Outsourcing App Dev

darubio · 10 Apr 2013 at 23:54

I have a question regarding about iphone app development. Now i have an app idea but like many people I have no idea about programming. So i am thinking hiring a company or freelancer to do it.

But my question is, say the app is already made and ready to go. How do i submit it to the app store? Do the company/freelance send me the file and I have to submit myself using my own developers account if i signed up for it? Or Do they send it themselves? If its a purchased app, how do I get the money from the sale? Does it go to the company/freelancer who created the app or can it go straight to my paypal or other accounts?

Id like some advice in this please if you could

doiks14 · 11 Apr 2013 at 00:01

I'm pretty certain you go to said company/freelancer to make agreements and put it on paper

Ross1234 · 11 Apr 2013 at 00:05

You wouldn't believe how often non developers say they have a great idea for an app, they just need someone to develop it for them...

darubio · 11 Apr 2013 at 00:21

Ross1234 said:
You wouldn't believe how often non developers say they have a great idea for an app, they just need someone to develop it for them...

Hardly a bad thing is it? I see it as a good business for the developers. I just want to get some basic advice encase theres something I should watch out for before approaching a developer.

UK-AL05 · 11 Apr 2013 at 00:54

I'm an app developer. Its completely up to the client. Normally the client has their own developer account(£60), so they can track sales, manage the money and so forth.

If you are worried about technical details of submitting an app, you can give the developer your account details and they will set it up for you.

After, you can change your account details.

darubio said:
Hardly a bad thing is it? I see it as a good business for the developers. I just want to get some basic advice encase theres something I should watch out for before approaching a developer.

Often the words "great idea for an app", is followed by develop it for free, and a profit sharing scheme =P

This won't work for many businesses because they need a reliable stream of income, rather than the ups and downs of app sales.

Cycrow · 12 Apr 2013 at 13:47

First thing i should point out is that Apps are generally not cheap to make so hiring a company to make the app for you is going to cost you quite abit.

You might have better luck finding a developer who is just starting up and join up with them and work on it together

for releasing the app to the App Store, you either get the company to release it for you and work out how the payment will work (they might take a cut of the profit). Or you create an account yourself and release the app yourself.

Id suggest the later as it'll give you more control over the selling of the app, then you just get the app file from the company and put it up on your account to the app store (requires £60 a year fee)

darubio · 12 Apr 2013 at 17:56

Thanks guys, all your advice had been really helpful and given me lots of more ideas

Tilluss · 13 Apr 2013 at 07:41

Unfortunately none of the answers are actually correct so far, they are all work-arounds due to apples system being a bit confusing.

The real way to do it is as follows: You create your Apple business developer account and pay the developer fee like normal, then once you find a developer for your app you invite their account with certain permissions to your account so they can submit the app, sort the horrors of the provisioning profiling etc. That way you give them certain permissions to do certain things to do with the app but restrict access to financial details etc.

Be warned though, app development can cost a lot, our company for example charges 1K a day and depending on the app you could be looking at a month or 2 worth of development. You could get a freelance developer for 2-300 a day, but you don't get the support of the company etc with that solution.

If you need any more advice just ask

UK-AL05 · 14 Apr 2013 at 17:00

Tilluss said:
Unfortunately none of the answers are actually correct so far, they are all work-arounds due to apples system being a bit confusing.

The real way to do it is as follows: You create your Apple business developer account and pay the developer fee like normal, then once you find a developer for your app you invite their account with certain permissions to your account so they can submit the app, sort the horrors of the provisioning profiling etc. That way you give them certain permissions to do certain things to do with the app but restrict access to financial details etc.

Be warned though, app development can cost a lot, our company for example charges 1K a day and depending on the app you could be looking at a month or 2 worth of development. You could get a freelance developer for 2-300 a day, but you don't get the support of the company etc with that solution.

If you need any more advice just ask

Which is exactly what I just said.

And besides most app development companies are really small anyway(5-10 people). I can see the support being exactly the same as a freelancer, providing his business sticks around. Your not gonna have dedicated support staff in small businesses. In our company the developers handled the tough support problems that the non-technical staff could not do.

The majority of projects just get handed off to the developer for him to work on, once the spec and design is complete.

I should know, I work for an app company.

Cycrow · 15 Apr 2013 at 09:19

our company does it in all the different ways depending on what the client wants.

Also, an individual can not create an Apple Buisness developer account. They must have an offical registered buisness to do that and Apple requires the documentation to prove that

Redrum · 15 Apr 2013 at 20:46

darubio said:
I have a question regarding about <b>iphone</b> app development

I wouldn't limit your app to just the iPhone unless you have a good reason. Android phones far outsell iPhones in most countries except the US and the gap is widening as the iPhone goes into decline.

D.P. · 15 Apr 2013 at 21:30

To give an idea of costs, our company has developed and android app that is around 3-4K lines of code (pretty small) and is really dumb because all complexity takes place on our servers.

We don't have an iphone app because iphone development is horrible and the market is smaller so we have concentrated on Android. We have investigated outsourcing the iphone client, so just around 3K lines of code and we would pass on the Android source code and spec files so it is really just a straight forward translation. Quotes were in the $25-70,000 USD range. The cheap offers were basically outsourced to eastern Europe or India, which can work well but has some risk.

As someone who is inexperienced I would be very careful in going over the sums. You likely have no idea how many hours/days it would take to develop your app - what you think might be simple to develop might be significantly complex.

The other thing is no developer will want to work for free (and share profit), money up front. And one of the reasons for this is almost all apps do not make profit (unless they have some serious development and clever financial tricks, like paying for additional content).

If you want your app to succeed then it will need to be free, funding should come form elsewhere (advertising, paying for additional content).

Tilluss · 15 Apr 2013 at 23:01

UK-AL05 said:
Which is exactly what I just said.

And besides most app development companies are really small anyway(5-10 people). I can see the support being exactly the same as a freelancer, providing his business sticks around. Your not gonna have dedicated support staff in small businesses. In our company the developers handled the tough support problems that the non-technical staff could not do.

The majority of projects just get handed off to the developer for him to work on, once the spec and design is complete.

I should know, I work for an app company.

You said that he should get his own account but didn't say anything about joining the developers account with his account which is a big step that you missed out. Don't get angry that I merely clarified what he can do.

Support is normally better in a company due to documentation being mandatory. Due to this developers might come and go but the company will always be able to support their software. Unfortunately freelances have life to deal with so documentation isn't as common and they will have jobs they will jump in and out of so getting support is harder. It doesn't matter if the development team is small or large at a company, the support will be better 80% of the time. I've developed apps freelance and for companies so I'm trying to give a bit of advice based on my experience with both.

rsatd · 16 Apr 2013 at 13:35

Been to a few meetups where some chaps advertising that they have a developer house in places like India/Pakistan which will develop your idea for a one off fee for example.

UK-AL05 · 16 Apr 2013 at 15:37

rsatd said:
Been to a few meetups where some chaps advertising that they have a developer house in places like India/Pakistan which will develop your idea for a one off fee for example.

That's how most app development is done... Unless you want changes.

UK-AL05 · 16 Apr 2013 at 15:39

Tilluss said:
You said that he should get his own account but didn't say anything about joining the developers account with his account which is a big step that you missed out. Don't get angry that I merely clarified what he can do.

Support is normally better in a company due to documentation being mandatory. Due to this developers might come and go but the company will always be able to support their software. Unfortunately freelances have life to deal with so documentation isn't as common and they will have jobs they will jump in and out of so getting support is harder. It doesn't matter if the development team is small or large at a company, the support will be better 80% of the time. I've developed apps freelance and for companies so I'm trying to give a bit of advice based on my experience with both.

I have worked for a few app development companies, with clients like Lexus, channel 4, large supermarkets etc and documentation was sparse then. 90% of the time clients don't want it, and don't want to pay for it. Why because apps are short term marketing projects for most companies, not projects they're planning to support for 10 years.

Tilluss · 16 Apr 2013 at 18:34

UK-AL05 said:
I have worked for a few app development companies, with clients like Lexus, channel 4, large supermarkets etc and documentation was sparse then. 90% of the time clients don't want it, and don't want to pay for it. Why because apps are short term marketing projects for most companies, not projects they're planning to support for 10 years.

I guess that's the difference between marketing agencies and quality software houses then. Customers don't ask for documentation 9 times out of 10, but it's something that should be done internally especially when developers move from project to project. There isn't really an excuse for no documentation and testing when writing any type of software for a company other than laziness, especially when customers are paying a lot of money.

jonneymendoza · 17 Apr 2013 at 15:05

darubio said:
Hardly a bad thing is it? I see it as a good business for the developers. I just want to get some basic advice encase theres something I should watch out for before approaching a developer.

Why are you not considering Android? The marketshare for android is larger then iOS nowadays

Smit · 17 Apr 2013 at 15:41

jonneymendoza said:
Why are you not considering Android? The marketshare for android is larger then iOS nowadays

The marketshare may be bigger but still more money is spent on iOS apps than their android equivalent.

Having a version of both may or may not be what the OP wants to have.