How To Hire Mobile App Development Companies in 2024 – A Complete Guide

As the modern business world continues to expand its horizons, the demand for innovative mobile applications has reached an all-time high. From eCommerce and entertainment to healthcare and finance, mobile apps play a crucial role in driving efficiency and enhancing user experiences. According to Statista, the global mobile app revenue across various industries reached more than $474 million in 2022 and is expected to cross $732 million by 2027.

The global mobile app market is growing exponentially and shows no sign of slowing down in the near future. Accordingly, the demand for skilled mobile app developers has skyrocketed. This huge surge in demand has led to a complex challenge in hiring proficient app developers, making entrepreneurs leave with one of the intricate questions, “How to hire mobile app developers to suit my specific project requirements”.

Addressing this question is a formidable undertaking. Therefore, in this comprehensive blog, we will walk you through the essential steps to hire mobile developers who will bring your innovative app idea to life. But first, let’s discuss how an app development company can benefit your business.

The Benefits of Partnering with an App Development Company

Embracing an app development partnership for businesses can be a game-changing decision, opening up a world of benefits that spur development and innovation. There are innumerable benefits of hiring an app development partner. Explore how forming the right connection can help a startup’s app journey, from expedited development cycles to access to specialized expertise.

Accelerated Time-to-Market

Application development partners streamline the development process in place, which accelerates the time to market. Their expertise allows them to overcome app development challenges quickly, shortening development times and accelerating the release of your product. This flexibility is essential for seizing market opportunities and maintaining an edge over rivals.

Expertise and Specialization

App development partners bring much knowledge and specialized talents to the table. They have in-depth knowledge of design principles, frameworks, and programming languages, guaranteeing that your app is created with top-notch technologies.

Effective Resource Utilization

Working with a dedicated development team gives you access to a team of qualified experts possessing a wealth of experience and skills. This saves you time and resources that may be better spent on other important elements of your startup by eliminating the need to hire, train, and manage an internal team.

Risk Reduction

Skilled app development partners have dealt with various challenges in the past. This puts them in a good position to detect possible risks early and implement methods to reduce those, delivering a more seamless development process.

Focus on Core Competencies

By outsourcing app development, your company can concentrate on its key capabilities, such as strategy, marketing, and client engagement. This division of tasks ensures that each team concentrates on its core competencies and provides exceptional outcomes.

Quality Assurance

To ensure the app’s operation, security, and performance, app development partners thoroughly test the app across a range of platforms and usage scenarios. This commitment to quality yields a finished product that is reliable and fully functional.

Flexibility and Scalability

An application development partner can quickly scale up the infrastructure and functionality to meet increasing demand as your app gets popular and user numbers rise. This scalability guarantees that as more users download your app, it will still be responsive and functional.

Access to Innovation

App development partners keep abreast of new trends and technology. To improve your app’s functionality and user experience, they might advise implementing cutting-edge advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, or augmented reality.

Now that we know how an app development partner can benefit your business. Let’s unveil the proven strategies to hire the best mobile app development company.

How to Hire an App Developer: 3 Common Options

When searching for mobile app developers for hire, you typically have three choices – in-house team, outsourced company, and freelancers. Each of these options has its own pros and cons, affecting the performance and cost of mobile app development. Let’s discuss each option in detail to understand how to find the right one for your specific project.

Option 1: Hire In-House Development Team

Hiring an in-house team is the most common option when looking for app development. However, building a skilled in-house team that can bring your app idea to reality in the expected way is a challenging and costly endeavor. You need to conduct interviews, recruit the right talent, offer a working space and relevant accommodations, cover medical insurance as well as follow every norm that the government requires in your region.

[Also Read: AI in Recruitment – How Artificial Intelligence is Revolutionizing Talent Sourcing and Hiring]

Option 2: Hire Freelancers

Another popular option is to hire freelancers. With the onset of freelancing websites like Upwork, the option of freelancing is gaining momentous traction in recent years, enabling businesses to find developers for startups in a cost-effective manner. When hiring freelancers for the project, companies need not pay for social security, vacation days, medical insurance, and other perks. Even if hiring freelance developers is a cost-effective option, often they are inefficient and underqualified for big jobs.

Option 3: Outsource Mobile App Developers

Outsourcing a mobile app development company is the most efficient option. In this method, you hire a pool of talented professionals on a contractual basis. It’s less expensive than building your in-house team, and you don’t have to invest your valuable time, money, and effort in the hiring process.

Furthermore, outsourcing developers is a completely scalable, flexible, and reliable option, making you free from the stress of the app development process while allowing you to focus on your core business areas. The result – is the on-time delivery of state-of-the-art custom solutions you need to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced digital landscape.

Whether you are an emerging startup, want to build an effective application to create brand awareness, or a huge enterprise with an innovative app idea to expand your operation, outsourcing app developers best suits all your requirements. According to Deloitte, 65% of business owners agreed outsourcing helps them focus on their core functions.

Now that we know the best option to hire mobile app developers; let’s walk through the process to find the best match for your project.

Related Article: How to Hire the Best AI Developer for Your Custom Project? Steps, Costs, and More

How to Hire an App Developer for Your Custom Project?

As businesses worldwide realize the importance of a strong mobile presence, the demand for outsourcing mobile app developers has skyrocketed. However, hiring app developers to make apps is not an easy task. It is a challenging and time-consuming process, particularly when you have a wealth of options at your disposal. Therefore, to ease your process of finding the best app developers, here is a step-by-step guide that will take you through the right source and ensure a successful collaboration.

Ask for Referrals

There is no better to ensure the credibility of mobile app development firms than to seek referrals. Asking friends, family, and other well-wishers for references is the best and time-saving way to find a skilled developer.

Check Online Platforms

It is the quickest and easiest way to hire the best app developers. There are several online platforms, like Clutch, Mobile App Daily, GoodFirms, etc., that show the list of best app and software development companies in the world. These platforms are worth considerable due to their listing of reliable and verified companies.

View the Portfolio

One of the most important steps in hiring a mobile app development company is to check the portfolio of their past clients. The portfolio is a testament to their service quality, giving a good glimpse of the kind of work they do, their expertise in delivering the project, and the level of project complexity they can handle.

A mobile app development company that demonstrates its portfolio even without you asking for it is most likely the best choice for mobile app development, indicating that the company has a proven track of delivering high-quality work for various domains.

See the List of Services Included in the Cost

Mobile app development cost combines different elements such as app design, testing, post-launch services, etc. Since not all companies provide design and post-launch services, you must confirm what all services are included in their cost estimate and how the cost would get impacted if more features are added.

Interview the App Developers

Once you have evaluated the best iOS and Android app developers for hire based on the above-listed criteria; and shortlisted the most appealing options, it is time to interview them by asking a volley of questions. It is the last yet most comprehensive and significant step to finding the best app developers for startups and enterprises alike. So, keep your mobile app development questionnaire ready before you interview prospective candidates.

Here is a list of the ten most important questions you must ask from the shortlisted firms before making a final move. Based on your specific situation, you can always add or eliminate some questions from the list.

1. Can I Talk to Some of Your Past Clients?

Talking to the company’s past clients and knowing their experience is one of the most efficient ways to hire the best app developers and ensure your project’s success. Therefore, before you hire mobile app developers for your specific project, ask the development agency to share the references of the clients they have worked with before. If a company hesitates to share the information in one go, take it as a red flag and move on to the next option.

2. What Mobile App Development Process Do You Follow?

The mobile app development process is an integral aspect that decides the app development cost, its launch time, and overall success in the market. Therefore, when you hire an app development company, which development process the company follows should be a prime part of your interview questions list.

At Appinventiv, we follow Agile development methodology for every project, ensuring fast app delivery while allowing quick redressal of issues. There are also some companies that work on the Waterfall model.

Read: Reasons Why We Trust Agile for Our Mobile App Development Process

3. What is Your Team Structure?

Ask the agency to give an insight into the team – experience the team holds, number of professionals who would be working on the project, the tech stack they will use, etc. Knowing this will give you an idea if your partner company has the proficient workforce and experience to handle the project.

4. What Approach Do You Follow for UI/UX Design?

UI/UX design is the most important part of the mobile app development process, increasing app performance and user experience. Thus, before you hire app developers, ask them about what approach they use and what trends they follow for designing user interfaces. Remember, the mobile app design process is an amalgamation of both – industry trends and user expectations.

Also Read: 7 Strategies to Ensure Better Mobile App User Engagement

5. Do You Offer Post Launch Services?

Even if mobile app development is a one-time process, ensuring its seamless performance and success is an ongoing journey that extends beyond the development phase. Therefore, you must ask the prospective app developers about their post-launch services. Ask if they only focus on app updates or if they will also stick to finding and resolving the bugs that are found in the app review stage.

6. What Communication Mode Do You Use?

When outsourcing a mobile app development company, the most challenging issue that comes up is of communication due to the difference in the time zone. Therefore, it is important to ensure what communication mode the developers follow. Do they provide 24/7 support or have any specific timings to facilitate conversation? A professional company always leverages AI powered chatbots to ensure round the clock customer support.

7. Who Will Have Code Ownership?

Code ownership is an essential element that must be in your mobile app development questionnaire. Ask the company if they hand over the complete code to the clients after the project ends or will keep it to themselves. Businesses that don’t have code ownership always depend on the app development agency to update every single feature. This is a problem that never occurs when businesses have code ownership. We at Appinventiv hand over the complete app and wireframes to the client after the successful app launch.

8. Do You Allow Modification in the ‘Scope of Work’?

The Scope of Work (SOW) is a kind of detailed roadmap that include the project’s details, such as the specific tasks, features, deliverables, timelines, tech stack, cost, and expectations of a project. Many app development firms follow the Scope of Work rigorously and don’t have room for modification in the plan, limiting clients to modify their project if any new idea strikes their mind. So, you should always partner with a company that leaves room for modifications in the scope of work. We at Appinventiv always leave a scope to introduce changes in the plan.

9. Will You Develop a Wireframe?

Wireframe is an essential element that shows that the app developers have a clear understanding of your project and its user flow. However, there are very selected companies like Appinventiv that provide wireframe development services. So, enquiring about whether the company offers wireframe development or not must be a part of your questionnaire.

Related Article: Wireframes and How they Affect the Mobile App Development Industry

10. What are the Exit Options?

There are many unforeseen events that can make you break the partnership with the development firm even before the project ends. For instance, you may run out of funds, the process might not run the way you expected, and so on, making you take the exit route. You will never want to get stuck with an agency without an exit option. So, before you hire app developers, look at their SLA to check for the exit options that they are providing.

Having an awareness of these ten questions will help you make the right decision. If your chosen app developers give positive and satisfactory answers to these top 10 questions, you can take it as a green signal and move ahead with your interviewed candidate.

Cost to Hire Mobile App Developers

Every project is different in terms of its specific features and requirements. It is why not every app development costs the same, and not every app developer charges the same rate. There is a combination of factors that determine how much does mobile app development cost you.

For instance, a gaming app is specifically designed using different technologies like Metaverse and offers different features than a finance app. Likewise, eCommerce, healthcare, and entertainment applications have distinct characteristics, use different tech stacks, address different requirements, and offer different features.

Furthermore, the platform on which your app will run and the location of your app development company is also contributing factors that affect app development cost.

Think of your app like any other product or service. Let’s take a simple example of a wristwatch. Not all watches are designed the same; The premium ones with advanced features are typically more expensive than regular watches with basic features. The same goes for your mobile apps. If you want to build an app with minimal functionality, it will cost you less; and if you wish to develop a revolutionary app with advanced features, it will cost you higher.

On average, a custom mobile app will cost between $50,000 to $300,000 or more based on your industry, used technologies, and other vital factors.

Here is a basic cost estimation of mobile apps based on various categories.

THE AUTHOR

Prateek Saxena

DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER