The real question is who answers when it breaks.
Both can build you something good. They fail in different ways, and the failure is what you are really choosing between.
What an agency is buying you
Cover. If one person is ill, somebody else picks it up, and that is worth real money when a shop depends on the thing being online.
You also get specialists, which matters on a big build. What you pay for it is overhead: an office, a manager, a salesperson, and a junior doing the work while a senior signs it off.
What a freelancer is buying you
The person who read your site is the person who fixes it. Nothing gets explained twice and nothing is lost between a meeting and the work.
What you risk is a single point of failure. One illness, one better offer, one move abroad, and the person holding everything about your site is gone.
Where this studio sits
Closer to the second, and we would rather write that down than let it be discovered. One person reads your site and builds the fix, which is stated on the homepage on purpose.
What is done about the risk is ownership: the domain, the code and every account are in your name from the first day, so leaving costs you a conversation rather than a rebuild.
The questions worth asking either of them
Who owns the code and the accounts when this ends. Who does the actual typing. What happens in month seven when nobody is excited any more. What the monthly bill is for, itemised.
The answers are more revealing than the portfolio. Anybody can show you a nice-looking page; not everybody can tell you what happens when they stop.
Questions worth asking
Is a freelancer always cheaper?
Usually at the invoice and not always over five years. What you pay an agency for is partly insurance, and insurance is only wasted money until the day it is not. Judge the total, not the first number.
What if my freelancer disappears?
That is the failure to plan for, and the plan is ownership. If the domain and the accounts are in your name and the code is plain, another developer picks it up. If they are not, you are rebuilding from a screenshot.
Should I use somebody local?
Only if it helps the work. Being nearby matters for photographs and for trusting somebody, and matters not at all for the building. Anybody leading with their address is usually short of other arguments.
How do I check somebody is any good?
Open the sites they built, on a phone, and see whether they load and whether they are still accurate. Then search for the businesses on them. A portfolio image proves somebody can design; a live site proves the rest.
Do you turn work down?
Yes, and it is usually for one of two reasons: the budget is too small to do the job properly, or the thing being asked for will not fix the problem described. Both are cheaper to hear now than in month three.
Send us what you were quoted and what it covers, and we will tell you plainly whether it is a fair price for that work. Get a free audit.
Updated