reviews
Are you looking to hire a mobile app developer to build and launch innovative products using the Flutter and React Native frameworks for cross-platform development, Swift for native iOS, and Kotlin for Android?
Read on, as we are about to cover a list of the top 5 mobile app development companies, mobile app developer interview questions, and the cost of hiring a developer in different regions.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire Mobile App Developers?
The cost of hiring an app developer depends on factors such as the complexity and size of your project, the developer's experience level, and their location. Explore our cost guide to determine what you can afford.
Hiring a Mobile App Developer Cost in Different Countries and Regions Worldwide(Mid-level and Senior level):
Mobile app developers for hire in the United States
An experienced mobile app developer or a mobile app expert will cost between $55 to $300 per hour. That translates to a monthly cost range of $10,400-$48,000 for a full-time mobile app developer.
Mobile app developers for hire in Western Europe
Intermediate-to-advanced mobile app developers can cost you $45-$200 per hour. When hiring a full-time developer, you can expect to pay $8,000-$32,000 monthly.
Eastern Europe
In Eastern Europe, the hourly rate of a mid-level-to-expert mobile app developer can vary between $35 - $150. Assume a monthly cost outlay of $5,600-$24,000 if you hire on a full-time basis.
India
Get a complimentary discovery call and a free ballpark estimate for your project
Trusted by 100x of startups and companies like
You might pay $10 - $65 per hour, or $1,600 to $10,400 per month, $19,200 to $124,800 per year, full-time for a mid-level-to-advanced mobile app developer based out of India.
Cost to Hire a Mobile App Developer by State in the USA.
Just a brief reminder that you need to hire developers from a software platform that is located in your region. In the United States, you are safe to hire from any state, as you will easily be able to exercise your legal protection should you need to.
- California (San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco): $124,800 to $284,000 per year
- Colorado (Denver, Colorado Springs, Greenwood Village): $111,000 – $124,000 per year
- Illinois (Chicago, Buffalo Grove, Deerfield): $106,228 – $123,440 per year
- Maryland (Fort Washington, Baltimore, Annapolis): $90,001 – $115,000 per year
- Mobile app developers for hire in Massachusetts (Boston, Worcester, Springfield): $112,500 – $113,875 per year
- Mobile app developers for hire in New York (Albany, New York, Brooklyn): $112,500 – $166,400 per year
- Hiring a developer from Texas (Austin, Houston, Dallas): $93,917 – $121,811 per year.
Mobile App Development Trends & Statistics 2026
Google Play Store and Apple App Store are the largest mobile app marketplaces in the world, hosting over 5 million applications. Google Play users downloaded 25.6 billion apps in Q1 2024, with 139 billion projected for 2026. While Apple’s users downloaded 8.4 billion apps in Q1 2024, it is projected to reach 92 billion downloads by the end of 2026.
However, only the best mobile apps succeed if you partner with the best software development company or expert development team; your app could be one of them.
Trending in App Development:
1. Cross-platform Mobile Apps: Cross-platform development using frameworks like React Native and Flutter is a rising trend in popularity. A Cross-platform developer creates mobile apps that run on both Android and iOS using a single codebase. There is a strong demand for React Native and Flutter developers in 2026.
2. AI-Powered Mobile Apps: Another notable trend includes AI-powered applications or AI integration into existing applications.
3. All-in-one Mobile Apps, also known as Super applications, are becoming increasingly popular in Latin America, Asia, and Europe. A super app is a single application that combines multiple services, such as payments, social media, messaging, and food delivery, into one mobile platform. For customers in the USA, Canada, and Australia, super apps are the next big thing in mobile apps.
AI is poised to revolutionize mobile development entirely. Gartner recently reported that “by 2026, generative AI will significantly alter 70% of the design and development effort for new mobile apps.”
Types of Mobile App Developers
There are 3 main types of mobile developers:
1. Android Mobile App Developer
An Android developer is a professional who designs, develops, and maintains applications for Android devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and prepares apps for deployment on the Google Play Store.
Native Android app development involves hiring Android coders. Most Android applications are written in just two languages: Java and Kotlin. You will most likely need an Android coder familiar with one or both.
The Java programming language enables Android developers to write modular, reusable code, thereby speeding up development.
Kotlin was released in 2017. It is a modern programming language that offers interoperability with Java. It is already extremely popular and may one day overtake Java to become the number-one Android app development language.
2. iOS Mobile App Developer
An iOS app developer is a professional who designs, develops, and maintains applications for mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. As well as prepare apps for deployment on the Apple App Store.
Native iOS development involves hiring iOS programmers. The two main languages are Objective-C and Swift.
Objective-C was the primary language used for iOS development until the release of Swift. Many Objective-C coders have now learned Swift. The Objective-C programming language is typically used to maintain and enhance existing iOS apps, rather than to develop new ones.
Swift is Apple's newest programming language. Introduced in 2014, it's modern and powerful. An experienced Swift developer can create virtually any iOS application imaginable.
3. A Cross-platform Developer
The cross-platform development approach enables you to create mobile apps that run on multiple operating systems, such as Android and iOS, using a single codebase.
Cross-platform apps have pros and cons compared to Native applications. The primary advantage is the time and money savings achieved by developing a hybrid app with a single codebase. The main disadvantage of cross-platform apps is that they may hit certain platform-specific limitations. For example, specific Android or iOS features may not be available, and hybrid digital products tend to be slower than native apps.
The most popular frameworks for cross-platform app development are React Native and Flutter. Flutter and React Native are both excellent frameworks for saving time and money when launching iOS and Android mobile products simultaneously.
For companies looking for the best cross-platform mobile developer, please check out our additional resources:
4. Backend Mobile App Developer
Your mobile app will work with a specific backend and server. That means you will also need expert backend coders with the skills and experience to set up server environments and code the mobile app backend.
The top backend server providers are:
1. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers a wide range of great mobile app development tools, including some of the most cutting-edge AI tools in the marketplace, such as Google Gemini. Google Compute Engine enables developers to run their code on Google’s cloud infrastructure. Backed up with Google’s Cloud Source Repositories tool, which enables coders to save and easily access different versions of their code, Google Cloud Platform is a top choice for mobile programmers.
2. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is another top backend service provider. It allows programmers to safely store and run their latest mobile apps and offers a robust set of development tools through the highly customizable AWS Amplify. This great tool helps to speed up both your mobile application development process and the performance and reliability of the final app.
3. Microsoft Azure’s cloud platform offers a range of excellent backend services for mobile app coders. It supports a range of programming languages and frameworks, including Java, Python, C#, JavaScript, and Node.js. Azure offers excellent tools for implementing various functionality, including push notifications, payment gateways, and AI chatbots.
Hiring a Mobile App Developer: 5-Step Guide
Now that you know the developers you need for your mobile app development project, do you want the best app developers you can rely on without risk?
I’m guessing the answer is a resounding yes! So read on for an outline of the crucial steps you need to follow to find app developers that are perfect for your app development project.
Step 1: Nail your app developers’ and project requirements
The most important project requirement document is a list of your mobile app’s features.
You can split it into the MVP stage and the Post-MVP stage, as well as into different user roles. Let’s consider an example. You have a rental app, and so do end users who rent vacation homes.
They must be able to perform specific tasks on their mobile app, such as browsing available places, booking them, and making payments. Additionally, you will have a user or administration function for the homeowner who lists the property. They will need features for listing homes, setting prices, approving bookings, and refunding users if needed, among other things.
1,200 top developers
us since 2016
This list of features, which will be implemented and refined during both the MVP and post-MVP stages, will be the foundation of your mobile app development project.
Once you have a list of features, you can then clarify how many developers you may need and what skills they should possess. For example, you may want to build a simple MVP-stage app using a hybrid solution. In this case, you will likely want to hire developers who specialize in developing Flutter or React Native apps.
Step 2: Choose the right developer hiring company
You have two main choices if you are not planning to hire someone in person, but rather outsource a remote developer or development team.
These are: Hire Expert App Developers from a Software Development Company or Hire Freelance Mobile App Developers from a Freelance Hiring Platform.
Hiring senior app engineers from a reputable app development company is the safest approach, as they pretty much guarantee project success. Let me explain why.
Advantages of hiring professional mobile app developers from reputable app development companies:
An expert mobile app developer has worked for the app development company for many years and possesses experience in building similar apps to your development project.
Developers are fully vetted, so you don’t need to do this yourself.
Cohesive app development teams.
Complimentary support via your dedicated technical account manager.
Complimentary quality assurance(QA) on feature delivery and pre-release products.
Access to powerful project management tools and the app development process.
Properly structured legal agreements that protect your interests and intellectual property (IP).
Risk-free one-week trial. So even if you don’t like the developers you get, say, for personal reasons, you get the entire 1st invoice credited towards a new candidate.
The other option is the freelance platform. They have gained increasing popularity in recent years. They offer access to a wide range of cheap freelance developers from around the world.
Hiring app developers from them is a viable option, but it comes with several significant drawbacks. Therefore, perhaps the best thing to do is offer you a few words of caution when hiring freelance mobile app developers.
The risks of hiring freelance mobile app developers include:
Not dedicated to your development project, as they need to juggle multiple projects at once to ensure a steady income stream.
You must shortlist, interview, and conduct reference checks on each candidate, including verifying their identity to prevent scams. This can take forever, and if you miss anything, guess what? You are the one who will end up picking up the pieces.
If your freelance developer gets a better offer, you will have to rush to find a replacement on your own.
If your freelancer decides to take your idea or code, you may well find yourself gazing at your freelancer on the cover of Time magazine and seeing all your family and friends using your stolen app idea. Believe it or not, some billion-dollar companies have been built this way.
Step 3: Review, shortlist, and conduct a 3-step interview process (primary, skills, and final) with all suitable candidates.
If you are hiring from a freelance site, you should post a detailed Android or iOS job description to help you get the right candidates.
If you hire from a software company, your process will be much smoother because they have already vetted their candidates. However, I strongly recommend that you take the following steps. You can’t be cautious enough when hiring software developers.
1. Initial Screening
The initial screening interview is the fastest way to assess each of your shortlisted candidates, enabling you to eliminate all but the most suitable ones. This interview presents a valuable opportunity to assess each candidate’s personality and work attitude, as well as to evaluate their qualifications based on their level of experience. There are three levels of developers’ expertise:
Junior app developer
Middle app developer
Senior app developer
To help you with your interviews, check out our 30 iOS interview questions and answers, and 37 Android interview questions and answers, split by app developers’ levels. They will be a big help. Once you’re satisfied with your candidates’ basic knowledge, ensure that you discuss pricing and work terms during this interview.
2. Technical Assessment
The technical assessment interview will allow you to evaluate your candidates’ programming proficiency (i.e., their ability to write clean and performant code), their ability to devise reasonable solutions to problems, such as how to ensure a clean architecture, and how they work with various frameworks, tools, etc.
I strongly recommend that you enlist someone who knows what they are doing to prepare the coding tasks and review the candidate’s submissions with you. Here are some mobile app developer interview questions and answers to help you with this.
3. Final Interview
The final interview will delve more deeply into the candidate's technical skills, problem-solving approach, and how they align with the team and organization.
You will need to dive deeper into your potential developer’s technical skills, specifically their ability to code functionalities such as payment gateways, that relate directly to your Android or iOS app project. I also recommend preparing several hypothetical examples based on your project requirements to really test your candidate’s suitability.
Pro Tip: When interviewing app developers, ask for a live Zoom call or Zoom recording with a shared screen so they can open their past apps and design tools, and show you the product design materials and app code they recently worked on. If they can’t do it, they are most likely not entirely honest with you.
To help you with your interviews, check out our 30 iOS interview questions and answers, and 37 Android interview questions and answers, split by app developers’ levels. They will be a big help. Once you’re satisfied with your candidates’ basic knowledge, ensure that you discuss pricing and work terms during this interview.
Step 4: Thoroughly check the reference mobile app developer
This is a no-brainer, but surprisingly, many companies and startup founders don’t undertake it thoroughly enough. Remember to comprehensively check the verified reviews and references of your chosen mobile app developers.
Step 5: Onboard your mobile app developer
Now that you have hired the right mobile app developer(s) or development team, it is time to get them up and running. Be sure to cover your expected working practices carefully, plus the following questions:
Do they use the Agile development methodology, Waterfall, or something else?
What kind of task tracker do they use, or are they happy onboarding onto your own task tracker?
Do they use Slack, Discord, or something else for daily chats and reports?
Will they share their code with you via their GitHub account or your repository?
That’s it! You have now found your mobile app developer. Onboard them and get started.
5 Best Companies: Where to Hire Top App Developers
Let’s go over the top 5 companies where you can find an expert mobile developer or an entire mobile app development team:
1. DevTeam.Space
DevTeam.Space is a USA-based mobile app development company with a well-managed community of over 60 expert app development teams and 1200 developers from the United States, Europe, and Canada. All professionals are supported by an AI-powered Agile process. Since 2016, DevTeam.Space’s mobile app coders have achieved a 99% project success rate thanks to the company’s proven development approach, methodology, and innovative tools.
Companies like Airbus, Disney, and NEC, as well as startups of all sizes, hire DevTeam.Space. Its expert coders and professional development teams help clients build their next-generation mobile apps.
However, if your project is small, say below $ 5,000, and you’re ready to spend more time interviewing and risk the quality of your app or money, trying to find a brilliant freelancer among millions of profiles on freelance platforms could be an option. Here are some of the companies where you can do it:
2. Fiverr
Fiverr is a self-described “online marketplace for freelancers” that is based in Israel. They offer a range of freelance services, including mobile app development. Essentially, they operate the same model as Freelancer above: you register and post a job description, then interview and hire a freelance mobile developer yourself.
3. UpWork
Upwork is the largest freelance platform for general skills. You can hire a freelancer for literally anything via UpWork. The platform has a vast pool of talent from which you can hire a freelancer willing to work at rock-bottom prices. However, I strongly recommend hiring an expert developer rather than trying to save money by hiring less-experienced engineers.
4. Toptal
Toptal is a software-focused freelance platform. It claims to vet all its application programmers and only to hire the top 3%, mirroring the vetting model used by professional mobile app development companies. The company offers mobile app programmers for hire for all currently used technologies, designers, financial specialists, and other professionals.
5. Freelancer
Freelancer is an Australia-based general skills freelancer platform. The platform enables client companies to hire freelance mobile app developers from over 100 countries worldwide, helping them fill their human resource gaps.
They have engineers with the skills to build most kinds of mobile applications. If you wish to onboard and manage mobile coders independently, Freelancer is a suitable option.
Conclusion
Finding the perfect mobile developer for your project is not hard when you know exactly where to look.
If you want to find an expert mobile app developer to build a world-class mobile product, sign up with DevTeam.Space and get a no-risk trial, exceptional code quality, competitive pricing, excellent communication, mobile app development services, and project management support.
After you post the project request, one of the DevTeam.Space dedicated technical account managers will get in touch to arrange a complimentary discovery call.
Hire Developers from DevTeam.Space by Role:
Hire Expert AI Developers and AI Development Services
Hire Expert Mobile App Developers and Mobile App Development Services
Hire Expert iOS Developers and iOS Development Services
Hire Expert Android Developers and Android Development Services
Hire Expert Flutter Developers and Flutter Development Services
Hire Expert React Native Developers and React Native Development Services
Hire Expert Machine Learning Engineers and Machine learning Development Services
Hire Expert Data Engineers and Software Development Services
