| Best fit | Short, well-defined, self-contained work - a theme, a landing page, a script | Work where understanding the domain is most of the job, and the people who design it build it | Large multi-year programmes needing many people on the ground at once |
| Who you actually talk to | The person doing the work | The person doing the work | An account manager, usually not the engineers |
| Cost | Lowest, and the right answer more often than studios admit | Higher than a freelancer, well below agency rates | Highest, and much of it is process and management overhead |
| If the work grows | Becomes the constraint quickly | Scales to a point, then honestly stops | Scales furthest - this is the real reason to choose one |
| If someone leaves | The project stops | Continuity, provided the code and docs are handed over properly | Absorbed without you noticing |
| Process weight | Almost none, which cuts both ways | Enough to be accountable, not enough to bill for | Formal, documented, and priced into every change |
| Contractual 24/7 support | No | Ask directly, and accept a straight answer - small teams often cannot meet this honestly | Yes, with named response times |