Website Development: Who to hire?

Website Development: Who to hire?

When it comes to building and maintaining your business website, the decision between hiring a software development team,a digital marketing agency, or a freelance developer depends on your current marketing needs, website functionality needs, and long-term plans.

All three options can deliver high-quality websites that support business objectives—but they bring different strengths to the table. In this blog post, we’ll explore the key differences in skills and approaches.

Website Design: Three Paths to a Business-Ready Website

Whether you work with a digital marketing agency,a software development team, or a freelance developer, the goal is the same: to build a website that supports your business objectives. The key differences are in the type of engagement,skill sets, and level of support.

• Digital Marketing Agencies typically lead with branding, content strategy, and campaign-driven design. Their strengths lie in crafting websites that integrate into the overall marketing scene because they have a holistic view of the marketing plan. This is especially beneficial for businesses that have invested in a comprehensive strategy and want to build their site into the strategy using the same team for consistency. This team is usually more creative and is involved in assisting select colors, logo designs, creating personas, fonts, company voice, creating the style guide and other branding elements.  They help set the tone for your company from a brand perspective and have a much better sense of how to incorporate these into the new website.  
• Software Development Teams are more technical in their approach. They prioritize architecture and user experience (UX) and let content guide the functionality and structure.  This is similar to a marketing team approach but they have stronger technical skillsets that can be valuable if you need a scalable solution or want to integrate your applications with chat bots, CRM systems or other business solutions. If you need to build a customized website that integrates with your business systems, handles complex logic, and scales for the future, then a technical team would be a better fit.  In order to ensure your site fits in nicely with your marketing strategy, you would need to provide them with the style guide and other marketing tools that will enable them to build your brand.  
• Freelance Developers offer a flexible and cost-effective option for building a website, especially for smaller projects or startups with limited budgets. They typically bring a specific set of skills — whether it’s design, development, or both — and can move quickly without the overhead of a full agency. Freelancers are ideal if you have a clear vision, established branding, and well-defined requirements. However, they often work independently and may not offer the strategic insight or team-based collaboration you’d get from an agency or development team. If you choose a freelancer, it’s important to ensure they have experience with the type of site you’re building, and that you’re ready to manage or supply the project’s creative direction, content, and marketing alignment.

All three paths can deliver exceptional websites. The right choice depends on whether your needs lean more toward advanced technical customization or marketing-led design and campaigns — and whether you have additional time to invest in guiding the process, especially if working with a freelance developer.

Customization: Template-Based vs. Tailored Development

Digital marketing agencies often build websites using platforms like WordPress, Shopify, or Squarespace. These tools provide an efficient way to launch visually appealing websites using pre-designed themes and plugins—ideal for businesses with standard content needs, online stores, or marketing campaigns.  It is a fantastic way to launch a secure site much faster than building a custom application from scratch. There are plenty of very good plug-ins that can be used to achieve specific needs.

Software development teams and freelance developers also use these platforms when appropriate, but their approach often goes deeper. Rather than relying solely on out-of-the-box functionality, they can extend or customize these platforms to deliver unique business logic, custom features, or integration with internal systems.

This might include:

• Custom plugin or module development
• Update design or layout if needed
• Third-party API integrations
• Scalable architecture for future enhancements
• Enhanced security and performance optimization

In some cases, a software development team or a freelance developer may build a website entirely from the ground up to meet highly specific requirements. The key difference lies in the approach: software developers specialize in delivering custom web solutions that aren’t limited by templates or pre-built components. For many small businesses, however, using a pre-designed website template can be a smart, cost-effective choice. If the business is willing to adapt its needs to fit within the capabilities of the template, no major modifications are necessary. It simply requires a bit more flexibility in terms of accepting the design and functionality of the prebuilt template.

Final Thoughts: Which Path Is Right for Your Business?

Choosing between a software development team, a digital marketing agency or a freelance developer, ultimately comes down to your business priorities, budget, and long-term goals.

If your primary focus is brand consistency, campaign integration, and content-driven growth, a digital marketing agency can offer a seamless experience. Their strengths lie in strategy, creativity, and delivering a website that aligns with your overall marketing narrative. Companies just need to be careful with the amount of plug-ins used on their websites to not slow down the loading speed, hindering the user experience.

On the other hand, if your business requires deeper customization, technical scalability, or system integrations, a software development team can provide the robust architecture and backend capabilities needed for long-term growth and operational efficiency.

Freelance developers are a cost-effective option for smaller projects with clear requirements. However, the process can be more time-consuming, as it often requires more hands-on involvement from your team for testing and project direction. Key details from the original vision may get lost without a structured team, and design is usually limited to templates or basic themes, since custom design is a specialized skill not all freelancers offer.

Ready to Build a Website That Works for Your Business?

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution—both paths can lead to a successful website. Some businesses even find that a hybrid approach, combining the branding expertise of a marketing agency with the technical depth of a development team, delivers the best of both worlds. At NCN Technology, we make this become reality with both software development and digital marketing experts.

The key is to assess your current and future needs and choose the partner—or partners—that align with your vision.

Whether you’re leaning toward a marketing-led approach or need a technically customized solution, the right partner makes all the difference. Let’s talk about your goals and help you choose the path that fits best.Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and discover how we can help bring your vision to life.