How to choose the outsourcing mobile app development company

Thinking about outsourcing mobile app development? Great, this article is here to help you. More and more business owners decide to outsource mobile app development. No surprise! Instead of building an in-house team, it is often much more cost-effective to outsource this task and involve app development companies.

In this article you will learn some tips on how to assess if a particular mobile app development company is the one for you – the one that will meet your needs and preferences, your business objectives etc. 

You will also discover how to identify whether a company you are considering as a business partner is trying to twist the truth about matters such as the skills and experience of its team, projects completed, customer feedback, etc.

Why outsource mobile app development?

Let’s learn about some advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing mobile app development. 

When choosing to outsource this task to an external team, you don’t have to: 

• Worry about working conditions and technical equipment at the office,
• Have much of a the technical knowledge, as the team will help you with everything
• Spend time on recruiting and onboarding new employees – these days, finding good tech professionals is very difficult also because companies have opened up to remote working and there is quite a fight for new staff.

And you can:

• Entrust the team with project management and organization matters,
• Save a lot of time and money.

On the other hand:

• It’s not a very easy task to assess whether the agency you’re considering will match your requirements,
• You do have to take care of great communication with the team and constantly keep in touch with them,
• When working remotely, before starting the cooperation you need to check if e.g. a different time zone will not cause difficulties in communication between you and the team. 

If you’re still hesitating whether you should outsource or build an in-house team with project manager, designers and app developers, this article might help you make that decision. 

How to select the best mobile app development company?

Let’s now have a look at what should be checked each time you find a company that might help you build a solution for your business.

Website

The first, representative thing of any company is its website. Often your first contact with a company is through it. Therefore, it should always be an element that the company cares about to represent it well. With that in mind, you should be able to pull all or most of the information you are interested in about the company right from the website. 

For example, information you might find useful is: 

• Is the blog content regularly published? Does the company publish interesting (useful) content for you? – Which will show you that the agency has the knowledge about mobile app development and wants to share it, as well as that the team understands their clients
• How many years has it been on the market? – Which will show you how good is the company’s and the teams’ experience
• Can you find the company's previous projects easily? 
• Do they offer the services you are interested in? 
• Is the company currently hiring? – And if yes, does it focus on juniors or experienced specialists?
• Is it a good-looking website and up-to-date concerning today’s standards? – Which will show you whether the company gives importance to its presence and pays attention to detail.

Case studies

This is one of the things you should be able to find on the company’s website. “Case studies”, “projects” or “portfolio” – all refer to previous projects that this company has carried out. Check them out and pay attention to whether you can find a project that suits your idea. Maybe it turns out that the mobile app development company you’re considering has already created a solution that’s very close to your idea. This may be useful, but it’s not necessary.

This first impression (about the previous projects) is very important, but don’t forget that mobile app development companies usually create products by their clients requirements, sometimes also designed by someone from outside the company. 

So what is best to look out for? 

When reading the case study of a project, first of all, check if there’s a description of the journey the company has gone through with the client, what services were provided and whether this matches your expectations. Sometimes it’s not the effect that’s most important. You should look for a good partner, a team that you will bond with and communicate with, the way you like it.

Social media

How a company runs its social media pages is also not insignificant. You will probably find a redirect to them on the company's website as well. Does the company publish content regularly on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter etc.? 

It isn’t necessary to share content on all social media platforms but it’s always a good idea to check if the agency is active at least a couple of them. What matters is for example that the content isn’t completely irrelevant. It should obviously be related to the company's activities. How about following this content for a while before you decide to contact the company? You’ll get a chance to verify the credibility of the company and simply get to know it by following day-to-day activities. 

Employees on LinkedIn 

When it comes to LinkedIn, it’s also a good idea to check out the mobile app development company’s employees there. You can find information about each team member’s position, experience, how many years they have been working there etc. 

Reviews 

Reviews are the most reliable and trustworthy source about the app development company. The more reviews, the more confident you can be that the company has done a lot of projects and the more insights you will learn about working with that company. It's also always worth checking if these aren't fake reviews, so double check if these companies exist and if the company has really collaborated to create a product together. You can check this by looking at the company's profile on Clutch, where the submission of reviews is verified. Read about it in the below section.

Generally, reviews show us what customers say directly about the company, about the cooperation and whether they are satisfied with it. 

It is simply a reliable source of knowledge about whether previous partners liked working with the mobile app development company, whether they are satisfied with the results, etc. It is shown for example in the form of quotations on the company's website. 

Reviews on Clutch.co

It is also worth taking a look at Clutch. Many people use this site when looking for the best companies in a particular area. 

When it comes to reviews on Clutch, every client who wants to place a review is being verified by the Clutch team, so there’s no risk you’ll find fake reviews there. 

Clients do have the option to remain anonymous, when providing the review, or just keep some of the data hidden, like their company information. There’s a possibility to leave the review over the phone or online. 

How is it done? 

The agency submits a client as a reference and Clutch contacts them directly to request the review. For verification purposes, client’s name and company name are required, but as mentioned above, it can be kept confidential when the review is published. 

The client can select one of four attribution options:

• Attributed: The client's name and company name will be posted,
• Anonymous: The client's name and company name will not be listed,
• Personally attributed: The client's name will be listed, but the client's company will not be,
• Personally anonymous: The client's company will be listed, but the client's name will not be.

That’s why, even if you don’t see the details of a person submitting a review or their company name, it doesn’t mean it’s somehow illegible or invalid. 

If you want to see an example of a profile on Clutch, you can check out ours here.

Communication

Just because the matter of communication is described as the last one, it doesn't mean it’s less important in any way. Communication with the team in a mobile app development company is very important. Even if the company is on the market for many years, has a great number of positive reviews, offers the best quality services, it might simply not be for you… 

Sometimes you can see it at the very first meeting – the conversation can be great and you simply start to think it’s working. Or it can be awkward because you just can’t find the common ground. It’s nothing bad. This also applies to emails. It’s important what the “intro mail” answering your enquiry looks like and if the reply was fast. Does the company show interest and commitment to the project? Or just wants to treat it as another project without any special involvement and partnership approach? 

Apart from these critical characteristics of the mobile app development company, such as experience, skills, capabilities and services they provide, communication also matters a lot. 

Meeting the development team 

Usually the next meetings, after the intro, will involve the part or whole development team: engineers, designers and the project manager. That’s also the time to find out if there’s a fit between you and them. Outsourcing app development doesn’t mean you’ll hire app developers to build something for you and when the work is done you’ll never see them again. The process requires your constant involvement and you should be in touch with the team all the time. And also, after the app is released there are updates and maintenance. 

Normally, project managers are the first point of contact when the project is in progress but it also doesn’t mean you won’t talk to app developers, designers, testers etc. If you’re curious about the app development process itself, go to this article. 

Check more than one app development company

If your plan involves outsourcing app development, you should always check multiple agencies. Sometimes the first impression after entering the website is not spectacular but after the first conversation it turns out that… this is it. The meeting was great, the interviewer asked the right questions and the team seems to meet all your requirements. That’s why you should probably reach out to a couple of agencies and check how it would work.

Conclusion

To sum up, to outsource mobile app development, check if the company: 

• Offers the services you need,
• Has relevant experience,
• Publishes content that is useful to you,
• Has a history of projects you like,
• Is active on social media,
• Has positive customer feedback,
• Finds a common path of communication with you,
• Has a website where you can find all the above information.

So if you’re planning to outsource mobile app development, take your time and do the research to find the right partner that will truly meet your needs.