How to Hire an Experienced Mobile App Development Team

The article was updated on September 5, 2025.

Just as your vision of a future mobile app dictates its heart and character, your mobile app development team affects its form and brings all the ideas to life.

The mobile app development market is rapidly growing today. In 2024, it reached $269.49 billion, as now, more companies than ever hire app developers for long-term cooperation. As demand for it grows, so does the market size and the opportunities in multiple niches.

You have probably recognized that handling all of it, from the moment of vision formation to the potential features and budget, is getting increasingly challenging — it’s a job for skilled specialists familiar with the field.

This diversity of demand, however, also leads to more companies entering the scene for hire, and it’s not always easy to pick the suitable one. Finding app developers can significantly impact your costs, company success, and even the first impressions your target audience will experience after downloading the app. 

In this article, we will discuss how to hire mobile app developers suitable for your unique needs and resources. If you want to narrow down your idea and have people with the right skills and passion without sacrificing quality or overspending, allow yourself a few extra minutes for a quick read.

Define your project needs

Before you start looking for developers, it’s crucial to clearly define what your app will be and who it will serve. Understanding your project’s type, target audience, core features, timeline, and budget will guide every decision that follows and ensure your development team can turn your vision into a functional, successful product.

While this step is logical, many new business owners feel that the idea itself and a general vision are enough. However, that’s not entirely true: each distinctive factor you introduce serves as a blueprint for the future mobile application development team. 

App type

Every platform for app hosting has its specifics, including pricing, audience, potential difficulties, and requirements you need to consider.

Google Play hosts more apps than the App Store, with 2.29 million compared to 2.04 million. iOS has a stricter policy regarding brand perception, safety, and rating. However, Android apps reach a much wider global audience. Their pricing models are relatively similar: 95.37% of App Store apps and nearly 97% of Google Play apps are free to download.

Cross-platform frameworks enable your application development team to publish your app using a single codebase, though they can have more common crashes and require additional tweaking. 

Target audience

Ideally, you should know your target audience from the moment you get an app idea. This will ensure that you get the best mobile app development team for your goals. Realistically, though, it’s not always the case. The clearer you envision your app, the better you might understand who will benefit from it.

Ask yourself: Whose problem do you fix? What is their age, gender, social and economic status, employment, and family situation? 

Features

At the core of hiring mobile app developers lie the features that will define your application. Is it a sports app, an educational program, or a photo editing tool? The more features you add, the more factors your development team may need to account for when mapping out your program.

Start with the core features that are must-haves for your application type, and, if the budget allows, plan for the nice-to-have additions. 

Expected timeline and budget

If you have more time on your hands, it allows for better planning and less expensive program development. Therefore, a closer release date means higher costs. Your budget is a significant factor in the entire development process, as it will affect your team size and overall opportunities.

According to CB Insights, the largest portion of startups (38%) fail because they ran out of cash and didn’t know how to secure more capital.

This simplifies your communication, ensures your satisfaction with the final result, and minimizes the need for further adjustments in case of a misunderstanding. It will also allow you to find a reliable app development team with distinctive roles.

Key roles in a mobile app development team

As any entrepreneur building a mobile app knows, turning a great idea into a working product isn’t a one-person job. It takes a team of specialists to bring an app to life. In this section, we’ll introduce these key roles and explain how each contributes to a successful mobile app launch.

The core roles in your software development team:

• The project manager is the client’s main point of contact, coordinating the work of the whole team. The PM reports directly to the customer or their authorized representative, usually a product manager.
• Designers create the app’s user interface, and they map out how the user will experience the app. Most often referred to as UX/UI experts, they are responsible for the visual representation of your ideas, the product’s usability, and its overall look and feel.
• Developers create the backbone of your application: they write the code and build the product’s inner architecture so that it meets your functional requirements. Depending on the type of project, the number of developers and their fields of expertise may vary. To build a mobile app, you will most likely need a dedicated mobile (iOS, Android, or cross-platform) expert and a backend developer to handle the server-side programming, including database management. If you need an admin panel for your app, you will require some front-end coding skills.

Software architect skills might be required to build extremely complex, multifaceted systems. They help create a solid inner structure so the product can handle heavy loads and be scalable in the future.

• QA engineers take care of the testing and ensure the best quality of the final product. Working in close cooperation with the engineering team, they check your app against the initial functional and non-functional requirements and make sure that all the bugs are fixed before the app is released.

Depending on the situation, you may need to fill additional roles:

• Business analytics/consultants are typically involved in the early stages of app development, helping you finalize product specifications and optimize your app for a better performance from the perspective of your business.
• A product manager might be needed if you are not able to actively participate in the development process. They act as your authorized representative, communicating your requirements and feedback to the project manager.
• AI/ML engineer. When you build an app development team, an AI/ML engineer isn’t the universal role, but they can be a great addition if your app includes personalization, image or voice recognition, chatbots, or predictive analytics. If that’s the case, your AI/ML engineer will design and train machine learning models to make it possible. 
• Data engineer. This position is valuable for apps that will store large amounts of information and need to set up secure processes for data storage and preservation. Data engineers will assist their app development teams in finding cost-effective solutions and building data pipelines. 

Building the right mobile app development team: in-house, freelance, or outsourced

As the demand for skilled IT specialists has grown over the last decade, many executives worldwide are reporting a significant skill shortage. Thus, it becomes even harder to find and retain the right talent for your project.

When it comes to building your product team, you generally have three options:

Hire your own in-house team

If you don’t already have IT expertise on staff, you can invest in recruiting professionals to join your team on-site. This is a good solution for long-term or ongoing product development, or when you have several projects in the pipeline.

The main advantage of an in-house team is full control: you manage the staff directly and enjoy immediate face-to-face communication. On the other hand, you’ll need dedicated HR and recruitment support, plus the capacity to provide a strong working environment and technical facilities. Building and maintaining such a team requires significant resources.

Hire freelancers online

While freelance and remote work trends have been growing recently, many startups have taken the opportunity to source global talent at a lower cost. Indeed, this model allows you to hire the best people regardless of their location and keep your business lean. With the right tools, you can manage distributed teams without the need for office space or large overhead.

That said, this model comes with trade-offs. Time zone differences can complicate communication, and freelancers often juggle multiple projects. Coordinating their work will take time and effort, even if you decide to hire a project manager separately.

Also, freelancers are more likely to drop out in the middle of the project, as they are often not bound by long-term contracts. Therefore, such an approach is best used for small projects, or even task-based cooperation, when you don’t need a long-term commitment from your team.

Hire a dedicated team

In terms of ROI and efficiency, this solution seems to be the best option for long-term projects and complex product development. By appealing to the services of a professional software development company (be it a local or an offshore agency), you get a handpicked team of specialists with the required skills and experience, who are well-coordinated and managed by a professional project manager (PM).

Your dedicated PM is responsible for ensuring efficient cooperation within your team on-site and reports to you on a daily/weekly basis, keeping you informed about the development process.

A dedicated team model is best suited for long-term product development from scratch. It gives you access to all the required skills at a lower cost (with an outsourcing company), but without the risks associated with freelance workers. It is also a cost-efficient alternative to an in-house team.

If you want to connect with an outsourced mobile app development team, your possibilities aren’t limited to an “all-or-none” approach — you can have either a large team or invite a few specialists to fill in specific roles. You can hire professionals through the managed projects model — get a team catered to your project with the exact skills and priorities you need.

If you already have a loyal in-house mobile development team that you want to retain, staff augmentation will help you hire hand-picked specialists and integrate them into the existing unit. 

What to look for in a mobile app development team

Now, what are the factors that matter when hiring a team, and how do you objectively assess potential candidates? How to build a successful mobile app development team?

• Portfolio and expertise. A strong portfolio is the face of a team. Are there any projects that match your app’s style and niche? Are most applications overly complex or simple for your vision? Look for a company that features a variety of platforms (iOS, Android, and cross-platform) and has a solid performance that you can evaluate. This will help you hire a mobile application developer who understands what you want from them.
• References and client reviews. The team’s website and portfolio can be a good start, but clients’ reviews may be even more reliable. Ask for client references or check third-party platforms, such as Clutch or GoodFirms. You’ll be surprised how many people google “How to choose a mobile app development company?” and go through the same motions. And there are many clients eager to share. Look for positive reviews; when noticing negative feedback, consider the source of the conflict and whether it truly represents the team’s flaws. Keep long-term collabs in mind, as they represent strong trust and the ability of the development team to propose continuous value to its clients. 
• Communication. When you plan to hire a dedicated mobile app development team, communication is the first thing that comes to mind. Salesforce reports that 84% of business buyers choose vendors who quickly align with their strategic objectives. A competent, trustworthy team will set expectations from the start and be responsive in messages and calls. Proactivity is another factor worth mentioning: you shouldn’t constantly reach out for updates and next steps. 
• Clear process organization. A well-defined development process, complete with a roadmap or timeline, is a marker of expertise and experience. The official website of the potential candidate may feature timing for each step, quality assurance, and contact information. Find the right mobile app development partner that has a plan for you, with dates and numbers in place.
• Post-launch support. Your app will need support even after it’s launched — in fact, many flaws and bugs appear after it starts its test drive. Inquire about additional maintenance and potential assistance with updates and feature scaling.

Hiring the right development team is a process that involves several important steps. The infographic below highlights the key stages to keep in mind when building your team and can serve as a quick reference as you move forward with your project.

Conclusion

The success of your product depends largely on the people you entrust with its development. Choosing experienced developers, ensuring clear communication, and having a well-defined process can turn your vision into a functional and user-friendly product.

At Eastern Peak, we have vast experience in building mobile apps from the ground up, and our individual approach to every project allows us to provide unparalleled results, keeping the process transparent and clear.

Need help building a mobile application, but don’t know where to start? Contact us now to get a free consultation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Read also:

• Benefits of Outsourcing Mobile Application Development
• Types of Outsourcing: Local, Nearshore and Offshore
• Outsourcing for Startups: Key Reasons and Pitfalls to Avoid
• The Extended Team Model: How to Make it Work