How to Find Mobile App Developers
You may think that inventing a great business idea for your company’s mobile app is not a difficult task. It may be so. Though, also think about those who will implement your idea to life. You are unlikely to do it yourself because you may lack the necessary qualifications or just be short for time.
Therefore, you need to find a reliable and experienced mobile app developer for your project. Once again, it may seem too easy. However, if you ask yourself the question ‘Where can I find mobile app developers?’, you may feel confused.
Research results estimate the total number of mobile app developers in the world as 23 million people. It is pretty a lot. However, if you don’t consider all pros and cons of the developer you want to hire for your project, you can do a lot of harm to your business. A developer can be full of expertise and experience but never deal with projects like yours.
This article will give you some helpful tips on how to find the best mobile developer for your app and avoid a number of risks due to making the relevant choice.
Hiring a Full-Time Developer Near You
Depending on the outline and scope of your project, you have several hiring options - an in-house professional from your company’s team, using the help from the outstaffing service and the company near you that has the specialists you need, a freelancer, or an outsourcing team, working from a distantly located development lab that can have its headquarters even in another country.
Since, as a business owner or investor, you want to release your new mobile app as quickly as possible and without spending too much money on it, using your in-house developing team may appear the best solution. It is quite advantageous if you have someone at your hand with full understanding of your project, ideas, and product layouts, as well as of the corporate culture of your brand.
Even if it is an expert developing team from another office in the vicinity, you can meet them at any time and communicate all the details of your project face-to-face, without considering differences in time zones, cultural backgrounds, and mentality. These developers will always be ready to answer your questions and make alterations if you see them necessary.
On the other hand, both in-house and next-to-you formats can have a lot of disadvantages. If you work with your own team of developers, you have to pay them a full-time salary, even if not all of them or none of them are temporarily involved in your project. Moreover, you need to provide them with workspaces and equipment that may be rather costly at times. In addition, you may not have so many appropriate candidates in your list to choose from because not all of them are familiar with the course of such work and special tools for it.
You may not find a needed number of mobile developers with appropriate qualifications in your city or community, either, especially if your product is pretty extended. If it is completely innovative and large, it requires a big team of professionals but not only one or two.
You should also have someone in your surroundings to manage the project and pay a salary to this person as well. That will increase spendings but will not necessarily mean receiving the best quality.
Working with a Development Lab or Freelancer
Working with a development lab or freelancer can sometimes be a great option if you want to find mobile app developers to your requirements. You will have a much wider choice, anyway. This is called outsourcing, and it is becoming more and more popular nowadays because of considerate advancements in communication technology. Among the apparent benefits of such an approach, these ones are the most desired:
1. You get top coders and true experts who are used to working at the international level.
2. You do not spend too much time on recruiting because the agency does everything for you.
3. You can replace developers very fast or add a member to the team to start and proceed with the app development immediately.
4. You pay only for the real time a developer has spent on your project.
5. You do not need any expensive equipment or office supplies to make sure that your team works.
6. You can hire experts with experience in a narrow field or domain, so the quality of their work will be higher.
7. You don’t need to waste time on teaching and training the staff how to do the project.
However, you do not have a chance of face-to-face communication, and this can be the biggest drawback in hiring an online team or development lab. They can even live in another time zone that puts obstacles to immediate management of possible issues. That is why you have to appoint online meetings in advance and hold them with the help of such state-of-the-art communication software as Slack, Jira, or Zoom. If your project is long-term, some outsourcing companies can offer post-release support and testing.
Everything is clear here, and you can consider these points for both development labs and freelancers. Nevertheless, working with a freelancer can be a bit different. If we speak about hiring a freelancer for developing, for example, an iPad app, it is a bit riskier to involve them in your complicated long-term projects. It may be rather difficult to manage an independent developer at such a big distance within such a long time. A freelancer may work on several projects simultaneously, so you will never know whether they meet the deadlines.
Moreover, a freelance developer may leave the project at any time because nobody is managing and regulating their work. In the case of a development lab, it is always managed by an agency, so you do not need to care about monitoring and control. Agencies can also control quality and workflow via their individually established algorithms and regulations.
In addition, when you deal with a development company, they can often share their knowledge and understanding of the project within the team. So, if they face challenges, they can overcome them together.
What to Look For in an App Developer
You may have found several developers you would like to hire. Now, you need to be careful while analyzing their potential and qualifications. You have to consider their strengths and weaknesses. So, make up a list of questions and check your candidates’ answers. These questions should correspond to your business goals and overall vision of the project.
1. What is the customer satisfaction rate of your candidate?
Look through the reviews and testimonials from the former clients. You need to know how dedicated and responsive they are.
2. How much experience in your narrow field does your candidate have?
You can find this information in their portfolios or case studies. Request the portfolio immediately or after analyzing all the candidates you have picked out. Look for their experience in the niche, how they cope with challenges, and which principles they follow. If you cannot find relevant experience in their portfolio, it does not always mean that they do not have it.
Many development companies cannot reveal the results of their work due to the non-disclosure agreement they have signed with their clients. So, you need to ask them specifically about that. You’d also better look at the developing company’s website. If it looks shabby, old-fashioned, confusing, or uninformative, avoid hiring this company for your project.
3. Which segments of the market are priorities for these developers?
The best developers concentrate on work in a specific segment or domain. In this way, they can improve their knowledge and expertise, be more professional in details, and know well how to overcome possible issues and limitations. If the company offers services in different areas, it may not be pretty reliable.
4. Can the developer be dishonest or steal a unique idea?
The important sign of it is a refusal to sign a Non_Disclosure Agreement (NDA). That protects intellectual property from stealing and is paramountly essential if you want to hire an app developer from abroad. Never share the project details with candidates until they sign the NDA. You may even include the special button, like ‘Send Me an NDA’ in your online contact form.
5. What types of technologies do your candidates use in their work?
If you want to hire a mobile app developer via outstaffing or outsourcing, ask them what technologies they use or are familiar with. These technologies should coincide with those used by your in-house IT staff. It is very important if you hire a developer for doing just a part of the project, for instance, an app design. Programming tools and codes should be the same or interchangeable.
6. What are their guarantees of quality?
All well-qualified developers of iOS, Android, or desktop apps should provide certain standards of quality. Their services should correspond to these adopted standards. All the tools and techniques they are going to use for your project need to provide the excellent user experience, ensure reusing the code and maintaining the stability of architecture.
7. What is the course of the development process?
If you use the in-house developer or hire one specialist for a certain part of work and can manage them yourself, you do not need answers to this question. However, if you hire a development lab for a more extended and sophisticated process, you need to know:
━ their SDLC (software development life cycle);
━ project management regulations, frameworks, and methodologies;
━ ways of communication and ensuring transparency of all the processes.
You should build up a fair and stable collaboration, so every detail matters a lot.
8. How can your app deal with heavy loads?
Your Android or iPhone app can become immensely popular, so many users may need it simultaneously. Ask your potential developer what methods they implement in their apps to make them work stably and withstand heavy loads. A careful choice of tech stacks, cloning an app server, or utilizing the manual code optimization can help a lot. You may also need to integrate your app in the hardware, so check whether your candidate has such experience.
After you have done such research, you need to look through all your notes you were making within the process. You may need to clarify some details or controversial points by asking additional questions. Don’t jump to conclusions immediately. Your choice should be reasonable enough to promote further progress of your business.
App Development Costs
The cost of app development may be a crucial point for your choice. Of course, you will be looking for reasonable prices and high quality. Nevertheless, the cost may vary due to many factors you need to consider. First of all, the type of a development team matters a lot. It can be basic, extended, or complex depending on the scope of your project. Complex teams will cost you more than basic ones.
Another important factor is the complexity of the project. The more complicated the project is, the more time it will take for completion. Therefore, you will pay more. Also, consider such technical elements as:
━ backend development;
━ third-party integration in the niche;
━ Integration with payment gateways;
━ components for hardware;
━ browsers, operating systems, and devices the app is developed for;
━ uniqueness of design and animations.
You should also consider post-release expenses.
The most widely-used method of calculating the development costs is hourly rates. They differ depending on the country your developer is from. For example, US-based developers require $100-$150 per hour, while developers from Ukraine provide their services at $25-$50 per hour.
You also need to estimate the overall cost of your app development. It will be based on hour rates, a technology stack, approaches used in app architecture, and product features your app should demonstrate. Make a rough estimate first and then, identify the details and add requirements if needed. The final cost estimate should include analysis, work on design, technical development process, and testing + verification.
The approximate cost estimate for apps from large development labs may be $550-$1,000 thousand. Middle-sized development companies can charge $150-$450 thousand. Smaller labs will take $25-$100 thousand, while freelancers or individual developers may cost $10-$25 thousand. Finally, the cost depends on the scope of your project and the company’s reputation.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a mobile app developer is not an easy task, so you should be pretty considerate while doing it. Think about the main goals and tasks your developer should implement, what professional characteristics and skills they need for that, generate a clear idea of your project, and decide whether you would like to hire an expert near you or opt for an outsourcing agency. The cost of the project also matters, so make a draft estimate to see how well it can fit your budget.
Now, you have a clearer idea on how to find mobile app developers. If you consider all these points and options, you will make the best choice of a developing team for the benefit of your business.
