How to Hire App Developers: Tips, Places to Search, Rates & More

12 minutes read

After a long discussion with your team, reading dozens of blogs on the matters, and looking at your competitors’ businesses with admiring envy, you’ve finally understood: your business needs an application!

No doubt, the decision you’ve made is of great importance. But what’s next? Should you sit down and learn to code or change your Facebook status to “actively looking for an app developer”? Neither this nor that. Unfortunately, it’s not a breeze to learn how to develop and design an application. And no matter how talented and keen on taking up new hobbies you are — the time is money. Learning how to code is time and effort-consuming and what is more — no one can give a guarantee that the first application that has been coded by an amateur, will be completely flawless.

Such factors as availability of bugs and glitches, high loading time, and poor design increase the risks of app abandonment. According to Statista, 25% of apps that were downloaded worldwide in 2019, were only accessed once after download. Do you want the same fate for your app? We’re sure that you don’t. Therefore, once you have stood on the verge of developing an application, you face three major challenges:

How to find someone to build an app.
Where to find app developers.
How much does it cost to hire an app developer?

In this blog, we’ll give a step by step instruction on how to find a good app developer who will meet the requirements of your business and bring your application to this lucky 75% of regularly accessed apps.

How to find a developer for an app

Once you have had a “Eureka” moment, you start thinking about how to hire someone to build an app. First of all, you should understand that this “someone” programs in a particular language and for a particular platform. Find out what programming languages are there, what functionality they have, and what is your target operating system (Android, iOS, or both).

As soon as there is more clearness about who exactly you are looking for, you face the choice of cooperation model. Initially, this choice influences the final success of your product, its time to market, and the amount of money and nerves spent. There are three possible options:

#1 Hiring freelance developers

If your project is relatively small and you expect to accomplish it within a short period of time, hiring freelancers will save you a lot of money. Though bear in mind that the process of hiring a freelance developer possesses a lot of risks like presenting a non-existent portfolio, or disappearing without an explanation. Therefore, check twice.

#2 Hiring an in-house team

If you’re about to start a large project that requires constant updates, maintenance, and post-launch support — your option is to hire an in-house team that will work from your office. Such an approach has a lot of benefits as you can constantly keep an eye on the development process and maintain daily communication with a team. On the other hand, hiring an in-house team leads to great expenses for the recruitment process, office, equipment, and company perks.

#3 Outsourcing model

In case you don’t want to spend time and money on the recruitment and training process, you can partner with a custom software development company. Such companies provide full-fledged services starting from preliminary app design to its release and maintenance.

Where to find app developers

As you have probably already understood, posting a status on Facebook doesn’t give a big chance of finding the one you’re looking for. Still, you definitely shouldn’t eliminate any possible source to find the needed talent. Here are some options to consider.

1) Ask your social circle for recommendations. There might be some tech geeks among your acquaintances or some people who have already used the services of developers. They can recommend someone trustworthy and give a piece of advice based on their own experience.

2)Check developers’ forums. Developers forums are a second home for programmers where they share experience and come up with new solutions. Stack Overflow, The Verge, Code Project, and XDA Developers are among the best options to hunt for developers. In case you’ve already decided on technology, you can also search for forums about specific technologies.

3) Attend developers’ conferences. Developers conferences take place in almost every city from time to time. Visiting such conferences or delegating someone there, gives an opportunity to meet the best of the best. Even if developers whom you meet there aren’t currently looking for job opportunities, they will definitely appreciate your effort and recommend someone.

4) Clutch, GoodFirms, and Appfutura are independent platforms that give a list of the best software development companies, including general information about the company, its portfolio, and verified client reviews.

5) If you decide to opt for a freelance cooperation model then have a look at such websites as Freelancer, Toptal, Hired, Codementor, Guru, Upwork, and PeoplePerHour. There you can find information about freelance developers’ experience, their portfolio, and a list of customers. For instance, Toptal accepts only a very limited number of applicants, therefore you can be sure that you’ll get the best talent for your project.

6) On Dribbble and Behance designers and software developers upload their portfolios and multiple examples of their works. If any of them has impressed you, there is a possibility to get connected with the author and to find out if the cooperation is possible.

7) Last but not least — searching engines. Googling always brings some results though you should carefully examine the suggestions you find on the top, especially ads. Have a look at the company’s website, it says a lot. Don’t be lazy also to check reviews about a company on Clutch or GoodFirms.

How much does it cost to hire an app developer?

Well, when it comes to the budget there are four main factors that dictate the expenses.

#1 Experience of the developer

Depending on the set of responsibilities that a developer handles, the level of their competence and portfolio, the country they live in, the price for development ranges significantly. You won’t pay the same hourly rate for Junior and Senior developers. What is more, the rate will also be different for the same experience level but different technologies.

#2 Location

As it has been mentioned before, the country the developers operate from also has a huge impact on their rates. And such a rule is applied not only for freelancers but for outsourcing vendors too. According to Neuvoo, the average hourly rate of React.js developers varies from $56 to $75 in the US, while in Ukraine it starts at $14 per hour. Please, note that the expenses for hiring a software vendor are different from those mentioned, as they also depend on the company’s scale, number of services, and quantity of developers and designers needed to bring a product to the market.

#3 App development approach

The app development approach outstandingly influences the amount of money you are going to spend on the development process. The choice lies between native (for the specific operating system) and hybrid (working on multiple operating systems) approaches. Consequently, if you want your application to run on both iOS and Android operating systems, you pay twice in case you choose the native approach. Though the development of native apps is far more expensive in comparison with hybrid, they possess strong technical superiority to the latter. You can also check our article on the matters.

#4 Application type

The development cost of an e-commerce application will crucially differ from the cost of a basic app, for example. To build an e-commerce application you need to build a complex infrastructure with a well-planned back-end and admin panel to manage detailed catalogs, users, orders, and payments. While for a basic app no back-end and network connection is needed

Summing up

Finally, it’s not so difficult to hire good software developers if you clearly understand your goals and ways of their achievement. And if you have some money, of course.

The most important step is to choose the correct cooperation model for your business as it will have a great influence on the quality of the product, and the development process as a whole.

Hiring a dedicated software development team has more advantages compared with in-house or freelance developers. At an affordable price, you get a design, development, business analysis, project management, and post-development support of your product. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

If you’re currently in search of an outsourcing vendor, feel free to check our website and independent platforms with reviews to learn more about our company.

0 people like this