Other ways to get it built, compared
Last checked November 8, 2026.
Hiring us is one way to get a product built. There are five others founders usually weigh, and each one is the better choice for some jobs. These pages walk through how a Zaions project runs next to each of them, so you can tell which one fits yours.
| If you're weighing | Read | It's the better choice when |
|---|---|---|
| A big agency | A big agency | the work needs a lot of people at the same hour |
| One freelancer | A solo freelancer | it's one small job with a clear finish line |
| An AI app builder or no-code tool | Building it yourself with AI | you want to test an idea before you spend on it |
| Your own developers | Hiring your own team | the software is the business for years to come |
| Developers billed by the hour | Developers by the hour | you already have someone to direct them |
What stays the same in every Zaions project?
Four steps, whatever the route you're comparing against:
- The brief. You say what it must do, who uses it and your budget range.
- A written plan and price, before anyone writes code.
- Milestones, each ending with a link to the working build.
- The handover, where the repository, the design files and the accounts move into your name.
AI agents write most of our code now. A person on the team decides what they build, reads what comes back and runs it before a milestone link reaches you. The same comparison, with dated examples from our own projects, is on zaions.com/compare (opens in a new tab).
Next: A big agency: the route most often weighed against ours.