Shopify Partner vs Freelancer vs General Web Agency: Which Should You Hire?
Hire a freelancer for defined, low-risk tasks (£30–£80/hour, fastest to start, limited capacity). Hire a general web agency when ecommerce is one channel among many and you want everything under one roof (broad skills, shallower Shopify depth). Hire a Shopify Partner when the store is the business — migrations, custom builds, B2B, or organic traffic worth protecting (deepest platform expertise, ongoing accountability, £3,000–£60,000+ projects). Many scaling brands use a hybrid: a Partner for the build and strategy, freelancers for overflow tasks. The decision driver isn't budget — it's the cost of a mistake.