Hiring an Android Developer
April 27, 2015 9:40 AM   Subscribe

I'm interested in hiring a developer to build a native Android app. Before anyone gets nervous, I am a fairly experienced in dealing with technical people and I already built the iPhone version of this app myself. Because of time constraints I am choosing not to build the Android myself, there would be too much of a learning curve because I have never done it before. I would be able to provide the developer a designed comp of every single screen.

The app is fairly complex - a niche social network - the existing app works with a rails site serving and receiving JSON - so in a way half the work is already done because the Android version can use this as a base (I hope??).

Here are some options as I understand it:

1.) Hire an offshore freelancer from one of the markets like odesk etc. I assume this will be a total crapshoot but I know it will be cheap. I am planning on being extremely prescriptive in the designs I provide so I hope that would help? I want to get a simple product out and I would be prepared to rebuild it properly (unbeknownst to users?) if it ever took off and I had a proper budget. Does that ever work out?

2.) Design agencies I have worked for in the past would hire small companies where you would deal with an US based account manager/project manager but they were using offshore developers. But you just dealt with the US based people and they are pretty accountable, I assume this was a little more expensive.

3.) Try and find an top-tier individual but pay a high rate - a higher quality product right away but to be honest this is sometimes kind of crapshoot also. Also it seems like these people are always so hard to find. And really, for my purposes I really think the "good enough" version might be ok.


I'm looking for advice on how these would go but I'm also interested in hearing about other options, thanks very much.
posted by solmyjuice to Technology (5 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: Option one, hiring offshore is a crap shoot. What I would do is hire two or three, let them each get started, and then keep the best one. Iterate as needed. I wouldn't use odesk, but instead pick a country and go pay your $50 to linkedin and start your search that way. Searching meetups and such in the area may give you good leads on people. Try to matchup leads to their github accounts. The downside is you have to micromanage (at least at first) and you have to deal with the time delay.

Two is just adding a middle man. If you're currently a one-man operation, I would hesitate to get involved with an agency that will overpromise, overcharge and underdeliver (in my experience).

Number three is a good option, and your assumptions are correct. Better work, more money, still a bit of a crapshoot. This is where you work your personal network and try to find a recommendation for a high quality individual. The real advantage is you can resolve issues quicker.

There are some other options. Depending on how complicated your app is, and the extent to which it relies on proprietary iOS frameworks (i.e. CoreData), you may try something like Apportable, which is a cross-compiler and framework. They were designed for games, but if your app is reasonable enough, there's a good chance it would work for you.
posted by jeffamaphone at 9:51 AM on April 27, 2015 [1 favorite]


i saw a presentation on this a few months ago. $100,000.

Seems likea lot but then they started breaking it down and I began to at least raise my ballpark whichI had before... of $20,000 I pulled out of nowhere. Read some costing examples.
posted by jago25_98 at 8:26 PM on April 27, 2015


As someone who runs a small dev shop in the #3 category, I'd say either #1 or #3 is right for you. #2 is okay, but given your technical expertise, you may as well cut out the middleman.

From what we've seen from the #1 low-end Odesk/Elance crowd, their work is okay as long as they're given a very, very complete spec. The code ends up being hard to use later when you need to change things, as you can probably imagine. If you go this route, make sure they follow a style guide, have clear performance/responsiveness metrics, and have to submit code to you for review before and during the project.

The #3 high-end US-based devs are more expensive, but you'll generally get something you can take over without having to significantly rewrite things plus excellent communication. You're right that they're hard to find. Our shop, for instance, doesn't advertise outside of our social networks. Your best bet is asking around in the software world and I'll wager that people will have leads for you to follow.
posted by kindred at 7:40 AM on April 28, 2015


I'm an Android developer. I have a day job, so I can't take on your project, but yeah, best way to find someone is through networks. I have several folks that I would reach out to for projects that I couldn't take on (former coworkers, etc), though it's often a crap shoot because most folks are busy. Just know that the market is very tight, I get requests on LinkedIn several times a week for full-time gigs.

I know some iOS devs that have taken on Android projects, the learning curve is there, but that might be the 'good enough' you are looking for it seems like there are more iOS devs than Android around.

You might have some luck finding a Java developer who is looking to transition to Android. They might be slower and have a learning curve as well, but they might be able to offer a lower rate.
posted by theRussian at 10:15 AM on April 28, 2015


I know some iOS devs that have taken on Android projects, the learning curve is there, but that might be the 'good enough' you are looking for it seems like there are more iOS devs than Android around.
Just be careful as there's already enough Android software out there that feels like a cheap port of the iOS version rather than a native implementation. Common user interface problems include poor navigation, especially the back button working inconsistently; layout problems, especially at different resolutions or when rotating the screen (worse, some don't rotate properly at all!); text entry problems, especially with hardware keyboards or other software keyboards. In some cases it even looks like an iOS application rather than an Android one and is very out of place.

There are other things you'll sometimes see as well like being forced back into the main activity if you switch out of the application and back; improper implementation of background services to communicate with the server, meaning laggy UI and if there's a network glitch you get suboptimal failure modes like hanging the application and/or chewing CPU; and poor interaction with intents for sharing, navigation, or dialing. Finally there are features that could be exploited but aren't such as notifications and widgets.

All-in-all you'll make a better impression on users if your software is developed by someone familiar with the platform.
posted by vsync at 10:29 PM on May 11, 2015


« Older Turning radius and other stats on moving trucks?   |   Missed tax filing deadline. What do I do? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.