Hiring Remote iOS Developers/

Overview

• Background On iOS Development
• Why Is iOS Development Important?
• Don’t Limit Your iOS Team Locally
• The Best Talent Is Global
• How Do I Know A Developer Is Skilled? 
• What Makes A Good iOS Developer?
• An Example All-Star iOS Developer
• Writing Clean Code In iOS (Design Patterns & Frameworks)
• Different Skillsets For iOS – Super App vs. MVP
• Managing A Remote iOS Team
• How Much Does It Cost To Build An App? 
• Options To Hire Remote iOS Developers

Hiring remote iOS developers is one of the best ways to build iOS applications today. Almost every major iOS agency works with global talent. In order to do this well, you need to know your options when hiring remote talent, know how to screen for the best developers, and make sure you have the practices in place to build a well-written application.

In this article, we will go over the key points to hiring remote iOS developers.

Background On iOS Development

iOS development covers the creation of software across Apple platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac OS development. Previously written primarily in Objective-C and now in the Swift programming language. The most common application development is iOS apps to be downloaded from the Apple App Store.

As of February 2022, iOS accounted for 57.8% of the USA mobile operating system market.

As of December 2021, iOS accounted for 54.45% of the UK mobile operating system market.

On a global scale, Android controls 70% of the market, with iOS accounting for almost all of the remaining 30%.

Given the dominance of iOS in these wealthy markets, maybe founders and agencies in the USA and UK will look to iOS for the first versions of their applications. Although more and more tech teams are considering cross-platform development in technologies like React Native & Flutter. These languages allow you to maintain one codebase for both your Android application and your iOS application.

Why Is iOS Development Important?

As we said before, iOS accounts for the majority of the mobile market in the USA and UK. It also is used by higher-income users meaning the most valuable customers are often on iOS. This is ultimately a decision every founder will need to make for themself, as only they will know what platform is best for their product.

iOS development also comes with a higher standard for the quality and design of the applications. Anything on Apple products needs to live up to their design. Otherwise, it will stick out and not resonate with the users. This and the fact that you need to get approved to even get in their app store creates a higher bar for application developers.

Don’t Limit Your iOS Team Locally

Many first-time founders have no idea how to find software developers. In the past, when you needed skill, you could simply advertise for it and find someone local to complete your job. With the complexity and competition in the world today, especially around startup talent, this is simply not possible. At previous companies, we have seen the impact a poor local team makes on the success of a product, driving budgets higher yet still not reaching product roadmap goals. When you start looking to hire an iOS developer to build your app, you need to look at the global talent pool.

The Best Talent Is Global

The best software talent in the world is not always in the USA or the UK, which make up only a small fraction of the global population. Today 83% of the world owns a smartphone. All the information you could ever need to learn software development is available and free online. This creates a wave of talent in areas like Eastern Europe, LATAM, Africa, India, and other hotspots. Working with global talent is something that every major tech company has already embraced and learned to master. Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Ericsson, IBM, and more all work with global talent and know the advantages that come with it.

If your goal is to find the very best person for the job, you can’t limit your search to a tiny fraction of the talent available.

How Do I Know A Developer Is Skilled?

For non-technical professionals hiring tech talent can be challenging. You don’t know the language, the skills, or how to see if someone has what you are looking for.

At Slashdev.io, we have developed a recruitment process to find the very best engineers on the global market. Working with our Talent Vetting Strategist, a former Engineer at Tesla, we were able to design a recruitment process that breaks down applicants on the key metrics needed to perform well in any software development role.

We look at things like their previous working experience to see if their professional track record is good enough for our network. From there, we check their English ability through vetting with native speakers to ensure that conversation skills and professionalism are high. We extensively test our engineer’s programming skills with specific challenges for each language we work with. Finally, in a professional interview, we break down things like DevOps experience, project portfolio, unit testing experience, architecture & design pattern knowledge, and more.

95% of companies do nothing close to this process when recruiting. We turn away thousands of applicants to find those who can really deliver.

What Makes A Great iOS Developer?

• Excellent English
• Strong Technical Problem Solver
• 10+ Professional Projects
• 5+ Years of Professional Experience
• Skilled At Writing Clean, Maintainable Code
• Multi-Skilled With Backend Experience
• Always Delivers Beyond Expectations

An Example All-Star iOS Developer

Miquel Rodriguez

Miquel has been working with iOS for over 10 years and has completed over 50 applications in the app store. He has worked on both small projects and large-scale apps with big teams. He has worked with brands like Facebook and Mercedes and smaller startups. He has excellent English and has tested well on all of our technical challenges.

His project portfolio contains a fintech app that is similar to ours, and he is familiar with the type of challenges/data we will be working with. (Having built something like you want to build is usually the #1 most important thing to find).

He has strong backend knowledge and can build the app himself, including getting it deployed and into the app store. Giving you a full-stack app developer skillset.

He is a great communicator and works well with your team.

Writing Clean Code In iOS (Design Patterns & Frameworks)

Most non-technical professionals miss an understanding of the frameworks and design patterns that a developer uses to write clean code. Depending on the technology, there are different methods and structures, and iOS has its own set of standards.

Clean code is essentially writing code that is easy to read and understand. When building software products, the amount of time developers spend reading code vs. writing code is around 10 to 1. This means that being able to read and understand code is extremely important.

Another concept to consider is technical debt. Technical debt is the cost incurred by going with a simple solution now instead of using a better approach that would take longer. This can be as simple as keeping all of our button components together or more complex methods of state management.

Popular frameworks include Viper, MVC, MVVM, Singleton, Facade, and Decorator, to name a few. In order to properly vet your developer, you should know the frameworks needed for your project and dig into their understanding of executing with that architecture.

Different Skillsets For iOS – Super App vs. MVP

Depending on what type of app you are building, you will have many different requirements for your developer.

If you are just building an MVP with simple functions, you have a large talent pool that can help you. This allows you to get the most affordable developers who can work fast and build you something useful in a matter of weeks.

On the other hand, if you have a project that will turn into a complex app with unique features or you know that this will become a large production application, you may want to consider finding someone excellent to lead the development from the ground up. This will pay back tenfold later on when you already have well-written code and solid architecture to build on. Not to mention an elite developer will already have worked with many of the complex functions you would be seeking to implement.

Managing A Remote iOS Team

There is so much to say on how to manage remote talent! In the end, for most teams, it is quite simple.

• Have an easy communication medium like Slack
• Request daily standups from your developers
• Hold a weekly meeting to define the development tickets (the Agile method is great)
• Regularly review progress and look to improve

It is really that simple. If you are working with a developer who knows what they are doing, then you will not need to do more than this. Once you get a larger team, need unit testing, etc., then there is more to it. For most, a great developer will make your life easy.

How Much Does It Cost To Build An App?

Building an MVP in iOS with a remote developer will cost only a few thousand dollars, or even less, if you have a clear scope.

Building a complex app at production quality will take months of full-time development leading to $10,000+ in development costs.

This is why we always advise founders to build an MVP, prove their market, and take development step by step to make sure they have a viable business model.

Options To Hire Remote iOS Developers

We can only tell you a fraction of the options you have when hiring remote iOS developers. It is always best to do your own research and study the market! Below is the basic breakdown:

• Do it yourself – not worth it for most, tons of effort, and takes your focus off your product or service.
• Use a traditional recruiter – a terrible option as they are not skilled in the global recruitment and will charge you through the roof for a single hire. 
• Freelance platforms (Upwork & Fivvr) – great for small gigs, not dedicated developers.
• Modern Remote Software Talent Platforms – Slashdev.io Turing.com and Toptal.com – Offer skilled fulltime and partime developers. If you are looking for the best value, nothing can beat the offering we have at Slashdev with senior developers from $28-$38 per hour. We HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to try Toptal and Turing to see for yourself!