On one side of the desk is a quote from an agency: a logo, five recognisable brands as references, the word team in every paragraph. On the other is a quote from somebody who turned up alone and talked more about your operation than about themselves. The price differs twofold, and you are supposed to decide on what basis?
„It depends“ is true and useless. It depends on three things specifically: how many trades your project needs at once, how long the site has to survive without attention, and how much it bothers you that one person could fall ill.
This article sets out what you are actually buying in each case, where each one is weak, and above all which questions expose the difference before you sign.
Short answer
- With a freelancer you pay for their time. With an agency you pay for their time plus overheads, sales and project management. The ratio tends to be that about half of an agency's price reaches actual work.
- A freelancer is faster to deal with and cheaper. The risk is single but serious: when they drop out, nobody can carry on.
- An agency covers that risk, and you pay for it partly by usually not talking to the person doing the work.
- A small team of two or three is the compromise that works for an ordinary company website. For a campaign with a large media budget it is not.
- The question that exposes the difference fastest: who exactly will do the work, and who will I talk to when something goes wrong?
What the price actually contains
The price of a website is time multiplied by a rate, plus overheads. A freelancer's overheads are small, an agency's are large, and that is not an accusation: an agency has offices, salespeople, project managers, holidays and people who are between projects. All of it sits inside the hourly rate.
That does not make an agency overpriced. It means the same money buys fewer hours of work and more certainty. The question is whether your project needs that certainty.
| Freelancer | Small team of 2 to 5 | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | 600 to 1 500 CZK | 900 to 1 800 CZK | 1 800 to 2 800 CZK |
| You talk to | the person doing it | the person doing it | a project manager |
| Reply to an e-mail | hours | hours to a day | one to three days |
| If that person drops out | the project stops | it slows down | a colleague picks it up |
| Trades under one roof | one, the rest hired in | two or three | all of them |
| Handles a large campaign | no | probably not | yes |
| Knows your business a year on | yes | yes | depends on staff turnover |
The row about who you talk to looks like a detail and it is the most expensive line in the table. When somebody sits between you and the person building the site, every answer to a technical question travels there and back. A detail that a call would settle in a minute takes two days and loses half of itself on the way.
An intermediary obviously earns their place when eight people are on a project. On a ten page company website it is a layer you pay for that adds nothing.
Where each option is weak
Each of the three has one weakness the quote never mentions.
Freelancer: what if they fall ill
This is the only genuine risk and it deserves to be taken seriously. When one person builds the whole site and halfway through breaks an arm or takes a job, the project stops. There is nobody to pick up the work in progress, because nobody else knows it.
It cannot be removed, only reduced. Ask three things: where the code lives and whether you have access to it too, whether it is built on ordinary technology or on an invention of their own, and whether anybody exists who could take it over in an emergency. You will judge those answers without any technical knowledge, because they come back either specific or evasive.
Agency: who will actually do the work
An experienced person presents the quote. You sign and the project goes to a junior, because the senior is on a bigger account. That is not a swindle, it is how agencies work, and without it their prices could not be what they are.
The trouble is you will not find out unless you ask. „Who specifically will do this, and how many sites like it have they built“ is the most useful sentence of the whole meeting. A good agency answers with a name and a link to their work. A poor one answers that they have a team for it.
Small team: capacity
Two to five people handle a limited number of projects at a time. When three enquiries land together, you either get a later date or the project stretches. An honest small team says the former; a dishonest one promises the date and then keeps it at somebody else's expense, possibly yours.
Ask directly: how many projects do you have on right now, and when would mine start. „Straight away“ from somebody in demand is not good news.
We have an experienced team of specialists who will take care of your project. The date is fine, we have the capacity.
I will build it and my colleague will do the copy. We have two projects on at the moment, we would start on yours in three weeks and finish by the end of October.
Five questions that expose the difference
They work on all three options and the answers can be laid side by side.
- 1Who exactly will do the work and what have they built like it? You want a name and a link, not the word team.
- 2Who will I talk to when something needs changing? If that is a different person from the first answer, expect a delay on every small thing.
- 3How many projects do you have on right now and when would mine start? This exposes capacity better than asking about the deadline.
- 4What happens if the person doing the work drops out? From a freelancer you want to hear where the code is and who could take it on. From an agency, how long a handover takes.
- 5Who will touch this in a year, when I want a change? At an agency with high turnover the answer is often somebody who has never seen your site.
When a large agency is the better choice
This section has to be here, otherwise the whole article is just a defence of our own size. There are situations where an agency is the right answer and a smaller supplier would be a mistake.
- When the project needs five trades at once. Brand design, video, a photographer, a copywriter, a developer and somebody buying ads in the same week. A small supplier assembles that from contractors and assembles it worse.
- When there is a large media budget. At hundreds of thousands a month, experience with buying media is worth more than anything else, and that sits in agencies.
- When the client has its own rules and sign off chains. Large companies and the public sector run processes an agency is used to and that exhaust an individual.
- When the work is simply too much for two people. A site with ten thousand products, three languages and a link to an ERP system is not a small team's project, whatever they promise.
The general rule: the more trades you need in the same week, the more the case points to an agency. The more it is one thing done properly and meant to last, the more it points to a small supplier.
From an agency you buy capacity and certainty. From a small supplier you buy attention. You cannot buy both at once
How we work
There are two of us. Vít builds websites and applications, Martina runs marketing. Nobody gets handed the project, so you talk directly to the person building it and a technical question does not travel through an intermediary.
The good that follows from it: we reply in hours, not days. You know us by name, and in a year, when you want a change, the same person who built the site will touch it. And because we have no offices and no sales department, a much larger share of the price reaches actual work.
The bad that follows from it, with no attempt to hide it:
- Capacity. We take on a limited number of projects at a time. When several enquiries land together we offer a later start. That is why the number of free slots sits on the price list.
- Drop out risk. If one of us is out, the project slows down. We reduce it by building on technology more people than the two of us know, and by handing the client code and backups along the way rather than at the end.
- Do not come to us for a campaign with a million crown media budget. We can direct and set up marketing, but buying media at that scale belongs to somebody else.
Frequently asked questions
Is a website better from a freelancer or from an agency?
It depends on how many trades the project needs at once. For an ordinary company website a freelancer or a small team is cheaper and faster, because you talk directly to whoever does the work. An agency earns its place when you need design, video, copy and advertising in the same week, or when there is a large media budget involved.
Why is an agency twice as expensive for the same website?
Because the hourly rate carries overheads too: offices, sales, project management and people who are between projects. It is not overpriced, it simply means the same money buys fewer hours of work and more certainty. The question is whether your project needs that certainty.
What happens if a freelancer falls ill mid project?
The project stops, because nobody else knows the work in progress. The risk cannot be removed, only reduced: ask where the code is kept and whether you have access to it, whether it uses ordinary technology or an invention of their own, and whether anybody could take it over in an emergency.
How do I find out who will really work on my site?
Ask directly: who specifically will do this, and how many sites like it have they built. A good supplier answers with a name and a link to their work. „We have a team for that“ means they would rather not say, and at agencies it often means a senior presented and a junior will build.
What does an hour of website work cost?
Typical Czech bands are 600 to 1 500 CZK for a freelancer, 900 to 1 800 for a small team and 1 800 to 2 800 for an agency. The rate on its own says nothing: what matters is how many hours your money buys and how many of them go to project management rather than to the work.
Is a small supplier a risk for running a site long term?
Less than people expect, provided the site is built on ordinary technology and you hold the code and backups. Then somebody else can take it over in weeks. The real risk appears when the site sits on the supplier's own invention or when you have no access to it, and that applies to agencies just as much.
Summary
- From an agency you buy capacity and certainty, from a small supplier attention. You cannot have both.
- The intermediary between you and whoever builds the site is the most expensive line nobody puts in a quote.
- The only real risk with an individual is them dropping out. Ordinary technology and code you can reach reduce it.
- The only real risk with an agency is that the project goes to somebody other than whoever sold it to you.
- The more trades you need in the same week, the more it points to an agency. The more it is one thing meant to last, the more it points to a small supplier.
- Asking about capacity reveals more than asking about the deadline. „We can start straight away“ from somebody in demand is not good news.
Want to know which case your project falls into
Tell us what you need. If the answer is that you should go to an agency, we will say so rather than fight for the job. Half an hour on a call helps you even if nothing comes of it.