in 5 steps
In the first quarter of 2021, users downloaded 28.2 billion apps from Google Play. At the same time, According to Clutch, four-fifths of mobile app startups fail. This market is obviously becoming more and more crowded. No wonder then, that investing in mobile app development might not always result in success. And no wonder that mobile app startups should pay special attention to the quality of their products and the development process of those products.
And if you are not developing your product in-house, this makes choosing the right app development company more critical than ever. Having a reliable partner who understands your mobile app’s purpose and complexity is a basic requirement for any successful app development process.
What should you pay attention to if you want to find and hire a mobile app development company that will understand your vision? Of course, you do your research and identify the top mobile app development companies. But what’s next? What are the factors that can help you choose the right vendor for your app? In this article, we will suggest a few steps you should follow while making this decision.
Look through their Portfolio
This is the most obvious step. Looking at an app development company’s portfolio will grant you an understanding of their skill sets, approaches, and practices before needing to make an effort to contact them. It’s a simple way to increase your chances of choosing an app development company that fulfills your requirements and will understand your product.
Analyzing an app development company’s portfolio will also allow you to find out whether this particular vendor has already worked on something similar to your future product. If so, they may be able to provide valuable experience and may know what factors are worth paying close attention to during the app development process.
Reading an app development company’s success stories and case studies will let you discover the details of their track record of (hopefully) smoothly delivered apps. Checking what is happening with those products now will deliver useful information about how those apps are performing and being maintained as well.
Look through their Reviews on third-party platforms
One of the best ways to verify a mobile app development company’s experience and credentials is to explore their reviews. Nowadays there are many ranking platforms based on word-of-mouth marketing that are considered to be trustworthy sources of information about potential vendors. These can be a good source of information on which vendors are being perceived as top mobile app development companies in a given market.
Ratings and feedback provided by the previous clients of a particular app development company can provide proof of the expertise you are looking for. The most recognized online directories for top app development companies, like Clutch, Pangea.ai, or GoodFirms, enable startups and entrepreneurs to find, compare and choose from the best app development companies around the world.
The reviews are organized in the form of interviews with former clients of the given app development company, which provide valuable insights into matters like client-company communication, results, professionalism, and overall impressions of the cooperation.
Going through the app development companies’ reviews on third-party platforms also grants the opportunity to know more about their development process, project management, and how the app development company will work on your project. It’s a chance to find out things like stages of development, design processes, software solutions, meeting deadlines, the vibe in the developer’s team, and more.
Analyze their Domain Expertise
Only a partner who understands your business industry will help you to avoid failure. App development companies with years of experience in your industry can assist you with some business decisions and deliver maximum value to your product. For example, an experienced partner can recommend a revenue model for your app’s monetization or advise you on data safety issues and compliance regulations.
When it comes to domain expertise, it’s wise to choose a mobile app development company that will take care of you not only during the development process. The matters of maintenance and updates are also very important.
App development companies with a grounded experience in your industry sector will also be more precise while estimating your app development cost and duration.
Check their Technology Choices and Experience
When thinking about how to choose an app development company, you always want to put your project in the hands of experienced developers. It’s essential to learn about your possible partner’s technology experience in stage one.
An important thing is also to pay attention to the way the app development company chooses the tech dedicated to developing your project. It’s worth noticing whether they follow the recent trends in app development and value innovation or prefer to stick to proven solutions. Thus, one should always check what competencies and skills they are ready to offer.
A company experienced in various mobile app development approaches will be able to provide you with various options as well as pick the right technology path for your project specifically. Such a kind of partner will also base their direction on their proven success with previous clients.
Depending on your idea, look for app development companies that have proven technology experience in building Android, iOS apps, or, ideally, both.
Check their Social Proof of reliability
The reliability factor of a mobile development company might be a little bit hard to grasp and might seem too subjective. But there are a few metrics and indicators that can give you some understanding of how trustworthy the company you’re considering developing a mobile app with is.
One of those indicators will be the duration of the partnerships they have had with their clients. The ability to cater to the needs of entrepreneurs and to successfully take care of products similar to your future product for a long time can tell a lot about the ability of an app development company to provide consistent value for their clients. It also indicates that the particular vendor is reliable in true long-term commitments.
Taking a closer look at the clients’ list and seeking out a few recognizable names might be also a good idea. Nothing nurtures trust better than seeing some big (or at least familiar in your industry) names in an app development company’s portfolio. Of course, this is not a must, but if some vendor is describing themselves as a top app development company, it’s good to see some proof.
Their number of years of experience in the market and any received awards or recognitions can also act as a guide point in analyzing the social proof of a mobile app development company’s excellence.
Wrapping Up
To make an informed decision about partnering with a mobile app development company, it’s important to interview them in order to find out if you speak the same language and can get the answers to all your questions. But to get sufficient information, the right questions have to be asked.
In this article, we’ve covered a few of the most important issues that should be focused on while deciding how to choose an app development company, but obviously, there are some other things that might be taken into consideration.
If you are thinking about building a mobile app and looking for a reliable mobile app development company, we are happy to share our expertise with you! We are experienced in delivering elegant mobile solutions for various industries.