How to Outsource Mobile App development (The Ultimate Guide for 2020)
In this revolutionary world, Mobile apps have always been a vigorous part. The market of the mobile app is being immense day by day and its future is also very bright.
Mobile applications are speedily obtaining grip across the globe due to the immense number of mobile users and devices. There are millions of mobile apps are present in the Play and App store, all the apps have added huge value in their economy respectively.
It’s evaluated that there will be over 6 billion mobile app users in 2020, which will enhance the mobile economy expeditiously.
This evolving technology shows that for businesses, investing their time and effort in mobile app development will not just be a huge income source but also a good step towards knowing the need of the people and time.
Once you have finalized your app idea and decided to build a mobile application for your business based on the customer requirements, you will find different ways that will be able to do this work. The different ways of developing a mobile app: either hire an in-house team of developers or outsource the app idea to an adequate mobile app development company.
Outsourcing the mobile app idea will be the best approach for a business person, as outsourcing can substantially diminish all over the costs, reduces the involved risk, make sure to gives a higher quality of product and provides an extraordinary outcome. Here, in this blog, we will see some important points about how to outsource mobile app development, its best approach and the total expected budget for doing this.
- What Is Mobile App Development Outsourcing?
Outsourcing has become a vital vogue in human resources across the past years. Outsourcing mobile app development is the process in which mobile app development is done outside the company with a third party development company in lieu of hiring an in-house department or employee. It can be done either with an individual or a well-established company.
Outsourcing of application development brings a broad range of skills, expertise, abilities and a large amount of experience. Furthermore, Mobile app development outsourcing helps you to curtail the time for marketing reduces all over the project budget, and improves the quality of your product.
When you come up with the option to outsource your mobile app development idea, you end up getting several options for building your app.
An in-house team can only provide you a few benefits and options for your work with a high budget but the outsourcing app idea brings enormous benefits to the table.
So, listed below are some options for outsourcing your mobile app development:
1. Hire freelance developers.
2. Hire a settled mobile app development company
Or, 3) Choose an off-the-shelf app solution.
Now, we will see the pros and cons of each option:
Hire freelance developers:
Pros:
- Hiring a freelance developer is more cost-efficient compare to hiring a well-entrenched development company.
- You will get the opportunity to work with some very expert and adroit mobile app developers.
Cons:
- Working with a freelance developer can be money risk as they do not assure the quality of work, do not give any work guarantee, and does not provide client protection measures.
- Bounded specializations in tools and platforms and limitations with the latest technologies.
- Working with a freelancer can sometimes lead to communication and time-management issues, especially if you live in different time zones.
2. Hire a settled mobile app development company:
Pros:
- Hiring a well-established company will bring you a wide range of skills and expertise in one place within the team.
- You will get formalized and authorized work, comprising the cost and scope of work.
- A well structured and organized development process with appropriate maintenance services.
- You will get a complete assembled team available right away.
Cons:
- Well established company's service can be a more costly choice than hiring a freelancer and off-the-shelf app solution.
- The flexibility of the company can be an issue in the app development process. As they offer less flexibility in their work process than a freelancer.
3. Choose an off-the-shelf app solution:
Pros:
- Choosing an off-the-shelf app solution is the cheapest option than hiring a freelancer or app development company.
- It takes comparatively less time in-app launching.
- Several app features are directly included in the app.
Cons:
- Customization and Transition of the app to some other platform is very difficult in the off-the-share solution.
- A ready-made mobile app may not fully satisfy your requirements and needs.
- Off-the-share app solution contains some unnecessary features/ functionality which you do not need it.
- Provide standard UI/UX designs.
- It does not provide the ability of app updates according to the market situation.
So, the choice of outsourcing mobile app development depends on the scope of work, the complexity of the app, type of app that you need and your budget for the app. If you want to develop an app that is simple in design and features and fall into the mobile app developer’s area and proficiency level than you should go with hiring a freelancer.
When you want to develop an app from scratch which is complex and tricky and needs a complete team for the development process then opting for a well-founded app development company will be a brilliant choice. You will get access to a team of specialists: Android & iOS developers, UI/UX designers, QA, Testing, Project management and much more.
If you are developing an app for your existing business, with time and budget constraint and need a few features into that, then an off-the-shelf solution would be enough for your need.
- How to Outsource App Development?
Below are some points which will help you to understand about doing the outsourcing of your app idea:
1. Know your requirement:
It is very crucial to know your app idea and the requirement of the product because an outsourcing company will only help you in additional research and business analysis of the app idea. A clear vision of your product idea will help you to find the best service provider and also help to keep expectations from them for the end result. Instead of a company if you will work with a freelancer, then because of the miscommunication and confusion in the requirement you can get a different product than your expectations. So, keep these questions in your mind while knowing your requirement:
- Aim for developing the app.
- Type of problems that will be solved for the target users through the app.
- Will it be initiated for Android or iOS or both?
- Do you wish for a Native or Hybrid app?
- List of features/ functionality that will be in the app and so on.
2. Find your Developer: In the process of outsourcing, the second thing which is important is to find the appropriate developer for your app development. The developer which has the idea, experience and the best skills & expertise for the app will be able to give you the expected end result.
Once you will know your requirement completely, based on that requirement you will have to search for your developers like the experience of the developer for the selected platform, knowledge of the technology, imagination for the app and the most is the developer's communication.
Based on the location relative to you, there are three types of development providers are found: onshore, nearshore and offshore. An onshore developer is that who stays in the same country, nearshore developers are those who are located in the bordering countries and Offshore are those who are located at most distant. Choosing onshore app developers will be the easiest way as you can expect easy and simple communication with them. But if you are a startup company and located in the US, then working with onshore companies will be more expensive than offshore app developers.
3. Estimate Your Budget: Estimating your budget for the app development will be the deciding factor for you to choose the correct option for outsourcing. The amount of money you will invest in your app will choose either you are working with the in-house development, offshore companies, or off-the-shelf app solutions.
Off-the-shelf app solution is always the cheapest solution that comes with minimal features and standard UI/UX. While developing an app from scratch can be more expensive based on the type of features and its complexity.
4. Choose service Model:
There are three types of service models in app development: Project Based, Dedicated Team and Out-staff Working Model. Based on your requirement you will have to choose the service model.Project-Based:
A project-based model contains fixed team members, a determined timeline, and a fixed budget for the development.Dedicated Teams: The dedicated team contains a full-cycle development with Project Managers and Business Analysts overviewing the complete services. The outsourcing company will be liable for assigning tasks, securing proper project management, dedicating team leaders, assigning tasks, and following up on the project status.
Out-Staff working Model: In the Out-staff model, some of the tasks are allocated to outside the company resources and allocating them the proper space to work.
Between the above three options, startups and small-scale businesses give preference to project-based models. The mid-sized organization chooses for a dedicated team and enterprises choose experts for particular tasks within the project’s budget.
- How Much Does It Cost to Outsource App Development?
The cost of outsourcing mobile app development depends on some factors which include the features and functionality required for the app, platform to be used, the complexity of the app, the tools, technologies to use, and the location of the development company. The more complexity of the app will turn to more expensive as it will take more time to develop. US-based development freelancers and companies charges are higher than the offshore companies in Europe or India.
Furthermore, the hourly rate of freelancers’ also differs by location.
For example, if we talk about a US-based developer, they charge up to $100 per hour, whereas an India based developer will cost you $30 per hour. Similarly, the cost of the project manager in the US and Western Europe will be higher than the Indian developer.
If you are interested and choose to work with an Indian Mobile app development company then you can freely come to us, we will let you know the best cost for your mobile app-based on the idea, complexity, features, and the required platform.
