Due to the numerous benefits of mobile apps, the demand for the services of Indian app developers has increased drastically. In fact, Indian app developers are the highest paid professionals in India. One of the most effective forms of marketing is social media marketing. This kind of marketing involves sharing marketing posts and messages on social media platforms. However, mobile apps provide the foundation on which social media marketing thrives. Without mobile apps, social media marketing will not be effective.

Organizations in India have started making a paradigm shift from using their in-house team of Indian app developers to outsourcing their app development need. After the shift, the decision does not stop right there. Making the decision to outsource your app development needs will lead to more decisions to be made as there are several other mobile app development options.

This article outlines all the app development outsourcing options and their pros and cons. This is why it serves as a guide for companies to make a well-informed decision on which set of options are the most suitable for them. At the end of this article, it will be easy for companies to make their decision after going through specific considerations.

After the decision to hire a third party team of mobile app developers, the next step is to select the most suitable mobile app vendor or team of app developers. It is at the stage of selection that companies usually realize that app development outsourcing comes with a wide set of options. Some of the commonest options have been discussed below.

Three Boutique Mobile App Development Firms

The first category of mobile app development companies are known as Boutique Mobile App Development Firms. This category of app development firm specializes in app development. They don’t offer it as an additional service or an added value.

They adopt an agile app development technique or strategy and they emphasize on UX/UI design accompanied with product strategy. Apart from that, they also have very strong technical capabilities and specialized platform knowledge.

You will also have a wide range of service qualities among firms of this category because some of them are better than others. Their differences lie in team size, project complexity, proven track record of successfully and timely delivery of app development projects, experience, charges and technical expertise.

While it is very necessary, you may also want to conduct your own background checks on your prospective third-party app developers to verify their past and present clients, their experience, the kind of app development project they have handled, their team size and you compare these features with what you need. While some of the vendors can give you the information you need, you also need to do your own verification as they will definitely paint an exaggerated picture of their experience, expertise and technical knowledge. Some of them may even peddle some falsehood in order to get your patronage.

Three Big App Development Firms

These are the companies that offer mobile app development as a secondary service. They already have other core business functions. In fact, most technology and software firms belong to this category. They thrive on consultation and product strategy. They also exhibit a very strong technical knowledge, expertise and development capabilities. Some of them also adopt an agile development technique like the previous category of app developers too.

However, they also have a few cons. They are usually less attentive to clients and they are less flexible as they already have standing processes, policies and protocols. They usually find it difficult to improve their services and speed of delivery. The worst is that they are usually not responsive as they always have a queue of orders waiting to be executed so your order has to join the queue.

Despite these cons, they usually offer the highest charges because they are the most popular and they offer the most experience. Needless to say, charges are important factors to consider when hiring a third party team of developers. This is because companies usually work with set budgets.

Three Independent Developers

Since the demand for mobile app development has exploded, a lot of independent app developers keep emerging every day. They work on their own or some of them work in an app development firm. Some of them work as a freelancer. The biggest advantage with independent developers is that they offer about the lowest charges and they are the most flexible. They have several cons but the biggest cons with independent app developers are:

•They do not specialize on both iOS and Android platforms. Instead, they specialize on one.

•Continuity is not guaranteed. You may not see your developer again after 6 months.

This may be the best option for small and medium business enterprises with small budgets and it is obviously the most suitable option for cash-strapped startups. This is because more of their resources will be diverted to into marketing of their products.

Three Offshore Firms

The firms in this category offer cheap but low-quality products and services. So the companies that outsource their app development to offshore firms usually do so because of serious monetary constraints. The only advantage of this option is cheap services and products.

This option is fraught with a lot of cons like lack of responsiveness, lack of cultural understanding, inadequate security and IP protections, low-quality job and relatively low design and executing standards.

Three Off-the-shelf Solutions

This is not really an app development solution. It is the adoption of an off-the-shelf platform to create something close to an app development. A very good instance of this kind of solution is E-commerce. They offer both pros and cons of the other solutions too.

Four Pros

They often offer a built-in maintenance and upgrade facility. They also offer relatively lower upfront charges. Off-the-shelf-solution usually has a wide range of functionalities and quick deployment.

However, this solution comes with a longer list of cons than pros. Some of its cons are outlined below

Four Cons

There is inability for quick adaption to the ever-changing market and business needs. You can only wait until when the provider decides to provide an update. There is little or no customization. So, you won’t get the best solution. Besides, there will be a lot of functions that are not applicable to your business. This could be seen as waste of money as you would be paying for some features you don’t need.

Having gone through all the options, you should now be able to make a good decision on your choice of third-party app development solution. You need to first streamline the objectives of your business as it will help you knock off the outsourcing options that you don’t need. Having fewer options will make your decision much easier.

The next thing to consider is the amount of risk your organization can take. What if after spending on a mobile app you don’t get the desired result? Can your company survive that? You should also take care of your competitors. It is also advisable to seek the views of your customers and prospective customers as they are the ultimate judge. They eventually pay the bills. Every effort is geared mainly towards boosting their patronage. It is when you get all these right that you can make the best app development outsourcing decision.