The Ultimate Guide to Outsourcing Mobile App Development

Mobile app development isn’t quite as daunting as it used to be. New technology like no-code app builders has made app development more accessible to the masses.

With that said, many businesses still prefer to outsource mobile app development—and it’s often the best path for mid-market organizations.

If you need an app for business but don’t know where to start, this guide has you covered. I’ll explain everything you need to know about outsourcing app development, including the benefits, costs, and finding the right partner. 

Key Takeaways

• Significant Cost Savings: Outsourcing app development typically costs about 20% of the price of building and maintaining an in-house team.
• Faster Time-to-Market: Professional agencies have established processes that can reduce development timelines from 9–12 months to just 3–6 months.
• Reduced Risk: Outsourcing eliminates HR burdens like payroll taxes and benefits while providing predictable, fixed-rate or subscription pricing.
• Expertise & Technology: Partners provide immediate access to specialized developers and cutting-edge infrastructure that are expensive to build internally.
• Long-term Support: Most outsourcing partners offer ongoing maintenance and security updates for a fraction of the cost of keeping a full-time developer on staff.

What is App Development Outsourcing?

Mobile app development outsourcing means working with a third-party service provider to build an app on behalf of your business. It’s a type of software development outsourcing that specifically refers to mobile apps built by an app development company or developers who aren’t part of your in-house team. 

The company seeking app development services still owns the app. They just get someone else to build it for them. 

App development outsourcing can be used for any type of mobile app—including internal apps for HR and employee communications or customer-facing apps for your core business model. 

9 Reasons to Outsource Mobile App Development

There are dozens of benefits to app development outsourcing. But these are the top nine reasons why businesses choose to outsource app development.

1. Cost-Effectiveness

Developing an app in-house can be expensive. Most companies don’t have the personnel on staff to handle app development, which forces them to hire new employees. 

US software developers make between $96,760 and $161,40, with the median sitting at $127,260. That’s just for one developer in a single year—not to mention the costs associated with benefits, payroll taxes, training, and other costs for onboarding a new employee. 

Rather than spending $300,000 on labor alone, you could outsource development for around $30,000. 

2. Faster Development Timeline

Launching your app quickly is crucial for getting a faster return on your investment. That’s why long development timelines can hurt you in multiple ways—they’re expensive, and you’re not getting anything in return during the app development process.

This holds true whether the app is customer-facing or solving internal inefficiencies. 

But app development companies already have dedicated teams and processes in place. They have the tools, skills, and knowledge to build apps quickly and more efficiently than an in-house team during this for the first time. It could take your IT team 9-12 months to create an app, whereas an app development agency can knock it out in 3-6 months. 

3. Ability to Focus on Core Business Operations

Mobile apps are supposed to improve businesses, not hinder them. 

If you’re investing 60-80+ hours per week managing this type of project on your own, then who’s going to handle your day-to-day responsibilities?

Lots of businesses don’t think they need to consider mobile application development outsourcing because they have skilled developers in-house. But what are those developers currently working on? Who is going to handle those duties if you allocate those resources to a different project?

Outsourcing app development means you can keep the wheels in motion and without compromising your core business objectives. 

4. App Developer Expertise

Developing an app is a considerable investment for any business. With the stakes high, you want to make sure that you have the best mobile app developers working on your project.

Sure, you might have one or two people on your staff who have built an app in the past. But wouldn’t you rather work with mobile app development agencies that have built thousands of apps?

It’s like anything else. The more experience you have, the better the final product will be. It’s rare for an agency to come across something they’ve never seen before. But if you’re using in-house talent, this could be a weekly or even daily occurrence. 

5. Access to the Latest Mobile App Technologies

App development is more than just writing code. The best apps leverage cutting-edge technology to ensure the app performs well and delivers the optimal user experience post-launch. 

But the latest and greatest technology comes at a cost. 

Look beyond the app itself. You have authentication servers, databases, push notification servers, integrations, and more—there’s an entire mobile app infrastructure that’s happening behind the scenes. It’s tough to replicate this on your own, and it often doesn’t make sense from a cost perspective. It’s easier and more cost-effective to get this technology included with mobile development outsourcing. 

6. Scalability and Flexibility

When you outsource mobile application development, it’s much easier to grow and scale compared to handling this on your own. 

Let’s say your app grows from 10,000 to 100,000 users. Mobile app development services can easily help accommodate this kind of growth without any downtime or user experience issues. 

Or maybe you want to add a new custom feature three months after the initial launch. It’s not as easy to do this on your own. 

7. Cost Predictability

The cost of outsourcing mobile application development is much more predictable than doing it in-house. More often than not, you’ll have a final quote from the development agency—and you know that the project won’t go over that number. 

But going over budget is practically guaranteed if you’re building an app in-house. Why? Things happen.

People get sick. Equipment goes down. Some sprints take longer than initially anticipated. 

An app agency will never come back to you and say, “Hey, one of our developers quit, so we had to hire a new one. So we’re going to add an additional $10,000 to your invoice to account for the training costs needed to onboard our new hire.” 

If something like this happens internally within your organization, the cost will come out of your pocket. And there’s really nothing you can do about it. You’ll have to pay whatever it costs because you need the app, and you’re not going to invest thousands of dollars and months of time to settle for an incomplete project. 

Pro Tip: Use our App Development Calculator to estimate how much it will take to build an app for your business. 

8. Reduced Legal and HR Burdens

As previously discussed, building a dedicated team to build your app is expensive. But beyond labor costs, your in-house team can lead to significant legal and HR burdens. 

You don’t have to worry about workers’ compensation claims or dealing with paid parental leave if you’re working with an agency. 

In some cases, in-house app developers could even try to claim ownership of the source code of your app. No business wants to deal with these types of headaches. 

9. Continuous Maintenance and Support

Building and launching a mobile app is really just the beginning of app development. Your app still needs lots of attention and care for it to continue working and be successful for the long haul.

What happens when a new iOS version comes out? Apple just changed its App Store requirements—not what? How will you address bugs, glitches, or new security threats?

If you built the app in-house, you need to allocate development resources to deal with this stuff on a regular basis. It’s not like you can just hire a team for one year and then fire them once the app goes live. That $300,000+ in annual labor sticks with you for the lifetime of your app if you’re building it in-house. 

But when you outsource mobile app development, you’ll get ongoing maintenance and support for a low monthly fee. You won’t have to worry about maintaining

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d app development services under one roof. Whether you’re looking for assisted setup and design services and then want to manage the app on your own, you want to build it on your own and leverage our team for something specific, or you want us to do all the heavy lifting for you, there are plenty of different options to choose from. 

Schedule a consultation today to see how Buildfire can bring your app to life. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What services does Buildfire offer?

Buildfire offers a range of app development services including assisted setup, design services, and full app development.

Can I manage the app on my own after setup?

Yes, you can choose to manage the app on your own after the initial setup and design services.

Is it possible to build the app on my own?

Yes, you can build the app on your own and leverage Buildfire’s team for specific needs.

Does Buildfire handle the entire app development process?

Yes, Buildfire can handle the entire app development process if you prefer.

How can I schedule a consultation with Buildfire?

You can schedule a consultation by visiting the Buildfire website and clicking on the consultation link.