Guide To Hire A Mobile App Developer

Mobile app development is a difficult task, but if you hire the right mobile app developer with you; it becomes a lot easier. Experts in this field have gone through various obstacles. Hence, they have all the expertise required to gain maximum revenue. To put simply, mobile app development is a combined set of various practices involved in writing software exclusively designed according to the features of mobile devices. Like everything else in the market, an app also needs a final goal and a target audience; without which it becomes hard to sustain the technological changes. App abandonment is a thing; as of the year 2016, 23% of the customers have abandoned the app after one use.

However, only a goal and audience isn’t all that is needed. You need to know the purpose behind it. That purpose becomes the “problem” you are going to solve through developing an app. And hiring a mobile app developer solves the problem. So, before you approach a developer, answer this question yourself: Why do you need an app and what is the purpose? This can be categorized into two types: 1) Your current business needs an app and 2) You want an app as a new startup. Once you have answered it, consider the following as you start searching for your ideal developer:

Research and Compare

Researching the mobile app development companies to hire is the first step to keep your end viable. For this, you can:

Start searching amidst your circle first. You might find various clients of your potential developer. They would be having raw data you need in terms of their experience of working with the developers. You should look for those developers with whom you can build long-term working relations. According to Statista, every day around 6140 apps are launched. An app isn’t complete once it is launched; it has to be updated constantly with new improved interfaces and features. You might also want to consider the platforms for which you are going to build this app; either it is for Android or iPhone platforms or both. On the other hand, the developer should be able to develop the apps from the beginning.

Here are some essential things for app development:

– Skeletal Framework which forms the architectural base.
– Navigational Experience.
– A robust user interface that drives user experience.
– Generating Test Framework

Type of App

Next, you need to decide the type of app you need – simple or complex. A simple app would take approximately 2 months and will cost around $10000; whereas, a moderate app and a complex app would take approximately 4 months and 8 months, respectively. A moderate app would cost around $80000 and a complex one would come around $150000. Apart from that, the apps can be further categorized into Native, Hybrid and HTML5. Native apps are programmed according to a specific platform using languages like Objective-C and Xcode. Whereas HTML5 are the apps that can be run anywhere once written Moreover, you should look for a developer who is well-versed with app designing too. All these things must be taken into consideration because these will finally impact the development costs.

You would also need to decide the category under which your app will fall. As of 2017, Gaming apps hold 25% share, the most in the Apple App Store while Business, Lifestyle, and Education hold 9.8%, 8.3%, and 8.4%, respectively. The developer you are choosing must have some earlier experience in developing these types of apps. Mostly, if they have experience in developing complex apps, it is highly likely that they would be able to develop these too.

Budget and Costs

An important thing to note is that apart from the development costs, there are testing costs too that would arise. Whether you need technology variants like Objective-C, Java or even cross-platform React Native or even Flutter offered by companies like 9series; which is a good starting point for a single code base for various platforms. The point is that coding is only a part of developing a mobile app. The chosen development company should be able to provide product management services too. And for that, a proper analysis of your business idea, marketing, and researching your competitors also needs to be done. Also, there will come a point when you would want to switch to another platform; the one you didn’t select in the first place. This might create some extra costs because you would be needing some extra features that would also have to be kept in mind.

Experience of The Mobile App Developer

The mobile app developer you are hiring must be having an earlier experience of similar types of projects. It is extremely important to check their portfolio to find if they have created such apps or are similar to them. You can also ask them to send you specifically the ones you are looking for if you aren’t able to find them in their portfolio. This would give you an idea about the problems clients might have faced, the benefits of working with such a company, the number of downloads and active users, etc. You can check their apps on the app stores to read reviews.

You can download for yourself and see how the app behaves in terms of launch speed, performance, different UI and UX features. You can ask for the clients’ contacts and get in touch with them to learn about their feedback. Asking them about any emergencies, budget, schedule and working culture would also solve many questions for you.

Concluding Thoughts

Last but not least, the hired developer must be keen in understanding your business ideas, needs, and problems. The development company must be able to provide a vision to your idea. When hiring a mobile app development company, you are not looking for a single person; in fact, an entire team of technical professionals. One would be an expert in providing robust back-end, another would be in web development. Even if you are not looking for a website right now, in the future you might need someone who is able to integrate all the APIs, a Q/A engineer would be helping you sort bugs by coding, testing and performing unit tests. Hence, long-term partnership is highly based on such aspects – and a team that is capable enough to bring the whole project together. And if you’re in search to hire the best mobile application developer, you can contact the experts at 9series.