Hire App Developers: Hiring a Mobile App Developer vs an App Development Team

Updated September 2026 · Written and maintained by the Progression Agency strategy team

Hiring an app developer is one of the biggest decisions in any app project. You can hire a freelance developer, recruit in-house, or hire a development team from an agency. This page explains what each option costs, what to look for, the questions to ask, and when hiring Progression Agency’s team is the better route.

Hiring an app developer: your three options

Hire a freelance app developer

Good for small, well-defined tasks or a prototype. You manage design, QA, backend and continuity yourself. Questions about hire app developers cost come down to location and team type; the bands are set out on our app development cost page.

Hire in-house mobile app developers

Best when the app is your long-term core product. Expect a recruiting cycle and salaries; the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a $135,980 median wage for software developers in May 2025.

Hire an app development team

An agency supplies product, design, iOS, Android, backend and QA under one contract and can start in weeks. See app development outsourcing.

For a website rather than an app, see our freelance web design guide.

How to hire a mobile app developer: step by step

1. Write a one-page brief: users, core job, platforms, integrations, timing.
2. Decide freelancer, team or in-house.
3. Shortlist developers with shipped apps in the stores.
4. Ask the questions below and compare written answers.
5. Run a small paid discovery or prototype before committing to the full build.
6. Sign a contract with code ownership, scope, milestones and maintenance terms.

Knowing how to hire mobile app developers is mostly knowing the order of the steps. The steps above show how to hire app developers in sequence: define the product, choose the hiring model, shortlist, test the work, check references and agree a written scope.

Questions to ask before you hire app developers

Where to find app developers near you

Local developers are useful for in-person workshops, but most app projects run well remotely. Progression Agency is based in New York City and works with clients nationwide and worldwide; see our NYC, Atlanta and Austin pages. If you want to hire app developers across the USA, or to hire an app developer in USA time zones only, set that in the brief, and hire mobile app developers in the USA who can sign US contracts and cover your support hours.

Hiring a mobile app developer or a small team

Searches such as “hiring mobile app developer” usually come from founders who have a budget, an idea and no technical lead. If you plan to hire mobile app developers, decide first whether you need one person who can do everything at a modest pace, or two or three specialists who can finish faster. Ask each candidate to walk you through an app they shipped, including what went wrong and how they fixed it. Request references from clients who used the app, not only from colleagues, and agree on who owns the code before any work starts.

How to vet Upwork app developers before you hire

Ask every freelancer on the shortlist, Upwork app developers included, for a live app in the App Store or Google Play and for the exact screens and features the person wrote. Then give one short paid task, such as a single screen wired to a test server, and have someone technical read the code.

Whatever the source, agree in writing, before the first payment, who owns the source code and who holds the developer accounts.

Hire iOS, Android or React Native developers

Through our team you can engage iOS developers, Android developers or React Native developers, always with design, QA and project management included. To hire iOS app developers who can actually ship, ask for a live App Store listing they worked on and who handled its last review rejection. Teams that hire IoT developers for a connected product should also test for Bluetooth pairing, firmware updates and what the app does when a device drops offline.

Hire dedicated, cross-platform and hybrid app developers

Some projects need one skill set for a long time rather than a single platform. If you hire dedicated app developers, they work only on your backlog, and if you hire dedicated Android app developers, the same applies to an Android-only product. You might instead hire cross platform app developers who build iOS and Android from one codebase, or hire hybrid app developers who wrap web technology in a mobile shell. Cross-platform suits a team that wants one codebase and a faster start. Hybrid suits content-led apps with simple device needs. Ask each candidate which approach they would choose for your product and why.

What app developers earn in major US cities

Salary data is the best benchmark for any quote you receive. The table shows the median annual wage for software developers in nine large metros, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 2025 survey.

Skills to test when you hire an app developer

Match the skills to the platform approach you have chosen. Before you hire an AI app developer, have the candidate build a small feature that calls a model, handles a wrong answer and logs what each call costs.

iOS developers

Swift and SwiftUI, Xcode, App Store submission and TestFlight.

Android developers

Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, Android Studio, Google Play Console and device testing.

Cross-platform developers

React Native with TypeScript or Flutter with Dart, plus enough native knowledge to write platform modules.

Backend developers

APIs, databases, authentication and cloud hosting: the part of most apps users never see.

Total cost of hiring vs engaging a team

A salary is not the whole cost of an employee, and a day rate is not the whole cost of a freelancer. Work out the cost to hire app developer talent in house by adding salary, benefits, tools, recruiting and management time, and compare it with a team’s all-in monthly fee. How much does it cost to hire app developer teams or freelancers? That is rarely the same question twice, so compare like for like.

Hire developers for an app: which model fits

When you hire developers for an app you are choosing a model as much as a person. Hire an app developer as a freelancer for a defined task; hire a dedicated mobile app developer through an agency when you need months of capacity on your own backlog (see hire dedicated developers); engage a full team when you are launching a product. Startups usually combine the last two: a team for the MVP, then dedicated developers after launch. Specialist needs change who you hire. If you plan to hire fintech app developers, ask about security reviews and compliance experience; hire real estate app developers who know listing data feeds and map search; hire Shopify app developers who have built custom or public apps against Shopify’s APIs; and hire AR app developers who can show a working augmented reality prototype on a real device. A phone app developer for hire through an agency works inside that team’s design, QA and project management, so the work does not depend on one person, unlike a solo cell phone app developer.

Frequently asked questions