As technology is getting advanced year by year, the cost to hire a software developer is also increasing. In this scenario, it is extremely difficult to give an estimate without knowing the criticality of the software development project.
However, most of the times, the standard price of software developer on per/hour basis for a specific technology remains quite the same, until the developer has solid experience of working on strategic technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, and IoT.
Another factor that comes into play is the cost of full-time vs. freelance software developer. It is obvious that part-time developers are less costly, but obviously, you can only consider them if you have a small project in hand.
Hiring full-time software developers for a large software development project is not just a wise choice but also a key requirement.
Let’s go in detail to learn what are the cost factors that impact hiring a software developer.
Cost Factors of Hiring Dedicated Software Developers
Hiring a dedicated software developer for a project has many cost factors, ranging from skill to experience and technology to industry. A good software developer can impact your software development project in the most positive way by helping you prepare for design, usability, and scalability. But all these come with the cost.
Here check out the list of cost factors of hiring great developers for a software development project.
1. Type of Software: Common Platform Vs. Specialized Platform
What type of software you want to build determines the major part of your software development budget. If you want to build a software integrated with the latest technology such as AI powered by advanced data analytics capability, then the high cost of developers shouldn’t surprise you.
Developing a game software is costly as compared to a website. An enterprise application that automates multiple, complex process is costly in comparison with a mobile app.
IoT application development requires extensive knowledge in software architecture that could efficiently capture the data, and so the software programmers who have worked on IoT applications will demand more money.
There are many categories of software, and each category has its own price setting. Some of the common types of software applications are:
Type of Software Application
| eCommerce development | Game development | Product Management | Desktop software development |
| Scripting & automaton | QA & Testing | Web development | Enterprise application development |
| Mobile app development | API development | IoT application development | Data analytics and science |
Now, a comprehensive set of technology is used to design any of these software types, such as programming language and based on that proprietary or open source software development tools.
2. Scope of the Software Development Project
One of the hardest decisions that you take at this stage is to select between two great options.
When hiring a software developer, you will see that cost depends upon the experience, technical knowledge, and location of the developer. For instance, developers with experience in backend technologies quote more price than developers with frontend skills.
Likewise, common skills like WordPress, PHP, HTML, and CMS are available at fairly competitive rates. Talent in C++ and Kotlin is costly and if your software development project revolves around these languages then you may get ready to shell more money.
Image source: upwork.com
Java and Kotlin Developer
Image source: upwork.com
Note that Kotlin has been recently announced as an official language for Android app development. A software engineer with the knowledge of both Java and Kotlin can add great value to the Android software development project.
Senior Java Software Developer
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As you can see, the developer is Senior Java Software Developer with specialization in back-end development which requires knowledge of complex technology. And so the cost is automatically high.
The scope of a software development project has many categories and each category requires a specific time and work. Means you first design the software, get the coding done, and then finally test it for bugs and issues. Software development involves step by step process, which should align with your hiring requirements.
Some of the key scope categories which affect the cost of hiring a software developer are hosting environment, APIs, databases, and application size.
3. Time and Location
Today, IT is not location-centric. Technology has spread far and wide and so is the talent and experience. The phenomena give an opportunity to the business owners to explore beyond the geographical boundaries and get the work done at a reduced cost.
An American business owner can easily hire a software developer in India or Ukraine or Poland and get the software developed at a fairly low cost.
Of course, there will be challenges and businesses have to smartly handle the processes with a lot of planning and analyses, considering differences in time zone and language barriers to ensure high quality software development.
4. Hiring Software Developers Vs. Outsourcing
If you have a small project in hand, then you can simply hire part-time software developers with experience in different fields and build your own small team. However, it will require your significant amount of time and energy, along with technical knowledge of the domain.
If you have a technical background, then hiring part-time software developers and quality assurance testers can reduce the cost of software development to a large extent.
But if your software development project is large and complex, and then taking this move would prove costly, even if you have strong technical knowledge. A cost-effective way is to outsource your project to a custom software development company.
Software Sourcing: Tips for Hiring an Outsourcing Team
If you are thinking that you will transfer all the software development burden on the outsourced then you are slightly in the wrong direction, although many software development companies will claim to do so for their clients.
The benefit of hiring an outsourcing team is that you will be the boss, and people will work for you to make your project a success. But of course, there will be challenges like any other process.
The key is to avoid those challenges and reap out the maximum benefit from the outsourcing company. Below are a few tips to software development outsourcing.
A. Background of the Outsourcing Company
Don’t fall for the website of the software outsourcing company. In this context, a prudent choice would be to check the references they provide and also check out the details about their live projects and projects in hand.
Start with the previous projects and relate their knowledge and skills to the latest projects. It would help you to analyze their transformation and kind of developers they would be having.
Besides, you also need to check the location of the IT outsourcing company and how they would be managing the time zone differences.
B. Technical Expertise
Today, most of the software development companies build software for Android and iOS using a range of software development tools. Here, some tools are proprietary and some are open source.
Although using proprietary software development tools make the software development task much easier, open source tools empower the software developers to perform customization.
When outsourcing your project to a software development solution provider, you should check what type of tools and technologies their developers use.
Some of the companies mention the endless list of the technologies on their website, as their expertise. Try to avoid those “jack of all trades and master of nothing type of companies” as tech specialization is the key to success in software application development.
C. Project Delivery and Post Delivery Support
Before you hire an outsourcing team, you must define the scope of the project, along with factors such as:
- Timeline: Timely analysis of the deadline and accountability
- Handling bugs and issues: Check for bugs in software and spend adequate time testing the software
- Maintenance: Find out technical discrepancies in the project and provide help at later stages
- Assistance: Address scalability and usability as the software grows
- Billing: Billing only after achieving set milestones
So, there are multiple factors that are required to be evaluated before outsourcing your software development project to a company. Instead of hiring software programmers, outsourcing to an IT company is beneficial when your project is large and complex, and you have no technical background.