In-house vs. outsourced mobile app development services

Once you’ve decided to develop a mobile application for your business, you’ll have to make a difficult choice between recruiting an in-house development team or explore the option of outsourcing a mobile app development company.

It’s best to weigh all of the pro’s and cons of in-house and outsourcing mobile app development teams before making a decision as your decision can have a significant impact on your mobile app total cost of ownership. In this article we will help you get a better understanding of both options, the particularly outsourcing.

In-house development vs. outsourcing mobile app development services

In-house Development Team

An in-house development team provides several distinct advantages, from having  Y our own team that understands your business thoroughly and out, with all of its quirks, and up to having a complete control over the app development process since the team will be working right in your office.

On the other hand, there are certain disadvantages to consider.

The total cost of ownership (TCO) for a mobile app built using your in-house team is quite high since you’ll need to hire experienced developers, provide them with office space and equipment, and pay all other expenditures connected with in-house team.

Another disadvantage to consider is that your new in-house development team will most probably have limited knowledge and experience with your business domain, which will result in additional cost of training and time until they are fully acquainted with your business domain, business process,..etc.

We must not overlook the importance of a business analyst to analyse your business requirements, convert them I coordination with the team lead into deliverable tasks your in-house developers can deliver. Also an infosec expert will be required to ensure the security of your app including most important your customers’ information who will be using your app.

Finally, you need to carefully study if you will need the whole team after releasing your app or you will need to reduce the maintenance team size.

Even if the disadvantages outweigh the advantages, an in-house team is unquestionably the best option when you have a large mobile application project, such as Whatsapp, Alibaba or Booking.com, which will undoubtedly need a big team in-house team for development and maintenance.

Outsourcing mobile app development choices:

There are three choices for outsourcing mobile app development, and we will explore each of them in detail, including the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Mobile app development tools

If you’re building a small app, short on time and money and don’t need anything unique in term of UI/UX and features then you might consider mobile app development tools like Xamarin, Appcelerator,…etc. One of the major advantages of those tools is their overall cost, which will help you get your mobile app in front of your clients quickly at the lowest budget possible.

However, you should also study the disadvantages of those tools, to see if they weigh higher when making your decision. By using mobile app development tools,  it will be quite challenging to scale your mobile app in the future or to move your app from those tools to another technology stack, which might result in getting you to rebuild your app again from scratch on another technology stack in the future.

When it comes to UI/UX, mobile app development tools, have some great UI/UX to offer for your app, yet that won’t be unique as many others using the same tool have used the same UI before.

Independent mobile app developers

Outsourcing your mobile app development to independent developers on various freelancing platforms is another viable option for a simple app.

Freelancers are usually specialized in one or two niches in which they excel. If the features you want are within the app developer’s area of expertise, you could save a lot of money. Some freelancers also collaborate with others, forming teams similar to those seen at outsourcing firms. You may not need to look for separate developers, designers, and QA professionals in this situation.

One disadvantage of hiring freelancers to complete your next mobile application project is that there is little you can do to prevent the freelancers from dropping the ball mid-project. The damage associated with such risk does not end at hiring a new freelancer or the time wasted in finding another freelancer with an experience in your business domain, as the next selected freelancer will have learning curve to understand the previous freelancer’s source code before resuming your project which will come at an extra cost.

Mobile app development companies

When you have an unique idea, business process, or a medium-large mobile application and time is of importance, it is best to outsource your mobile application project to a company with expertise in your business domain. Android, iOS developers, UI/UX designers, testers, project managers, and business analysts are all available via bespoke mobile application development companies. When building a mobile application from scratch, a complete team is unquestionably the best option.

Furthermore, you can ensure the security of your mobile application idea with a legally binding agreement, establish penalties for late deliveries, and have a single point of contact to track the development of your project without having to worry about training, absence, leave, dropping the ball..etc.

The actual disadvantage of engaging with bespoke mobile app development companies is their cost, which is obviously more than that of independant contractors and mobile app development tools.

Regardless of option you select, you need to carefully consider each alternative before continuing to prevent increasing the total cost of ownership for your mobile application or, worse, endangering the security of your mobile application concept or corporate secrets.