Outsource Web Development: How to Vet the Right One with 8 Criteria

3 Types of Outsourced Web Development

This programming language is suitable for this website development project, but it does not meet the requirements of another project well. This is similar to outsourced web development. That is why there are three types of outsourcing website development, namely onshore, nearshore, and offshore. The choice of which outsourcing type depends on the project’s complexity, budget, and size of each business.

Onshore Outsourcing

When you hand over your web development project into the hands of web developers located domestically, it means you are using the onshore web development outsourced company service.

Onshore outsourcing has the following characteristics:

• No linguistic barrier and communication difficulties
• Matching cultural similarities
• Greater time zone alignment
• Easier legal and regulatory compliance
• Face-to-face meetings and interaction

Nearshore Outsourcing

This is a type of web app development service when you use resources from an outsourced team from neighboring countries that have the same time zone as your business.

Nearshore outsourcing has the following characteristics:

• Little to no time-zone variation
• Linguistic and cultural compatibility
• Better project streamlined
• Cost-effectiveness
• Face-to-face meeting and interaction possibility

Offshore Outsourcing

Offshore outsourcing web development services are the most popular type today, with the highest cost-effective advantages. In this form, the business involves hiring an outsourcing vendor located in a different country to handle web development tasks.

Offshore outsourcing has the following characteristics:

• Largest global talent pool
• Highly cost-effectiveness
• Time zone and cultural differences
• Language barriers
• Time saving and flexibility

7 Benefits of Outsourcing Web Development Company

The way businesses operate is similar to investors; they only consider investing in what is really beneficial in terms of the web development process and profit. According to statistics, up to 92% of G2000 enterprises are currently using outsourcing web development services.

This proves the huge benefits that outsourcing web development brings to companies of any size. Below are seven potential benefits of outsourced web development companies that cannot be denied.

• Reduce cost: Labor from other countries is an abundant human resource, but it is very economical because of the difference in the level of development of the country and currency exchange rates. Using outsourcing companies means reducing training and hiring process costs, employee benefits, and equipment and furniture costs.
• Improve productivity: Outsource web development allows in-house developers to devote entirely to the core business activities such as marketing, sales, and finance while such services handle web development tasks.
• Access to specialized skills: With a large talent pool available, the web development team from outsourcing web development partners are usually professionals with diverse skill sets and expertise, which can help businesses access specialized skills and technologies that may not be available locally.
• Eliminate burnout: A website development outsourcing company helps the in-house team reduce the existing workload and return to the core businesses, focusing on professional activities, thereby limiting burnout.
• Secure confidential information: Based on the agreement and commitment between the two parties, as clearly mentioned in a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), the enterprise ensures the confidentiality of the project. Any breach of contract terms leads to financial compensation or even legal intervention.
• Create competitive advantages: The intervention of web development experts from outsourcing partners helps businesses accelerate the time-to-market of software solutions while your competitors are still struggling at the product development stage.
• Faster turnaround times: If using the offshoring type, the time you are resting can be the work time of the dedicated team and vice versa. This saves you time and doesn’t waste a single second of your day on the development process.

8 Criteria to Choose the Right Web Development Outsourcing Company

As mentioned in the previous sections, choosing a reliable outsourcing partner in web development plays a very important role because it directly interferes with the development process of the enterprise. Once chosen to outsource web development projects, it means that you have accepted the potential pitfalls when choosing the wrong partner.

So, how to limit or even eliminate such risks and build a successful and sustainable partnership? Consider the eight factors below before deciding to contract any web development services.

Reputation

It is no coincidence that well-known outsourcing partners are preferred over other organizations without this element. Reputation is something that cannot be created overnight, but it is the whole branding process of a web development company over a long period of time with proven track records in the past. Considering the reputation of a third-party vendor will help businesses access highly specialized resources and increase the chances of web project success.

We are not saying outsourcing companies that are new to the industry are untrustworthy when they clearly still possess some potential strengths of their own. However, partnering with reputation ones is still a better idea when they are much safer choices. The choice between a popular web development outsourcing company or a lesser-known company depends on your project requirements, as any third-party requires close supervision and management of your business.

Technical Expertise

Because of the diverse nature of each project, each outsourced team often offers its own strengths with different collections of technologies, programming languages, frameworks, and tools. For example, if you want to build an auction website using WordPress, it is important to find a company that specializes in WordPress development. Similarly, if you want to develop a fully functional banking app that uses PHP language, a company specializing in that programming language will be the right choice for you.

Even some outsourced web development companies now provide extensive tech stacks to adapt to the increasing project requirements of their clients. The project manager’s job is to understand the needs of the web project, from which to find the appropriate outsourcing web development services.

Same-field Experience

An outsource web development company can do a lot of projects in the past. However, the one with real experience in the same niche as your business is a huge plus. Why? First, they have a better understanding and easily tailor to your business’s specific needs and objectives. Second, they are more likely to offer shorter onboarding times and faster project delivery times. Finally, drawing from the imperfections in the old project, they improve and develop web solutions with higher quality and efficiency than ever before.

Portfolio

To sum up a collection of previous works that showcase the expertise, capabilities, and skills, web development services often choose a portfolio as a place to consume such things. A sample portfolio would contain information such as services offered details, case studies, technology expertise, industry experience, etc. Taking a close look at the partner’s portfolio on the website will help you better understand the development outsourcing company, thereby creating a premise for a sustainable partnership.

When checking out the portfolio of the outsourcing vendor, in addition to the internal content, you need to pay attention to the external appearance, i.e., its presentation. Appearance is not important, but it shows their working style and workflow. Leaving the contents of the portfolio in a cluttered and unsystematic manner does not in any way indicate vendor carelessness. On the other hand, a well-formed portfolio can be an important factor in proving the trustworthiness of an outsource web development company.

Reviews & Feedbacks

If a portfolio is a place where a third party describes itself as a business, reviews are the objective views of others, specifically previous clients, about such an outsourcing company. So, it can be said that client testimonials are even more informative than portfolios as they provide valuable insights into the vendor’s reliability, quality of work, and customer service. Businesses can gather reviews and feedback from a variety of sources, such as social media, word-of-mouth recommendations, and online review platforms (e.g., Clutch, GoodFirms).

Location

This is one of the most important criteria in the process of finding suitable web development services that businesses need to pay special attention to. The location of an outsourcing vendor is not simply a location but also directly affects many other aspects of web development projects, such as time zone, cultural, language, and legal considerations.

• Time zone differences: There may be delays in response times, which can slow down project progress and delivery.
• Cultural differences: It may be hard to cooperate with global web developers since there are differences in work styles, business practices, and communication norms.
• Legal consideration: This may present challenges in terms of compliance and liability.

However, there are no rules for choosing web development services. If you accept the difference in time zone and culture in return for compatible costs, you can completely choose offshore outsourcing. In contrast, if you have high language requirements as well as immediate support needs, onshore outsourcing is a better solution.

Cost/Pricing Model

All business activities revolve around the allowed budget of the business. That is why you need to carefully consider which web development company to cooperate with because each vendor offers corresponding service packages with different prices. Remember, price goes hand in hand with quality. Choosing a vendor with lower prices may result in lower output quality, whereas choosing a vendor with higher prices may lead to better outcomes.

Besides, knowing the price of outsourcing web development helps you avoid hidden costs incurred in the development process and be more proactive in creating a realistic budget plan.

Development Process

Don’t forget to learn about the outsource web development company’s development process because it deeply influences the way they develop your web solutions. However, it can be challenging for clients to determine whether outsourcing vendors have a transparent working process or not, as this is an internal matter.

While some companies are afraid to share this, of course, there is no shortage of companies willing to provide a detailed explanation of their development process and how they ensure transparency throughout such a process. For outsourcing companies that are not comfortable providing a specific process, you can request access to project management tools or ask for regular reports on project progress.