Do It Yourself
If you're thinking you'll just create your browser extension yourself so you don't have to spend money, you might want to think again. Creating your own browser extension from scratch can take up to 10x as long than if you hire a professional. In fact, because it can be easy to get lost in a sea of information and endless to-do tasks, you might find the project grinding to a halt.
You don't want to be caught in a situation where you end up wasting a lot of your time and effort on a project you don't end up finishing just because it's too hard, long, or tedious. Little steps, hiccups, and roadblocks along the way can all work together to string out the process far longer than you expected.
On top of that, if you try to put it together yourself, the end result won't be a polished browser extension that runs smoothly and seamlessly for your audience. Once you've launched it, they may find your extension difficult to use. If there are too many annoying problems, they'll stop using it altogether and certainly won't refer your extension to their friends, family, or colleagues.
Ultimately, you may have just poured countless hours and energy into an extension that doesn't do well at all, simply because you tried to save a few bucks. In the end, doing it yourself often only causes more issues. Investing your money into a professional is well worth the cost and will pay for itself many times over.
Hire a Freelancer
Hiring a freelancer to develop your extension is the next step up from doing it yourself. However, going this route still presents its own set of challenges as well. While there are freelancers out there who know what they're doing, they can't offer you a wide range of skillsets simply because they're working by themselves.
Whatever personal and professional skills they've developed on their own is what they'll be using to work with on your extension, rather than being able to call on a team of people. Having multiple people work on your extension means you get a lot of different expertise going into your project, and lone freelancers can't offer that to you. Plus, because it's just one person handling your entire project, it's likely to take quite a bit longer.
Using a freelancer means it's often harder to get a guarantee that you'll end up with a superb browser extension, and in the worst case scenario, you may end up paying someone up front to create an extension they either have no intention of working on or they don't really know how to do.
Using an Experienced Agency
Another option to make your browser extension idea become a reality is to hire an experienced agency. They're more professional, have faster timelines, and draw on tons of experience.
Agencies can take advantage of the fact that they have a much wider range of skill sets than individual freelancers. Each person on their team holds specific areas they specialize in, rather than relying on only one person with limited skillsets to complete every task involved in the process. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one, and when several people meet together to draw on each other's knowledge and expertise, they can serve your needs in ways freelancers (and yourself) never could.
On top of that, it's easier – and faster – for them to work on larger projects, meaning you get your extension finished sooner than you would if you hired a freelancer, and much sooner than you would if you tried to create it yourself.
Not to mention agencies are usually very professional in every aspect, from their back and forth communication to you to how they organize your project and complete each task, and of course, in the final version of your new browser extension.
Wrapping It Up
Okay, so let's recap. You have an idea for a browser extension and you're ready to take the next step and make your idea become a reality. There are a few different paths you can go down in order to make this happen.
If you do it yourself, you might initially think you're saving money, but for the hours of potentially wasted time and an unprofessional end result, a DIY browser extension just isn't worth it.
Hiring a freelancer is a better option, but still comes with its fair share of challenges. Because most freelancers are a one-person show, they're only able to offer a limited number of skills and can take quite a bit of time to finish creating your extension.
Hiring an agency with years of experience and several people working for them is your best bet for getting an extremely high-quality, valuable Browser Extension your target audience will love. Check out Coditude for our services today!
