Our Comparison of Freelance Vs Employee | Pros and Cons

Over the last decade, the digital sphere experienced a vast range of changes due to many factors. Access to remote work and COVID-19 make it possible for people all across the globe to start their freelance careers. More and more people are now working from home or off-site, while others still choose to be full-time employees.  

For instance, a recent report found out that 53 million Americans choose to freelance as a main or additional income. And this category of people brings $715 billion each year to the economy via their freelance work. While this is a lot of money, the gig economy is suggested to grow every day.

Even though full-time employment has always been an ultimate choice for most people, the new generation of specialists is more flexible and freelance. Nevertheless, new forms of work appeared at the same time and included part-time and agency. As a result, digital experts now have a great choice of options to manage their work-life balance according to their needs.

It is vital to note that most companies now want to return their full-time employees since the pandemic seems to end soon. So not every company will be happy with freelance work and offer you either part or full-time employment. But some companies still require only freelancers and do not want to manage all documents with full-time workers. 

So is hiring a freelancer the right choice for your company? Or do you need a full-time employee? Let’s explore what are the pros and cons of freelancing and full-time employment with our guide.

Pros of Freelancing

Since freelancing is the most popular form for digital experts, especially developers, let’s learn more about the pros of this working form for your organization:

Cost

Even if we take a high rate per hour, freelancers may help save 20 to 30 percent annually since you do not need to cover benefits. Therefore, you do not need to pay for health insurance, vacation, retirement, as well as medical security. It is especially beneficial for those companies offering remote work as you also save money on office space and eliminate your office supply costs.

Less Risk 

When hiring freelancers, they do not work as employees. Therefore, they do not have most rights that full-time employees have, like collecting unemployment insurance and using compensation. To be more specific, they cannot sue for harassment or discrimination. If their work lacks quality or you don’t like something about them, it is easier to replace them with other specialists without paying extra costs. 

Availability

Statistics show that it is much easier to find freelancers than full-time employees. This is because freelance is more popular today, and the vast range of talent platforms offer you a great choice. Therefore, you can find the unique skill set on these platforms and hire the best fit for your company within days or weeks. And once you find the candidate, you need to agree on working terms, and he can start ASAP.

High Quality

Even though there is a common belief that freelancers usually provide low-quality work, in reality, they run their own businesses. As a result, they understand the importance of producing high-quality products and maintaining great relationships with their clients. They usually put all their effort into working with each client, as they know the contract can always be renewed.

Global Reach

While full-time employees usually work from the office, companies can find freelancers from various regions and countries. Therefore, they are able to reduce the cost as in Europe; for example, experts tend to earn less, and they are okay with that.

Cons of Freelancing

Not So Dedicated

Compared to full-time employees, freelancers usually manage several tasks at the same time. Therefore, an independent contractor doesn’t put as much dedication and effort as employees. Therefore, you need to make sure your freelancer is open and can manage only your project for a needed period of time. But since you can’t create rules for them, it is best to hire several experts to have a backup.

Lack of Information 

If you want to hire experts that are going to work with your clients, lack of information can be a great minus. This means freelancers do not work with other people in your team as closely as they could and may not know most of the vital information about the company. This might affect the relationships they build with your clients.

Required Supervision

We all know that freelancers may lie about the hours they really work. While this may affect the final price you get in the invoice, this may also require supervision. And you will need to invest your time in checking the work of freelancers by the end of each month and resolve questions that may appear about extra hours. Freelancers also prefer to choose the time to work outside of regular business hours, making you unable to track their performance in real-time.

Classification

It is vital to note that the amount of control you have over a worker defines whether you can legally classify them as a freelancer or employee. This is why you need to hire an experienced jurisdiction team that will prepare your company to defend your choice to classify a specialist as a freelancer in case the IRS comes to you with an audit. The legal agencies forced companies to pay $79 million in back wages to over 100,000 workers who were legally named employees, not freelancers.

Pros of Full-time/In-house

In order to choose between freelance vs employee, it is vital to learn the pros and cons of full-time employees (also known as in-house workers). Let’s start with benefits:

Relevance

Employees who have come to your company usually have not only relevant skills to fill the gap but also have the same moral principles as you and other people in your team. This leads to company products and boosts the whole corporate culture. This makes it easier for your company to present itself on the market, allowing you to reach the goals you set.

Collaboration

Since employees can always ask for advice from the team and boost their skills, you can get higher collaboration than with freelancers. Better collaboration ultimately means fewer issues during the working process, higher speed, productivity, and overall company success.

Loyalty

In contrast to freelancers that work on various tasks at the same time, full-time employees tend to show high loyalty and dedication. While you always need to make sure freelancers are open to your tasks, employees are focused only on your company, and their loyalty can play a key role in how your company operates. 

Less Risks

When hired, employees sign several documents that ensure they will protect the sensitive company’s information, and they also have a contract that guarantees they will inform you in advance when they want to leave your organization. This reduces the risks of losing vital data or unpredictable situations that will require time, money, and resources to fix them.  

Might be Cost-Effective

As we mentioned above, freelancers tend to lie about hours. When you hire an employee, you can easily track the performance of a particular expert even without a time tracker. And if you want to use a time tracker, employees work only following the company’s schedule, so you can easily manage their work.

Cons of Full-time/In-House

More Responsibility

Just like employees cannot leave your company without an agreement in advance, you will not also be able to change the specialists as quickly and easily with freelancers. This aids more responsibility when you have in-house employees, and you need to ensure all vital documents are in place and managed for smooth working flow. 

Compensation Costs

Since modern employees want the company to provide as many benefits as they can, you will pay extra costs to attract people to your company by providing compensation in various forms. While these costs can be compared to additional payments freelancers sometimes require, they still cover insurance, medicine and vacation cost more.

Training 

Just like the previous disadvantage, companies need to offer training and courses for their in-house employees. This is because you want to grow the highest-quality experts, and you need to invest in their education. This usually won’t cost too much, but still, it will require extra costs and time for your employees.

What Form Suits You Best?

When choosing between freelance vs full-time employment, you need not only to learn the pros and cons but also explore your company’s requirements and needs. This will help you understand what form suits your organization best. 

Startups

When you work in a startup, it is best to combine both forms of work for different spheres. Therefore, make sure key experts for your company’s success like CTO, HRs, developers (if needed), and marketers work as employees, while designers and copywriters can be freelancers. 

Projects

When you just need to finalize a particular project, like NFT drop, it is best to hire freelancers. This is because you won’t need to pay extra for benefits or worry about employee self-development and growth while also reducing the documentation needed. 

Mid and Large-Sized Companies

Depending on your sphere and revenue, you can also combine both forms of work. But it is vital to estimate the load required from the person so it will be easier for you to identify which form suits you best here. However, most of these companies usually have 80% of full-time employees, and 20% are freelancers to fill the skill gap in some cases.

How Can Interexy Help?

Interexy is a 360° Web3 Blockchain Mobile Consulting & Team Augmentation Agency. We have an amazing experience in over 15 spheres, allowing us to deliver the highest-quality products to our clients. Since we always strive to deliver the best out best services, our team is made up of skilled experts who precisely know every sphere we work in.

Providing outsourcing and staffing services, we can provide you with a vast range of specialists, like blockchain developers and designers, that can perfectly match only challenging and interesting projects. Our main focus is people, so we always make sure our employees are in the best conditions when joining the company as outstaff specialists and guarantee top-notch quality as a consistent result of their work.

Final Thoughts 

As you may notice, freelance is becoming the most popular form of work today due to various factors. However, experts also want to become full-time employees and reap the benefits of in-house employees. Since both forms may bring their own benefits for companies, we crafted this guide to help you compare the pros and cons of freelancers and in-house workers and choose what suits you best. Let’s book a free call and discuss what outstaff specialists you need for your project!

FAQs

What are the pros and cons of freelancing?

Freelancers might be the best option for startups or projects, as they ensure lower costs, high quality of work, can be easily found all across the globe, and have unique skills. However, they also offer fewer investments in your company, ten to lie about hours they really work and may cause legal issues in some states.

What are the pros and cons of a full-time job?

Full-time employees offer more loyalty, dedication, and honesty in what they do. They also create better collaboration and constantly contribute to the company’s success while also reducing risks. But when hiring in-house workers, you will need to pay compensation benefits and follow many legal rules as per the contract.

What is the difference between freelance and full-time?

Freelancers do not count as employees as they do not sign the contract, do not need to inform you in advance when leaving the company, do not require benefits, and have to be monitored to check the working hours. The opposite is true for full-time workers.