How to Find an App Developer in 2025: All You Need to Consider

Whether you hire app developer to build a full-fledged React Native solution, or you just want a basic native iOS app, the hardest part is also the same: finding the right talent for mobile app development. Every stage counts, from releasing on the App Store or Google Play to when to reach out to a smartphone app developer.

We are going to review the most essential steps you need to get the best mobile app developer candidates for your project.

Before you decide where to hire app developers and employ some, you should strictly understand the fundamentals of this profession. It'll help you find out the particular type of specialist you'll need for your future project and get the background you need to conduct effective meetings and interviews.

Thus, you should clearly understand the following:

• You search for a native, web, or Flutter mobile app developer
• Operating systems they should know
• Technologies they should be able to use, and so on.

Typically, outsourcing mobile development companies are able to offer you different kinds of mobile app development experts to collaborate with and choose some that are crucial for your project.

For example, Cleveroad can provide you with skilled native app developers working with iOS and Android or cross-platform app coders that will be able to deliver you a powerful and advantageous Flutter-based mobile app saving you time and budget.

Asking your professional colleagues for any referrals is the most useful way to find app developers quickly and with limited resources. It’s a powerful method, as the person you trust can speak for the candidates’ experience and qualifications while telling them your company is a good place for work.

However, you need to have a long list of professional contacts to increase your chance to find a mobile developer, skilled enough for your project.

This is the easiest way to find candidates. Using hiring platforms, you’re most likely to find app developers for a reasonable price. They collect information about IT companies and freelancers from all over the world, giving the tools you need for a successful hiring.

There are three types of tech platforms to answer the “how to hire app developer for your app” question depending on the main cooperation models:

• Platforms for finding freelancers: Youteam, Upwork, Toptal, Fiverr
• Platforms for finding full-time employees: Glassdoor, Indeed, Dice, LinkedIn
• Platforms for finding IT vendors: Clutch, GoodFirms, IT Firms, 99 Firms

Awesome working experience is greatly valued when it comes to developing strong ties with chosen mobile app development companies. So, asking yourself “how to hire app developers trustworthy enough to collaborate with?”, you can check your prospective provider's page on professional platforms like Clutch, or Glassdoor and read any reviews written by prior clients. It’s reasonable: who can say more about working with a mobile app development provider than the previous customers?

You probably don't want an app developer who hasn't ever made a mobile app before. Look at the candidates’ portfolio to understand whether they’ve worked on products similar to yours. Download their apps, check whether they work as expected and if they provide value to customers. Such a research will sufficiently respond on how to find mobile app developers for your project.

For example, the Cleveroad team has recently designed an IoT-based system for monitoring EKG and blood oxygen level. The solution’s core is iOS and Android mobile applications connected via IoT devices. As a result, our client received a mobile telecare app that meets US health regulators’ requirements and provides users with valuable opportunities to track vital signs.

Solid recommendations and portfolio examples will be beneficial only if the app developer is simple to deal with. So, even when a remote application development team is engaged, member interviews are still required.

First, you should ensure that the app developers create your app without communication obstacles: check the availability of the communication tools they use and make sure there are no language barriers between you and your team.

It is also advisable to be aware of potential problems or personal shortcomings since doing so might result in unforeseen conflicts down the road. Furthermore, you should analyze the communication's openness after you hire app developer (or a reliable outsourcing vendor offering you a team of such specialists). Outsourcing agencies need to be open and honest about their capabilities, restrictions, and conditions of payment.

Some of the questions you may ask during the first communication with your mobile app development team are the following:

• Are there any prior client references I may look at?
• Would you be willing to sign an NDA and contract to preserve the privacy of my project data?
• How will we communicate during the development process?
• What programming languages and tools are required to create apps for you?
• Outline the development flow in your own words
• Which project management strategies do you employ?

We’ve told you the most essential points on how to find a mobile app developer or a team of specialists for your project. Let’s consider where to look for such experts.

After you’ve conducted the research and listed the features, it’s time to consider where and how to find a developer for your app who’d bring your concepts to life. There are four hiring options to look for:

• Option 1. Freelance
• Option 2. Social networks
• Option 3. In-house team or remote employees
• Option 4. Outsourcing companies and agencies

Each point is relevant in different situations and depends on your project requirements. Let’s consider the ins and outs of each hiring option.

Working with freelance mobile app developers is cheaper than an in-house team as you don’t need to pay for office space and equipment. You can find app developer for startup on freelance basis through platforms like Upwork, Toptal, Dice, and so on. But it works well only for small tasks and software upgrades — like fixing a shopping cart or building a WordPress site.

If you’re going to build an app from scratch and think about how to find a programmer to build an app, you should know that one freelancer can’t be responsible for full-cycle mobile app development services. In this case, you need to hire a few freelance developers, UI/UX designers, and QA engineers.

Hiring a team of freelancers for a large project can be a risky and expensive idea due to team fragmentation. You’ll need to manage the whole process on your own or hire a freelance project manager (if you don’t have one). Moreover, it may be difficult to find an app developer team that will be reliable enough. Some of them deliver a project with bugs, and others can abandon the project after a couple of weeks for a better offer.

As an option, you can place freelancers all together in your office. Thus, you'll manage the development process and improve communication between developers.

When it comes to contacting an app developer or publicizing a new app project, social media platforms are a powerful tool to find mobile app developer. LinkedIn serves as a goldmine for hiring app developers with proven skills in Android app development, as well as web and mobile solutions. You can search based on specific skills, see portfolios, and even get recommendations from previous clients.

Twitter and Reddit communities often feature discussions about app performance, technology trends, and recommendations on where to hire developers. Getting yourself connected with a professional mobile app development service provider can also be done by joining Facebook groups focused on mobile app developers for hire.

Being in these communities exposes you to who might be the right app developer for your business. Whether you want a professional app or are testing a new idea, social networks offer an easy way to find your perfect match.

If you’re looking for app developers to work remotely as a part of your company or you want to assemble an in-house team, then this option is for you. It’s a good decision if you have multiple projects to work on and want to control the entire development process.

In-house app developer teams are a common practice among enterprises that want to have a superb level of control and enhance communication between employees. When working with the team under the same roof, there are no language barriers or time zone differences.

It's a convenient but pricey option. Hiring local specialists for an in-house team can be a complex and costly task, especially in the US or Western Europe. This approach on how to find a programmer to build an app also requires additional expenses like office rent, software licenses, hardware, and taxes.

Thinking out how to find a coder for an app, you can consider outsourcing app development or augmenting your team with app developers from an outsourcing company (whether you have just an idea or ready-made specification). In both cases, you’ll shorten the time to market, reduce the project’s costs and increase the quality of the product.

This option doesn’t require renting an office or making other additional expenses. Outsourcing companies already have a pool of experienced developers you need to build an app. Also, they’re responsible for team management and product delivery. Besides, if you’re on a tight budget, you can look for offshore mobile app development. You can choose any company from popular outsourcing regions that suit your resources and requirements.

You can face communication issues and serious time differences when choosing a foreign company. But an experienced vendor, like Cleveroad, has specialists with a high English level and flexible communication schedule for your convenience. Unlike the in-house team, you’ll get full-fledged mobile development services for a reasonable price in the short term.

According to our experience, outsourcing is the most beneficial among the three given options to find mobile app developers. It has a lot of advantages (we’ve mentioned above only the most common ones) for businesses of all sizes, and its issues and drawbacks can easily be solved based on the provider’s expertise.

Concerning the booming pace of mobile app development, the task to find an app developer may appear to be a hard one. But if you take the right steps, it can be manageable.

The preparation to searching for app developers includes what you want in an app idea, its audience, and the core features that cannot be sacrificed. Whether you are hiring a freelance app developer or an outsourcing agency, it is important to state your expectations in the right way.

You cannot make an app for everyone. Make a group of people with similar problems and interests. Age, gender, location, income, education, behaviors, values, and habits all play a role. You need to determine who your users are and how your app will help them.

Moreover, before finding an app developer, it’s important to confirm that your project solves a real market pain point. As Forbes highlights, 90% of new products fail because they don’t solve a real problem. You should first know your audience to prevent that.

Before finding app developers, you should fully understand what you want from the project. A well-defined outline will save you time and money in the long run. So, you should do the following:

• Define core features, user roles, app logic, and goals
• List out the specific needs before approaching remote developers

Ensure that your app solves a real problem and provide a good solution to it before finding app developers and going to the full-scale development. Talk to your target audience to make sure they actually want your idea. Once that's validated, you can attempt to create an MVP — a version of the app with just the necessary features — with your vendor. This keeps the idea tested out in actual conditions, and optimizes the tech stack and cost under control.

To help clients make sure their idea is viable and develop a clear set of requirements for the product, Cleveroad provides a Solution Design Workshop. Our business analysts help in transforming raw ideas into real-time business concept solutions. The highly targeted MVP helps you deliver the quality app with user and business-level needs.

Before diving into the search for app developers, it’s crucial to establish and track key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics keep your business goals in check, help assess product-market fit, and ensure decisions are based on real data rather than guesswork. When KPIs are set from the outset, developers gain a clearer picture of what success looks like — allowing them to shape the app’s features, functionality, and user experience around tangible outcomes.

Here are some essential KPIs to focus on:

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): This tells you how much it costs to bring in a single paying user. Keeping an eye on CAC helps optimize marketing and sales efforts.
• Lifetime Value (LTV): Measures the total revenue a user generates throughout their time with your app. A crucial metric for understanding long-term profitability.
• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): Tracks steady, predictable income from subscriptions or other recurring payments — a key indicator of financial health.
• Churn Rate: Represents the percentage of users who stop using your app within a given timeframe. A high churn rate may signal problems with user experience or the app’s overall value.

Defining these KPIs early on ensures your development team stays aligned with your business objectives, ultimately helping to build an app that delivers measurable, impactful results.

Before finding mobile app development assistance, it is first essential to determine the industry in which your app will operate. Each domain has its specific requirements, standards, and complexity — everything will affect the cost of development, whether it is lifestyle, education, logistics, telemedicine, fintech, or any other niche.

This choice affects the budget of your mobile application. Here are the examples of mobile app development costs for different industries:

• Marketplace apps — $40,000–$120,000+
• Telemedicine apps — $75K – $250K+
• Social platforms — $65,000–$70,000+
• Logistics apps — $50,000–$250,000+
• Fintech solutions — $90,000 – $300,000+

If you focus on both business domain early on, it will become a lot easier to search the right app developers who have relevant working experience in your business domain. This allows them to familiarize themselves with domain-specific regulations, user needs, and security standards — all of which are essential for developing a quality product.

In tandem with registered domain, you have to figure out what type of app you want to create, and for which platforms. Is it a native app for iOS or Android? Or do you prefer a cross-platform or hybrid solution that works on different devices?

This choice directly impacts development costs, performance, and the type of technical skill set needed. Native apps offer the best performance but need separate development teams; cross-platform apps built with Flutter provide cost-effective and functional solutions.

In case you are unsure of the right option, Cleveroad is providing Flutter app development services to design cross-platform scalable apps with minimized time and budget without compromising quality.

Let us tell you a real-life example where our cross-platform mobile app development services helped our client to succeed.

The Australia Rowing Association serves as the driving force behind rowing in the country, fostering a passion for the sport at all levels. As part of its commitment to making rowing more accessible, the Association introduced the Rowing Nation initiative — an effort to connect rowers of all ages through innovative digital solutions. To turn this vision into reality, our team at Cleveroad partnered with them to develop a cutting-edge, cross-platform fitness app using Flutter.

See what Georgia Beattie, Non-Executive Director at the Australia Rowing Association, shares her thoughts on our successful collaboration:

If you're looking for app developers abroad, communication is a critical factor. Schedule calls to evaluate comfort level and work culture compatibility. A short video call often reveals more than endless emails.

Use tools like Slack, Jira, Confluence, and G Suite to streamline communication. Cleveroad leverages these tools to follow a structured communication plan for every client, no matter the time zone.

We also provide transparent and clear communication, using strict schedule for Google meetings with our clients, staying in touch in Slack and tracking the product development process in Jira.

When you find app developers, align expectations regarding delivery dates and expenses. Developers typically charge hourly or by milestone. Be prepared to discuss a timeline that matches your budget and goals.

Consider all costs — UI/UX design, testing, deployment, and post-launch support. Cleveroad provides a transparent cost breakdown so you understand the full scope of the investment from the very beginning. We offer three types of software development estimates:

• Solution Design Workshop rough estimate
• More refined Discovery phase rough estimate
• A detailed estimate with a breakdown of features, timelines, and resources.

You can receive the first rough estimate right after completing the Solution Design Workshop, free of charge. This helps you evaluate the potential budget and plan accordingly before moving forward.

Even after launch, your app may need updates, maintenance, and improvements. That’s why choosing a development partner open to long-term collaboration is crucial. Cleveroad continues to support you after launch, monitoring user feedback, fixing bugs, and improving the product over time. This ensures seamless scaling and growth for your mobile app.

Mobile app developers’ rates can differ from country to country, ranging from $100-$250 per hour in the USA, Canada, and Western Europe to $20-$40 per hour in India and Pakistan. Central Europe seems to be a golden mean charging $50-$95 hourly while providing a high level of competency. If you want to outsource mobile development or find nearshore or offshore mobile app development, you should know popular regions that suit best for it.

We’ve analyzed rates of mobile app developers in different countries and highlighted the most popular tech hubs.

Experienced outsource app developers charge less than in-house ones but still guarantee high performance for your software solution. It’s worth keeping in mind that mobile app developers’ rates not only depend on the country but also on the experience and stack of technologies that programmers work with.

• PayScale claims $87,820 to be an average mobile application developer salary in the USA. But the numbers differ depending on the experience, qualification, location, and many other factors.
• According to ZipRecruiter, Android developers get $149,998/year on average. That’s $61 per hour. In turn, iOS developers are offered to $147,152 salary.

When looking for an app developer, it’s better to become familiar with the average mobile app developers’ price by specialization. Below you’ll find the US cost to hire an app developer for freelance per hour.

Cleveroad is an outsourcing software development company with more than 13 years of experience, during which we’ve successfully accomplished 200+ successful projects. 280+ in-house Cleveroad engineers are fluent in Swift, Kotlin, and Flutter app development services and are ready to help you build top-tier iOS, Android, and cross-platform apps.

You can find app developers for a startup or for expanding an already existing app with one of our three adjustable cooperation models:

We offer you to attract the necessary tech talents with the required skills to your project on a temporary basis. Additionally, IT staff augmentation services are ideal for situations in which a complete team is not required and enables simple expansion based on your requirements. The vendor supplies the required expertise, but you are still in charge of supervision and administration.

This type of collaboration is perfect for high-volume or complex projects that require ongoing development and flexibility. We finalize the cooperation terms and engagement model, then assign highly skilled software developers who are 100% dedicated to your project.

All of this is managed by a project manager who oversees the entire development process and handles any communication issues to ensure everything runs smoothly. Thus, dedicated development team services let you focus on your core business activities while handing off the technical execution to professionals.

This collaboration model is predicated on either paying for actual time spent (time & material) or carrying out a specified project with a fixed budget (fixed). While the latter entails paying for each hour of labor, the former entails determining the project's pricing.

Don’t hesitate to cooperate on mobile app development projects with us, doing that in the most comfortable way for your business. You’re also welcome to look through our portfolio to see what projects we’ve developed before and find ideas for your business solution.