The ultimate guide to Outsourcing mobile app development!

With over millions of applications, the app development sector has been growing into a million-dollar business. By 2020, it is expected that the revenue of the Application outsourcing will reach 95 Million, which means as the investment in this sector is increasing steadily. 

“In a survey held by Deloitte, 78% of the respondents felt positive about their outsourcing relationships”

According to Stats, the annual growth rate is expected to grow by 5.9% by 2025. Well, isn’t the statistic says much more about the popularity of outsourcing app development? It does! How you must be wondering, what’s so demanding about the outsourcing app development team? The answer itself lies in the growth shown above and the increasing competition, cost, and demand. 

What’s with the term ‘Outsource mobile app development’?

There are various ways to develop an application like hiring in-house developers and outsourcing the app to a development company. 

Outsourcing app development means if you don’t want to hire an in-house development team, you can turn your app idea to an agency with talented people. When you hire an outsourcing firm to develop your app according to your requirement and desires that means outsourcing app development. This helps you with various things like shortening your time to market for your products, a decrease in the project costs, and providing your product with improved quality. 

“Around 52% of the IT companies in India outsource their app development projects” 

Outsourcing offers a range of skills and experiences that are the best things to bring on the table. A company which involves app development work for various technologies comes along with skillful team members. This could help you solve the problems more easily. Whereas, with the in-house app development team, you’ll have to search for specific people as per the project needs, which means spending more money and time. 

Freelancing or Outsourcing? 

Finding the best outsourcing app development firm with experts and skills is a bit tricky and challenging nowadays. If you search on google you will find hundreds of app development firms out there so choosing the correct one as per needa is obviously challenging. If you’ve thought to hire an outsourcing mobile app development company, you have got options to choose from!

• Freelancers: Thinking to hire a single person to work upon your projects, freelancers might come handy and also a cost-effective way. You can hire a freelancer who will work on a fixed hourly basis/rate like Upwork. Hiring a freelancer could be risky as well, unavoidable situations may arise while working with a freelancer such as communicating problems, less knowledge or experience, and late deliveries. 
• App development companies: Hiring a mobile app developer’s team is a complete solution. A team that follows systematic steps, good experience with knowledge, latest technologies, and tools being used to build-up the app. Working with a trusted app developer team fulfills your expectations like on-time deliveries, innovative ideas, and approaches. 

To choose a company to outsource the app development count on the features you need in your app, the complexity of your app, tools, and techniques to be used, and budget. Hiring a freelancer app developer could be a good option if your app involves simple designs and features. Whereas, hiring a mobile app development agency could be a team full of specialists like project managers, android/iOS app developers, UI designers, and all. They build your app from scratch and with every custom app requirement. 

Pros of hiring an outsourcing mobile app development company

Outsourcing app development firms provide more flexibility towards the costing, features, designing, and tools. There are various benefits from outsourcing a Development Company over the in-house development, let’s discuss them:

• A pool of professionals: With a greater level of competition, comes professionalism. As these developers have been working over a longer time, they have a timely and different manner to work and satisfy their customers like they know when and how to execute the work plan, how the work plan should flow, and the delivery time, etc. They work in a highly organized way to ensure a stress-free environment. An in-house team consists of a limited number of people which reduces the expertise level, on the other hand, app development outsourcing comes along with a talent pool. 
• Different techniques under one roof: Under the app development agencies, it helps you to find all the latest technologies and tools which could be used to build up your app. Thus, it’s a place to find ample experts and skillful people with the latest techniques for your app idea.
• A budget-friendly method: As you know, cost-cutting is one of the major aspects of a business. Outsourcing your app development gives you less control over the development process, it is a cost-effective way than an in-house. It helps to decrease the overall cost with a great deal. This method not only helps to reduce the overhead cost but also helps to save more and frees up the cost for other resources.   
• Quicker turnover: This method helps to offer a faster turnover rate than compared to an in-house team or freelancers. Having dedicated project managers, designers, analysts in the package is a plus point, which eventually helps to regulate the development process to have the delivery on-time basis and customer satisfaction. Also, the in-house app developer’s team coordinates their task with the other ones which may take a longer time then outsourcing it. 
• Reduction in risk: After the formalities of the contract, the risk factor is all upon the outsourcing company. The outsourcing company guarantees delivery on time and budget. Also, all the confidential data is secured with the company by signing an agreement, which helps to ensure the risk of theft factors or information leakage.
• 24*7 assistance: If there’s any problem regarding the software or any functional errors, it’s the time you need to fix it immediately. The outsourcing company helps you to work and deliver the project seamlessly. Even after the work is done, the app development company is always there for the services you need. No need to stress it out, from fixing the bug to marketing and then launching it, the company takes care of the project fully.

How much does it cost to hire an iOS developer?

Know-hows to find a suitable outsourcing agency

After knowing the benefits of outsourcing, let’s know how to look for an outsourcing company for your app idea. Before approaching to the app developers, you need to know what you want in your application. So, here are the steps to be taken before outsourcing your app to agency:

Concrete outline of your app: A good agency is ready to walk an extra mile for a successful execution. Once you have an app idea, it always requires a little bit or more research before development starts. A good agency would work with you to outline your app idea and bring things needed on the table before starting the process. Sharing your clear vision and thoughts over the app would also help the developers of the outsourcing company to know your requirements well and also to suggest and guide you. 

Estimate your project budget: Don’t get tempted by the low rates, take a look at your budget, how much you can allocate for your app, approach different companies to know their pricing, analyze the budget accordingly. The outsourcing app development cost for custom apps depends on the app you want. It all depends on your application’s features, idea, design, tools, platform, and more. It may find you a little costly, but the end-to-end development companies help to build the app from scratch. 

Know about the app developers: Before starting to approach different companies, firstly go through the app development companies’ website and check about their portfolio, services, reviews, and projects they have worked on. Know their experience thoroughly, know about their costing, check whether they match your level of requirements, know about their skills for a particular technology, and know about the tools and software they use, and more. Meet up with them to know how well they communicate and are they able to reach your level of expectations. 

Choose your service model: As outsourcing app development has multiple options, you can also choose the service type you require for your app. There are 3 types of service models:

• Project-based: This implies that the app developer’s team has already determined the requirements they need to reach and that too in a specific time. Everything is outlined by the client which makes them a responsible person to deliver the project in good quality. 
• Dedicated team: This model is responsible for assigning the required resources in your project to ensure proper management and quality. The outsourcing company is responsible for the assigned tasks, choosing the team leaders, well management, and following up on the task. 
• Out-staff team: This means allocating the work outside of the company and they are responsible for the development of the task assigned, working hours, timing, pay scale, and more. They help to motivate the team and manage the project. 

Costing of Outsourcing App Development Company:

From features and tools to platform and even developers’ location, the costing for the outsourcing app developer varies. The more complex the app, the more time it takes to build up, the more costly it is. App development cost depends on many different factors such as the complexity, features, tools used, and more. Also, hiring a freelancer could be costly as they charge on an hourly basis and also based on location. 

For example, if we see nation wise, a developer based in the US will charge up to $60 on an hourly basis, whereas in India, the developer will charge up to $20 per hour. Also, the project managers in the US or Europe will charge $50-70 per hour, but in India, the charges are $22-35 per hour. 

Similarly, the way the charges are different nation-wise, the charges are also different over the factors you want in your app. The cost to build a simple application would be much less than the cost to build an app with complexity and multiple features.  

The Challenges 

As we have read about the benefits of hiring an outsourcing app development companies, here are some of the challenges being faced by them:

1. Trust factor: Many companies face trust issues as people are afraid to share their sensitive documents and data with other companies. Having incomplete information could also lead to major issues in outsourcing. 
2. Over expectations: Sometimes, the expectation could also lead a company into major problems which result in project failure and disappointment by the companies and also for the business. 
3. Time-zone difference: Hiring an outsourcing company that is located in foreign could also lead to communication issues. This is due to the time-zone of different countries. For example, the India based outsourcing agency needs to overlap their work for 2-3hours or a client in the US. 

Conclusion

Outsourcing app development is beneficial and easy for customers. So Outsourcing app development is always a best and quick solution for non techy or techie customers. The only tricky thing is to find the best one could be full of challenges. Working with a good and skillful company is not only a benefit for your business or product but also is a delightful experience. 

Don’t rush things up just to complete your project! Outsourcing app development is not only cost-effective but also offers great productivity, low risk, saves time, better effective choices to choose from, and proper management. No matter what the size, scope, and requirements of your project are, outsourcing app development has always been a help to deliver products on time!
Still, confused about outsourcing an app Development Company? Don’t worry! Feel free to contact the experts on this, just drop us a mail at info@apptraitsolutions.com.