Freelancers vs full-time: What is the best model for hiring remote App developers?

In today’s fast-paced digital world, businesses must prioritize building robust mobile apps to stay competitive. Whether you are a startup or an established company, hiring the right app developers is essential for creating solutions that align with your business goals. However, when it comes to hiring remote app developers, an important decision must be made: should you opt for freelancers or full-time developers?

This blog explores the key differences between freelancers and full-time remote app developers to help you decide the best model for your business. We will delve into how hiring app developers can accelerate time-to-market, ensure professional design and user experience, and enhance security features. You will also gain insights into the unique benefits of hiring dedicated developers, the top countries to consider for finding app development talent, and the challenges of remote hiring. Finally, we will show you how Global Squirrels can simplify hiring remote app developers, saving you time and effort while ensuring compliance and productivity.

How can app developers help your business?

Hiring app developers is a crucial step for businesses aiming to create effective and impactful mobile applications. When you choose professional app developers, they check every part of your app to ensure it works well and matches what other apps do while also making it run smoothly for users.

Accelerated time-to-market

Hiring skilled application developers ensures faster project completion due to their expertise and ability to anticipate potential challenges. Experienced developers streamline the development process, delivering high-quality apps efficiently. This enables businesses to seize market opportunities quickly and launch their applications ahead of competitors.

Professional design and user experience

Experienced mobile application developers excel in creating visually appealing and user-friendly designs. Their technical ability helps make your app work perfectly while creating an enjoyable user experience. Expert developers create better user experiences that boost app retention and user contentment, which drives business success.

Enhanced security features

Hiring application developers ensures your app is built with robust security measures to protect user data. Protecting your data from hackers is crucial because a breach can lead to legal problems and cost you money. When you hire mobile application developers, they prioritize integrating advanced security protocols, giving your users peace of mind, and fostering trust in your app.

Key differences between freelancers and full-time remote app developers

When it comes to hiring app developers, businesses often have to decide whether to go for freelancers or full-time remote developers. By knowing how these options work separately, you can decide which one matches your project best.

1. Employment structure

Freelancers control their own hours of work and often have more than one client when they work for any business at a given time period. The freedom developers have with their work lets them think differently but reduces their time and focus. On the other hand, full-time remote application developers are dedicated employees who align closely with company culture and processes. Having one developer work solely on your project helps them build stronger relationships and produce consistent outcomes, which works well when you want someone to stay with you over time.

2. Cost implications

Freelancers are often more cost-effective, making them a preferred choice for smaller projects with limited budgets. Remote developers who work full-time bring higher pay plus formal agreements that require continuous performance updates. This predictability in expenses ensures better planning and value over time, especially for businesses looking to hire application developers for complex or ongoing projects.

3. Project commitment and availability

Freelancers often struggle to give each project their full attention because they work on many tasks at once, which could result in delays in their work. Full-time remote mobile application developers are dedicated exclusively to your project, ensuring consistent availability and sustained focus. 

4. Productivity levels

Freelancers deliver varied output because they work on several projects. In contrast, full-time application developers often exhibit higher productivity, benefiting from a focused workflow and access to collaborative tools.

Why do businesses prefer hiring dedicated app developers?

• Consistency and commitment

Dedicated application developers work exclusively on a single project, ensuring consistent progress and higher productivity. Unlike freelancers who often juggle multiple clients simultaneously, dedicated developers focus entirely on understanding your project requirements and delivering tailored solutions. Their ongoing commitment enables faster updates, quicker bug fixes, and a more streamlined development process. For businesses, hiring dedicated application developers means reliable and consistent results throughout the project lifecycle.

• Long-term vision and development

By partnering with dedicated developers, businesses create a lasting connection that proves most helpful for projects that need regular updates and support. Through working closely with them, these developers learn what a business wants to achieve and how its software works, which lets them make good choices that match the company’s future plans. By choosing to hire mobile application developers, businesses can ensure their software evolves with market demands through continuous upgrades and maintenance. The team’s focus allows businesses to adjust their staff levels according to project requirements, giving them the needed adaptability for success.

• Better quality control

When businesses hire application developers dedicated to their projects, they gain access to specialized skills and rigorous quality assurance processes. Dedicated software developers find problems early in development to stop risks such as data theft and system downtime. High-quality software emerges from detailed development done to satisfy business needs. 

Which countries can you choose to hire the best app developers?

• The Philippines

Talent pool: The Philippines has a large number of workers who make mobile apps while being known for their ability to change and create new ideas.

Strengths: Along with their natural creativity, Filipino developers have expertise in cloud solutions and know how to follow local employment laws during hiring processes. For businesses looking to hire application developers in the Philippines, this combination of skills and compliance makes the country an excellent choice.

Annual salary: $20,496

• India

Talent pool: India employed 5.43 million IT professionals in the FY (Fiscal Year) 2023-2024, which is growing steadily compared to previous years. From these IT professionals, app developers are famous for their excellent coding skills and fresh ways of creating mobile programs.

Strengths: India stands out for providing programmers skilled in many programming languages who deliver customized software solutions to meet any business requirement.

Annual salary: $27,767.88

• Mexico

Talent pool: Mexico’s technology sector develops fast and delivers expert developers who work with multiple programming tools.

Strengths: Its close location to the U.S. makes daily communication and teamwork much easier for companies, making it a great option for businesses in North America to outsource their technology services.

Annual salary: $32,112.48

• USA

Talent pool: The United States hosts one of the most advanced technology ecosystems, employing leading developers worldwide. This market has high talent acquisition costs compared to all other business locations.

Strengths: American developers are famous for their superior ability to use advanced technology skills, which helps them do their best work while handling complex tasks.

Annual salary: $90,626.04

What are the challenges of hiring remote app developers?

High costs associated with setting up an entity

Hiring application developers in a foreign country often requires establishing a legal entity, which can be a complex and expensive process. Each country has its own unique set of labor laws, tax regulations, and business rules that companies must navigate. For small and medium-sized businesses, the cost and time involved in setting up a legal entity can be prohibitive. Without proper legal expertise, businesses risk delays in hiring and potential non-compliance with local laws, leading to legal and financial complications.

Compliance complexities in hiring application developers

Businesses need to handle multiple tax rules, including payroll taxes and income tax deductions, plus they have to deal with potential double tax implications. Your employment contract needs to follow all laws in the area, so include exact work hour rules and clear job expectations plus a proper way to end employment. Without the right expertise, businesses may face non-compliance risks that could jeopardize their operations when attempting to hire app developers internationally.

Tracking the productivity of remote application developers

Monitoring the productivity of remote application developers poses significant challenges due to the absence of direct supervision. It is hard to measure developer performance when you do not have reliable tools to keep track of how well they complete their tasks. Keeping remote workers connected and doing their job well needs strong communication tools.

Global Squirrels: Hire top remote application developers easily with our platform

Global Squirrels is a staffing and payroll platform that helps you hire app developers who meet all your business needs while also managing all your employees effectively. Additionally, unlike other staffing agencies that charge 50% more on hiring costs, Global Squirrels helps you save up to 20%. This helps you ensure you are not going over budget on hiring costs.

• With our platform, you do not need to worry about setting up an entity when hiring app developers from other countries. This is because our platform acts as your legal entity in that country, and our platform will handle all the local and international labor and tax laws. This ensures you face no legal risks.
• Global Squirrels operates an advanced platform that helps companies follow local labor rules, tax regulations, and workplace standards easily. Our system uses automation to handle tax calculations and send reports, making the work easier and reducing errors. Our platform uses compliance analytics to spot potential risks and sends updated regulatory information to your business automatically. Our system helps prevent wrong employee classifications by confirming their work status and making sure we follow local rules. Global Squirrels helps companies handle payroll and manage benefits across borders while complying with all local and international labor and tax laws.
• Our platform simplifies tracking the productivity of remote application developers. Our timesheet feature meets regulations in different countries and lets you approve them. It matches your employee’s payroll schedule for simple monitoring and workflow control. You can use the platform’s tools to both give and follow tasks, showing what is going on in real-time.

Let us look at how our platform ensures that you hire app developers who meet all your business requirements.

Orange plan

The Orange plan helps you hire app developers who meet all your business requirements. This is done after you sign up and choose this plan. You will be redirected to a page where you will be asked to fill in details such as job title, job duties, budget, educational background, skills, and the countries you wish to hire from. Once you submit this request, you will receive curated profiles within 2 to 5 business days, from which you will be asked to choose candidates you wish to interview by looking at their resumes. Once the interview is completed, you will need to provide feedback and choose the candidates you wish to onboard. Once the onboarding process begins, our platform will handle all HR functions, including payroll setup, benefits administration, performance management, task & timesheet setup, and compliance with all local and international labor and tax laws.

Purple plan

The Purple plan is for you if you wish to onboard your current freelancer or an already-sourced candidate. Once the onboarding process begins, our platform will handle all HR functions mentioned above.

Are you ready to begin hiring app developers? Request a demo today!