Are you planning to build a new mobile app for your business? Perhaps, you want a ready-to-market mobile application fast.
If you are contemplating mobile application development, there are two options: outsource the project or hire an in-house team. More and more businesses and startups are considering outsourcing their project to a mobile application development company.
While hiring an outsourced team to build your mobile app requires due diligence, it is the best way to develop and launch your app, find devs across tech stacks and hire flexibly.
Ready to outsource your project? This article explains how to outsource app development.
From why you should hire to the benefits and how to outsource, it provides a comprehensive guide for startups and businesses on how to find the right mobile app development partner.
Key Points
If you don't already have an in-house app dev team, you might have to turn to an agency to design, build and deploy your mobile app for you. This process, also known as app development outsourcing, makes hiring a third-party agency to create your mobile application easy.
Outsourcing is a practice where a business hires an external development company to perform tasks, handle operations and provide services for the company. The outside agency, also known as the service provider, arranges for its developers to perform tasks from an external location.
Most app outsourcing companies have project managers, designers, developers, QA engineers, and testers who work as a team to build apps for different clients.
There are several reasons businesses outsource their mobile application development; here are a few.
Hiring a dev team from an outsourcing company is much cheaper than employing in-house mobile app developers. This is one of the many reasons businesses, especially startups, consider outsourcing their app development project. Depending on your business location, if you decide to outsource to Eastern Europe, the cost cut can range from 20% to 40%.
Hiring in-house programmers for rare talent is an uphill task, especially if your location has a skill shortage. If you outsource your app development project, you won't have problems finding and engaging experts who understand rare or new programming technology.
Mobile app development projects require the services of more than one software developer. If hiring in-house, you must assemble a team that includes a designer, developer, QA engineer, AppSec, etc. Getting all these professionals will take time and cost a lot, especially for startups with less budget. When you outsource your app development project, you will work with a company that has all these professionals already, making it easy to build a team quickly.
Developing a mobile application is a complex process that needs plenty of time and attention. This is in addition to the fact that getting in-house mobile app developers takes time. Once you outsource your project, you only need to provide feedback. You will have time to concentrate on your business while the experts handle your task.
The best app outsourcing companies have experts with different skills and experience. Usually, an app dev team consists of a project manager, business analyst, QA engineer, developer and designer, etc. So, no matter the skills your project requires, building it will not be a problem.
If your app development project becomes more complex, you must increase the number of team members. This might not be easy when you hire in-house mobile app programmers. But with an outsourced team, you can scale with the highest level of flexibility. For example, you can increase the number of app devs from 5 to 15 or reduce the numbers whenever you like.
Professional app outsourcing companies have protocols that ensure that your new mobile application works within local legislation and adheres to data protection rules. They use GitLab to store your code securely and Google Drive for project documentation. Also, signing an NDA ensures that your data and ideas are protected.
Another reason businesses outsource their app development project is because they will get the software product quickly. Your development partner will carefully estimate the project and timeline and use the information to set a deadline for completing the tasks. This will make it easy for you to move from an idea to a market-ready product much faster.
Ready to outsource your mobile app development project? Below, we will share some tips on what you must do if you want to find the best outsourcing team.
This step involved making a list of everything you need to build the app. You can do it in three stages:
When choosing a tech stack, you should decide based on scalability, performance and cost.
A tech stack is a toolset programmers use to build apps. It consists of software applications, programming languages and frameworks. The tech stack for your project depends on the platform you are targeting.
For iOS apps, the technologies used are Objective-C and Swift. Aside from that, app programmers use integrated development environments like JetBrains’ AppCode and Apple's Xcode.
The tech stack for Android development is programming languages like Kotlin and Java and toolkits like Android Studio and Android SDK.
The tech stack for cross-platform apps is React Native, Xamarin, Titanium, Flutter, etc.
There are various ways of outsourcing your app development project. You can hire freelancers or an outsourced team. While most startups favour freelancers because they are cheap, others prefer to outsource their projects to a team. Let's walk through some pros and cons of hiring freelancers before considering the types of outsourcing teams.
An outsourced team consists of ready-made devs with experience and skills across tech stacks to address your app development needs. You can use three outsourcing models if you decide to hire an external app development company to handle your project. You can engage an onshore, offshore and nearshore development company. Let's consider the various outsourcing types, one after the other.
In onshore development, you engage a team of app developers who work remotely from an external location. The developers are located in your business country.
In offshore development, you outsource your app development project to a dev team not located in your country. For example, a business in the US can outsource the project to a team in India.
Although you and the programmers are not located in the same country in nearshore development, the primary difference between it and offshore is that the programmers are in a nearby country.
In most cases, you and the app devs may not share the same language. This might make it difficult to communicate.
A portfolio gives insight into a dev team's services, skills and experience level. That is why you must examine their portfolio before signing a contract.
Check for past projects and reviews, and recommendations from previous clients. Regarding reviews, look for positive feedback and contact past clients, if possible, to ask about the company's work culture.
Another thing to do when checking a portfolio is to look for apps they have developed in the past. You can download and inspect apps and assess their features. If you are satisfied, you can move to the next stage.
An engagement model defines how you will work with the app development team. It includes the responsibilities, level of control and management.
Under this model, you outsource your project to a dedicated team that works exclusively at a fixed cost. The team has all the experts needed to build your mobile app, such as a designer, developer, QA engineer, project manager, business analyst, etc.
This model includes:
Project-based model is popular with businesses and startups without an in-house dev team.
In the dedicated team model, the app development company you outsourced your project to is responsible for building and managing the team and quality control.
Hiring a dedicated team gives you access to a full-cycle development team that includes a project manager and all the experts needed to build a ready-to-market app for your business.
This business model works great for startups, midsize teams and businesses.
This model allows you to fill a skill gap in your team without employing permanent app developers. In this option, the nearshore development company is responsible for assembling a team of devs you can plug in with your in-house team with all the skills needed to build the app.
There are two payment options to consider if you outsource your app development project to a nearshore company. You can choose the hourly payment or fixed payment.
This is the most popular, flexible and transparent payment model because you pay only for the time the team spends working on your project. Also, you can easily change the scope or team size whenever you want.
This payment option is perfect for businesses with little knowledge of the work scope and who want to change the requirements along the way. The setback of hourly pay is that it gives you less budget control because you can't tell how long the development process will take.
In this payment option, you set a fixed amount you will pay the dev team after completing the project. Fixed payment offers low risk but lacks flexibility if you have to add more tasks to the project or need a change in requirements.
You can choose the fixed payment model if your app development project is small, and you can easily estimate how long it takes to build it. The setback of the fixed payment model is that it requires elaborate planning to identify all the requirements and deliverables.
You can hire an app development company when your requirements are met. Before you hire, ensure the dev team has all the experts needed to make your mobile app and the right skills. Also, decide on the right working models and payment options.
If skills, project management and payment are settled, you can sign an NDA and a contract with the outsourced team. The NDA will protect your ideas and the final product, while the contract will state what must be done and the completion time.
There are several benefits of outsourcing to an app development agency. Here are a few.
Developing a functional mobile app your users will find useful is not cheap. That is why most businesses consider the cost of building an app before anything else.
The cost is even more if you hire in-house app programmers because you will pay in addition to salary insurance, time off, etc.
But when you outsource your app development to a nearshore development company, there is no need to assemble the team or manage them.
The app development agency will handle all that for you. Also, you only have to pay them for what they do; there is no need to pay for vacation and other benefits.
Time-to-market is everything in business. When developing an app, you want the programmers to start working on it immediately and complete the task in less time without keeping your customers waiting.
If you choose to hire in-house, the hiring process alone is tedious, and when you finally find someone, onboarding is another time-consuming task.
Outsourcing your project guarantees that you form an app development team quickly. They will transform your business needs into a working product that appeals to your customers, allowing you to concentrate on your main business activities.
Outsourcing to an app development company means the team will be more accountable for your product. They will do everything to deliver a working software product that meets your customers' expectations. Mobile app devs will want to gain your confidence, referrals and repeat business. So, your app's success is theirs too.
Finding the right outsourced team can be challenging but quite manageable. Below are tips to help you make an informed decision when outsourcing your project.
One pitfall to avoid when outsourcing is not checking for experience. To do that, you should examine the app development agency’s portfolio, website and case studies and see how they have handled past projects. Also, it would help if you download some of the apps they have built and test the features and functions.
Your app ideas and the final product must be protected at all costs. When you work with an outsourced team, you entrust them with business-sensitive data; that is why you must sign an NDA. This non-disclosure agreement ensures that your sensitive data remain confidential and offers legal protection that prevents your ideas from being stolen.
Before finalising the deal with the app development company, you should establish communication guidelines. This includes setting how often you give feedback and when it is implemented, scheduling online meetings and means of communication.
While advanced payment protects developers from unethical clients, remember that there are unethical devs too. To protect your company from unethical app devs, you should arrange to split the cost into instalments for the first few months of your cooperation.
Outsourcing your app development project has many more benefits than hiring in-house developers. But to get the best from an outsourced team, you have to do your homework. Some of the tips for outsourcing your app development project are:
When you are sure you have the best app development team to work on your project, you can proceed to sign contracts and an NDA.
Ready to outsource your app development now? Deazy can connect you with dedicated app developers from our ecosystem to build a go-to-market software product for your business. Contact us now to learn more!
What Is Application Outsourcing?
Mobile app outsourcing is assigning your app development to an external agency to build, test, maintain and manage your application.
Is It Better to Outsource App Development?
Outsourcing your app development project is faster and cheaper than hiring an in-house team. The outsourced team has app developers with different skills who can handle your project.