Web agency or freelancer: how to choose for your website

Published on 4 November 2026by Tauro Lab8 min read

In short A freelancer is enough for a simple, well-defined project, when you want to deal with the person doing the work. An agency makes sense when you need several skills together and someone who answers even if one person is away. Either way: written contract, domain and logins in your name, code assigned in writing, a named contact for afterwards. Before signing, two free checks: active VAT number and company register.

Web agency or freelancer? A freelancer is enough for a simple, well-defined project; an agency is needed when the job contains several trades or cannot stop because one person is ill. Whoever sells one or the other answers in favour of their own, and we are a company, so we are biased: we say so upfront. That is why you will find criteria here that hold even if you choose another route, plus something the guides skip: who owns the website's code under Italian law, and two free checks to run on the supplier before you sign.

Web agency or freelancer: the differences that count

Labels tell you little. Some freelancers work like small studios, with collaborators and a method, and some agencies are places where you never meet the person doing the work. What really changes is the organisation.

Aspect	Freelancer	Web agency
Who does the work	One person, who usually talks to you directly.	Several people in different roles, often with one contact for you.
Skills	The person's own, sometimes topped up by collaborators.	Planning, design, development, text and SEO within the same group.
If you need it quickly	Depends on their diary.	The work can be split, if the agency is organised.
If the person is away	The work stops until they are back.	Someone else can take over.
Who signs the contract	The person, with their own VAT number.	A company, with its VAT number and companies register entry.
After launch	Depends on their availability and on what you agreed in writing.	Depends on the support contract, not on the agency's name.

There is no rule on price: an experienced freelancer can cost as much as a small agency, and an agency can give the lowest quote on a small job. Compare what is included, not the figure. To read a quote line by line there is how much does a website cost.

When a freelancer is enough

the project is simple and defined: a few pages, a contact form, no links to other software;
you already know what you want and have the text and photos ready;
you prefer to deal with the same person throughout, someone who knows your business;
you are not in a hurry, and a two-week delay would not cost you orders;
they have already done work like yours and you can open it on your phone, not just see it in a picture.

An invented case: an accountancy practice with two partners wants five pages, about us, services, contact and a couple of articles. A freelancer who has already worked for professional practices will do it well, with direct contact. Paying for an agency's organisation would be superfluous.

When the project calls for a web agency

you need several skills together: website, online shop, SEO, links to other software;
the site has to talk to your management system, stock records or invoicing;
if the site goes down you lose enquiries or orders, and someone has to step in within a written time;
you want a contract, invoicing and support organised the way companies do it;
the project will go on for years, with new features to add.

The opposite case, also invented: a company with a warehouse wants to sell online and link orders and stock levels to its management software. It needs planning, development, testing and someone who answers when an order does not arrive. For one person that is heavy and risky work. What an agency does, and when you do not need one, is in why hire a web agency.

The Monday morning test

This is the question that separates the two routes and gets asked too late: if the site stops working on Monday at nine, who do I call and how quickly will they answer? With a freelancer the answer depends on the person: it may be immediate or depend on their holidays. With an agency it depends on the contract: written support with response times is worth more than a big name. Either way, the answer goes in writing before you start, not looked for when you need it.

Who owns the code: what Italian law says

Here freelancer and agency do not start on equal terms, and almost nobody explains it. Italian copyright law says in article 110 that a transfer of exploitation rights "must be proven in writing". If the contract says nothing about who owns the site's code, the question stays open even after you have paid in full.

With an agency, code written by its employees belongs to the agency: article 12-bis says so, unless agreed otherwise, for programs created by an employee in the course of their duties. The agency must then assign it to you, in writing. With a freelancer, the author is the freelancer, and no rule transfers the rights to you automatically: here too the line in the contract is needed. In practice, in both cases ask for a clear sentence: what is assigned to you, whether you can modify it or have others modify it, and what stays with the supplier. This is not legal advice: if the site matters to your business, have a lawyer read it.

Three useful points. The text and photos you supplied stay yours. Photos and fonts bought under licence should be licensed in your name, otherwise you lose the right to use them when you change supplier. And if the site is built on WordPress, themes and plugins distributed for WordPress inherit the GPL licence according to the WordPress project: you can keep using and modifying them with whoever you like. The platform comparison is in WordPress or custom development.

Two free checks before you sign

Active VAT number. On the Italian Revenue Agency's VAT number check enter the number on the quote: you see whether it is active, ceased or suspended, who holds it and since when. A supplier who has been invoicing for ten years and one who opened last month are not the same thing, and neither will tell you.
The company exists. On registroimprese.it you can search an agency by name for free and see whether it is registered, where and since when; the full company report is paid. For a freelancer the VAT check is enough.

Then the check that costs nothing and is worth most: ask for three sites already live, open them on your phone on mobile data, and ask to speak to one of those clients.

How to protect yourself, whichever you choose

A signed quote or contract stating what is included: pages, text, photos, features, timing, number of changes.
Payments in stages tied to things delivered, not everything upfront.
Domain, hosting and mailboxes registered in your name, with the credentials handed over at the end.
The sentence on the assignment of code and content, in writing.
Access to the dashboard and a complete copy of the files, so you can take the site elsewhere.
A named contact for after launch, with a way to reach them and a response time.

If a supplier, freelancer or agency will not put in writing who keeps the domain, logins and code, treat it as a serious warning sign.

The same brief for a freelancer and an agency

Write one page on what the site must do, which features you need, when it has to be live and who will update it afterwards. Send the same text to a freelancer and to an agency and see how they reply: someone who asks about your work before giving a price has understood what you need. If you are starting from scratch, the steps are in how to start a professional website.

If you would like to hear from us as well, our websites page shows how we work, or you can write to us. If your project is simple and we think a freelancer is enough, we will tell you.

Frequently asked questions

Is a freelancer always cheaper?

No. An experienced freelancer can cost as much as a small agency, and an agency can give a lower quote on a small job. Compare what is included, what happens after launch and who keeps the code, not only the final figure.

Can I change supplier after launch?

Yes, if you have put the right things in writing: domain and logins in your name, assignment of the code, a copy of the files and widely used tools. With a site tied closely to its supplier, switching costs more. Ask before you start, not when relations are already strained.

How can I tell whether a freelancer is reliable?

Check their VAT number on the Revenue Agency's site, open the sites they have built on your phone, speak to one of their clients and watch how they answer your first questions: clear timing, a written quote, no rush to make you sign. Also ask who looks after you if they disappear for a while.

Is a small agency better than a large one?

It depends on what you are after. In a small one you usually talk to the person doing the work, while a large one has more structure but often a go-between. What counts is knowing who works on your project, who you phone when you need to and what the support contract says.

Sources

Written by the Tauro Lab team, a web agency and software house in Turin. About us