Should I hire a developer, an agency or a team that does marketing and development?
Security firms need tools built and pipeline grown. Who you hire depends on whether those projects are connected.
- Should we hire a freelancer for our portal?
- Is an agency worth the cost?
- Can one team do marketing and development?
Hire a freelance developer for a small, well-defined build you can manage. Hire a development agency for a larger product with ongoing releases. Work with one team that does marketing and development when the projects are connected, such as a website, CRM integrations, a client portal and lead automation, because handoffs between separate providers are where these projects usually break.
Compare the options
| Option | Fits when | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance developer | Small, defined build you can manage | Availability, security practice, handover |
| Development agency | Larger product, ongoing releases | Cost, junior staff on your project |
| Marketing and development team | Connected projects: website, CRM, portal, automation | Depth in each area |
| In-house hire | Ongoing, core development work | Cost and time to hire |
Questions to ask any provider
- Who will actually do the work?
- How do you handle security in your own code and systems?
- Who owns the code and accounts?
- How do you document and hand over?
How we look at it at ShoutEx
ShoutEx is a team of marketing, automation and development specialists. We fit best when growth and tooling are linked. For a large standalone product, a dedicated development agency may be the better choice, and we'll say so. Our guide on who should build your software goes deeper.
- No answer on who does the work.
- Code or accounts owned by the provider.
- Weak security practices in a provider building for a security firm.
- Separate providers with no shared plan.
- Named people on your project.
- Full ownership of code and accounts.
- Documented security practices.
- One plan across connected projects.
What buyers and practitioners say
Here is what founders and practitioners say.
Founders compare freelancers and agencies. Clear scope and ownership of code come up as the deciding factors.
Browse the threads →MSP owners share experiences hiring developers for internal tools and integrations.
Browse the threads →If the build includes AI features, ask providers how they manage AI risks using a framework such as NIST's.
Read the framework →Community summaries describe recurring themes in public threads, not individual posts. Vendor pages describe vendor claims, so test them on your own calls.
Read next
Go deeper in the ShoutEx guides, or check the sources behind this answer.
We'll tell you whether we fit, or who would fit better.
Book a call →Follow-up questions
Can a marketing team really build software?
Ask for examples and who does the work. A team with dedicated developers can.
Should we use offshore developers?
It can work with strong management and clear security requirements.
What about AI coding tools?
They speed up building. Code still needs review, testing and security checks.