5 Time-Tested Steps on How to Hire App Developers in 2021-2022

Coming up with a great application is a challenge, but a challenge that brings so many opportunities. That’s why many companies hire app developers who can deliver custom software solutions for their projects.

What’s more, COVID-19, which has been raging for the second year, brought many markets “dangerously close” to abrupt and irreversible changes, but stimulated the need for hiring app developers that specialize in software creation. You can’t deny that without app coders for hire, business transformation may be barely possible.

With digitalization occupying the world’s markets and the need to stay safe, more and more executives choose remote mobile app developers for hire instead of expanding in-house departments. Offshore app development agencies allow for greater flexibility, reduced costs, faster delivery, improved technologies, and many more.

In today’s article, OpenGeeksLab will sort out how to choose between various contractors, overcome obstacles, and hire app developers easily. Keep reading!

Why Would You Ever Think About Hiring App Developers?

Did you know that 87% of companies are experiencing a talent shortage? Taking into account the rate at which digital industries are growing, many reasons to hire app developers exist. Various international corporations are sharing how they benefit from such a decision. Currently, IBM is the largest offshore development company in the world.

With internal solutions, companies invest plenty of effort, time, and funds in creative tech solutions. They aim high to stand out from the rest of Android, iOS, and other app developers. Those who don’t manage to hire mobile app developers fail to meet the harsh requirements of modern consumers. Besides, they are at high risk of wasting plenty of money. Cost reduction (70%) is the primary reason that drives the clients’ decisions to hire a mobile app development company.

Premium-class app development employees from different parts of the world can be way more effective than in-house personnel. Except for talents and quicker project accomplishment, many other reasons are known to get offshore app developers. So, how to find an app developer? Discover more information below.

Categories of App Creators for Hire

Without a skilled, dedicated app developer on board, developing Android or iOS applications is rather difficult. Perhaps, some should stay with their in-house, full-time staff. Hiring qualified, experienced teams at an affordable price is twice as difficult. Still, you can always find app developers among offshore agencies.

Quite a few alternatives exist, so you have a choice. Check out what you can do below before you hire dedicated mobile app developers.

Hiring a Freelancer: Benefits and Drawbacks

To begin with, a freelance app developer might cost you less than full-time staff. Freelancing industry is highly competitive, so freelancers lower their rates. Freelancers contribute about $1 trillion to the American economy or about 5% of total GDP. Freelancing app developers don’t pretend to receive social benefits and other perks that in-house workers insist on. Freelancers tend to work quicker than in-house app development staff. They won’t take up space in crowded offices.

It all sounds great, but you may wonder what some pitfalls are:

• A freelance app developer may impose certain risks unless a company works with them for a while
• Business runners obtain little to no control over freelancers
• Freelancers typically express little to no loyalty to an individual company

Hence, looking for an app development freelancer, you should weigh all pros and cons.

Recruiting In-House Development Teams: Benefits and Drawbacks

Being able to propose wages and space for growth can turn in-house hires less of a flight risk. Being able to communicate with people in person erases many barriers when you hire a programmer to make an app. In-house staff is ready to sign a non-compete contract. They resolve technical issues way faster than an external dedicated app developer. However, drawbacks are obvious. They include, in particular:

• The necessity to cover social and medical insurance
• Limited choice of applicants in the talent pool
• The time-consuming procedure of hiring app developers
• Higher salaries/wages

As you can see, managing this whole routine is not that easy. Here is when another alternative comes to the rescue. Let’s have a closer look.

Hiring Offshore App Developers: Benefits and Drawbacks

An offshore development team is one that possesses enough engineering capacities and expertise to help meet certain goals. We know that finding a dedicated app developer with sufficient technical and domain skills can be quite tricky. What’s more, you might be concerned about certain risks if you deal with an offshore app developer for the first time. To ease your task, let us reveal what perks you can get when it comes to hiring app developers.

1. Cost Efficiency Is the Primary Benefit for Many

Among the 20 primary reasons that startups fail, the second cause is that they “ran out of cash,” as CNBC reports. Its probability is minimized in case you have an offshore app development team. Can you imagine how much money you can save? You don’t have to expand your office, discover a new premise, or pay extra rent so that your new employees all have a seat. On top of that, offshore employees have lower rates, which turns out to be your opportunity to save costs for a minimum viable product (MVP) development.

Hiring app developers in the US or Western Europe is much more pricey than in Eastern Europe. Countries like India or Mexico offer affordable labor as well.

2. Boosted Productivity and Faster Processes

In-house employees require your full attention. Remote workers are easier to manage, but they have their own whims, and you cannot fully control them. Without dedicating enough time to their schedules, you risk missing deadlines. Why should you take care of so many employees if you have an opportunity to hire an iOS developer or Android programmer who can take care of themselves and know how to work on projects like yours? Often, they do not need extra training or schedule planning from your side. Offshoring companies offer experts with an in-depth understanding of similar projects, vast experience (5+ years), and corresponding qualifications.

Even if an offshore app developer requires training, you don’t have to spend time on that. Offshoring app development agencies take care of all HR-related activities like staff training and retention, which allows for focusing on core business tasks alone.

3. Expanded, Carefully Filtered Talent Pools

Your existing team of mobile app developers doesn’t possess sufficient skills for creating the specific solution. For instance, you have an app developer in HTML and Java while you need someone good at Python or PHP. Without in-depth knowledge of certain programming languages, implementing various AR or AI-based features is impossible.

When you hire mobile application developers, you automatically obtain a chance of accessing a greater pool of talents. An offshore staff has expertise across multiple technologies and industries. You can choose an app developer based on their portfolios.

In your region, all local app developers can be already “exploited” by domestic or international corporations. Those pros obtain incredible salaries, awesome benefits, and are happy with their lives. Are you sure that you can handle headhunting in this situation? Why should you spend much of your budget on the locals while there is an opportunity to hire Android developer or iOS expert from abroad with the same, if not more significant, expertise, but at more lucrative rates only due to lower living costs?

4. Flexibility

If you only have an in-house IT and app development department to rely on, you may sooner or later face certain discomfort. Scaling your team is one obstacle; another one is changing current technologies so that they meet the project’s goal and scope. When you hire web application developers or mobile software engineers, you can easily move them between various tasks, projects, and tech solutions.

5. Fewer Conflicts

When people work in one space for a while, they tend to get sick and tired of each other. Another example is when a new person joins an in-house team just to be coldly welcomed by others. Business conflicts are not that different from personal ones, but the main problem is that they can lead to significant financial losses. Even hiring your close buddy won’t guarantee 100% success of your project. Offshore app developers prevent companies from facing interpersonal conflicts.

Stable model based on cooperation. Offshore app builders for hire are for executives who are looking for a credible, risk-free way to create and expand remote employees that they can trust. You can also increase your profit margins. It’s a chance to reach a healthy ROI without sacrificing product’s quality.

You can see that plenty of advantages of hiring offshore app developers exist. But we won’t lie to you by saying that there are no challenges. That is why we suggest that you look at some of them.

1. Time Zone Differences

We have admitted that looking for distant staff in the US or countries of Western Europe is not a good idea due to high costs. Besides, the best app developers were already taken by large corporations. As for the countries of Eastern Europe like Ukraine, Poland, or the Czech Republic, such companies as Google, Apple, Skype, eBay, and IBM set up their R&D centers and/or offshore their app development teams there. Except for these regions, Latin America and South-East Asia have similar clients.

However, if the difference in time is meaningful, it might be a challenge to negotiate on your working shifts. Having both your in-house team and an offshore app developer online at the same time is critical. While a time zone difference of less than eight hours is not that critical, you may have problems with managing offshore staff with a difference of more than ten hours. If you are in the US, it is beneficial to hire mobile application developers in Ukraine or Poland as the difference would be seven hours, which is acceptable. Once you wake up, your app developers from these countries will be at lunch, ready to start working on your project.

You may review what they have done so far, provide feedback, and move on to further tasks. It is less beneficial to hire dedicated mobile developers from China or India as you will feel the time difference more.

2. Little to Absence of Face-to-Face Communication

Moving between two cities inside one country is one deal. However, transferring between two countries, especially when they are not that close to each other, might be a problem.

In-house professionals and distant workers might face certain gaps in communication.

Differences in languages, cultures, and views are severe issues. Try to hire someone to make an app from locations that you can potentially visit at least once or twice per year. Meet your staff face-to-face to solve various problems. Talk to them and make your in-house workers interact with remote employees in person as it is the most effective way to solve all conflicts and erase barriers between them.

Hiring errors might cost your startup life. Set up video conference tools so that your teams can communicate without any obstacles at any moment. Make sure that their schedules coincide at least at some points.

3. A Great Number of Vendors to Consider

Having plenty of vendors to pick from when you hire app developers is good, but it may result in some cumbersome situations. It makes the selection process a challenge for many stakeholders. Choosing particular companies out of a large pool can make you waste more time than you’ve expected. That is why studying offshore agencies is vital before making a final decision.

4. Differences in Culture

When you hire app developers, remember that working with cultures that have nothing to do with your own is not easy. You may ruin business due to some misunderstanding and conflicts. American companies will feel okay with an offshore app developer from Eastern Europe as both cultures have a lot in common. Also, before executives hire a coder to make an app from another country, dedicate some time to learning more about all the peculiarities of that region.

As you can see, hiring offshore teams can streamline your startup. Always remember that Github and Skype were created by offshore app development staff. Now, let’s take a look at some available hiring approaches.

Where Should You Look for Qualified App Developers?

No single answer exists as many services offer app development teams. Many businesses prefer relying on word-of-mouth. They believe that people they already know will not disappoint them. If you have referrals that you can trust, you can find app developers by contacting them. It’s hard to say which option works best as almost an equal number of executives select word-of-mouth and specialized online services for finding a contractor. But there are many more options to choose from.

1. Prompting for Referrals

Experts with huge pro networks should choose this method. If the list is limited, the chances of hiring the right software vendor are low. To expand the technical talent pool, visit more conferences to make more friends and partners.

2. Turning to Special Hiring Services and Employment Boards

Do you need an offshore app development team? Such services as Clutch, GoodFirms, IT Firms, and 99Firms will play in hand. In case you’re more interested in finding freelancers, think about such websites as Upwork, Freelancer, People Per Hour, Fiverr, Gun.io, LinkedIn, FlexJobs, Glassdoor, Indeed, and more. This list is far from complete – opportunities are endless!

3. Reaching Out to Coding Platforms and Dev Communities

Look for some portfolios with project samples to compare various candidates. One can find app developers with plenty of cases like that on sites like GitHub. Executives may contact applicants with the best samples without having to leave this portal as all contacts are shared. Just keep in mind what you wish to see as a result of cooperation. StackOverflow is another place online where users can review various samples for free. Here, app developers share coding tips and tricks with each other and get in touch with potential recruiters.

4. Networking at Web Technical Events

Discover different tech events, register for them, and don’t forget to attend them. Keep in mind this list of possible events on your topic:

• Mobile World Congress – This convention has all the best application development organizations interacting actively with their guests. Here are some names and dates to remember: Mobile World Congress (Barcelona, 28th of June-1st of July), MWC Americas (Los Angeles, October 28-30 Oct), MWC Shanghai (Shanghai, February 23-25).
• Code Mobile – iOS, Android, and Cross-platform Development to be discussed (online, September 27-29).
• JCON-ONLINE 2021 – International Java Community Conference (online, October 5-8).
• Full Stack Europe – Full Stack Europe is the global conference to educate devs on the stack (online workshops, October 19-22).
• MAU Vegas – The world’s leading acquisition and retention summit (MGM Grand, October 14-15).
• WebSummit – Web Summit unites professionals and organizations redefining the international tech industry (Lisbon, November 1-4).
• Game Developers Conference – GDC is the game industry’s premier pro event, championing game developers and the advancement of their craft (virtually, July 19-23).

How to Overcome Potential Risks When the Time Comes to Hiring App Developers

Certain risks exist executives should be aware of when recruiting a developer, and these time-tested tips will be useful.

• Detect organizational objectives properly.

Make business goals clear. Decide on the type of product you need. What are the wanted traits of app developers? List skills and expertise that they should possess (programming languages, design, and other). Define project budget. Narrow down this list of answers, making it precise.

• Write down a full job description.

Do it before you hire app developers. Do it alone or with the help of the human resource department. Contact agencies so that they can view your list of job requirements and consult on how you can improve it. Have a look at resumes for the same position to get an overall picture.

• Check whether the app developer has a proven track record.

Ask companies to disclose their clients. Let them show their portfolios. Save contacts of those partners and contact them to learn more about their cooperation. Can they recommend this company? Sometimes, an experienced counselor can help make a proper decision.

• Look at the company’s culture.

Cultural barriers can replace any superb talent. Before contacting remote employees, make a list of your ethics, objectives, values, and personality. Try to be on the same wave with your offshore app developers.

• Check whether you possess access to the recent code.

Potential personal conflicts may be an obstacle on a way to releasing the code. Make access to the code one of the prerequisites of their participation. Insist that you become the one and only owner of related accounts at Github, TFS, clouds, or other platforms.

• Study the team’s portfolio.

Without having a look at case studies and examples of previous works, deciding on the right team is impossible. Don’t rely on the best guess – carefully look through other projects. No matter whether you work with a solo freelancer or an app development company, study their profiles. Ask them if they have done anything similar to your project before. Show them an outline to see if they understand what it’s all about.

• Read service testimonials.

Don’t you know whether hiring app developers is worth it? Study feedback from previous clients carefully. Executives should pay attention to both testimonials placed on the company’s website and reviews left by users on corresponding services. Check out ratings assigned by customers.

• Learn more about how the app development company works.

Is the app development company flexible? Can they provide you with more specialists at any time? Does the current workflow suit business goals that your team has set up? Decide on it before signing a contract. Check the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) before starting cooperation.

• Don’t be fooled by the lowest quotes/fees.

Don’t be tricked by different agencies that impose low prices. The best idea is to choose app programmers for hire with affordable rather than cheap services. Pick average prices. Avoid too cheap services as they might be of the lowest quality.

• Does the offshore team agree to your terms and conditions or refuse to work on your project?

Try to make it clear from the beginning. Discuss terms and conditions in detail. If any conflict arises initially, it may result in low quality of the final product and missed deadlines.

• Get a good project management tool.

Many project management tools are known today. They help to quantify, segregate, prioritize, and delegate tasks correctly. These tools assist with managing projects: Asana, Zoho Projects, Trello, Wrike, Jira, Confluence, and more.

• Be proactive.

Proactiveness is underestimated, just like many other soft skills. Try to look into the future; forecast how to achieve various outcomes. Stay on the wave with what is going on – ask an offshore team to provide regular reports.

• Insist on frequent deployment.

Check out the demo of your MVP. Demos should be available by the end of every sprint (every two weeks on average).

How Much Would It Cost to Hire A Software Developer?

Phone app development can cost you from almost nothing to a lot, depending on how you hire someone to build an app. The market state is the primary factor that predetermines your project’s price. Other criteria for defining prices include geo factors, the tempo of work, market competition, working experiences, and more. We have analyzed plenty of things to come up with the list of average prices worldwide.

• North America. This region is not for you if you have a limited budget. It will cost you most of all to hire app developers in the United States or Canada. It costs around $120-250 hourly.
• Australia. This country has a bit lower prices to hire dedicated Android app developers or iOS coders. You may have to pay $50-150 per hour.
• The Middle East. Most often, executives consider UAE and Israel when selecting dedicated app creators for hire in this region. It might cost you $100-200.
• South America. This continent is full of cheap labor. The rate per hour is $30-60 in such countries as Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.
• Asia. Hire app developers from India or the Philippines as it makes sense if your budget is relatively tight (around $30).
• Western/North Europe. App creators for hire in some areas may cost you around $100-150 while, in others, this rate may reach more than $300. You’ll discover the most expensive yet experienced professionals in Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. North American app developers might even offer lower costs.
• Eastern Europe. Hourly, it will cost you $25-150 if you decide to hire app developers from Eastern Europe. These countries include Belarus, Romania, Ukraine, and Bulgaria.

Keep in mind that high costs are not a 100% guarantee that you’ll get an excellent project in the end. Remember that distant app development employees that charge little can produce results of the same quality as those whose services cost a lot. It depends on the company’s expertise and experience of every app developer in particular. It is enough to study portfolios made of success cases to understand whether the specific app developer would be able to accomplish your project how you want it. Develop a holistic view through accurate planning and communication. What every executive needs is a cost-effective budget alternative. Individual cases need specific solutions, and no universal rule exists.

Find Your Perfect Contractor!

When you hire dedicated mobile app developers, you get the best method to go mobile with no risks. In case you realize how vital hiring an offshore app developer is, think about a quick solution now. Luckily, you have a team of professionals who know everything about end-to-end app development and are ready to share their expertise. Meet top-qualified mobile developers for hire from OpenGeeksLab. We’ll boost your business performance in the shortest period. Our team will help to decide on affordable solutions for your industry. Drop us a line or schedule a free online consultation so that we can ensure your excellent outcomes!