Entrepreneur

Swift is only for iOS. Flutter is cross-platform, meaning the code can work for iOS, Android and more.

You can surely get someone from Fiverr to build it, but it pays off to have designs, and test the app well before you conclude the business.

Define "Simple", does it require authentication, a backend server, payments, etc?

yes you can

you get what you pay for

if you outsource it make sure you have a detailed scope of work. you say the app is simple but then say it requires user auth, payments, and backend server. That is not a simple app.

if you have a time and want to learn on your own, i always say do that so you understand what is going on in your app.

flutter will be better if you want both ios / android apps

With no experience you need a technical cofounder

Doing it on your own is shit if you know nothing and you should use no code site builders if you really want to do it on your own

Why not using no-code ? you can learn quickly and be master of 100% of your project.
+ with bubble you can go super far!

I recently launched my app using Flutter. This is my app, if you need help i can help you out

Should I outsource my surgery to a doctor or learn how to do it on my own?

So I can give you some insights in my experience in exactly this topic so far: I am working on an app which purpose is to help people in their life (don’t want to go further into detail). I also had a rough idea what I wanted, what competitors offer and where my app would be unique with. As the development in my home country (in europe) would be way to expensive and I am bootstrapping everything with my own money, I approached some different companies abroad at fiver which gave me an estimate of around 5.000-10.000$. The experience was pretty bad. Lack of communication, really generic low quality work. No understanding of the purpose. I pulled back and promised myself to search for more professional companies abroad.

Then I got to clutch.co. I contacted around 15 different companies abroad, explained what I wanted to do, compared different criteria and had two companies at the end which I wanted to choose from. One company gave me a really good gut feeling that they understand my purpose. The other gave me a slightly better price. I went with the better price and the experience was…not so good. Communication was not so good, I had to ask for several things multiple times, quality was okay, but as I recognized that at the beginning, I went to the company with the better gut feeling. It just felt like they are not really behind the idea of the app (in my opinion they should at least let you feel their own excitement for the app and that they believe in it).

I burned around 4000$ just because of going back and forth, but I learned a lot because of it. Now I am working with the company with the better gut feeling. Communication is good BUT do not expect a high extent of creativity. You have to tell them exactly what you want. Therefore there is a huge back and forth in our wireframe round now. The whole development (remember when they said on fiverr it would cost around 5.000$-10.000$?) will cost me around 30.000$ with a React Native app for both stores, branding, backend, Stripe payment option, landing page with registration, SEO conform blog functionality and admin panel.

I am just stating that, so you can learn from my mistake. I lost around half a year because I couldn’t find a good developer abroad and tried to go „cheap“. Now I focus more on what the purpose of the app is and everything follows that within my budget and extended features will follow after the MVP and hopefully some interest in the market.

Hope that helps.

Hi, just saw your post. Wish you all the luck with publishing the app. Have you considered having a QA, someone who will test the app prior to publishing it?

What's your timeline? If you have ZERO coding background, it may be helpful to get someone who has some experience to help you w/ a hire

Everybody, but absolutely everybody always says their app is a "simple app".

Software development is not as simple as you think. There is a lot more than just the programming language. If it were that easy, we - experienced developers - would not be getting 6-digit jobs and constant offers.

I think developing an app should be the last step of your Entrepeneur journey. Think if there is a way you can launch a version of your product without any development at all. Just using social networks and/or maybe a landing page. Then if you see market interest, you can consider building the app, but always first go for marketing/sales before product building.

My 2 cents about outsourcing: Either go low- or no-code and build it yourself or hire someone decent. Fiver, upwork, etc. are full of talented and respectable freelancers – but you will need time and money to find them in a haystack full of "experts". As someone with a lot of experience in managing people and projects, I tell you this is not an easy task. No less, if we're talking about your own money.

My advice is to go low- or no-code, keep the expenses low and release a MVP. Then go from there. If you app monetizes, invest the money in a more polished code base, etc. You get the point.

Good luck, go out there and rock!

I saw in other comments that your app requires payments, authentication, a dedicated backend etc.

I would certainly advise you to NOT do this by yourself. This is not a simple app and there are a lot of things that can go wrong without you even noticing it at first.

The amount of time it would take for you to learn everything properly is too much. You can take shortcuts sure, but I guarantee you that you won't be satisfied with the end product. Heck, even uploading to App and Play store takes some time to learn. Paying some money is definitely more worth it than losing all of your hair and being stressed for countless nights in front of your computer.

HOWEVER, if you have some programming knowledge and experience (real experience, not watching tutorials and similiar), I think you should go for it, but even then make sure you have a proper guidance.

If you decide to find someone on fiverr, you might get a good deal. Spend a little extra, don't go for the cheapest option cause you will usually get the cheapest results. I have to mention that I do mobile apps and I would fit into your budget, so maybe we can work something out, feel free to DM me for any questions.

Good luck.

Fact is both ways can go wrong easily,

If you learn and do it yourself: Then it has higher chances of going wrong since you can't learn and understand all the essentials like experienced people

If you hire someone: That can also go wrong by choosing the wrong people to work for you.

Success is achieved either by luckily having right people around you or having enough insights to decide rightly on many things on the business.

Using Flutter or React as front end framework with JavaScript language and node at the back end would be at par considering design, user experience and scalability indicators .

Also we can help you to convert that to WPA (web progressive app )which would open on any devices. We have designed and developed over 100 applications. If you wish to look at our projects feel free to revert back and we can take it from there, thanks

Cheap is not good. Any app with payment gateways will run upwards of 10k USD even when outsourcing. Anyone promising to do it for cheap doesn’t know what they are talking about. I have a software firm in India and believe me, designing and developing commercial grade apps are not going to come cheap. Especially when subject matter expertise is involved. From my experience, developing an MVP runs anywhere around 5K USD and a full fledged software of medium complexity or SaaS usually hovers around 10k to 30k USD. You can get good flutter or iOS devs for 30 to 40 USD an hour in my city.

I run a mobile app and web dev firm:

Tech: Should go with react native or flutter

Try not to outsource if you are low on budget. Learn or do it yourself.

Outsource when: You are low on time Have enough money.

I tried that and have to agree with others here. Bought a clone app for $ 4000 which supposedly was customizable for another $ 6000. I bought the app because the backend of the app was perfect for my marketplace and I wanted the devshop to create a scraper to get some products shown on the website until users would list their own product, for this they asked me another $ 35.000
Well long story short I'm learning to code now thank god for chat GPT.

I think it's important to understand dev before you try to hire it out. Even if you can't code it (although anyone can learn)

Frick flutter, go with react native

Anybody tried no code bubble solution?

Hey friend, consider making a web app. You can use Firebase for the backend for zero/very low cost. Since it’s through browser it will automatically work on every device and always be up to date.

https://firebase.google.com/pricing

There’s also a bunch of frameworks/SSGs you can use for the front end, if you need additional resources to get stared, feel free to DM. You don’t need to spend $$$ to make an app/webapp these days!

(For context I’m a senior dev at a company with maybe 500+ software devs, but very few mobile devs.)

App development is difficult. First thing I’d recommend, regardless of the way you pick, is to very clearly define each page of the app. Do full mock ups. Figure out every possible interaction and requirement. After that you’re ready start evaluating the next step.

I don’t know what kind of time/resources/disposition you have but software development is often tedious and complicated. I’d recommend trying out a basic tutorial on mobile app development to see how you feel about it. The team I work on uses React Native for an app and whenever someone has to work on it the general sentiment is “good luck”.

Mobile dev is more complicated than web development because it is going into two different eco systems. I’ve never worked in flutter, so maybe it’s easier but I’m betting there are similar pain levels.

With that said, AI has helped some people with more determination than skill get things like this built but an EXPERIENCED dev is worth their cost.

Of course, the trick is figuring out just who is experienced and how experienced they are.

A lot of good thoughts on this post, would be interested to hear how your experience progresses.

Deciding whether to develop an app on your own or outsource it depends on various factors, including your budget, time constraints, and the complexity of the app.

Developing on Your Own:

Full Control: Learning to develop the app on your own gives you full control over the development process. You can make changes and updates whenever you want without relying on external developers.

Learning Curve: Learning software development takes time and effort. If you're willing to invest in acquiring new skills and have the time to do so, this can be a rewarding option.

Cost: In the short term, doing it yourself may seem cost-effective, but consider the opportunity cost of the time you spend learning and developing instead of focusing on other aspects of your project.

Language Choice: If you choose to develop on your own, the choice between Swift (for iOS) and Flutter (cross-platform) depends on your target audience and your preferences. If you are targeting only iOS users, Swift might be more suitable. If you want to reach both iOS and Android users with a single codebase, Flutter could be a good choice.

Outsourcing:

Time and Expertise: Outsourcing can be faster, especially if you have a tight deadline. Professional developers already have the necessary skills and experience to deliver a quality product.

Cost: While outsourcing might seem more expensive upfront, it can be cost-effective in the long run. Your time is valuable, and if you're not an experienced developer, the time spent learning may cost more than hiring a professional.

Quality: The quality of work from freelance platforms like Fiverr can vary. It's crucial to carefully review the profiles, portfolios, and reviews of potential developers before making a decision.

Communication: Effective communication is key when outsourcing. Make sure you and the developer have a clear understanding of the project requirements, timelines, and deliverables.

Mobile dev is hard, but people still write apps all the time. Do you have any experience in software? If so, I’d give flutter or chatGPT plus a crack first. The worst thing you’ll lose is a bit of time.

I’d be very cautious of fiver unless you feel very confident designing mocks and outline tickets/PRDs. If that route goes poorly you’ll be out time and money.

I personally witnessed a crypto "company" in Australia burn money and time trying to save a few bucks hiring a team to create their website and ecosystem for. The outsourced company based somewhere in Asia was taking too long, making a copious amount of mistakes and when the crypto company tried to pullout, they withheld their customer data for 10s of thousands of dollars.

They can get away from such crap because they're in a different country, while here in Australia such teams are held to far stronger regulatory standards. The crypto company ended up folding... after hiring a proper Australian based team.

Personally you should only outsource if you are capable of monitoring and giving specific direction with a company you know you can trust, which in this case doesn't seem to apply to you.

Management by abdication can be a major risk. Instead of outsourced, think of your team as a distributed team location wise. From there figure it how you can participate in all aspects of it, if you are hands off you will spend much more fixing it over and over.

Development for an app between 500-2000 seems low and a way to hook someone in for more. Depends on how simple your app is I guess.

In terms of platform whether you outsource or be heavily invoked with a remote team, I think flutter has a lot to offer especially since it’s one of the best at making one codebase work on android and iOS instead of building separate apps which is not ideal especially with a limited budget.

Good luck

If you learn by yourself, it will take a lot of times. Rather than just outsource to someone else while you do some business development instead.

You can contact me, I am owner of a software development company in Singapore. We can discuss on this further.

Let me give you some advice as 2x technical founder with products that hit 180k MRR:

Do not outsource to a contractor, it is like burning money. What you want to do is build an impactful team on a tight budget. If you have cash you can visit rocketdevs.com/browse and look for a talented flutter developer. Their devs are under 1k USD/month and they are top 5% in their field.

Bad developers are very costly, not just in wasted money but also in time. Find and use the best. I recommend scLean Labs to explore this more. Happy to help see what that could be - calendly.com/janoma or email janoma@scleanlabs.com!

You would have to to outsource until unless you are a good developer yourself.

If you want to give it a try go for a no code tool and see for yourself. Its harder then it seems.

I've always been told: Do what you do best, outsource the rest. If your an entrepreneur focus on that. Outsource the development work to a developer.. If you have no experience in development, probably not going to turn out to well compared to a professional. Let them do the work if you have the funds to bank roll it.

I recommend outsourcing to experts who can understand exactly what you need and can deliver at an affordable price.

I am a growth advisor for an AI shop called scLean Labs (https://www.scleanlabs.com/). We advise and help startups with AI and product development. Happy to discuss more if you are open to it! Please email- janoma@scleanlabs.com or schedule a time here to chat- calendly.com/janoma