The Ultimate Guide for Estimating the Cost of Hiring Software Developer in the UAE

Gone are those days when businesses keep spending on traditional advertising and branding campaigns to improve their brand visibility. As we are in the era of 2020 where digitization is ruling and transforming each step of our life, therefore, it becomes necessary to look for the change.

The forecast from the Allied Market Research Report, reveals that the global market size was valued at $107 billion in 2018, which is expected to reach $408 billion by 2026. On the other hand, it has been observed that users spend at least 3 hours a day on web applications.

These facts are seriously giving the business an indication and pushing businesses to shift from traditional business models to modern applications that add a perfect edge to your business.

Whether you have been planning since long to upgrade your existing application or just popped up thought to develop an application for your business right from scratch, the hardest thing about the app development is predicting the right time and cost of the development project.

Should it be so hard for you? The answer is not as straightforward as you are expecting…

Let’s make it simple for you and kick off the discussion from the start!

Hiring an App Developer: How much It Will Cost you?

Predicting the cost of software development is a tough task and humans are bad in predicting the accurate time and cost of software development in 2020.

Before making predictions, businesses should understand that no two projects are the same, and each project is developed with different approaches to achieve unique goals. Additionally, no two projects have the same clients, users and developers. Every business comes with its own set of requirements, values and expectations. Therefore, before comparing the app development cost, you need to determine what parameters can affect the pricing of software development.

Also read: How to Improve Your Website Design in 2020–15 Effective Tips

Essential Factors That Can Affect the Cost To Hire Software Developer in Dubai

It is true that when you start shopping around, there are plenty of software development company offering services at different price ranges. The options are quite overwhelming!

It might be tempting to go with the cheapest option, but you never want to compromise with the quality of the application. On the other side, you also never want to hire the most expensive developer for the project. So it’s reasonable to look for primary concerns that drastically affect the cost of hiring the software developer.

Let’s begin with it.

Here are several factors that collectively impact the cost of hiring a software developer in Dubai:

1. Scope and Complexity of the Development Project

The first thing that can affect the cost of hiring a software developer is your project nature and scope. It includes three essential questions when you want an app for your business:

• What technology do you want to use for app development?
• What platform you have selected (web/Android/iOS)?
• What are you trying to achieve through this application?

There are various platforms which are free to access, whereas others can cost you huge. So you need to make sure that you find an application developer with the capabilities to choose the right technology that perfectly fits your needs and budget.

Since the app development is not a one-time development process and requires frequent upgrades, therefore you need to be careful when selecting the developer. The developer should understand your concern and be able to support you under the decided package smoothly. Hiring a tech team either on an hourly basis or monthly basis, it will be an excellent way to keep a proven track record of your project.

2. Development Time

Time is one of the most prominent factors that can drastically affect the costing of the software development project. The costing of the app developer is directly calculated based on the number of hours they spend on the project. The average software development hourly rates in Dubai start from $25/hr to $49/hr.

The development time is also depending on the choice of programing language and framework you choose to develop an app. If the codes are complicated to write, it will take long hours to create an application that ultimately increases your development cost.

For specific reasons, it is fair enough to ask the developer for the average project development cost or fixed price estimation to have an idea about the development cost.

3. Operating Platforms

Once you know what you are expecting from the application, it’s time to determine what platform you are going to choose to launch your app.

Will you focus on developing an iOS application to launch it in the Apple App Store? Or,

Targeting Android users on the Google Play Store?

Will your focus be on web applications? The average web application development cost is starting from $400-$800 per hour in Dubai.

Whereas, basic Android app development costs starting from the $10,000 and can go anywhere till $50,000.

Depending on your decision, it will impact the cost of hiring a software developer. But if you are looking at it from the utterly economical viewpoint, then Android apps can cost you roughly 25% more than the iOS applications that are starting from the $300 — $500 per hour. And Web applications can even cost less than mobile apps.

However, this decision should be based on your target audience and marketing strategy.

4. Type of Application

Remember, when I have asked you to determine the primary function of your app in the first point? This is what I have been asking you to decide what is your business nature and to whom you are going to target, so accordingly, you can choose the type of application.

Here is the type of applications that you may try to develop in Dubai:

• Basic Applications like fare calculators, clock, colour note, etc. The cost will be starting from $5,000-$10,000.
• Applications that use data consumption, including Voice Recording, Language Understanding, Weather App, etc. You can get it developed at $15,000 to $17,000.
• Apps that involve user authentication like Banking Apps, eWallet, Google Pay, etc. $20,000 to $25,000.
• Ecommerce apps like Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, etc, which can be developed at $50,000 to $60,000.
• Dating apps or social media apps like Tinder, Facebook, Instagram, Bumble, etc. It can cost you somewhere $45,000 to $50,000.
• On-Demand apps like Uber, Bigbasket, Zomato, etc. You can start your online business by merely developing the on-demand with the small investment of $67,000 to $75,000.

These estimations are not fixed, but a fair representation of the prices that help you compare the quotes that you get from another developer.

5. Licensing Fees

Whether you are developing a web, Android or iOS Application, there are various hidden costs that have been involved in the development process, including licensing fees.

You might be wondering why to pay licensing fees for the technologies when the market is flooded with open-source solutions which are free to use. Sometimes, the paid solutions might be a better fit for your technological stack and may add some additional benefits.

If you weigh the benefits of using the paid technologies with the open-source solutions, you will automatically get to know the difference and even find it worth to pay the licensing fees.

6. The Expertise of The Developers

The cost of the development is directly or indirectly concerned with the seniority of the app developer.

In this tight competitive market, where Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning Big Data, Blockchain, IoT are the emerging technologies in app development, you just need to hire a specialised expert in the respective fields.

Remember it is worth it to pay higher to hire a developer with expert skills and knowledge than putting your projects at the significant risks. By hiring a less trained developer, you may save a little cost, but you may need to compromise with the quality of the application.
If you don’t want to spend extra time on the project to fix the mistakes, it is worth shaking hands with the specialised mobile or web developer in Dubai and launching the app with perfection.

Top Tools, Libraries and Framework for Software Development

Have you been wondering what are those things used in developing applications that make your life far easier? Right from the morning alarms to locating the shortest way to reach office to ordering the freshly prepared food for the dinner, everything happens with the help of the tap on the application. However, the real heroes behind the scene are the right choice of tools, frameworks and libraries that empower you to develop such applications with ease.

Let’s understand some of the best frameworks for the mobile application:

1. React Native

It is one of the most demanding libraries of Javascript that helps you develop feature-rich native applications for all devices and platforms, including iOS and Android. Software Companies in Dubai prefer this library as it is an open-source framework that offers ample support to the IDEs and other mobile app development tools.

If you are going to choose to React Native, then you need to be prepared to spend somewhere $10,000 to $60,000.

2. Flutter

When it comes to finding the best framework, flutter is the best-suited framework that helps you develop hybrid applications.

Flutter is a UI toolkit offered by Google to help in building native applications for all platforms. As this UI toolkit is featured with fully customized widgets, it helps you create a native app in a short period for the web, mobile and desktop. Being so versatile and fully customized widgets, it ensures you a faster rendering of components.

The average cost to develop a flutter application is starting from $10,000 to $50,000 or more depending on the features and functionalities of the app.

3. Mobile Angular UI

Mobile Angular UI is a free Hybrid mobile app development tool that combines the implementation of the Bootstrap and Angular framework. It not only simplifies the process of app development but also enables you to develop apps using HTML5. This is an open-source framework that also allows you to make use of Fastclick.js and overthrow.js for a seamless application experience.
If you Hire Software Developer to build applications using Mobile Angular UI, then development cost will lie in between $40,000 to $50,000.

Related FAQs

1. What is the average cost of hiring a skilled software developer?

To make an informed decision, you need to decide whether you want to go with an offshore developer, part-time developer or want to collaborate with a reputed software development company in Dubai? If you choose to go with offshore app development companies, still you have a choice of hiring hourly based experts that are starting somewhere from $25-$49/ hr.

2. Which is the best choice of Framework to develop web applications?

Choosing the best web application framework is not an easy task. You can choose from the above listed frameworks as well, but apart from that Angular, Ember, Vue.js are the few best front-end frameworks that you can opt for building web applications. Whereas Django, ExpressJs, Spring are the excellent options for development robust backend of the app.

3. What is the estimated Time to Develop a Basic Application?

On average, a primary application development process will take 18 weeks. However, if you want to go for advanced applications like Uber, gaming apps, food apps, social media apps, then it will go beyond 20 weeks.

Ending Note

App development has become an urgent need for every business, but estimating the right expertise, time and cost needed to accomplish the software development projects is greatly vary project to project. Even when your goals might be well-defined, still it is challenging to know what model you need to achieve the desired outcomes.

While the approach you choose to develop an application can significantly impact your business, therefore it is essential to shake hands with the highly experienced software companies in UAE to get the right estimation of the price, time and the frameworks that ensure success.

Originally published at https://www.xicom.ae on February 21, 2020.