A quick google search reveals hundreds, perhaps thousands of web design portfolios, all of which spout the same things and claim to be the best and cheapest. Browsing through Yellowpages or Truelocal you know at least the businesses are close by and it's likely you can go say hello and meet in their offices. But again, who is best and cheapest is again anybodies guess. 

Here are a few factors you might want to consider...

It's often tempting to outsource to a company in India or China offering prices at a fraction of what is offered here. They're quite easy to find nowadays and I've even heard of such companies emailing tradesman directly here in Australia. 

Personally I've had very little success by outsourcing in these countries but it's not impossible to find a good egg if you know what you're looking for and are willing to micro-manage every stage of the delivery. If you need someone to take the wheel and guide you though the process then it's imperative you can meet that person face to face and pickup the phone whenever you like.

Many web design companies take on a lot of new clients and have many projects going on at once, of which yours will be only one of them. As a result the budget and timeframes become very strict and there is very little room for change as the project progresses down the timeline. 

Likewise any changes you need done aren't completed instantly and instead are added to a queue waiting for the next resource (dev or designer) to become available. You may also be charged for any small changes as they fall outside the original specification you signed off on.

At Eggcommerce I only take on 2-3 projects at a time and you'll always have my full attention. I won't make you sign off on strict approval processes and can always find some time to chat or make any changes you require.

The most important section to any web design firms website is the Past work or Portfolio page. This is where you can see the standard they currently adhere to and the type of clients they have worked with before. Obviously most companies are going to tout their biggest and most recognisable brand names first and personally I see nothing wrong with that. 

Although some may not be swayed by fancy household brands it's important to note that when a web design firm has worked with such businesses, there'll have been more emphasis on attention to detail at each milestone of the project. Such companies have a lot more resource and expertise available to spend on market research, testing, analytics user experience etc. As a result the web design firm will in turn have greater attention to detail and in-depth knowledge to particular research, markets, processes and technology that they would not have been exposed to otherwise. 

Before I opened Eggcommerce I worked for the UK's and Australia's biggest and well known brands either in-house as a permanent staff member, or via a digital agency working in a third party capacity. I can tell you it was by working with the biggest brand names that I gained the most experience and valuable expertise.

If price is an important factor to you then this is likely where you'll see the greatest difference. Agencies will typically tout a million different specialisms that range from domain and hosting management,  right through to social media marketing and advertising. They'll have specialist staff for each phase but you have to remember when you're paying for separate specialists, you're covering quite a few employee's salaries. 

Agencies also have the typical running costs of a brick and mortar office which they have to generate revenue to cover. To cover such costs agencies will take on as many projects or more than their resource capacity allows making them inflexible (see above) as well as expensive. Generally speaking, the bigger the agency the more this tends to be true.

Freelancers more often than not work from a home or shared office and have one main overhead; their time. By working with a freelancer you'll typically only get charged for what they pay themselves. Freelancers will likely only take on a couple of projects at a time so their focus is consistently on your project and not many others. When you call them by phone they know exactly what you're talking about and can fulfil your request right there and then. 

Eggcommerce is simply the brand name of my freelance business. I am part of collective of other freelancers from specific specialisms to ensure my clients always receive the best possible services. By dealing with Eggcommerce you deal with only me and you have my assurance that you'll never be passed on to anyone else. I work from a home office and I only charge for my time.

There's a tonne of other factors you could consider when choosing who to build your website. These would include web hosting and domain registration, email setup, after sales support. Too many topics to go into any detail here, but to be honest in this day and age any professional web design company worth their salt should offer a good value package to cover all this. 

At Eggcommerce I don't believe these are factors you should have to think about. I take the stress out of the process by including this as part of my web design services. 

Digital design and advertising ... as easy as an omelette.