12 Best Freelance App Developers

When it comes to hiring an app developer or freelance app developer, where do you start? We're here help you find the perfect developer to meet your project's needs.

The average American spends at least three hours a day on their mobile device—no wonder why mobile application development and design is now a necessity in establishing your brand's voice and ensuring a wider audience.

So, when it comes to hiring an app developer or freelance app developer, where do you even start? How do you find a great iOS developer or Android app developer? We understand finding the perfect app engineer to match your exact vision can be overwhelming, which is why we're to help you find the perfect developer to meet your project's precise needs.

First, ask yourself, do you want your platform to run on both IOS and Android? Android app development and iOS development are quite different. What media or utility features did you have in mind? Are you interested in full-time or freelance help? Hiring experienced app developers on a freelance basis can come with its benefits and drawbacks. On the one hand, you'll be able to decrease the expense of hiring a full-time developer drastically. This might mean reducing the cost to provide benefits, healthcare, vacation time, etc.

However, the challenge of hiring freelancers comes in the screening and vetting process. It can be severely challenging to assess the skill level and professional merits of online applicants, which is why sites such as Toptal or Gun.io, offer custom matching and extensive customer support, including satisfaction guarantees.

Toptal, for instance, has a freelancer pool consisting of tripled vetted industry vets and accepts only the top 3 percent of applicants. Other sites like Gun.i.o also host name-brand recognition and have been utilized by companies including NBC, Cisco, and Tesla. Discover more advantages to these companies and discover our list of the 15 Best Freelance App Developers below.

15 Best Freelance App Developers

1 Toptal

Toptal connects clients who have piled-up too much work on their plates with the perfect app development freelancer. Their staff employs an extensive screening process which is to be completed and passed to gain access to their list of exceptional clients who need assistance with substantive projects. Toptal also only accepts the top 3 percent of applicants who are tested and interviewed, making their pool of talent highly valuable. We firmly recommend using Toptal because of their stringent requirements for selecting freelance talent.

  • Top 3% of freelancers
  • Name-brand recognition
  • Custom/UX friendly designs
  • High-quality freelance app developers with years of experience

2 Hired

Hired believes we are entering a new era of work. One where people are not looking for jobs — they are seeking opportunities. Focusing on in-demand technology roles, they intelligently match outstanding people to full-time and freelance opportunities at the world's most innovative companies. Hired is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in cities across North America and Europe. Join them in their mission to help everyone find a freelancer they’ll love.

  • Trending technology freelancers
  • Full-time and part-time freelance app developers
  • Efficient matching process
  • Large selection of software developers familiar with several programming languages

3 Gun.io

Are you looking to scale up your engineering team or launch a new project with the help of a technical app expert? Get in touch with Gun.io today. They help you hire elite freelance app developers at a moment's notice, and are even trusted by teams committed to excellence in software engineering like Tesla, CISCO, and NBC. Their founders are active open source developers and have designed their vetting practices with CTOs in mind., and their community of professional app development freelancers is comprised of triple-vetted industry elites with hacker DNA.

  • Triple vetted software developers
  • Name-brand recognition
  • Full development teams or single freelancers

4 Fiverr Pro

Fiverr assists clients in finding the perfect app freelancer and creating unique portfolios based on their specific skill sets. Most companies post positions that every freelancer can apply for online. Practical, but still, this way allows freelancers to market their services to companies and can put their varying experience into categories by using keywords that show up in different searches. Fiverr’s approach ensures you get the real deal every time. Their name originates from the idea that the freelancers will start their prices at five dollars per project. (This is never a requirement, just the starting point for their prices.)

  • Skill-specific freelancers

  • Reasonable hourly rates

  • Easy-to-use portal

5 X-team

X-Team is an international company founded in Melbourne, Australia. They specialize in helping companies scale their development teams by providing them with a motivated staff of developers from around the world. They are 100% remote and believe in building a world where developers can have access to an environment of growth and incredible opportunities regardless of where they live. They proactively support their team of developers by funding their learning and growth, connecting them in roaming hacker houses around the world, and giving them a remote environment that motivates and inspires them daily.

  • International freelancers
  • Easy-to-navigate platform
  • Remote freelance app developers
  • Experienced in multiple programming languages for software development

6 Upwork

Upwork possesses over 1.5 million clients and hosts almost every type of freelancer imaginable. Through Upwork’s matching technology and services, companies have access to a global pool of proven professionals so they can scale their teams dynamically to meet business needs. The best part? Because of their vast pool of talent and work, anyone can find an app development freelancer through this platform. Work can also be done as hourly or per project.

  • 1.5 million clients and hosts

  • Substantive projects

  • Easy client interface

8 Fusionbox

Fusionbox is a U.S. software development company based in Denver, Colorado. Their team specializes in custom web portals, Python/Django projects, UI/UX, and consulting. They specialize in maintaining a clean database of code, and also provide support with database design, complex data modeling, and ETL data migration. 

  • Python & Django experts

  • Offers staff augmentation and developer training

  • Security services for clients in healthcare, financial, and public sectors

9 CLICKimize

With passion, hard work, and a lot of dedication, CLICKiMize will design and develop your digital products to perfection. They’ll identify technologies you’ll need to accomplish your business goals, and with their strategic approach, they’ll discover your business goals and requirements to help you create your application. They focus on UX, responsive design, flexibility, and usability. They create amazing and engaging designs that’ll make your product remarkable. They’ll publish and deploy your digital products using cloud technology to provide scalability as your business grows.

  • Strategic approach/designs

  • Responsive designs

  • Reliable cloud-based technology

10 WadyBug

As one of the pioneers in the field of mobile app development in the Los Angeles area, WadyBug has a dynamic and skilled team of designers and developers who can integrate and implement business-friendly apps. Their team provides high-end solutions for mobile apps and sets a benchmark every time with the quality of apps designed by them. Each of the apps that they develop is customized, suiting the business needs of their clients. Use the developers at WadyBug because they are highly skilled in multiple programming languages and various technologies such as Android, iOS, Windows, Unity, Corona, and PhoneGap.

  • Name-brand recognition

  • Business-friendly apps

  • Customized solutions for every client

11 Staple Creative

Staple Creative is a small Web Design Company from Buffalo, NY. Their mission? They strive to create an accessible web design and experience. Why? They believe viewing a portal on your PC, Tablet, or Handheld is an entirely different experience, and so is making each portal compatible with each device. They make sure all of their client's needs are given both aesthetically pleasing and usable websites. They believe in today's world, your customer or users' first impression is most often your website before your business, which is why they focus on making every first impression a memorable one.

  • Extensive/successful portfolio

  • High-end solutions

  • Detailed vetting process

12 Elemental Consulting

At Elemental, they provide a 3rd person perspective that focuses on product monetization, revenue enhancement, productivity optimization, and streamlining processes. Elemental, at its core, is powered by a group of enthusiastic professionals. Their team has an average work experience of 15 years and strong individual professional credentials with well-known industry brands and start-ups across verticals in IT and ITES, telecom, e-commerce, hospitality, and retail. Their niche clientele includes SMBs and large organizations.

  • Dependable assistance

  • Strategic/customized portals

  • Cross-platform apps

13 Development Molecule

Development Molecule is an IT solutions and services company, along with a focus on digital technologies. With delivering customers with projects across countries, DM uses the power of mobile, web, analytics, cloud, and digital technologies and unlocking the potential of businesses across verticals. Transparency with work and clarity in operations are always equally transparent at Development Molecule.

  • A global network of freelancers

  • Reasonable rates

  • Reliable/last-minute freelancers

We suggest using sites such as Toptal because they can provide the top 3 percent of freelancers from around the world and the United States. Meanwhile, other extremely reputable sites for fast mobile app freelancing help include Hired and Upwork, who also host name-brand recognition.

If you are searching for an entire development team, then we would recommend using services such as Gun.i.o, and if you are exclusively looking for remote help, then we would suggest using X-Team’s services.

Before you hire a freelance app developer or contract out an Android app developer or iOS app developer, you should consider the following:

  • When you need an app developer
  • How many app developers you will need and how they will fit with the other development team members
  • How familiar they are with the most popular programming languages for mobile app development, such as React Native, Swift, PHP, Java, and Objective-C)
  • Are you willing to hire remote talent
  • Whether or not you’re willing to hire freelance app developers
  • Your available budget for app developers
  • The operating systems you need to be developed (such as Android, iOS, hybrid, or cross-platform apps)

Have personal tips for hiring the perfect freelance app developer? Please share them with us!

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Toptal
  • Hired
  • Gun.io
  • Fiverr Pro
  • Alvin
To hire a freelance app developer, here is our full list of recommended sites.
Freelance hourly rates for mobile apps depend on several factors:
  • Skill level of your developer or designer
  • Front-end development on the interface and back-end development for functionality
  • Hourly, part-time, or full-time work for the developers
  • The hiring platforms and freelancer websites used when hiring a developer
  • Project management on the development team
Also, remember that the lowest cost estimate is not necessarily the best, and you need to also consider quality.