UA A mobile app is one of the larger investments a small or mid-sized business makes in software, and most of the result is decided before a single screen is drawn: by who you hire and how clearly the task is set. This guide walks through how to choose a mobile app development company, what the price depends on and which warning signs to look for.
It is written for business owners and managers who are ordering an app for the first time: an app for a store, a service company, a clinic or an internal tool for a team.
Start with what the app has to do
Before you talk to developers, write one page about the app. It does not need technical terms. It needs answers to a few plain questions:
- Who will use it and how often: customers every week, or staff every day.
- What they do in it: order, book, pay, track a delivery, fill in a report.
- Which platforms you need at launch: iPhone, Android or both.
- What it has to connect to: your website, online store, CRM, payment provider, accounting.
- What can wait until the second version.
With this page in hand, every company you talk to estimates the same task, and their answers can be compared.
Where to look for candidates
The most reliable source is still a recommendation from a business that already has a working app. Ask who built it, how the launch went and whether the team is still supporting it.
The second source is the stores themselves. Open the apps you like in your field, scroll to the developer name and check what else that company has published.
The third is business directories. GoodFirms, for example, publishes a list of the Top Mobile App Development Companies with client reviews, team size, location and hourly rates, which is a quick way to build a first shortlist. Treat any ranking as a starting point: a place in a list tells you a company exists and has clients, and the rest you check yourself.
What to check before you shortlist
- Live apps. Ask for apps you can install today. Screenshots and case studies are not enough: use the app for five minutes and see how it behaves.
- Who does the work. Find out who will design, develop and test your app, and whether those people are employees or subcontractors.
- The approach. A native app is written separately for iOS and Android. A cross-platform app shares one code base. Neither is better in general; the company should explain why it proposes one for your task.
- Ownership. The source code and the store accounts should belong to your company. The developer gets access to your accounts, not the other way round.
- Process. How often you will see working builds, who your contact person is and how changes to the scope are handled.
- After launch. Operating systems are updated every year, and an app has to be maintained. Ask what support costs and what it includes.
What the cost of an app depends on
Honest companies rarely name a price before they understand the task, because the range is wide. These are the things that move it:
- Number of platforms. iOS and Android together cost more than one platform, even with a shared code base.
- Number and complexity of screens. A catalog with a cart is one level of work; chat, maps with live tracking or video are another.
- Server side. Most business apps need a back end and an admin panel where your staff manage content, orders and users. It is often half of the project.
- Integrations. Payments, delivery services, CRM, accounting, loyalty programs. Each one has to be connected and tested.
- Design. A custom interface with animation takes more time than standard system components.
- Offline mode and notifications. Working without a connection and push notifications add logic on both the app and the server.
There are also costs that do not depend on the developer. The Apple Developer Program costs $99 per year, and a Google Play developer account has a one-time registration fee of $25. If you sell digital goods or subscriptions inside the app, Apple and Google keep a commission on those sales. Physical goods and services, such as a delivery order or a booking, are paid for outside that system.
A useful way to compare offers is to ask each company to split the estimate into parts: design, app, server side, testing, publication. A single total hides what you are paying for.
Questions to ask on the first call
- Which of your apps is closest to ours, and can we install it?
- What will we receive at the end of each stage?
- Who owns the code, the designs and the store accounts?
- How do you test on different devices and system versions?
- What happens if Apple or Google rejects the app during review?
- What does support cost after launch, and how quickly do you fix critical errors?
Pay attention not only to the answers but to the questions you are asked in return. A team that asks about your customers, processes and existing systems is thinking about the product. A team that only asks about the budget is thinking about the sale.
Red flags
- A fixed price in the first message, before anyone has asked what the app should do.
- No apps you can download. Only mock-ups, presentations or apps that have been removed from the stores.
- The store account is registered to the developer. If you part ways, the app, its reviews and its users stay with them.
- No builds until the end. You should see a working version on your own phone regularly, not once at the deadline.
- A vague answer about support. “We will agree on it later” usually means it has not been thought through.
Agency, freelancer or in-house team
A freelancer suits a small app with a clear scope, when you are ready to manage the work yourself and accept the risk of depending on one person. An agency brings a designer, developers and a tester together and takes responsibility for the result; it costs more per hour and less in your time. An in-house team makes sense when the app is the core of the business and will be developed for years.
Many companies start with an agency for the first version and decide about their own team once the app has proven itself.
How we approach it at Starosta Agency
At Starosta Agency we build iOS apps for businesses: stores, service companies and internal tools. Every project starts with a review of your processes and a list of screens, and the price is quoted after that review. The Apple developer account is registered to your company, so the app and its data stay yours.
An app rarely lives on its own. It usually needs a back office where orders and customers are managed, so we can build it together with a custom CRM, and the interface is designed by our UI/UX team.
In short
Describe the task on one page, collect candidates from recommendations, the stores and directories, install their apps, compare estimates split into parts and make sure the code and accounts belong to you. A company that passes these checks is very likely to deliver an app you can keep developing.
