What to look for, what to ask, and what to avoid when hiring someone to build your app — from a team that ships apps for a living.
We build apps for ourselves and for clients. These are the lessons we give every founder before they spend a dollar.
If you cannot describe what your app does in one sentence, you are not ready to hire anyone. "Photo a meal, get calories" (MealScope). "See your life in weeks" (Deadline). One job, done well. Everything else is phase two.
Mockups are easy. App Store review is hard. Ask for live App Store or Google Play links, then download them. Check the ratings, the last update date, and whether the app actually works. A developer with three live apps beats one with thirty mockups.
The Apple Developer account, the server, the database, the analytics, the source code — all in your name, all paid by you. If a developer insists on hosting your app on their account, walk away. We set up every client project this way.
Fixed price or hourly (and the cap). Who owns the code. What "done" means — TestFlight build? App Store approval? Both? How many rounds of revisions. What bug fixes cost after launch. If it is not written down, it does not exist.
App Store review rejections, push notification certificates expiring, an iOS update breaking a library — maintenance is real. Budget roughly 15-20% of build cost per year for upkeep, or negotiate a maintenance retainer up front.
No live apps to show. Unwilling to put code ownership in writing. Quotes that are 10x apart with no explanation. Promises of "top charts" or guaranteed downloads. Pressure to pay 100% up front — 30-50% to start is standard.
A good developer asks you hard questions about your MVP scope before quoting. A bad one says yes to everything. Choose the one who pushes back — that is the one who has shipped before.
A focused MVP typically runs $3,000-$15,000 depending on complexity. Anyone quoting $500 for a full app is cutting corners you will pay for later; anyone quoting $100,000 for an MVP is selling you a process, not a product.
Freelancers are cheaper and faster for MVPs. Agencies make sense when you need a team (design + iOS + Android + backend) under one contract. We do both, depending on the project.
Ask to see live apps they shipped (not mockups), who owns the code and accounts, how they handle App Store review rejections, and what happens after launch — bug fixes, updates, and who pays for them.
You should — get this in writing before work starts. The developer should also set up all accounts (Apple Developer, servers, analytics) in your name, not theirs.
Lock the MVP feature list in writing before development starts. Every new idea goes on a phase-2 list. We build MVPs this way ourselves — see Deadline and MealScope, which launched with one core job and nothing else.