Mobile App Development Team: [Structure, Cost, Hiring Models]

“Development is about transforming lives of the peoples, not just transforming economics.”, Quote by Joseph E. Stiglitz. He is a winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

This same concept goes with app development. Being an appreneur, you don’t want to just launch your app into the market; but, you want to solve problems or make life easy for people with your mobile app solutions. In fact, according to the ResearchGate study, mobile app technology is changing the ways users interact with software.

But, how to make an application that actually solves the problem?
What are the core things you need apart from the idea?

You need a dedicated and skilled mobile app development team.

In this post, you are going to learn

  • Ideal structure of an app development team
  • Cost of hiring a dedicated app development team
  • Core qualities of an app development team member

Let’s get started.

When Do You Need a Dedicated App Development Team?

According to Statista, here are the average number of app releases on Google Play Store and Apple App Store in December 2021.

The above statistics show that competition in the market is very hard and competitive. So, if you are planning to create a mobile application from scratch that stands out from the crowd, you need skilled and experienced developers.

Why hire a team of dedicated mobile application developers?
Hire dedicated mobile app development team to ensures you get advantages like full control over the team, leverage of their expertise, and getting a high-quality product.

Top reasons when you need a dedicated team of app developers:

  • You have a long-term vision for your project and want to develop it as a scalable solution.
  • You want to create a custom application that has complex functionality.
  • You want to complete your project within tight deadlines.
  • You are looking to rebuild your existing project with customization and up-gradation.
  • You don’t have any budget concerns while hiring an app developers who works rounds the clocks to accomplish your projects.

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What is the Mobile App Development Team Structure for iOS and Android?

The mobile application development team is a group of professionals that have a specific skill set to create Android and iOS apps. Every one of them follows the standard process for developing apps. To give you a proper idea, let’s understand the mobile development team structure. That includes

  1. Technical Project Manager

  2. A project manager is a person who plans, organizes, and directs the projects to be completed on time, within budget, and scope. In addition, the project manager makes sure to initiate the project lifecycle to track work, organize team members, meet deadlines, and work done as per your requirements.

  3. Business Analyst

  4. Business analysts understand your core requirements and make the right goals initially. In addition, BA is responsible for deciding functional and non-functional requirements, estimating the cost, and preparing the interactive prototypes of an app idea. In short, a business analyst is someone who designs and crafts the blueprint of your application.

  5. UI/UX App Designers

  6. Once you approve the prototype, UI/UX app designers assist you in making app screens as per prototype design. App designers use different app design tools to create an app’s UI. At Space-O, our mobile app UI designers use Adobe XD to make elegant screens.

    App designers create an interactive user interface using different components like buttons, colors, fonts, and icons. The ultimate role of an app designer is to make your app design look good and attractive for your end customers.

  7. Application Developers

  8. To make custom applications on Android and iOS platforms, you need Android and iOS developers. Both app developers have mastery in programming languages used for specific platforms, i.e., Swift, Objective-C for iOS and Java, and Kotlin for Android.

    In addition, the third type of app programmer is web app programmers who make web applications using web frameworks and technologies. App programmers are solely responsible for making apps. In fact, you can hire mobile application developers from Space-O who has experience in developing more than 300+ solutions.

    1. Android Mobile App Developers

    2. Android app developers use Kotlin, Java, and C++ coding languages to create mobile applications. In addition, these programmers have expertise in different Android tools like Android Studio, Android SDK, and libraries for making native Android apps. In fact, Android developers have various skill sets, such as:

      • Knowledge of REST-APIs to connect apps with back-end services
      • Strong understanding of Android design patterns, principles, and practices
      • Understanding of third-party tools to integrate into apps as per requirements
      • Knowledge of Git version control systems
      • Familiarity with server working structure, offline storage, threading, and performance tuning
    3. iOS Mobile App Developers

    4. iOS app developers have the expertise to create mobile apps with Swift or Objective-C programming language. Also, iOS programmers have knowledge of iOS design patterns and X-code.

      For making iOS apps, developers use an Xcode environment to make the work easy. An iOS mobile app programmer has expertise in the following sections.

      • Familiarity with iOS architecture patterns
      • Knowledge of GCD (Grand Central Dispatch)
      • Understanding of Git code repository
      • Working with databases
      • Understanding in frameworks and APIs like UIKit, and CocoaTouch
  9. Quality Assurance Engineers

  10. Before launching your application, the quality analyst plays a vital role in making your app bug-free. QA engineers test the product on different parameters like functionality, design, and compatibility with devices. In addition, QA engineers also provide suggestions on the quality of the products.

    To do so, quality assurance engineers follow a mobile app testing process. Overall, they check the app builds as per the client’s expectation and check whether the qualities of the applications are good for delivering or not.

    To complete all these little things in the process of making an app, you require to hire an app development team that has experience in creating app solutions in different industries.

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Moving further, let us check the qualities an application development team holds for making apps.

What are the Qualities of a Perfect Mobile Application Development Team?

When you want to choose a top mobile app development company that has the best team members, you must check out these qualities.

  1. Follows The Standard Code Approach to Make it Scalable

  2. The success of a mobile app depends on the work of every team member. If a development team follows proper coding standards and business processes to make a mobile app, then it helps to achieve the proper results of your mobile app.

    For example, software development companies follow proper coding standards such as Scrum or Agile methodology for project development. Following any of such methodology helps programmers to create a basic version, get it approved by clients, and repeat the same process until product development is complete.

  3. Defining Achievable Milestones to Get the Project Moving

  4. An efficient mobile application development team defines clear milestones with deadlines to complete the product development. To do so, every part of the mobile app development process is cut-down into small app development stages. It makes the developing process fast and completing each phase becomes easy.

  5. Open for Communication and Discussions

  6. A development team should always be available for communications. Taking calls with the team and setting up proper expectations for the team helps to achieve the targets.

    On top of that, communications allow staying up-to-date with product progress. Having clear communication during the project development avoids conflicts later.

  7. Understanding of Business Logic Behind the Product

  8. A perfect mobile app development team has all the understanding of the end audience. The team builds native apps by keeping the end-users in mind. It allows them to create a product that fits the expectation of clients and its stakeholders. Therefore, the team of app programmers makes proper decisions and creates a custom product that provides value to the end-users.

  9. Required Technical Skills

  10. When it comes to creating an app, mobile app developers must have in-depth knowledge of the programming languages in the field. Programming languages like

    • C++, Java, Kotlin for Android
    • Swift, Objective-C for iOS
    • Flutter, React Native or Python for Android and iOS

    Additionally, developers need to have an understanding of database management, security, frameworks, and development environments.

    Programmers also have an understanding of the user interface. It allows designing an interface that is simple, aesthetical, and functional.

  11. Understanding of Cloud Infrastructure

  12. It becomes important to have an understanding of cloud technologies. As cloud technologies are getting popular day-by-day, it is essential that the team should be skillful in using technologies like Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services cloud storage. So, when making the app live on the cloud infrastructure, it is easy to manage and deploy.

    So when you are hiring a mobile app development team for your next project, you must look out for these six skills. But, you might have a general question. How much does it cost to hire a hire mobile development team to create your app?

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Dedicated App Development Team?

What would be the app development cost?

The tentative cost to build native app ranges from $16000 to $20,000. You can also apply a simple formula: Development time x Cost per hour = Total development cost

So, how is the cost of the application decided?
The cost of hiring a dedicated mobile app development team may vary depending on the following factors.

  • Type of apps development
  • The complexity of the application
  • Location of the development team
  • The skill of an individual developer
  • Mobile app platform

To give you a cost idea, here is a table that has several examples of apps based on their type.

Type of ApplicationExamplesTimeline for iOS AppTimeline for Android AppAvg. Development Cost
Simple App
  • Job Finding App
  • Picture Sharing App
1 – 3 months1 – 3 monthsStarts from $12,000
Mid-size App
  • Music Streaming App
  • Payment App
3 – 5 months3 – 5 monthsStarts from $20,000
Complex App
  • Food Delivery App
  • Video Conferencing App
5 – 8 months5 – 8 monthsStarts from $35,000

Let us take an example to understand the cost of hiring an app development team. Suppose, you want to create an eCommerce mobile app with some functionalities. That includes,

  • Login/Signup functionality
  • Category pages
  • Products pages
  • Checkout functionality
  • Payment integration
  • Backend development
  • API services integration

What would be the application software development team structure if you want to create an eCommerce app with these features?

To create such a custom app, you might require 1 Android developer, 1 iOS developer, a UI/UX app designer, 1 Backend developer and a QA engineer. This becomes a dedicated team for creating your application.

What would be the tentative timeline for making such an eCommerce application?
The tentative time required for creating such an eCommerce app could be between three to four months.

When you hire a mobile application development team, the experience of that team also influences the average cost of app development. It is essential to know whether they have done any work previously or not. And because the experience of the programmer is important it also determines the expertise.

Not only this, but the location of a mobile apps development team is also an important part. According to Good Firms, here is the idea of the cost based on the location of developers in the following table.

CountriesAndroid (Avg. Cost/Hour)iOS (Avg. Cost/Hour)
Canada$100 – $120$90 – $120
The USA$100 – $150$110 – $150
The UK$60 – $75$60 – $75
Australia$100 – $120$90 – $120
India$25 – $40$25 – $40
Ukraine$30 – $35$30 – $40

All the above factors influence the overall development cost. Next, where you can hire app developers.

Places to Hire a Dedicated App Development Team

To find an appropriate application developers team, you can carry out a simple activity of checking out app development companies’ reviews, ratings, portfolios, the expertise of development, technologies, and development approaches. You can find basic information on listing websites in the following table.

WebsitePrice RangeWhat You Get
Space O logoStarts from $50 per hourAn experienced team of developers

Get a personalized consultation for free to discuss your app idea

upwork logo$45 – $75 per hourAn experienced or freshers freelancer programmers
clutch logo$100 – $150+ per hourListing of more than 4000 mobile app development companies
toptal logoStarts from $45 per hourYou get a list of experienced mobile app programmers
people per hour logo$30 – $70 per hourYou can find freshers as well as experienced freelancers for your project

If you are looking to hire app developers from Toronto that can help you build a custom mobile app, let’s talk. We have experience in developing custom mobile apps.

Check our developed custom taxi app for the USA that has completed over 5K+ rides and has over 2K drivers onboard. Want to know more about our work?

Models of Hiring an App Development Team

As you are now aware of the mobile app development team structure, cost of hiring a dedicated team, and places to hire the team, then it’s time to choose the right model to hire app developers. There are four types of model mobile application development experts. Check the following table.

Hiring ModelExplanationAdvantagesDisadvantages
In-house developersWhen you have a long-term product development vision, it requires continuous changes and modifications for further requirements. In such a case, you need in-house app developers.
  • Provides maximum security and confidentiality
  • Efficient in the long term and complex projects
  • Proper implementation of app development process
  • Quite costlier compared to other hiring models as it requires dedicated infrastructure
  • Time-consuming as you need to conduct the hiring process of app development specialists
Dedicated teamWhen you want a team to focus on your single product development within a limited timeframe, a dedicated team of specialists could be helpful. So, you don’t need to spend time hiring specialists.
  • Full control over the project and its security
  • Working under the roof of the project manager
  • You might need a dedicated team when you don’t have enough time to overview the operational work
  • Due to differences in time zones it might become a problem to arrange meetings
OutsourcingWhen you have your project wireframe and prototype ready, you need a team to create it. In such a case, outsourcing becomes a suitable option to choose.
  • Cheaper model than in-house developers
  • A quick start of the project
  • Offers the best compatibility to short projects and entire project from scratch to successful launch
  • Due to the difference in the timezone you might need to over-communicate to make sure everything is going as per your expectations
FreelancersWhen you have a requirement for the short-term, hiring freelancers could be a suitable option. Freelancers are individual specialists who perform a single task.
  • You can find talented app developers at low hourly rates
  • Highly efficient for one-time tasks
  • Time-consuming for finding the right specialists
  • Higher risk of confidential information getting disclosed

Do you still have questions regarding the mobile application development team? Check the FAQ section to find out the answers.

Looking to Hire a Dedicated App Development Team?

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FAQ About Application Development Team

  1. Who are the people involved in mobile app development?

  2. For creating a mobile app the people involved are following.

    • Project manager
    • Business analyst
    • Mobile app programmer
    • UI-UX designer for app
    • QA specialist
    • Backend programmer
  3. How many developers are needed to develop an app?

  4. There is no fixed number of programmers needed in app development. The number of programmers is decided based on the urgency and complexity of the app idea.

    If you are building a simple app, then you might require a single app developer. On another side, if you want to create a complex app, then you might require two-three programmers at a time to complete your project.

Choose the Right Mobile App Development Team

The right team of app programmers helps you to make a successful app. In this blog, you got a complete idea of a mobile app development team that helps you to achieve your goals.

Hiring a team of skilled programmers, designers, quality assurance personnel, and a project manager executes the app creation process in the right direction. Additionally, you also get a quality product.

Want to hire the best mobile app development company in Canada? Or want to develop a custom mobile app for your business? We are one of the top custom mobile app development companies in Canada. Let’s get in touch.

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Rakesh Patel

Written by

Rakesh Patel is the Founder and CEO of Space-O Technologies (Canada). He has 28 years of IT experience in business strategies, operations & information technology. He has expertise in various aspects of business like project planning, sales, and marketing, and has successfully defined flawless business models for the clients. A techie by mind and a writer at heart, he has authored two books – Enterprise Mobility: Strategy & Solutions and A Guide To Open311

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