Things to think about before you create your app or website

By Krista Tuomi

I recently wrote about your online presence strategy. But what are the next steps if you decide that business success does depend on a custom website, app or other software? In other words, how do you acquire the most cost-effective software talent?

Before you do embark on the custom route, you should explore the options available from focused website and app builder platforms. Wix and weebly are two of the highest rated 2021 website builders, while leaders in app development include Swing2App, Appy Pie, and Zoho Creator. You may be surprised at the extent of their services, which may suffice for your short-run needs.

If after this research you still want something more specialized, you basically have two options: hire a full-time software developer, or hire contractors. Cost is obviously a significant factor in this decision, but NOT the only one. Hiring a software developer in the US will put you out between $82K and $180K per year including taxes and benefits, depending on the level of expertise and your location. (Of course, for many firms, on-site presence is not the necessity it once was.) Contractor costs vary far more.

If you use a site like Upwork or Toptal to find people, you may have less scope to set fees. Even then, knowing the market rates can help you screen offers. CodeMentorX’s new ‘rate finder‘ tool can help you decide what to charge based on things like location, project and experience level. As a very general idea, the average hourly rate is about $81-$100.

Depending on your needs, you can pay contractors by hour, day or project. When you have specific short term need like the creation of a prototype, a fixed fee for the project may be the best bet.

Contracting may be cheaper but comes with greater risk. It is more difficult to control for quality and monitor security threats like malware, especially when you do not know who may be doing the actual work. It is not unusual for contractors to employ cheaper (and sometime foreign) subcontractors. This can result in delays and low-quality code. Protecting yourself with a proper legal contract can help but is not foolproof. You may be able to terminate a breached contract and even recoup some fees paid, but you will be left without internal knowledge or real ownership of your product.

Contracting may also result in less post-development support. This service is crucial in the early stages of business growth as you need flexibility to rapidly respond to customer feedback. As such, outsourcing may make more sense only in later stages of company maturity for things such as maintenance of legacy systems and updates.

If you do decide to go the contract route, please hire a lawyer for a few hours to ensure your contract is comprehensive. This can include things like the right to do regular audits, 24-hour access to work, and perhaps performance-based incentives such as bugs per 100 lines of code. To save legal costs it is worth visiting NOLO and using their free resources to draft a contract first.

These decisions are not easy ones. Taking your time and doing proper research can really payoff in cost, quality and more importantly, peace of mind.