Outsourcing vs in-house mobile app development

Let’s say you’ve decided that your business needs a new solution, a mobile app, to increase sales, offer new services or simply develop. Another case would be if your business already offers a mobile app but you want to develop it further.

Well, in both cases you need to make a decision whether to choose in-house app development or to delegate this task to an external company. 

More and more business owners choose to outsource mobile app development for many reasons, but building an internal team is still an option. This depends on the type of business. So let’s facilitate making that decision by pointing out all the advantages and disadvantages of both solutions. 

Mobile app development process 

First of all, to be able to decide you should have knowledge about the mobile app development process. It should actually look the same or very similar both in case of outsourcing and in-house app development. 

You can read a detailed description of the whole process in this article. 

Outsourcing mobile app development

Let’s see what are the pros and cons of outsourcing mobile app development. It’s the easiest way to see if this solution is a fit for your kind of business. 

Pros 

• You don’t have to worry about sick leaves, employees' holidays, salaries, technical equipment, renting an office etc
• With the experienced team you can save a lot of time and money and still have a great quality product created
• You don’t need to be prepared with all the technical knowledge — the app agency can advise you and recommend the best solutions
• The team already has the workflow established as they’ve worked on different projects together — they don’t stray trying to organize the work 
• You don’t have to waste time on recruiting and onboarding new people 
• When outsourcing software development you can adapt the project to your needs because of a great flexibility in contracting and accounting.

Cons

• It’s not an easy task to find a good, experienced agency that will entirely match to your requirements
• You have to arrange well the process of communication with the team to always keep in touch with it and track the progress
• If the software development agency is from another country you need to determine the way of communication, working hours etc to arrange everything so that it’s convenient for both parties.

Conclusion

If you choose an experienced development agency, they’ll probably be ready to advise you. You don’t need to have any deep technical knowledge, you don’t have to organize the work by yourself. No worries about the office, salaries, recruitment etc. When you sign a contract with a development company, it’s all on their side. 

This is a solution for those who don’t want to spend a lot of time and money on building a big team but to work with experts who are able to advise the best solutions. It’s also a good option for ones who want to bring their product to the market as fast as possible.

It’s kind of a perfect solution for example for startups, that’s why founders of those are often mobile app development companies' clients. 

If you decide to take this into account, you have to do careful research to find the right agency. Then there are a couple of things to establish, like working hours, type of contract, size of the development team… Anyway, once you get through all this, it’s going to be the most convenient option for you.

In-house app development

Having an in-house development team might be a good option for you too. Have a look at the pros and cons of this solution.

Pros

• The built internal team stays with you for next projects
• You choose the people you want to have in your team so they fit to the culture of your company 
• Since the team works internally, their time is only dedicated to your company and your project 
• It can be easier to communicate with the in-house team e.g. if you all work in the same office.

Cons

• High costs caused by the need to provide your team with equipment and e.g. the newest technology solutions for your business; you also have to take care of the team in case of sick leaves etc. 
• You have to think about what to do after the project is finished — do you have next tasks for the team? 
• Hiring new team members is on your side (if it’s necessary), which is rather difficult and time-consuming (onboarding, interviews etc.). Good IT specialists are in demand on the job market and the overall recruitment is a long-lasting process
• It’s quite hard to find people who will be really engaged in working with a (especially startup) company. A new team of people who don’t know each other is also a challenge because there’s a need to build their behaviours, manage their work and make them cooperate.

Conclusion

The in-house team you build will stay in the company after the project is finished so you have complete control over their work. The developers’ time is entirely dedicated to the internal tasks. You also have control over the recruitment process, so you can hire people who really meet your expectations. When it comes to communication, it can’t be easier if you work at the same place.

However, if you decide to start a project internally, you have to take care of everything — the technical equipment, paid technology solutions as well as salaries, sick leaves etc. 

This is a solution for those who want to build a large company with employees who fit its culture, have enough time to recruit such people and have adequate resources to maintain the team and provide them with tasks on an ongoing basis.

Choose your strategy

There is no clear answer as to whether any of these solutions is better, as it all depends on the founder's vision for the company. If it’s important for you to implement the solution and hit the market quickly, you should probably choose using the help of a development agency. Another argument for outsourcing would be if the mobile app is not the part of your core business.

However, if you prefer to create a safe and stable workplace for an internal team and you have time to take care of your employees, and you aren’t in a rush to release the app, maybe you should consider in-house app development.

Developing a mobile app is one thing but these bullet points are actually also valid for any software development plans. Whether you decide to build an in-house development team or to outsource the development, it doesn’t matter what your idea is for a product. What matters is your approach to the business and the market niche you want to hit. 

To get to know more benefits of outsourcing your app development, check out this article and if you want to see how the whole process of creating an app looks like, go to How to proceed with mobile app development.