Everything starts with an idea, as in this case. A person has an idea for a product and creates a startup. For the company and its effect to come into existence, many people are needed – among others, a financial group, a human resources management team, and a marketing team. But is the development team an absolute must to hire?
You can hire the developers in-house, but you’ll quickly discover that it’s an expensive idea that could not necessarily be a turnabout in your startup. In this article, we’ll consider another idea – mobile app development outsourcing. This concept has been gaining much popularity over the last few years.
Outsourcing – what does it mean?
By the name of outsourcing, we understand hiring an external software house or several freelancers to develop an app for an app owner. Hiring a software house and freelancers has both its perks and limitations. Therefore, there are a few main advantages of outsourcing app development instead of in-house hiring.
Benefits of outsourcing
The principal benefit of outsourcing is flexibility – both in time and money. The app development process can be divided into several stages, and outsourcing helps hire an adequate developer when needed. The app owner doesn’t have to hire the whole team and adjust the team members to the app development phase.
Another apparent profit of outsourcing is the difference in quality. With in-house hiring, every potential developer has to present themselves to the startup owner. If the owner is unfamiliar with the development world, they could not notice differences between the candidates. In the case of outsourcing, especially from an experienced software house, the company ensures the best developer for your project. And a reliable developer means a better app!
At last – a matter of time. It’s an advantage of mostly a dedicated team for an external software house. When outsourcing a project to one software house, you can be sure that the team will resolve every task quicker due to already worked-out teamwork. When hiring in-house or freelancers, the developers must adjust the workflow anew, so their work can take longer.
Remember that every project is different and has different needs, and what works best for one business may not necessarily be the right fit for another. The decision between in-house and outsourced mobile app development depends on each case.
Mobile apps
The time spent on the Internet is increasing yearly. Still, most people are choosing mobile apps over web apps. We spend over 90% of our app surfing time on mobile apps! Knowing that, let’s consider some most popular business models of mobile apps.
Pay-to-use
The first is a pay-to-use model, meaning the client must purchase the app for some amount. After a one-time payment, users can explore every app feature for free. It’s one of the most risky models since the app must consistently meet customers’ expectations. If not, the app will receive negative opinions, which will determine the app’s failure in conclusion.
In-app payments
In the case of in-app payments, you can divide them into two smaller categories:
Additional features payments
There are a few possibilities in this category. First, the user receives the app for free, but additional features are unreachable before an optional payment. Another one – the app design includes advertisements, and blocking them is payable.
Virtual currency payments
To get additional goods in the app, the user must purchase an in-app currency and then spend it on the feature. It works best with any app that offers a lot of small purchasable things like photo filters, emotes, stickers, or games, emphasizing games – games where the player obtains additional content by drawing lots.
Subscription
A subscription is a business idea in which customers pay the subscription fee repeatedly and, in return, receive access to a product or service they’re paying for or exclusive access to a premium version of the product or service. While a few other app types use a subscription model, the most famous is the SaaS model.
SaaS apps
SaaS stands for Software-as-a-service, meaning the software itself is the service. The most known SaaS apps are streaming services like Netflix – film rental is a service, and Netflix, as an app, is the provider of this service. SaaS became popular also because it’s cloud-based, meaning that every user receives the updated version of the app immediately and doesn’t have to download the whole content but instead access it virtually.
To outsource or not to outsource?
Suppose the app owner is not familiar with the technicalities of app development. In that case, it’s wise to find a reliable technical partner instead and entrust in their experience instead of working in a trial and error method. With a dependable software house, app development outsourcing will be a smooth process that will give the best outcomes!
