We've gone back and forth on this way more than I'd like to admit. Freelancers work fine for small stuff, sure. But every time we needed something bigger, it felt like starting over — new person, same explanations, same mistakes from not knowing the codebase.

So we started looking into options to hire dedicated developers instead. Mainly because we wanted someone who actually stays long enough to get it, instead of finishing a ticket and vanishing.

Has anyone else made this switch? Genuinely curious if it was worth the extra commitment or if it just ended up feeling like freelance work with extra steps.