[chipsy]

The main issue with free is that there's a mismatch of incentives, since the devs ultimately have to consider their own economic situation.

As soon as the situation looks troublesome for them, nothing's stopping them from leaving. So in the worst case, they can code their way into a corner, leave you with the bill to get someone who can fix the mess, and then claim the work as experience, whether or not it was good work and fit the goals of the company.

One way you can bring the incentives back into alignment is to make the projects they work on open source and open development(high public visibility). That may not fit your existing business...but you aren't paying for them yet either :)