An agency quotes you a team and bills you for one. A marketplace gives you a stranger and a 20% cut. Hiring one freelance WordPress developer directly means the person who reads your brief is the person who writes the code, and you can talk to them.
I work from Verona, Italy, Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00 CET. That is the same time zone as agencies in the Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and it overlaps almost the whole UK working day. For US teams the handover is async, written, and picked up the next morning.
The work is scoped before it starts. You get an hourly rate or a block estimate, and the scope closes before a line of code is written. No hidden costs, no surprises halfway through.
If it is not a fit, I say so. I reply within 24 working hours, even just to tell you I am not the right person for the job.