Most thriving tech companies have one important thing in common—the indisputable quality of the content they put out. Likewise, it’s hard to lead a successful team without proper internal documentation in place.
And whether you’re planning to create customer-facing or internal technical documents, you need somebody to write them.
Rather than asking your engineers to take on yet another responsibility, you’ll generate better results by hiring a technical writer. This raises a question: should you hire freelance or in-house technical writers?
This article will list the benefits of each option, along with specific scenarios where one is better than the other.
By the end of the article, you’ll be able to make an informed decision and find the most suitable type of writer for your business.
But to do that, you first have to understand in what ways freelancers and in-house writers differ.
The Difference Between Freelance and In-House Technical Writers#
To put it succinctly, the main difference between freelance and in-house tech writers is the type of employment. While freelancers work as contractors, in-house writers are your full-time employees.
There are good reasons why businesses prefer a certain type of employment. Take the following job ad for a full-time tech writer at Motorola Solutions, for example.
Source: LinkedIn
As the screenshot shows, the company states that they’re looking for somebody to work on user guides, API developer guides, and other large-scale pieces of technical documentation.
So, it makes sense for the company to look for a person who will keep the role for a longer period of time rather than introducing new freelancers to the project every month.
On the other hand, if you want to boost the amount of technical content you produce, such as blog posts or tutorials, you’ll have more success with freelancers.
For instance, Codecov, a code analysis company, is constantly on the lookout for contributors to enrich their blog.
Source: Codecov
Since Codecov’s blog covers a wide range of code-related topics, they don’t have to rely on a single specialized author—in their case, it’s much more time and cost-efficient to hire several freelancers.
In other words, while in-house writers specialize in technology used in a particular company, freelancers work with various topics and are usually commissioned for shorter writing pieces.
These differences also lead to discrepancies in subject matter expertise: in-house tech writers generally develop a deeper understanding of technologies they work with daily.
Still, if you only need a person to write technical product descriptions, you probably don’t have to recruit a machine learning specialist to work with you full time—a freelance writer will suffice.
Reasons to Hire a Freelance Technical Writer#
As you can see, there’s no clear-cut answer to the question of “what kind of tech writer should I hire?” because it all depends on the specific needs of your industry, company, and product.
To point you in the right direction, we’ll now list the reasons for hiring each of the two types so that you can see which option is right for you. We’ll start with freelance technical writers.
Experience#
If you need content quickly but don’t have enough time for onboarding and training writers, your best bet is to find someone who is already experienced in the field. Experienced freelance technical writers, particularly those with narrow specializations, can help you achieve your goal.
Let’s say you wanted to publish content about the emerging blockchain technology. In that case, finding a writer with a proven track record in writing about the topic would be the best approach.
For instance, this tech writer specializes in blockchain and crypto, meaning that they could readily tackle the subject and do it well.
Source: Clippings
Of course, you have to be sure of someone’s expertise before accepting to work with them. Luckily, most freelance writers have their portfolios on hand to show prospective clients.
Below, you can see articles about Web3 and crypto payments written by the author we’ve just mentioned.
Source: Clippings
Browsing the portfolio will help you determine whether a freelancer’s technical and writing experience would match your needs.
That way, you’ll be able to find writers with demonstrated experience in creating technical content regardless of the topic and get a reliable author instantly, without having to train them for months first.
Convenience#
Another benefit of working with freelance tech writers is the fact that hiring takes less effort, making this a more convenient option for when you’re tight on time or budget.
When you hire an in-house writer, you have a commitment to them, regardless of the quality of their work. On the other hand, working with freelancers allows you flexibility in collaboration.
If you don't like a freelance writer's content, you're not bound by a contract to continue working with them. Work with freelancers is typically set up on a task-to-task basis, which lets you change writers until you've found the perfect one to collaborate with for the rest of the project.
Some employees even advertise the work model with no tight commitment to attract technical writers with similar priorities.
Source: Twitter
Such a “no-strings-attached” approach is also what many tech writers prefer because it allows them to work exclusively with topics they’re interested in.
Another factor that makes working with freelance writers convenient is the speed of hiring.
Instead of going through multiple rounds of interviews and the training process, hiring freelancers allows you to get technical content much sooner.
That’s why you’ll often see companies in need of content skipping the lengthy recruiting process and working with freelancers who can start writing instantly.
Source: LinkedIn
The same principle applies to ending the collaboration. Once the agreed-upon number of articles is finished or the task is complete, both you and the freelancer can move on to the next project.
So, if you expect the amount of work connected to technical content to fluctuate over time, hiring a freelancer is the most convenient way to get work done.
Cost Effectiveness#
If you prefer basing your business decisions on tangible metrics, you’d probably like to know that hiring a freelance technical writer is a more cost-effective option than hiring an in-house writer.
So, if you need a one-off piece of technical writing and not a steady supply of documents, freelancers are a cheaper choice.
Creating technical documentation yields numerous business benefits, so it’s not surprising that employers have started recognizing the effectiveness of technical writers and rewarding it with salaries rising well above the national average.
TURN STATIC DOCS INTO INSTANT ANSWERS
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Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
However, if you don’t need technical content often, it probably doesn’t make sense for you to hire a full-time writer for $78,060 annually and pay for insurance, overhead costs, PTO, and more.
Instead, it’s more cost-effective to commission a freelance writer whenever the need arises for a new technical document.
Even freelancers working with highly-specialized documents, such as API documentation, have relatively affordable rates compared to what you’d have to pay for an in-house writer.
Source: Upwork
For instance, this freelance API writer we’ve found on Upwork charges $65 per hour.
You should note that he’s one of the top-rated tech writers on the platform, making his rates higher than average.
So, if you need fewer pieces of writing, documents that are less extensive, or docs that don’t require coding knowledge, hiring freelance tech writers becomes even more affordable.
Reasons to Hire an In-House Technical Writer#
As we’ve seen, hiring a freelance writer can be a faster and more cost-effective solution to creating technical content.
However, there are several reasons why sometimes it’s better to invest more resources and hire an in-house technical writer. Let’s see what these are.
Deeper Topic Understanding#
If your business needs highly-specialized content that reflects your values or describes complex company-specific technologies, hiring an in-house writer will offer more benefits in the long run because they’ll develop a deeper topic understanding over time.
While freelance writers cover a broad range of areas, they rarely have an in-depth knowledge of all these topics.
That’s why this Twitter user, whose company needs technical content about washing machines, knows their chances of finding a well-versed freelancer are slim.
Source: Twitter
They even call the needed writer a unicorn because freelancers with deep expertise in technical subjects are, in most cases, tough to find.
You can combat such problems by hiring a full-time in-house technical writer. The more time they spend working with the same product, the better they’ll understand how it works, allowing them to present its characteristics accurately.
In other words, you’ll get better content by working with T-skilled in-house writers who have a profound knowledge of the area, unlike freelance writers who switch from topic to topic due to the nature of the job.
Source: CFI
Also, in-house writers have the opportunity to collaborate with product owners and other SMEs, meaning that they can get additional input to ensure the accuracy of information.
Through collaboration with SMEs and thanks to repetition in writing within a narrow field, in-house tech writers become more knowledgeable than freelancers.
That way, you get self-sufficient team members who write technical documents and content independently, without you having to provide too much direction after the initial training.
Reliability#
Hiring an in-house technical writer means that you no longer need to worry whether you’ll manage to find somebody to write a technical document in time.
With a dedicated team member who handles document creation, you'll always have access to quality content written to your standards.
When you work with freelancers, you have to be aware that you’re “sharing” the writer with other businesses. That means that a freelance writer may not always prioritize you—it’s possible that they’ll speed up the writing process so that they can start working on another client’s project.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what Kate Abrosymova of the marketing company Kaiiax experienced.
Source: Archbee
Abrosymova now finds that working with in-house writers is a more reliable approach because they’re always available, and they already have the knowledge of the company’s industry and customers.
And since in-house writers don’t have to rush to meet other clients’ deadlines, you can count on them to always invest sufficient time in creating well-researched, quality content.
So, if you’d like to avoid rushed documents of potentially dubious accuracy, hiring a full-time in-house writer is a safer option.
Long-Term Cooperation#
Freelance writers make it easy to cover a broad range of topics. However, if you’re planning to generate a lot of content about the same niche and maintain the docs, in-house writers are a better choice for long-term collaboration.
One of the characteristics of technical documents that sets them apart from other types of content is that you have to maintain the docs in order to keep them usable, especially in the change-prone software industry.
Ideally, the same person who wrote the docs will be responsible for maintenance, which is why some companies also task technical writers with updating and extending the docs, as you can see in the example below.
Source: LinkedIn
Essentially, if you want to ensure a long service life of your docs, you have to plan for their upkeep. And seeing that long-term cooperation isn’t exactly compatible with the way freelance writers operate, you can make the process easier by hiring in-house tech writers.
Another factor that makes in-house writers more suitable for long-term cooperation is their familiarity with your internal processes.
According to Bal Simon, an experienced tech writer, a good writer can understand the documented processes and ask SMEs for clarification when necessary.
Source: Quora
Now, if you had to look for new freelancers for each individual document and introduce them to your product and work processes, that would quickly become time-consuming and expensive.
Instead, it is worthwhile to go through the hiring process and choose an in-house writer who can contribute to your documentation and content as your company progresses.
Conclusion#
Although it’s impossible to say if freelance technical writers are inherently better than in-house writers or vice versa, we hope we’ve managed to clarify the instances when one option is more convenient than the other.
To sum up, if you need isolated, one-off pieces of writing, freelance writers may be the preferred choice.
But if you want a series of documents about one particular technology or your product, it’s safer to hire an in-house writer.
And if you’re ready to start the selection process, make sure you ask your future tech writer relevant interview questions available here.
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Frequently Asked Questions
At a high level: freelancers are on-demand specialists you contract for specific deliverables; in-house writers are employees who embed with your teams and own documentation over time.
Key differences:
- Engagement model: Freelancers work per project or hour and often support multiple clients. In-house writers are salaried, long-term teammates.
- Depth of context: In-house writers build deep product, stack, and process knowledge. Freelancers ramp quickly but won’t retain the same institutional memory across projects.
- Availability and priority: In-house capacity maps to your roadmap. Freelancers juggle other clients and may have limited bandwidth at peak times.
- Consistency and voice: In-house can maintain a unified style and terminology across evolving docs. Freelance tone can vary unless your guidelines are tight.
- Cost structure: In-house includes salary, benefits, tools, and overhead—most efficient with steady, high-volume work. Freelancers may have higher per-piece rates but no ongoing costs when you pause content.
- Tooling and access: In-house writers can be granted deeper system access (repos, analytics, internal wikis). Freelancers typically get scoped access for speed and security.
- Best fits: Freelancers for fast, one-off, or niche content. In-house for complex, living documentation tied closely to your product.
Choose a freelancer when you need speed, flexibility, or niche expertise without adding headcount.
Great use cases:
- Fast turnaround: Minimal onboarding so you can ship content quickly.
- Specialized topics on demand: Tap proven expertise in areas like blockchain, APIs, data engineering, security, or DevOps for specific pieces.
- Flexible capacity: Scale up or down as your content pipeline spikes or slows.
- Cost control for one-offs: Pay per deliverable or hour—no benefits, tools, or long-term commitments.
- Varied content mix: Blogs, tutorials, how-tos, product descriptions, and short-form docs across different subjects.
- Pilot projects or experiments: Validate new content areas before committing to a permanent role.
Tips for success:
- Provide a tight brief (audience, goal, success criteria, examples).
- Share your style guide and templates to lock tone and structure.
- Give quick SME access for clarifications and technical reviews.
- Define scope and timelines up front, including review/approval steps.
Go in-house when depth, consistency, and continuity are critical to your documentation.
Best scenarios:
- Complex, company-specific tech: Requires deep product knowledge and ongoing access to engineers and SMEs.
- Consistent availability: You need dependable capacity aligned to your roadmap and release cadence.
- Long-term maintenance: Docs require updates, versioning, and governance over time (not just one-and-done pieces).
- Tight collaboration: Close work with engineering, product, UX, and support to ensure accuracy and a unified voice.
- Security and compliance: Sensitive information or regulated environments benefit from embedded staff.
- Process ownership: Someone to standardize templates, enforce style, measure quality, and improve doc workflows.
Typical outputs:
- User guides, API references, SDK docs
- Release notes and changelogs
- Internal runbooks, onboarding, and process docs
- Architecture overviews and integration guides These assets evolve with your product and are best owned by an embedded writer.
Match the hiring model to your workload, complexity, and maintenance needs.
Quick decision check:
- Is your workload steady and high-volume? Choose in-house.
- Are your topics complex and product-specific? Choose in-house.
- Do docs need continuous updates and governance? Choose in-house.
- Do you need quick, occasional pieces across varied topics? Choose freelance.
- Are timelines tight and onboarding time limited? Choose freelance.
- Do you prefer variable costs over fixed headcount? Choose freelance.
- Do security/compliance needs demand deeper access? Choose in-house.
Pro tip: Many teams use a hybrid approach—an in-house writer owns core, evolving docs and standards; freelancers handle content spikes, tutorials, marketing-aligned pieces, and niche topics. Centralize your style guide, templates, and tooling to make this seamless.
They follow different cost models.
- In-house (total cost of ownership): Salary + benefits + taxes + tools + onboarding/training + management time. This becomes cost-effective when you have ongoing, high-volume documentation and need deep product context.
- Freelance (variable cost): Typically higher per-hour or per-piece rates but no benefits, overhead, or long-term commitments. Efficient for sporadic, short-term, or highly specialized work.
Rule of thumb:
- Continuous stream of complex docs with regular updates? In-house often lowers your per-document cost over time.
- Occasional, project-based, or unpredictable needs? Freelancers typically minimize total spend.
Watchouts when modeling costs:
- Freelance: Budget for revision cycles, rush fees, and SME review time.
- In-house: Account for time-to-productivity, management overhead, and ongoing tool/licenses.