Hiring an App Developer: 10 Essential Questions to ask Before Hiring Them

10 Essential Questions to ask Before Hiring Them

The mobile app market is bigger than anyone has ever dreamed. Most businesses have their own app to expand their reach and find more customers. Mobile apps allow companies to provide the best customer experience and stay ahead of the competition in the market. However, one question remains, how do we hire app developers that are suitable for your company’s vision? In this article, we have provided ten questions that you should ask before hiring an app development company.

10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring an App Development Company

1. What is Your Experience in the App Development Field?

We need to learn more about the app development company within the first few questions. Ask them about their experience in your field. Learn more about their work from their portfolios and case studies. Ask them for client testimony and reviews regarding their past work. You can also contact their past clients and ask more about their work.

One of the main reasons behind this question is to assess the qualification and expertise of the development company. Most up-and-coming companies can boost their work to find new projects and then get stuck with it as they bargain for more than they can chew on. You should not work with a company that can waste your time and resources. Make sure to check all the details about the company before moving forward.

2. What Would be the Total Cost of App Development?

This is an important question, and you must get the answer early. Of course, every app development company has a different set of development processes, so the app development cost may vary. However, we need to learn about what different types of apps and features cost.

Average simple app development should cost around $50,000 with basic features. With more complex apps like E-commerce and social media, the cost can go up to $300,000 based on your requirement. We also need to know about app development expenses for native, hybrid and cross-platform apps. The app development cost also varies based on the location of the company. For example, US-based companies have an average cost of $100 to $150 per hour, while an mobile app development agency based in India can charge around $30 to $50 per hour. We also need to take maintenance and updates along with the server charger and other hidden charges into consideration.

3. How Long Does It Take to Build It?

The duration of the app development is based on the complexity and features of the app. Before the app development company starts their work, we need to send them a detailed brief regarding the app development. We should include the idea, goal, features, designs, and approximate date of launch. We also need to ask them for a proposal based on the brief, estimated cost and NDA or contract. Here is an approximate time frame for every stage of the app development process.

  • Research and Ideation – 3 to 6 weeks
  • Design – 6 to 12 weeks
  • Development – 6 to 12 weeks
  • App deployment – 2 to 3 weeks

This is a basic timeline for app development. There are many factors that impact the overall duration of it. Such as the complexity of the app, design and features, validating the design and features from the client, MVP, launch and more.

4. Which Platform do I Choose, Android or iOS?

Choosing the right app development platform significantly affects the app’s success. Currently, there are two major app development platforms in the market, Android and iOS. Android has more than 71% of the market share globally, allowing clients to expand their market. However, we also need to consider the location and demographic of the targeted audience. iOS has only 29% of the market, but they are prominent in North America and Europe. If your targeted audience is in this region, android apps won’t help them.

Choosing between two platforms is hard, but it will allow you to build a native app. They are built using native programming language and offer better performance and speed. But, if your targeted audience has mixed results, you should build apps on both platforms, which can be expensive with native app development. That’s why you should ask your potential app developers about cross-platform app development. It does not offer smooth applications like native, but it is cost-effective. Make sure to ask your app development company about developing an Android Or iOS App.

5. How Do You Communicate Regarding Development Updates?

App development is a long process that requires constant updates and communication between the client and the company. It’s important to understand the procedure of communication and involvement before starting the project. As a client, you are entitled to daily updates and the app’s progress, which is why every app development company has a project manager or coordinator that keeps you apprised about the app development.

There are many tools available in the market that allow clients to check in on the development team. Apart from that, we need to ask the development team what level of involvement is possible. A good development company understands the value of client feedback, which is why you, as a client, must provide your valuable input at every stage.

6. What is Your Development Process?

There are many stages in mobile app development. Ask the developers regarding the roadmap of the development process. How will they research market trends, user persona, targeted audience and more? This will help you understand the procedure to develop the strategy. Here are some more questions to ask app developers about the development process.

  • How do they strategies app development?
  • What are the stages of app development?
  • How do they plan and assess requirements?
  • What is the process of designing UX and UI?
  • How do they handle programming and coding?
  • What is the procedure for testing the app?
  • What is the App Testing Procedure?

Testing and quality assurance are integral parts of the app development process. Developers test the app at every stage to find and solve more bugs. QA will make sure that the app’s functions, usability and security are on par with the process. Ask the developers about the different testing procedures, such as user experience testing, where developers will check the app’s functionalities and learn to solve issues that will become hurdles in user experience.

After that, they also test the app for device and platform testing. In this, developers will use different devices and check the usability and functionality of the app. They also check how the app works on their platforms, such as different versions of Android or iOS. Lastly, they make sure the app is secure with a security test.

7. How Do You Handle App Store Submission and Approval?

Both Android and iOS have different guidelines for app deployment on their platform. The developers will check the guidelines and adhere to their rules to successfully get approval from them. Google play store is a bit lenient with guidelines where we need to upload all the app’s names, descriptions and screenshots. While for the Apple app store, the guidelines are strict, and we need to follow them to the dot.

Apart from that, we also need to consider app store optimization for better visibility. It is similar to the SEO for a website where we need to add certain keywords to the title and description. Ask the developers about how they will manage app store optimization for your project.

8. Can You Provide Ongoing Technical Support and Maintenance for the App After the Launch?

App development never ends once we deploy the app. We need constant and ongoing support from our app development partner for new updates and maintenance. The ongoing support can cost around 20% of the total budget. Make sure to ask your app development company regarding their policy on this, as some companies offer free updates and maintenance for a short period of time.

During the technical support and maintenance, developers will find and fix bugs in the app. They can also add new features and functionalities to the app as required. It is a continuous improvement process where we add new features to help our users.

9. How do We Measure the Success of the App?

Once the development and launching are done, we need to measure the success of the app in the market. Based on that data, we can improve the user experience by adding or removing certain features in the apps. Developers use certain metrics and KPIs to measure the success of the apps.

For example, we can measure engagement metrics by analyzing the data on how users spend their time on the app. Other metrics are outcome metrics, retention metrics and more. KPIs are based on monthly data such as total time spent on the app, user retention, etc. We can measure engagement metrics by analyzing the data on how users spend their time on the app.

Conclusion

Choosing the right development company is the paramount task to success. We need to find a company with experience and expertise and who has already worked on a similar app. We need to ask the right questions to learn more about the development process to find the right company. In this article, we have provided the top 10 questions which will allow you to assess them based on their answer. This will help you hire iOS app developers in India for your dream app.