go the extra mile to be successful because a guaranteed income will not be waiting for them at time the month is over.
However employees will feel more connected to the actual performance of your company. This may result in greater loyalty to your company.
In the end, “perpetual” projects that require ongoing work benefit from internal employees. Because they are aware of the software’s structure and how it has evolved and changed, it is easier to manage.
The Middle Way The Middle Way: Benefits of Remote Teams
Instead of making the decision of replacing or supplementing existing teams, there’s an alternative. This is the process of hiring or creating remote teams. This allows you to reap all the benefits of both choices.
Additionally you can also reap extra advantages. These benefits include:
24 Hour work-cycle
Increased productivity
Costs reduced
A major benefit is the huge productivity boost that comes when you can work 24 hours a day. This is right, with an organized remote team that is able to work in various times zones, operating round all hours of the day is feasible.
Research supports the theory the remote worker is more efficient and has less stress. This allows you to complete projects more quickly.
Additionally you will also enjoy lower expenses. Therefore, finding great freelancers to join your current team is a great alternative in light of the latest developments.
What’s likely to happen?
One thing is certain. When the global economy shifts towards freelance work many of your competitors will be seeking to make use of this. Cost savings as well as other advantages of employing freelancers will be important factors.
We’ll see more employers adapting and seeking at ways to enhance their efficiency. For development, this could lead to fewer engineers in-house and more freelancers as well as remote teams.
Remember this: the gig economy at its infancy. Many believe that we are in the very beginning of what could be an entirely revolution. Industrial Revolution.
Be aware that at every major moment in the history of economics those who thrive in the marketplace are those who accept the change. If you’d like to stay in the top position, you need to carefully evaluate what options you have for your coming years.
What can you do to Stay Competitive?
In order to increase the efficiency of your team, think about including more freelancers in your team, or creating an online team. Freelance engineers are ideal for development-related work that is specialized as well as general maintenance tasks.
Additionally If you happen to be a start-up looking to put an MVP to market and you’re looking for a freelancer, they’re a good option. There’s no need to spend venture capital to employ internal programmers if you do not require these people.
As a business with a larger size when you work with remote teams or freelancers You’ll dramatically reduce your expenses. In other words, you’ll cut down on overhead, time spent conducting interviews, and eliminate lengthy payroll costs.
If you’re looking to get going, make sure you study the basics of establishing and managing teams across the world. In addition, it’s beneficial to know how to collaborate with remote engineers from companies that have done it before. Also, knowing the most common misconceptions regarding hiring remote engineers can help you save a significant amount of time and cost.
There’s a third important thing. The search for a reliable freelancer is vital. If you choose the wrong engineer to work for you it is possible that you will encounter issues during your work. The person you hire might not communicate well or they might be difficult to manage or even have difficulties with language. In the worst case scenario it is possible that they disappear in between the task!
Working with reputable freelancers will assist you in minimizing or avoiding this risk, whether you are using a referrer or you utilize platforms for engineers who freelance.
In the second case you will be able to access a variety of talent and abilities and also the capability to suggest a range of prices that’s appropriate for you depending upon the service you work with. In addition, some platforms make sure you that the employees they hire are the best experts in their area and will never fail to meet your expectations.
Four Considerations to Make When Making a Choice Freelance and In-House Engineers
Let’s take a look at a fictional situation to determine the difference the difference between in-house and freelance engineers:
You’re the CEO of an established business benefitting from the fruits of your work. Your team is currently working on a brand new feature that can help your company grow.
You’ve got an excellent second idea for a feature However, you’re not certain whether your engineering department in-house is equipped to create it. If you put off but you don’t know, your chance cost might be too high when you’re not able to keep pace with the speed of business.
So , what can you do?
We’re here to help you understand the advantages and disadvantages outsourcing your next venture. From quality to expertise as well as time to money Here are the advantages and disadvantages outsourcing engineers versus in-house experts.
1. Expertise
The first issue is: do you are able to develop the new feature? You’re thinking you’ve already created the first feature and, of course they’ll be able to create the second one.
Hear us out, though.
Imagine you’re an email outreach software SaaS which is currently expanding your product to include an option for lead generation. To do this, you may require an engineer who is proficient in databases or Python that you might not have on your staff.
If the abilities needed to create the flagship product aren’t transferrable into the second product, i.e., the languages you chose to use will add technical debt, aren’t efficient as well as the engineer(s) who contributed to the development of the first product has long since gone and you want to continue pushing your team in-house to develop the second feature?
In-House Engineers
In the event that you’re in any hurry to get your second feature developed, it might be wise to think about doing it in-house. But, take into consideration your team’s expertise and the value you attach to the resource and time.
If the project’s core technology is a significant difference from the existing team’s expertise, it might take some time for team members to be up to speed with the new materials.
The time spent learning the latest technology may cause time loss for your development team. In addition the time they’re putting into studying the latest technology will mean less time spent on maintaining or adding new features to your existing product.
It’s certainly possible to bring in-house staff to develop features #2 The question is whether it’s worthwhile both in time and money when they don’t already have the knowledge.
Outsourced Engineers
If you’re looking to develop Feature #2, outsourcing could be the best option when you have access to experts in engineering. If you have the option of hiring team members that are already familiar with the necessary technologies needed to make Feature #2 happen, that will not only cut down on the time needed to develop and resources, but it also comes with additional advantages.
For instance, if you choose to hire an engineer through an online platform that offers freelancers the language you require they don’t need to spend time learning the language — they already have the skills.
Because the engineer is proficient in the language you require, when you provide them with the wireframe or specifications they will be able to start working, and the development team can develop your product.
Additionally, a seasoned freelance engineer who has completed rigorous vetting often offers additional knowledge that can benefit you.
The freelance engineer will build using scalability in mind, which will help you avoid technical debt and will be able to advise you on the potential risks based on their expertise and experience. If you’re not a technical CEO or CTO who is for a short period of time they can help you with the technical aspects of feature #2.
Although this might seem like a small difference in the present however, should Feature #2 is as successful as your main products, you’ll thankful you hired a seasoned engineer to assist you in avoiding any potential issues that could hinder your path to growing.
2. Quality
It is obvious that you’d like Feature #2 to be a top-quality product that provides customers with an excellent experience, is simple to manage, and extremely expandable. But how can you control the quality in both internal as well as outsourcing development? What is the simpler way to make sure that your business’s greatest long-term as well as short-term needs are being addressed?
In-House Software Engineers
In general the coding standards are more easily monitored through an internal team. If you have your own team, you’ll be able to set the standards and make sure that they’re followed by regularly checking in with your CTO, engineer manager, or team directly.
In this way, you’ll ensure that the standards are implemented in the process of development and you won’t be faced with technical debt or a larger issue later in the future.
For founders that are not technical and prefer less involvement having a CTO as well as an in-house team will help build your feature #2 allows you to give the task to someone else and enjoy some peace of mind while you be able to focus in other areas within your company.
Hire freelance software engineers
Quality code is created by skilled engineers. If you want to have access to both outsourcing to a platform for freelancers could be the best option.
Outsourcing lets you tap into a wider selection of people beyond the local market You can also include a freelance engineer on your team that can help speed up the process of building but still maintain high-quality and coding standards.
While there’s always disagreement on outsourcing versus in-house development however, there’s no reason that you shouldn’t be able to have your cake and have it as well. You can have your current team construct the components they are familiar with and then supplement their efforts by hiring experienced freelance engineers to ensure high-quality.
While adding engineers who work as freelancers to your team may reduce development time and money without losing quality, it will necessitate that a member of your team is able to help onboarding your new engineer.
While your engineer on the freelance is an experienced professional, they might not be fully acquainted with the specific SOPs you have. So, until you are certain the changes have been made and you’re able to take a little more time ensuring that everything is up and up.
3. Time
The value of time is in the money specifically in the technology world. The earlier Feature #2 launches, the quicker you will earn money from it. Additionally, the quicker you are able to release your feature, the likelihood that someone else will be able to dominate the market with the same product or feature decreases. It’s therefore the best option to make sure your product is in the marketplace.
But your launch will depend on how quickly your team is able to build it. It doesn’t matter if it’s your own internal team or an outsourced team it’s time to start working on your concept. Which team will make the product available quicker and put it to the test in the marketplace?
House Team of Engineers
One reason is that communication is more efficient with an in-house staff because it’s easier to locate people when they’re within the same building with you.
This reduces time spent on communication. Sometimes, projects are delayed because people leave AWOL or fail to respond. Collaboration means that this is less likely to occur.
But, while there’s more communication speed when you’re on the same page however, if you’re working on your primary product and decided to use an in-house team to work on Feature #2, your dev team will still have to divide their time between various projects.
Additionally, your internal team may not be excited about the feature #2 like they’re with the main product that could cause delays and feet dragging.
These elements could increase the time required to deliverables due to a the lack of interest or due to the fact that your engineers have to prioritize and are not able to devote their time exclusively to feature #2.
While it’s more convenient for you to advocate for improvements and updates by phone, in the end, you’ll need to wait for your team of developers to be able to develop your new concept.
Freelance Software Engineers
If you employ an engineer on a contract basis, especially when you pay them via retainer, you get someone who commits their time solely to your project for X number of hours.
Being aware that a specialist is solely focused on Feature #2 can allow you to concentrate your resources more closely with your development team.
This setup will mean that you won’t have to depend on your team in-house to complete X amount of work completed for a different project, which may lower the importance of their current projects since there is a dedicated person or team that will work on this project in the background.
Remember that delays could occur in the form of communication especially in the case of freelance engineers who are located a long distance away. But delay is minimized by having clearly defined expectations, guidelines and deadlines for deliverables. Although it’s not enjoyable waiting for someone else to return your call however, the inconvenience is manageable.
Although you might not be able to contact your engineer on the spot in the event of an asynchronous exchange it is possible to prepare with scrums. You can do this by providing precise instructions, or by preparing an elaborate shared backlog.
In fact, one benefit of working in asynchronous fashion is that when you arrive at work, the core element may already been completed when you were asleep.
4. Money
The cost of money is, naturally an important thing to be aware of and we have saved the most important for the last. If you are on a short runway, are struggling to make ends meet or have a limited budget, the choice of outsourcing development to an in-house team could be more complex.
You’d like the finest job, completed in a short amount of time and for a price that is affordable. Do you have the team to provide this, as you already pay them, or do you have to go deeper into your pocket?
In-House Software Engineer
One reason for having your own team develop Features #2 is that you already pay your team of developers to do tasks for you, so in principle, having them develop your second project won’t “cost” you more as their time and effort is already covered within your spending plan.
If your existing team members are small, you might need to recruit more staff to help you with feature #2. The development team could be short of people to assist in maintaining and developing your core product, and may require reinforcements. This can cost money.
Based on the concept you’ve come up with for the second product you might need designers as well as product managers and other workers in order to help bring Feature #2 to life, which can be costly. Furthermore, it would not be economically feasible to develop an entire new position for a feature that could or may not succeed.
So, even though on the surface, it might seem as if having your team work on an initiative is free but that’s only the case when you have a large enough team. If not, the additional effort might be more expensive as outsourcing is required if you are forced to cover benefits for new employees.
Engineer in Freelancing Software
If you decide to outsource Feature #2, however, you’ll be able to find a skilled engineer for a lower cost, based on where you get your talent. Based on where the engineer of your preference is located you could get a great value for your money.
In fact, when you hire a freelance engineer, you can employ an engineer for whatever time you want but only when you require assistance. If you are a freelance engineer you won’t have to pay for the typical benefits that are needed for long-term employees who may be unemployed when the project is finished.
© Islington Stories 2025