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From time to time, there is that thought of what the competition looks like. For studios like Wonder Makers, the competition consists of agencies as well as other web dev companies, even though agencies literally are completely different in nature. If we were to compare an agency to a studio, the agency would be a whole brand that shields many individual athletes who do many unalike sports, and the studio would be the small town club that only ever played soccer. There are undeniably bigger, the service options are broader, and that would be the main difference. But what else is there? And do smaller studios even have their place in the rapidly growing markets of neo-capitalistic lust? Well, I think they do, and here is why.

DISCLAIMER:

This is not the text to say that studios are better than agencies. They are not. They just have a different purpose, and it’s up to you whether you see that purpose and can take advantage of it to differentiate your business from the others.

What web dev studios offer that agencies don’t:

Specialization and true expertise

There is a specialization and then there is the specialization. We can be good at something, but the true magic happens when we love the thing we do. In small studios, there is like two million chance of people loving what they do. For example, 80% of our projects are built on Astro websites. We do love Astro, and we are outstanding at it.

Well, what argument is that? People in big agencies could love their jobs too! Ok, yes, but they also have to do a lot more stuff other than the job itself. In the studio environment, it’s almost guaranteed that it would not happen. You only do what is necessary to deliver the absolute top final product. (And you never thought of doing anything else, really) From that, the true expertise emerges, because everything else is basically obsolete.

Personal approach

What personal approach in custom web development means, especially in the times of optimized processes — and that’s entirely my opinion — is that you experience something new. I mean, how can you be truly personal when what you provide to Carol doesn’t really differ from what you provide to Ben? So what personal touch are we talking about? The true personal touch stems from little imperfections and a willingness to go above and beyond for the client. Meetings are not held under pre-existing agendas, they flow naturally. You are not being bombarded by project managers all the time with questions that make no sense, you speak to someone who cares, usually the web developers themselves. And whatnot, you might even come across a little bit of fun. I could continue, but, personal approach seems to me like the hidden advantage of small studios in the era of corporate megalodons. If you seek it.

Super high performance

Let’s call this “the nerd advantage”. Studios love what they do, remember? Well, this amplifies the knowledge, the skill, the endeavor. Combine it with the fear. The fear of doing a bad job, the word could spread, and the business could end faster than it started. This is real. A bit unrealistic, but real. This all compounds into the high-end websites that are extremely well optimized, we are talking 85+ scores in the Google Lighthouse analysis, fast load times on forbidden connection speeds, and all that with 3D, motion design that engages with literally everybody, and custom-made web animations that go on the scale of 1 to wow to wow. It’s nuts and it is great!

True identity and brand personality

This one is good and definitely controversial (like the others haha). Websites coming out of studios are so unique and so yours. It’s almost unbelievable. For some unknown reason, the agency’s web design could come out kind of “expected”. It’s hard to find words not to offend anyone, but you got what you paid for, and many times it’s not fun. The studio projects are on the other hand guaranteed bold, unhinged, and daring. And your brand loves this, your audience loves this.

The best technology available

If your studio doesn’t have that one guy who knows the latest dev trends, then you should get one. It’s brilliant and it always pays off in the project. With such a high phase of updates in the dev world. It’s not possible for the client to get comfortable with everything that’s going on, and that’s fine. You have the studio guy who will do that for you, don’t worry. This framework is good at this, this CMS is excellent at that. You will love it, your e-commerce website will definitely love it, trust. The bottom line is that your project will always be the best it could be technologically.