iOS How to hire someone to build a Mac & IOS app in 2022?

[Turnpike]

I am going to hire someone to build an application for me, something that will run on Macs and Apple devices first, and perhaps Android and Windows down the line. The main purpose of the app is because it's something that I want, and if I end up spending serious money on it and it works well for only me, I'll be fine with that. This won't depend on financing or popularity, and commercial success is a distant afterthought, should there be a way for me to recoup my investment of time and money. Building something that will make it into the App Store and work for me is the main goal at this point.

So what would I look for, in hiring someone? What skills would I say I am looking for, or where would be a good place to post and ad, where I can see that someone has experience and some past success, like Fiverr or Ebay where you can get a feel for how much confidence you can have in someone.

Also, if there is a type of computer student that I could hire locally, (even at greater cost and being patient as they learn some as they go) I would even consider that- almost prefer it. I just moved back to the area I grew up in (upstate NY) and would love to provide work for someone eager for an opportunity in this kind of work, as it's exactly what wished for (and didn't find) when I was growing up here.

My app would be for use on an iPhone primarily, and would be an app that sorted video and audio files sort of like a media player, but with specific functions that I won't get into here. Not sure if that matters as far as the skills of the person I'd be looking for.

Any suggestions on what type of person to look for, where to post an ad, and the skills to look for would be greatly appreciated. I see this kind of thing mentioned a lot in threads, but there's never really a lot of direction and I think that a lot of people have an idea or intend to hire someone but never really get to it since this is one of those things that can be put off a bit and a bit more and again and again as life gets busy.

Any relevant info would be appreciated, since I've read a lot on here and across the web, and there's not a lot on the subject as far as definite suggestions, and I can see I'm not the only one wondering.

Thanks in advance!

 

[casperes1996]

The "problem" is that as a good software developer you can typically fairly easily get rather well paying jobs so it's generally not an area that has a lot of "small hires" like that. Of course it exists, though.

Looking for a student might be a good approach in a way where it makes economical sense and you can still get someone who might know what they're doing and wanting to do a good job with it, rather than getting it over and done with as quickly as possible.

Look for software engineers and/or computer scientists. You want someone who either knows and/or is prepared to learn Cocoa Touch/SwiftUI and Objective-C or Swift. At least for a fully native experience. Can also find someone with knowledge of something like React Native who can then build it with Javascript.

The aforementioned are generally useful for any iOS app. Depending on what the extra features you want are they may need more specialty skills, but if it's all fairly general purpose it probably won't be too much extra. They'll most likely want to make a sketch with you of how you expect the app to look and function before implementing it for real.

I would argue that a good computer scientist/software engineer don't need to know any of the specific technologies at play beforehand, it's pretty easily learned as you go if they know any similar technologies at all. If they have a GitHub page you will probably be able to see some other stuff they've worked on for fun and/or profit.

As for where to find people willing to work on something like this, I don't know, but those are some general pointers to help you make posts wherever you find appropriate

 

[Turnpike]

Thanks, Casperes! I really appreciate that, it puts me 1,000 times more ahead than I was to begin with. I'll keep this in mind while I look on Fiverr and place some local ads, and if you know of a good site for me to look or place a help wanted ad, do please let me know. Thank you!

 

[cthompson94]

I think Casperes idea is a really good idea with looking for someone who is a student or maybe even a couple of students if one person has a few peers who are all willing to test their skills and get some pay while at it. Be weary of some of those ads or even sometimes Fiverr since a lot of that is just doing a quick turnaround to move onto the next customer.

If you do go the student route make sure you research and find a contract or draft one yourself, as like you mentioned in your OP if your app begins really making some money you will want to make sure that you are covered.

 

[casperes1996]

Agree that Fiver can be risky with the quality you get. Make sure to get the code and not just the product if you go through Fiver, otherwise adding a feature or fixing a bug down the road could be a hell of trouble.

I know no specific sites but if you find a post or something I can give my thoughts

 

[Nygaard]

Depends on what you mean by "serious money," and how bad you want this app. Say your app takes two months to develop; at minimum wage, that's $2.5k (and they probably won't be charging minimum wage). But if you desperately need this app and are willing to drop $250k, you should have little trouble finding a developer

You can find freelance developers, but they usually work on projects for businesses, not individuals. You would find and vet them like employees: LinkedIn, referrals, etc.

Bespoke apps are not too common for a number of reasons, one of which is maintenance. Apple may release an update that breaks your app, then you need to hire someone to fix it. Or the app has a bug, or you want a new feature, etc.

In terms of your actual app, my guess is it probably already exists (or something very close to it). The AppStore is oversaturated with apps, but the tools for navigating it are so poor, its effectively impossible to find what you are looking for.

I would look around for an app that is close to what you want. Then, contact the dev and request the missing features.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I would look around for an app that is close to what you want. Then, contact the dev and request the missing features.

That's possibly the correct answer. Especially because you know that the developer is capable, and you can always offer to pay, and it would still be cheaper.