Here, we'll explore the specifics of outsourced mobile app development and explain how to avoid the common pitfalls of the process.
Highlights:
- With outsource mobile app development, you get access to a wide range of specialists, skills, and experience.
- It allows you to achieve high-quality results affordably and allocate your resources more efficiently.
- 70% of companies name cost reduction as the main reason for outsourcing.
- Outsourcing mobile app development helps you bring your app to the market faster and seize the opportunity ahead of competitors.
Once you've decided to create a mobile application for your business, you will face a tough choice: Should you hire your own in-house development team or opt for an outsourcing mobile app development company?
“Mind Studios has been following the outsource cooperation model for 11 years now, tackling numerous challenges along the way. We greatly value each of our clients, many of whom have trusted us with their continued partnership for over three years. Our extensive portfolio includes a wide range of projects, each proving that every case requires a customization solution. We take a unique approach to every project, crafting solutions precisely tailored to our clients’ needs because their success is a reflection of our own.”
says Marina Kovalyova, Business Development Manager at Mind Studios.
One of our standout projects is FITR, a fitness platform that powers the custom-tailored training programs of Mat Fraser, the GOAT of CrossFit, and his HWPO brand. If you are interested in outsourcing a similar app and don’t know where to find a reliable development company, contact us for a free consultation.
This article will guide you through understanding both in-house and outsourcing mobile development approaches, with a particular focus on the benefits of outsourcing.
Mobile application development outsourcing vs. in-house
When you decide on mobile app development, you have two options: build an in-house team or outsource your development. Each has its pros and cons.
In-house development
- Having an in-house team of developers has some unique benefits. Firstly, you’ll have a team that knows your business from the inside, with all its peculiarities.
- Also, you’ll have full control over the app development process since the team will be working right there in your office.
- An in-house team is the best choice when you have a grand idea: one that’s supposed to take down Facebook or something like that; аn app that requires close collaboration with your business and is planned for years ahead, something revolutionary, not overly restricted in either time or funding. If that’s not the case, consider IT outsourcing.
- As a rule, an in-house team of app programmers tends to be more expensive. You’ll need to recruit specialists, provide them with office space and equipment, and cover all other expenses associated with in-house employees.
- In addition, a fixed team often brings a somewhat limited scope of knowledge and experience, an issue that dedicated software development agencies with many different specialists can easily resolve.
Outsource development
If you outsource mobile application development to a qualified team with a solid reputation, the benefits will exceed all minor drawbacks.
- Outsourcing application development can lower costs, increase team productivity, and accelerate project completion.
- This collaborative model works for startups, medium-sized businesses, and sometimes even for larger corporations.
- However, companies can be less flexible in their work than freelancers or in-house specialists.
Comparison of outsourcing options
If you’ve decided to outsource your app development, you have at least three options to choose from:
- Hire an app development outsourcing company
- Hire freelance mobile application developers
- Go with an outsourced development company
Let’s see what are the differences between all three options.
Your choice will depend on the scope of work you need, the type of app you’re developing, and your budget.
Choosing to outsource app development with freelance developers can be a worthy idea for a simple app. Freelancers usually have one or a couple of niches they work in and are good at. If features you need fall into the app developer’s area and level of expertise, you can score big in terms of cost savings. Some freelancers also work in collaboration with others, forming teams resembling those at outsourcing agencies. In this case, you might not need to search for separate developers, designers, and QA specialists.
When your app is more complex, though, the advantages of outsourcing software development with a proper company become obvious. With dedicated outsourcing mobile developers, you get all the specialists you may need, including Android and iOS developers, UI/UX designers, testers, and those rarely employed among freelancers, such as project managers and business analysts. A full team is definitely the right choice when you need to build a mobile application from scratch.
Whatever option you choose, the advice on how to find a good iOS or Android app development outsourcing provider is largely similar. Here is our simple roadmap.
How to outsource app development in 8 steps
So, you’ve got an application idea that truly gets you going, and now you are ready to move forward with it. What is next?
For those of you who have chosen mobile app development outsourcing instead of going with an in-house team, we’ve come up with eight steps that will help you set the ball rolling.
Defining your requirements for the future product, tips for searching for an application outsourcing company, and other factors that need to be taken into account when making a decision — this instruction covers all the basics.
Step 1: Have a solid outline for an app
A good app development outsourcing company will help you with additional market research and business analysis, but it’s crucial to have your own clear vision of your product. This will make it easier to find a service provider and establish expectations of what you want to receive at the end. Furthermore, if you choose to work with individual app developers instead of a company, the clarity of your outlines becomes even more invaluable — miscommunication can deliver you an app completely different from what you wanted.
So be as clear and precise as you can by preparing answers to these main questions:
- What do you aim to achieve with your app?
- What problem should the app solve for its users?
- Do you want to build an iOS app, an Android app, or both?
- What features do you definitely need?
- How do you plan your app to earn money?
Mind Studios’ insight: All the above mentioned questions, especially the first two, are great indicators when choosing a company. Professional and reliable companies do care what you do and what results you want to achieve. For Mind Studios, for example, these are crucial points because our main goal is to build successful businesses, and without understanding the objectives, it is impossible.
Step 2: Estimate the budget
Depending on how much money you can allocate for the app, the companies at your disposal will differ. It’s crucial to weigh all your options, taking both price and quality into account.
Keep in mind that initial calculation is just a rough estimate, which can change over the course of mobile app development as the new features are added and changes are made. So, it is preferable to find an option with a preliminary cost lower than your overall budget.
Here is what Dmytro Dobrytskyi, CEO of Mind Studios, has to say on this matter:
“Clients very often avoid directly mentioning their budget in conversations with development companies, fearing that the contractor might deliberately create an estimate that will consume the entire budget. Unfortunately, such situations do occur. However, it is important for the development company to know the budget as it directly determines the range of services they can offer you. Plus, knowing the budget allows the development company to propose the most effective plan. That is why, if you are worried about having this issue, just mention the budget that you are comfortable with.”
Mind Studios’ advice: We would recommend not rushing into suspiciously cheap deals as they might influence the outsource app development cost in the long run. Working with freelance developers with the lowest rate may put you at risk of receiving poor-quality code, and in some cases no code at all. If your budget is limited, it’s better to avoid such a risk and work a bit more on finding additional investments and trustworthy business partners.
Despite the popular misconception, the price difference between freelance and outsourced mobile app developers is not always huge. Finding outsourced mobile developers whose prices won't break the bank and who will still deliver decent results is possible.
So first, make a list of reliable outsourcing companies or freelance developers within your budget, ask them for an estimate, and then pick the most suitable option.
Step 3: Research onshore, nearshore, and offshore mobile app developers
From thousands upon thousands of app development companies, you'll need to choose those that match your set of requirements, for instance, experience with the platform you're developing for, skills with a particular tech stack you'll need to implement, and so on. Then, you need to consider geography and communication.
There are three types of development providers classified by their location in regard to you: onshore, nearshore, and offshore. When you research how to outsource application development, you’ll need to decide on the location pretty early on, as it will impact your communication with remote software developers.
Obviously, working with the onshore companies is much easier to manage. Being in the same time zone makes calls effortless, and sometimes even allows you to meet in person with the team. However, local companies might also be too pricey, especially for startups and small businesses located in the US, Canada, Australia, or Western Europe where developers’ wages are high.
However, professional development companies, like Mind Studios, will always find ways to work with any time zone. For example, our clients are spread across a wide geography — from Australia to China, Saudi Arabia, and the West Coast of the United States. To streamline our work, we optimized our development, all communications, and reporting processes.
For example, when working on our Unight project, an online platform that gives you direct access to dining and clubbing venues in Chinese cities, we streamlined our communication with our client in Shanghai so that it would be comfortable for both them and us, and we get maximum outcome. And it worked out into a very popular app.
How to find outsourced developers
For most of those new to software development, the first search for an outsourcing mobile app development company is simply looking up on Google. However, now that the industry has evolved, there are special websites where freelance developers can find work, and those offering projects can find workers.
- Clutch. The best place to search for an app development outsourcing company is Clutch. This site has over 12,000 companies listed in the mobile development category — 4,000 if you want to outsource iPhone app development. Clutch has superb sorting features (by budget, price, location, company size, etc.), as well as ratings, reviews from clients, and names of companies they have worked with.
- GoodFirms. A well-trusted research and review platform that helps customers find the best software solution among the listed companies. It’s mostly used for B2B connections, as it is considered to be a reliable customer-oriented source with a categorized directory.
Step 4: Examine mobile app developers
Your first list of outsourcing providers that seem to match your needs, whether they are agencies or freelancers, might be pretty long. Maybe even too long to contact each of them personally. If that’s the case, it’s time to check them more thoroughly to narrow down the list.
First, go through the portfolios or at least some sort of certification. This is direct proof that the outsourced app development company and individual app developers have relevant experience. It's important to check this if you want to build a top-quality application. If relevant expertise exists, we'd recommend investigating further, for instance, by downloading the app to ensure it works.
Another way to see if you should hire an app development company is to check positive and negative reviews by contacting the customers who collaborated with them. Most services like Clutch feature reviews, and some of those reviews are quite detailed, listing both the strengths and weaknesses of a particular company. Deep research of service providers on your list will most probably make that list significantly smaller.
Mind Studios’ insight: Of course, any development company strives to showcase its best results. But, no company is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. Mind Studios is no exception. However, what’s more important for us is learning from them. That’s why we always conduct retrospectives on our past mistakes and continuously improve our processes. We are not shy about it — in fact, we encourage our new clients to talk to our current ones and get honest feedback.
Step 5: Contact the remaining companies or developers
It’s ideal to narrow your list down to about five options. This way, you won’t spend too much time contacting each company or developer for a quote and a consultation.
Upon establishing contact, you can ask your prospects for more information, such as:
- what they’ve been working on that’s not featured in the portfolio
- whether they can offer references
- what educational courses or conferences their team members have attended this year
- what means of communication they use
Ask anything you haven’t found information about online so you can make a well-informed decision based on all the data.
Mind Studios’ advice: Very often, clients worry that a development company will treat them as just another project for making money. We are strongly opposed to such relationships. You should look for a company that is ready to build long-term partnerships and grow alongside you.
Step 6: Choose the right engagement model
Selecting the appropriate engagement model is crucial for aligning your project with your budget, timeline, and flexibility needs. The two most popular models as of today are Time and Materials and Fixed Price.
Time and Materials
As stated from its name, when choosing this cooperation model, you pay for the actual time developers spend on your project and materials they use.
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Fixed Price
The overall project cost is agreed upon upfront based on a detailed scope of work.
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But is there an ideal cooperation model? As Dmytro Dobrytskyi, CEO of Mind Studios, puts it:
“There is no single "ideal" cooperation model — any model, and even a mix of several, can be used depending on the specific case. At Mind Studios, for example, we always consider the variety of factors, including the type of project, its complexity, financial constraints, and even the client’s billing cycle, to choose the most suitable model for everyone involved.”
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So, the key to a successful project lies in understanding your specific needs and selecting the engagement model that best aligns with them.
Step 7: Build a strong legal foundation for your project
It's also essential for you, as the product owner, to make your relationship with the app developer official. With companies, you'll no doubt have a written agreement. That’s a common practice at Mind Studios. However, some freelance developers might be reluctant to make things official. That's a sign to be alert.
Here is a list of the key legal steps you should take:
- A non-disclosure agreement ensures that it will remain confidential. This will also legally protect your app idea from being stolen by other companies.
- To secure your ownership, you should also sign an Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (IPR) that ensures that all your code, designs, and other deliverables belong exclusively to you.
- A Service Level Agreement (SLA) outlines the level of services expected from the project, including deadlines, quality standards, and other critical aspects, reducing the risks of misunderstandings.
- Advance payment is a common practice as it protects developers from unethical clients. However, you can also protect your company from unethical specialists by splitting cost for mobile app development into installments, at least for the first few months of your cooperation.
Step 8: Maintain good communication with developers
Keep up the communication with developers and keep your finger on the pulse of things throughout the whole app development process. If you’re working with an app development outsourcing company, you’ll have a project manager who will keep you posted. If you’ve chosen to work with a freelancer, take time to agree on the means of communication and how often you need to be in touch.
How much does it cost to outsource mobile app development?
The cost of outsourcing application development depends on numerous factors, including the scope of features and tools used, the location of your developers, business niche, and many more. The more complex the app, the longer it will take to build it, and hence the more expensive the development will be.
US-based companies and freelancers charge higher prices, while Eastern European countries are usually the optimum choice in terms of quality-to-price ratio. You can learn all the nuances about the cost of building an app in our article “How Much It Costs to Make an App.”
If you want to learn more about price formation for different types of apps, check our previous posts:
- How to make an on-demand medicine-delivery app: benefits and costs
- Yoga app development: How to make an app like Asana Rebel
- The cost of developing a hotel booking website or a mobile app
- How much does it cost to start a streaming service like Twitch?
Outsource mobile app development to Mind Studios
Mind Studios has been outsourcing mobile applications as an outsourced team since 2013, and on average, our developers have 8+ years of experience. In addition to gathering a team of specialists who are passionate about what they do, we’ve created solid guidelines based on Agile software development methodology, which includes Jira for progress control and Slack for communication. All of this helps us conquer borders and provide our clients with the best custom solutions to their ideas.
Surely, we don’t expect you to take our words for granted. Our experience is supported by reviews on our Clutch profile, Dribbble and Behance portfolios, and case studies published on our website.
Conclusion
Finding a decent company for outsourcing mobile app development is not an easy task with the number of companies and individual developers on the market. But working with a reliable company is not only beneficial for your product and your business, it’s also a pleasurable experience. In fact, according to the research, 83% of companies managed to reduce costs, while 82% improved the efficiency of their processes thanks to outsourcing.
If you are looking for mobile application outsourcing, we suggest adding us to the final list of candidates and requesting a free 45-minute consultation. During this meeting, we’ll discuss your application idea and strategies that can turn it into a successful product.
