What each route costs in hours, what it protects, and from when direct contact stops being cheaper.
Two markets, two doors
Four differences in kind.
The marketplace brings demand that can already pay: the companies coming there have a budget and a dated need.
Direct contact brings a relationship, but supposes prospecting, therefore unbilled time.
The first sets the framework for you, including the default rights.
And the second leaves you to write everything, which is an advantage if you can draft a quote, a risk otherwise.
What direct contact does well
Five real strengths.
No commission, therefore a higher margin for equal work.
Rights negotiated line by line, which allows exclusivity and paid advertising to be sold separately.
A relationship extending over several orders, with a zero acquisition cost from the second one.
The possibility of offering extra formats, invisible in a standard catalogue.
And access to small local businesses, which never look on a marketplace.
What the marketplace does well
Five strengths direct contact does not replace.
Discovery: you are found without prospecting.
Payment, framed and often guaranteed, which removes the trade's first risk.
Proof of the agreement: dated brief, accepted price, exchanges preserved.
Recourse in case of dispute, non-existent in a direct relationship with no contract.
And the filtering of unserious requests, which consume considerable time when direct.
How to hold both without spending your days on it
Six practical rules.
Keep an up-to-date profile on one or two marketplaces, not five.
Answer requests the same day, the only criterion deciding ranking and selection.
Always deliver within the marketplace's framework as long as the order was placed there, with no exception.
Propose what follows directly after delivery, never during, and in one simple sentence.
Have a standard quote ready, with rights by level, so that moving to direct takes ten minutes.
And keep half a day a week for direct prospecting, including when the diary is full.
What each route settles, and what it leaves open
| Point | Through a platform | Direct |
|---|---|---|
| Proof of payment | Framed by the process | Negotiated case by case |
| A dispute | A third party decides | A discussion between two parties |
| The listed price | A known commission | None, but no safety net |
What really decides
The amount and the history. A first job with an unknown client goes better through a platform; a two-year relationship with regular payments works fine direct.
What is kept either way
A written quote, a definition of uses, a delivery date and proof the files were handed over. Neither route exempts you from those four documents.
What does not work
Five frequent mistakes.
Leaving the marketplace in the middle of an order, which removes all protection and closes a channel for good.
Prospecting directly with no standard contract, which produces endless revisions and unpaid invoices.
Setting two different prices for the same work depending on the channel, which ends up being known in a market where the decision-makers know each other.
Abandoning the marketplace at the first direct relationship, and finding yourself with no flow six months later.
And neglecting the administrative side: in direct work, the invoice, the client's tax details and the written rights are your only protection.
One local complication to know: in direct work it is you who has to obtain the client's exact invoicing information before starting. On a marketplace that circuit is already handled, and it is one of the reasons it stays useful even when your income comes mostly from elsewhere.
One last marker: the right question is not which of the two routes to choose, it is what share of your turnover each channel should represent. A healthy split looks like a third coming from the marketplace, two thirds from direct relationships born on that same marketplace, and prospecting maintained so that this ratio never closes up.
Sources
Checked on 26 August 2026. Thresholds and rates change: where this guide and the official source disagree, the official source is right.
