Your product is ready. Your engineering team shipped. Your sales team is closing deals. But your documentation? It's a patchwork of rushed README files, outdated API references, and Slack messages explaining how things actually work.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Most companies realize they need professional documentation help only after the problems pile up: support tickets flooding in with the same questions, developers abandoning your API mid-integration, sales cycles dragging on because prospects can't understand your product. If you're wondering why great documentation matters, read our article on why every product needs great technical documentation.
The solution is clear: you need technical writing expertise. But here's the question most companies get wrong: you don't necessarily need to hire a full-time employee. In 2025, there are smarter, faster, and more flexible ways to get professional documentation without the overhead of traditional hiring.
How to hire a technical writer: Your options
Before you post a job listing, understand all your options. The best choice depends on your timeline, budget, and long-term documentation needs.
Hire full-time technical writers
Traditional hiring makes sense when documentation is a core, ongoing need and you have the resources to recruit, onboard, and manage writers long-term.
Best for: Large companies with complex products requiring continuous documentation work. Organizations building documentation teams and need dedicated headcount.
The tradeoffs: Hiring takes time. Expect 2-4 months from posting to start date. Full-time writers cost $90,000 to $150,000+ annually plus benefits, making the total closer to $120,000 to $200,000. You'll also invest in onboarding, tooling, and management.
If you're ready for full-time hiring, look for writers with technical backgrounds, strong communication skills, and the ability to work collaboratively with engineering teams. But be prepared for the long-term commitment and overhead.
Contract or freelance technical writers
Contractors provide flexibility for project-based work without long-term commitment. They're ideal for one-time overhauls or short-term capacity.
Best for: Specific projects like documenting a new API before launch, creating migration guides for a major version update, or backfilling documentation debt. Contractors are particularly useful when you need specialized expertise for a limited period.
The tradeoffs: Finding good contractors takes time. Quality varies widely. Contractors often juggle multiple clients, which can affect availability and response time. You'll still manage them directly, assign work, and review output.
Work with a technical writing agency
Agencies like Docuweave provide experienced technical writers who integrate with your team without the complexity of hiring, onboarding, and managing full-time employees.
How it works: You engage on a retainer or project basis. Writers join your communication channels, attend standups, review your code, and ship documentation just like an internal team member, but without employment overhead.
Best for: Companies that need professional documentation now, not after a 3-month hiring process. Startups and growth-stage companies wanting flexibility to scale capacity up or down based on product cycles.
Why agencies work: Agencies handle recruiting, training, and quality control. If a writer doesn't fit, they replace them. You get consistent output without managing individuals. Plus, you tap into diverse expertise. Need specialized skills like creating developer-friendly API docs this quarter and a developer marketing strategy next quarter? Agencies provide such skills on demand.
Upskill internal team members
Sometimes the right answer is developing talent internally. A developer advocate, product manager, or engineer with writing interest can transition with training and support.
Best for: Companies with team members showing aptitude for documentation and interest in transitioning roles. Organizations with tight budgets willing to invest in skill development.
The tradeoffs: Writing is a specialized skill. Not everyone who can code can write clearly. Expect a learning curve of 6-12 months before they produce professional-quality documentation consistently.
Comparing your options
| Option | Time to Start | Cost | Best For | Management Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Agency | Days to 1 week | $5k-$15k/month retainer | Need help now, want flexibility | Low - agency manages |
| Full-time hire | 2-4 months | $120k-$200k/year total | Ongoing needs, building a team | High - you manage directly |
| Contractor/Freelance | 1-4 weeks | $75-$150/hour or project-based | Specific short-term projects | Medium - you manage directly |
| Upskill internal | 6-12 months | Training costs + salary | Tight budget, interested team member | High - training required |
What to look for when hiring a technical writer
Whether you're documenting APIs, SaaS products, or enterprise software, the best technical writers share key qualities that transcend specialization.
Technical aptitude and learning ability
Great technical writers don't need to be engineers, but they need technical curiosity and the ability to learn quickly. They should understand your product deeply enough to explain it clearly.
For developer tools, this means reading code and understanding APIs. For SaaS products, it means grasping workflows, integrations, and user journeys. For enterprise software, it means navigating complex systems and business processes.
Clear communication and writing skills
This is fundamental. Technical writers translate complexity into clarity. They should write concisely, organize information logically, and adapt their style for different audiences.
A good technical writer can explain the same feature to a beginner user, an experienced power user, and a system administrator, adjusting depth and terminology for each.
User empathy and audience awareness
Great technical writers think from the user's perspective. They understand what information matters at different stages of the user journey and anticipate questions before users ask them.
They consider diverse audiences: developers integrating your API, business users trying to accomplish tasks, administrators configuring systems, or executives evaluating your platform.
Collaboration and knowledge extraction
Technical writers spend significant time with product teams, engineers, and subject matter experts. They need to ask the right questions, navigate technical conversations, and extract knowledge from busy stakeholders.
The best writers build credibility across teams. They push back on unclear explanations, advocate for users, and help teams think more clearly about their products.
Information architecture and systems thinking
Documentation isn't isolated pages, it's a connected system. Good technical writers think about structure, navigation, discoverability, and how content evolves over time.
They organize content logically, create intuitive navigation, implement effective search, and build scalable content systems that grow with your product.
Modern tooling and workflows
Technical writers today work with various tools depending on the context. This might include docs-as-code workflows with Git and Markdown, content management systems, help authoring tools, or documentation platforms. The best writers will adapt to your stack and workflows, or help you improve the existing systems so you can scale easily.
Mistakes to avoid when hiring technical writers
Even with the best intentions, companies often make predictable mistakes when bringing on technical writing help. Avoiding these common pitfalls will save you time, money, and frustration.
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Treating writers as glorified copyeditors - Technical writers aren't just polish and grammar. They're strategic partners who understand product, users, and information design. Don't waste their skills on proofreading.
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Hiring too junior for your complexity - A junior writer learning on your complex API will struggle. Match technical complexity to writer experience. Highly technical products need experienced writers.
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Neglecting technical depth in favor of writing skills - Good writing matters, but technical aptitude matters more for developer documentation. A strong technical writer with decent writing skills beats a great writer with no technical depth.
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Isolating writers from the product team - Writers embedded in product development produce better docs than writers brought in after launch. Include them early and often.
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Expecting immediate transformation - Documentation debt takes time to fix. Set realistic expectations. Good writers need 3-6 months to learn your product, understand users, and make significant impact.
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Underestimating the role's value - Technical writing directly impacts revenue, costs, and product success. Don't treat it as a nice-to-have or entry-level role. Invest appropriately.
Putting it all together
You don't need to hire a full-time employee to get professional technical writing. In fact, for most companies, agencies provide faster results, more flexibility, and access to specialized expertise without the overhead of traditional hiring.
The key is recognizing that documentation is too important to be treated as an afterthought. Every day without good docs costs you in support time, lost conversions, and developer frustration. Whether you choose to work with an agency like Docuweave, hire full-time, or bring in contractors, the important thing is taking action. Your product deserves clear, comprehensive documentation. Your users deserve to succeed.
Looking to improve your documentation without the hiring headache? Let's discuss how Docuweave can help create professional documentation for your product.