Mobile App Development: Outsource or In-House?
25/04/2019
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Thinking of building your own mobile app? The decision to outsource app development or build in-house is a common dilemma for startup founders.
When you think about going in-house, the costs of developing a mobile app start to add up when you consider the salaries of mobile developers, length of the project, platforms used and maintenance costs. On the other hand, working with an experienced mobile app development company is often cheaper, more efficient, and can result in developing exceptional products faster.
Here are five reasons to consider outsourcing the development of your next mobile app.
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1. Access years of expertise and experience
Malcolm Gladwell believes that 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert at anything. That’s a lot of hours dedicated to one specialisation. And if you want to build an entire multi-disciplinary team of experts to create an amazing mobile app, then it’s going to be a very, very long time before the world sees it come to life.
How can you increase speed to market? By outsourcing your mobile app development. It will give your company access to a slew of experts with a wide range of programming and design skills. Moreover, you can benefit from their industry-spanning expertise and subsequently, enhance productivity and increase speed to market.
It’s always recommended to hire an app development company rather than a freelancer. This is because the company will have significant cumulative experience over an individual app developer. You can take advantage of their years of experience in order to determine what approaches are best for resolving issues and creating solutions for better app development.
The company will already have the setup, skills and time it takes to invest in your idea and transform it into a fully functional mobile app. Mobile app development companies are also likely to have a team of experts in supporting functions, such as design and marketing. This diverse range of on-hand expertise can be a significant benefit when building a scalable mobile app.
2. Leverage the latest mobile technologies
Today’s trends are augmented reality, artificial intelligence and chatbots. However, tomorrow’s could be flying cars. It sounds cliche but it’s true: the only thing that is constant is change. With new innovations and technologies emerging every other week, it’s crucial to stay ahead of the crowd and understand which trends to leverage in your mobile app and which ones to pass by.
Mobile app development companies make it their business to look into these emerging technologies and find ways to harness them. This keeps their work innovative and well-informed when offering the best possible solution for your budget.
A mobile app development company armed with the latest technology, innovative practices and creative methods will give you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. As a business owner, the reality is that you’ll be competing against the companies across each and every industry. When your potential customers become accustomed to receiving innovative products and services from your competitors, they’ll begin to expect and demand the same excellent experience from you as well. If you fall short in catering to their expectations, they’re going to look elsewhere.
By outsourcing your mobile app to a company, you’ll receive all the benefits of the latest mobile app technologies without the need to discover, experiment and potentially add capital costs yourself.
3. There will be no surprises
If you want to launch your app fast with no last-minute budget increases or delays, outsourcing to a company is most likely to guarantee you this outcome. The cost of the project will be fixed so you know you’re in control of the budget. There will be very few surprises during development as all the project variables and scope of work will be agreed upon upfront.
The best mobile app development companies will spend time learning about your brand, customers and goals for the app.
4. It lets you focus on the business
This is one of the key benefits of outsourcing mobile app development. The more activities you allocate in-house, the more dispersed your team’s efforts will become. However, when you entrust your mobile app development to an external party, you’ll be able to allocate projects to them and keep your in-house team focused on delivering to core business objectives. In the meantime, you can rest assured that your external company is implementing your project ideas.
5. It won’t break the bank
Budget is one of the main concerns of business owners. Building a high-quality mobile app isn’t cheap and it shouldn’t be. This is an investment in your brand, its technology capabilities, and your overall customer experience. It takes hundreds of hours and often multiple teams to finish creating a top-performing mobile app. However, that doesn’t mean you should expect to pay a fortune.
When you outsource, you’re guaranteed to find a professional company that meets your budget. Companies have three choices when looking to outsource:
- Onshore – hiring developers from your home country
- Nearshore – hiring developers from the closest countries on the same continent
- Offshore – hiring developers from other continents
In the past, onshore and nearshore vendors were mostly preferred by companies due to easier communication over time zones. However, thanks to modern technologies like Slack and Atlassian, remote cooperation is more convenient than ever. A professional company will always ensure clients are across the latest updates and developments.
Conclusion
The rise in mobile phone usage indicates mobile will be one of the most important marketing and customer experience tools for every business. A high-quality mobile app can make or break a company’s future success — and you want to make sure you stay competitive in the ever-changing mobile app development market.
Outsourcing has proven to be the most effective solution for companies looking to invest their time and effort wisely. If you’re looking for a cost-effective, innovative, and seamless project development experience – one that still allows you to focus on growing the business day-to-day – then partnering with a mobile app development company is the way to go.
