Why not choose a cheaper freelancer or offshore team?

Sometimes you should. If the job is small, clearly defined and someone technical can check the work, a good freelancer is the cheaper and better choice. For a first product that needs design, build, testing and launch, compare the total cost of a working launch, not the day rate.

When cheaper is the right call

We’d rather say this now than have you find it out at £25k. A freelancer or a smaller team makes sense when:

• You already have a working product and need one feature added or one bug fixed.
• Someone technical can review the code, like a co-founder or an adviser.
• The scope is genuinely small, and your budget is well under our smallest LaunchPad price of £25k.
• You’re still testing the idea. A quick prototype, even an AI-built one, may teach you more for less.

Cheap is fine when the work is small and checkable.

What a day rate leaves out

A first product isn’t one job. It’s design, front-end, back-end, infrastructure, testing and an app store submission. With freelancers, that often means several people, and you become the project manager. You write the briefs, chase progress and referee between them. That’s a real part-time job, and it’s rarely in the quote.

Then there’s the risk. On a day rate, you pay if it takes longer. On a fixed price, the supplier does. Is the cost really fixed? explains how that works with us, and how much does a LaunchPad build cost? sets out each tier.

The failure we see most

It isn’t bad code. It’s a developer who goes quiet. It happens most on fixed quotes from people out of their depth. The job turns out harder than they thought, they’re earning nothing for the extra hours, and disappearing feels easier than admitting it.

Whoever you hire, protect yourself:

• Own the repository from day one, in a GitHub account your company controls.
• Own the accounts, or get them moved into your name by launch.
• Pay against working software, not against time passing.
• Ask how a new developer would get up to speed. “Ask me” isn’t an answer.

What you’re paying for with us

You’re not paying for more hours. You’re paying for a team that carries the delivery risk. We use AI heavily, because it makes good engineers faster, but it never gets the final say. A senior engineer does.

There’s no separate bill for the hosting or the app store fees either; those are in the fixed price until launch. And the goal is a product that lasts, not a throwaway MVP you rebuild in a year. Why not just use a website template or builder? covers the gap at the smallest end.

Launch isn’t where we hand you the keys and leave. TotalCare keeps the product running for a fixed monthly fee, so when something breaks, you know whose phone rings. It isn’t a freelancer who has since moved on.

Offshore isn’t the issue

Where a team sits matters less than how it works. Great engineers work all over the world, and so do poor ones.

We see the other kind often enough. One founder introduced to us through Envestors arrived with a legal tech idea and an offshore build that had stalled. Discovery took two weeks, and the first stage of the rebuild was working in twelve days. Ask the same questions wherever they’re based. Who exactly will do the work? How do you use AI, and who reviews it? When do the accounts become mine? What happens if you stop replying?

Our comparison of agencies, freelancers, fractional CTOs and AI app builders goes through each option, including when you don’t need us at all.