Compare
Frenzee vs the other ways to source a product
There are five common ways to get a product made — hire an agency, browse a B2B marketplace, work off a factory directory, put a merchandiser on payroll, or do it all yourself. Each is the right call at some stage. Here is where Frenzee sits next to each one, and where it does not.
Frenzee vs
Sourcing agencies
A firm in Asia that sources, negotiates, and coordinates production for you — and owns the supplier relationship.
An agency brings years of supplier relationships and a human on the ground, but the relationship stays on their side and the take comes off your whole order. Frenzee opens the channel and steps out — you keep the supplier, and your identity stays opaque to factories until you commit.
- Sourcing agencies wins when
- You are running large, complex orders and want a person in Asia handling negotiation and factory visits in person.
- Frenzee wins when
- You are running lean, want price transparency, and want the supplier relationship in your own name.
Frenzee vs
B2B marketplaces
A global directory where factories pay for placement and you message and compare quotes yourself.
Marketplaces are built for browsing: the factories that surface first are often the ones paying for placement, not the ones best matched to your brief — and your contact details spread the moment you inquire. Frenzee routes an anonymous brief to factories filtered for your spec, in their own language, and your identity stays opaque until you commit.
- B2B marketplaces wins when
- You are still browsing, sourcing finished SKUs off a catalogue, and happy to run outreach yourself.
- Frenzee wins when
- You are commissioning production to your own spec and want quotes pre-filtered and coordinated, not a spam tower.
Frenzee vs
Factory directories
A searchable list of manufacturers. It shows you the factory; everything after that is on you.
A directory is contact information — you search, you filter, you write the outreach, you chase the samples, you book inspection. Frenzee carries the same factory data but adds the operational layer between brief and PO: anonymous outreach in the factory’s language, sample chase, inspection booking, and milestone tracking.
- Factory directories wins when
- You already have someone running the operational work and you just need the contact details.
- Frenzee wins when
- You do not have a merchandiser yet and need the work between brief and PO actually done.
Frenzee vs
In-house merchandiser
A full-time hire who sources, negotiates, manages production, and handles factory communication.
A senior merchandiser brings real human judgment, deep relationships, and the ability to walk a factory floor — at the loaded cost of a senior salary, and the turnover risk that they leave and take the relationships with them. Frenzee fills the same role outcomes (brief, source, decide, raise a PO, chase samples, catch drift, run the margin math) at a predictable monthly cost, scaling the same whether you brief one product or fifty.
- In-house merchandiser wins when
- You are doing serious annual volume and want a person inside the company who can fly to the floor.
- Frenzee wins when
- You are pre-hire, or your merchandiser is buried in the operational grind and needs the load taken off.
Frenzee vs
Sourcing direct yourself
Finding factories, writing the brief, negotiating, managing samples, booking freight — all of it yourself.
Going direct is free in dollars and expensive in time: research, outreach, sample coordination, inspection, freight, and the cost of the mistakes you make learning the supply chain. Frenzee compresses that learning curve into the workflow — anonymous outreach in the factory’s language, sample chase, inspection booking, and live margin math, without rebuilding the spreadsheet every order.
- Sourcing direct yourself wins when
- You are learning the supply chain on purpose, or one or two factories cover everything you need.
- Frenzee wins when
- You value your time, are scaling past your first few products, and want operator know-how built in.
Not sure which fits where you are?
The Sourcing Guide walks the same ground without an account — what a real brief looks like, how factories get matched, and what the operational layer actually does between brief and PO.
Open the Sourcing Guide