Studio, agency, freelancer, or in-house?
Updated
There are four common ways for a founder to get a product designed and built: a freelancer, a traditional agency, an in-house hire, or a small founder-led studio like Choie. Each is the right call in a different situation. This page lays them side by side, including the cases where Choie is not the right choice.
Side by side
| Freelancer | Traditional agency | In-house hire | Choie | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | One person, usually one discipline: design or code. | A team assigned by the agency; the people who pitched may not be the people who build. | Employees you recruit and manage, one discipline each until the team is large. | The founder leads product and design on every engagement; trusted collaborators join when the scope needs a specialist. |
| Design and code in the same hands | Rarely; you coordinate a designer and a developer yourself. | Sometimes, across separate design and engineering teams with a handoff between them. | Only once you have hired both, and then across two people. | Yes. The same people make the design decisions and write the code that ships. |
| Pricing model | Hourly or day rate; totals move with the hours. | Estimates, time and materials, or retainers; change requests reprice the work. | Salary, equity, benefits, and recruiting cost, regardless of output. | Fixed prices: $4,900 for a one-week prototype, from $19,000 for a build, from $7,900 a month ongoing. VAT included, scope in writing first. |
| Who owns the designs and code | Depends on the contract; check it. | Depends on the contract; some agencies retain frameworks or licence the work. | The company, as work for hire. | You do, once the fees for a deliverable are paid in full. Third-party libraries and fonts stay under their own licences. |
| Speed to a first version | Fast to start; speed depends on the person's availability. | Slower to start: proposals, onboarding, team allocation. | Slowest to start: hiring takes months, then onboarding. | One week to a coded prototype; four to six weeks to a launched build. |
| Capacity | One person, often juggling several clients. | Scales up and down; your project competes for senior attention. | Fixed; grows only by hiring. | Deliberately small: no more than two projects at a time. |
| Best when | A well-defined task in one discipline, and you can manage the rest. | A large program across many teams, platforms, and integrations at once. | Product work is continuous and central to the company for years. | A focused web or mobile product with one primary user, a clear first release, and a founder who can make weekly decisions. |
| Watch out for | Gaps between design and code, and single-person risk. | Handoffs, juniors on the build, and change-request pricing. | Time to hire and the cost of a wrong hire. | Anything that needs more than two projects' worth of capacity or open-ended staff augmentation. |
The freelancer, agency, and in-house columns describe common arrangements, not any specific company. Contracts vary; read yours.
Where Choie fits, and where it does not
Best fit
- A focused web or mobile product
- One primary user and critical workflow
- A founder or executive can make weekly decisions
- A clear launch goal and realistic first release
Better elsewhere
- A large program spanning many teams
- Several platforms and complex integrations at once
- Open-ended staff augmentation
- No clear owner, user or first release
Questions founders ask when comparing
Why does Choie use fixed prices instead of hourly rates?
Because a founder needs one price and one date, both written down before work starts. A written scope fixes the deliverables and the total; changes are agreed in writing and may change the price or timeline, but nothing moves silently.
Is a studio the same as an agency?
Not in how the work is done. An agency assigns a team and moves work across design and engineering departments. A founder-led studio keeps a small number of projects, and the people who scope the work are the people who design and build it.
When should a founder not hire Choie?
When the work is a large program spanning many teams, several platforms and complex integrations at once, open-ended staff augmentation, or a project with no clear owner, user, or first release. Those are better served by a larger agency or an in-house team.
Can we start small and see?
Yes. The one-week prototype is a fixed $4,900 and ends with a working coded prototype and a recommendation on what to build next. If a build starts within 60 days, the full fee is credited.
Prices are on the pricing page; the week-by-week shape of a project is on the process page. If you are still unsure, write a few lines and you will get an honest answer about fit within two business days.