If you decide to turn to an external source for a custom web site designer, you can turn to an all-in-one development shop or to a freelancer.

All-in-one custom web site shops
Many firms provide all the services you need, from initial design to development and maintenance. These companies may have designers, developers, and IT professionals on staff, they may outsource some tasks to a partner company, or they may work with a number of freelancers who provide different specialties. No matter how they manage the job, they provide a couple of key advantages.

First, by providing you with one point of contact, they ease the management of the entire custom web site project. Second, because all the key players work together, there are fewer integration problems or communication hassles. Third, having one company manage all aspects of the project can allow them to focus on understanding and addressing your business needs, rather than simply following a checklist of development tasks.

Many larger custom web site design firms offer other marketing services, such as email campaigns, search engine marketing, and more programs to help drive visitors to your web site. They can be the best route if you’re outsourcing your entire project or aren’t familiar with web site development.

Freelancers
The web development industry supports a large number of freelance custom web site designers and developers. It’s often cheaper to hire a freelancer than to hire a larger company and only use one aspect of their services. This is especially true if some aspects of your site project are being handled in-house, but you need an expert to handle the design, for example.

Working with freelancers can also give you more control over the project, although that comes at the price of requiring more project management work on your part. If you’re familiar with how a web site project works and are comfortable managing multiple players, a freelance web site designer can be a good choice.