The Ultimate Guide to Find and Hire the Best App Developers

The rise of mobile apps has changed the game on the global market. It made it easier for businesses to reach out to their audience and promote their products and services. Today, a mobile app is an essential attribute of any company as well as a powerful marketing tool for building customer loyalty.

If you are thinking of making your own app, there are several ways to implement it. According to the project goals and business objectives, you can hire a bunch of in-house specialists, find a freelancer, or turn to outsourcing companies housing good app developers. Each option has its merits and demerits.

Though the IT job market numbers thousands of specialists and experts, hiring app developers may be challenging. Read this detailed guide to get some useful tips on how to find an app developer for your mobile.

A Step-By-Step Guide on How to Hire App Developers

Before hiring developers, you should consider the budget limitations and the amount of work to be provided. These are two basic factors to define which option out of those three will be most advantageous.

Step 1. In-house vs Outsource vs Freelance

To see what benefits your business best, look into these pros and cons of each option.

In-house

Pros
· An on-site team of developers knows your company’s values and business goals. This knowledge lets them design a better app that perfectly suits your business needs.

· It is easier to build effective communication as employees work in the same workspace and can interact with each other easily during the project development.

Cons
· You have to provide equipment and software to enable a smooth development lifecycle.

· You are expected to pay salaries to developers irrespective of the changes to workload.

· The dev team also needs a manager to supervise the team and lead the project.

Outsource

Pros
· It is possible to hire app developers from different locations. This opportunity allows you to gather a pool of talented and skillful professionals to develop your apps.

· You pay only for the time developers spend designing your software and therefore can save on the equipment and software that you don’t need to provide.

Cons
· It may be difficult to develop effective communication within the dev team as employees are located in different time zones.

Freelance

Pros
· Freelance developers are good at performing short-term projects that do not require teamwork or collaboration.

· It requires less spending in comparison with both outsourcing and in-house team.

Cons
· There is a risk a freelancer may give up on your project as s/he is offered a more profitable one.

· Freelancers can be concurrently involved with several projects, which may affect the quality of your
product.

· If you lack technical expertise, you cannot make sure that the designed software is indeed bug-free and compliant with your requirements.

In brief, if your goal is to find app developers for long-term collaboration, it is reasonable to look for an IT provider as IT companies keep in-house specialists, each involved in a specific area of project development, such as designers, software engineers, product managers, QA specialists, etc. As a consequence, software tends to be of superior quality. Meanwhile, freelancing and outsourcing seem appealing when you plan to have your app designed quickly and lack time to hire app developers to work on site.

Step 2. Define the Destination

Today, it is possible to find app developers everywhere no matter where your company is headquartered. With its hub in Silicon Valley, the US is well known for housing the greatest number of IT companies. Similarly, India’s Bangalore is known for its smart consulting companies that provide qualified and competent IT specialists. Besides these two world’s largest hubs, you can hire app developers in Europe which is equally abundant in IT companies.

Here, what you should carefully consider is pricing and time zone. More reputable IT providers tend to charge more for their services, whereas startups and less known IT firms are affordable to a large number of customers. For example, hiring a developer in Ukraine will be three/four times more profitable than hiring one in the US. But it has no direct impact on the quality of software as most IT companies rely on the same tools, technologies, and frameworks. It is desirable to select an IT company the time zone of which will allow you to stay in touch with each other at least 7-8 hours a day. This way, you will manage to achieve effective communication which speeds up the development process.

Step 3. Come Up with A List of Candidates

To find mobile app developers, you should first make a list of freelancers and IT providers that have the potential to live up to your expectations. Look at some ratings of top-notch digital companies. Read reviews and visit GitHub to learn more about the candidates that seem well-suited to you. You can also know more about the company’s activity and services on B2B directories such as Clutch or GoofFirms. As an alternative, you can check out reviews and testimonials from previous customers on the developer’s page and contact them, if possible. What you should give heed to is the candidate’s area of expertise. By looking into their previous case studies, you can get a proper understanding of which technologies they specialize in and which tools and software they use to manage projects. Add only the best suited candidates with relevant expertise and experience to your list.

Step 4. Set Up Meetings

Now, you should interview the candidates directly or through representatives. You should focus on clarifying your rights and obligations as well as those aspects that will define the mode of your interaction. Try to consider the following:

1. Make sure that your Intellectual property (in case you share some files and data to use in design) will not be stolen or misused.

2. Talk about transparency and flexibility. It is vital for a developer to stay transparent, be willing to collaborate, and find sound solutions, especially if something doesn’t go as planned.

3. Discuss software maintenance options because any app needs regular updates after its launch. It will be convenient if you won’t have to look for a new developer for every single update.

Step 5. Define the best candidate

Based on all the inquiries and information you’ve gathered, you can select now the best potential IT candidate to design your mobile app. If you have doubts, do not rush to make a choice but consult with the developers anew on some nuances that require further explanation.

For more information

If you are looking for an app developer to work on your business projects, contact Computools’s expert team via info@computools.com to learn more about the latest technologies and trends in mobile app development. They support experienced businesses that strive to embrace digital transformation and startups that seek to carve out their niche in the global market and ask for consulting on how to find app developers.