How many of you developed your own website versus having a web developer do it for you? What has been your experience?

We have nearly all of our sites developed by firms in India. We have generally been fine with the finished product but we have not been happy with how long it takes to explain things and the misinterpretations we went with most of them thinking that it would be cheaper and it was. But what we did not plan on the cost is the amount of further time it took us in preparation.

We have developed some of our easier sites but we leave database programming to the professionals. We have found that some people are good at web design but not database development and vice versa. We also have found there are very few good graphic designers out there.

We had someone on our staff who dabbled in site development so we asked him to put it together. It was a big mistake he took too long and the quality was not there in the end we had to redo it a couple years later. I would definately recommend and outside group to do it.

We use in house staff and are very happy with the results anything she cannot do we outsouces i.e. database development. It is so much easier when you can communicate with someone in house.

We have developed it ourself but wish wish we used someone else because it took a lot longer and ultimately cost us more money by doing it ourselves.

I am working for a web design and development firm in India, and I completely
agree with trio in that people are usually good at either design or
programming.

Sometimes the communication cost is a lot higher, if you are communicating via
chat an email and the person on other end is not easily able to make you out.

But again any good company will tend to have people with good English skills,
who can communicate well over phone, so you could converse with them over
phone.

The best way around this is to hire a company with expert professionals and
proven track record in various fields rather than working with individuals.

Regards,

Steve Smith
steve[at]pixVista.com