Key Takeaways
- You can hire app developers locally, remotely in the US, or offshore, with Latin America offering strong talent, time zone overlap, and 40–60% cost savings.
- The best app developers combine framework fluency, problem-solving skills, and cross-functional communication to build polished, scalable apps.
- A structured hiring process with defined goals, practical skill testing, and fast decision-making helps secure top developers before competitors do.
If it feels like everyone has an app idea these days, it’s because they probably do. But turning that idea into something users actually want to use and come back to takes serious technical skill and strategic thinking. Building it right means having the right developer on your team from day one.
Finding one, though, is a separate challenge. With rising salaries, shifting frameworks, and a crowded hiring market, you’re probably feeling like figuring out how to hire an app developer who can deliver real business value is harder than it sounds.
Whether you’re building an in-house team, hiring remotely in the US, or expanding your search offshore, the fundamentals stay the same. You need someone with the right skills, mindset, and communication style to build software that lasts.
This guide will walk you through what to look for, what you’ll pay, where to find top candidates, how to evaluate them, and mistakes to avoid.
What Do App Developers Do?
App developers turn business goals into functional, intuitive software that users can engage with from any device.
Skilled developers do much more than write code. They translate requirements into usable features, integrate with APIs, provide performance and security, and often assist with deployment. Their work shapes the user experience, whether on iOS, Android, or cross-platform tools.
There are different specializations within app development, each focused on a different layer of the product:
- Frontend developers handle the user interface and everything users interact with directly.
- Backend developers manage the data, logic, and infrastructure behind the scenes.
- Full-stack developers work across both layers, often building entire features end-to-end.
In addition to the technical layer (frontend vs. backend), developers also tend to specialize by platform. Some developers focus exclusively on building iOS apps using Swift or Objective-C, other developers work with Android in Kotlin or Java, and many use cross-platform frameworks like React Native or Flutter to build for both.
The type of app developer you need to hire depends on your user base, performance requirements, and long-term product goals.
An app developer regularly collaborates with designers, product managers, and QA teams to bring features to life. They don’t typically manage full system architecture or infrastructure unless hired specifically for full-stack or DevOps responsibilities.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire an App Developer?
Salaries for app developers vary based on experience, location, and whether you’re hiring full-time or contract.
In today’s market, businesses are feeling the pressure of rising compensation, especially in the US.
According to our benchmarks, typical US salary ranges for full-time developers are:
- Junior app developer: $75,000 – $123,200
- Mid-level app developer: $123,200 – $137,500
- Senior app developer: $137,500 – $150,700
However, expanding your search beyond the US can open access to highly qualified talent at significately lower salary levels.
For example, in our experience, developers in Latin America earn:
- Junior app developer: $30,000 – $48,000 (savings of up to 61%)
- Mid-level app developer: $48,000 – $60,000 (savings up to 61%)
- Senior app developer: $60,000 – $84,000 (savings of up to 56%)
These differences reflect local economic conditions, not differences in talent or professionalism. By hiring offshore, companies are able to bring on senior-level app developers for the same budget they’d spend on a junior-level US hire.
Hiring developers in Latin America, or other popular offshoring regions, gives businesses a practical way to scale while still working with experienced, reliable talent.

What Skills Should You Look for When Hiring App Developers?
Great app developers know how to build, debug, and scale software that supports real users and real business goals. They work across platforms and teams, adapt quickly to new tools, and write code that holds up under pressure.
App development is a broad field, so the specific skills to look for will depend on your product, your stack, and your long-term roadmap.
That said, there are clear signs that separate great candidates from the average ones.
Here’s how to break that down.
Hard skills (the must-haves)
The best app developers bring a deep understanding of the tools and systems required to build high-performing, scalable applications across different environments—mobile, web, and desktop.
Look for developers who are strong in the following:
- Framework fluency: Whether it’s React for web, Electron for desktop, or Flutter for cross-platform builds, developers should be comfortable with the frameworks your app relies on.
- API integration and backend communication: Your app doesn’t live in isolation. Developers need to be skilled at connecting with RESTful and GraphQL APIs, handling authentication, and managing data flow between frontend and backend systems.
- Cross-platform or native specialization: Depending on your stack, you might need developers who build once for multiple platforms or go deep into native performance tuning. Either way, candidates should be able to explain trade-offs between those approaches.
- Version control and CI/CD: Tools like Git, GitHub Actions, and Jenkins are now baseline requirements. Look for candidates who have contributed to team-based repositories and are familiar with automated testing and deployment pipelines.
- Performance and memory management: High-quality apps run fast and stay stable. Developers should understand how to keep things running smoothly on real-world devices, such as optimizing rendering time or minimizing memory leaks.
Soft skills (equally important)
Technical skill is just one part of the equation. Great app developers are also reliable collaborators who can work across disciplines and adapt to shifting priorities.
Look for signs of:
- Clear communication: Developers need to explain technical decisions to non-technical stakeholders and write documentation that others can follow. Strong candidates can explain what they built, why they built it, and how it performed.
- Proactive mindset: According to our recruiters, top-tier developers don’t wait to be told what to do. They identify issues early, suggest improvements, and ask smart questions about product goals.
- Problem-solving with structure: From debugging a crashing feature to making legacy code easier to maintain, developers should approach challenges with a clear, thoughtful process.
- Adaptability: Frameworks, libraries, and priorities change constantly. Great developers don’t panic—they learn fast and adjust their workflows accordingly.
Nice-to-have skills (the differentiators)
These aren’t deal-breakers, but they can tip the scale when choosing between two solid candidates. For complex products or fast-moving teams, these can make all the difference.
- Experience with analytics tools and SDKs: Developers who have worked with tools like Firebase, Mixpanel, or Segment can help your product team collect actionable user data right from the start.
- Testing frameworks: Familiarity with tools like Jest, Mocha, or Espresso shows that a developer takes quality seriously and understands how to build maintainable apps.
- UI/UX sensibility: Especially for frontend-heavy roles, developers who care about usability and design consistency will make your app feel more polished from the beginning.
- Security-first mindset: Developers who think about secure authentication, encryption, and data handling are especially valuable if your app deals with sensitive information.
- AI tool familiarity: GitHub’s 2024 Software Developer Survey found that 97% of developers now use AI-assisted coding tools. Developers who know how to integrate these tools into their workflow (without blindly relying on them) can often move faster while still writing clean, reliable code.
Where Can You Find and Hire Great App Developers?
Choosing the right hiring location for hiring app developers
The first step is deciding whether to hire someone in your local area, remotely within the US, or from international markets. Each option has trade-offs in cost, collaboration, and access to talent.
Local/in-office developers:
- Easier to integrate into in-person teams
- Real-time collaboration in meetings and product standups
- Simpler onboarding and HR compliance
- Typically the highest cost, due to US salary benchmarks and local demand
Remote US-based developers:
- Access to a broader talent pool without location constraints
- Familiar with US business practices, legal frameworks, and communication norms
- Still carry high compensation expectations
- Limited budget relief compared to international options
International/offshore developers:
- This opens the door to a much larger, more diverse talent pool, which is one reason many businesses choose to offshore their app development.
- Offers significant cost savings that often save 30–70% when compared with US salaries.
- Time zone differences vary by region, which may affect workflow.
Latin America offers a particularly balanced mix of affordability and collaboration.
In our experience, hiring talent in Latin America is growing in popularity because it’s the most practical option for US companies. The aligned time zones, strong English fluency, and a deep pool of engineering talent make it a more sensible choice over more distant regions like Southeast Asia.
Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina each have developer communities numbering well over a million and are growing more than 20% year over year.
That said, South and Southeast Asia (India, the Philippines, Vietnam) and Eastern Europe (Serbia, Poland, Romania) also offer exceptional developers. But the trade-off is that real-time collaboration is a challenge due to the large time difference.
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Choosing the right sourcing channel for hiring app developers
Once you’ve decided where to hire, the next step is choosing how to source candidates.
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Each approach has distinct advantages depending on your specific needs, timeline, and budget.
Combining multiple channels can yield good results. This can be through starting with referrals, posting on targeted job boards, and considering recruitment assistance if those methods don’t produce suitable candidates.
We’ll explore later how recruitment partners can add value, especially in international hiring scenarios. However, note that they’re just one of several valid strategies for finding the right developer.
How to Hire the Best App Developers: Best Practices
Hiring a great app developer is harder than ever. The best candidates aren’t browsing job boards. They’re already building, shipping, and fielding multiple offers. That’s why a clear, efficient hiring process matters more than ever.
Based on what we’ve seen work best, here’s how to approach each stage of the hiring process.
Stage 1: Define your needs before you start hiring
Prioritize what matters most
Too many companies write vague, overloaded job descriptions, hoping to attract a “perfect” developer. In reality, great hiring starts with knowing what kind of developer you actually need.
Is this role focused on new feature development, performance optimization, or platform expansion? Are you expecting them to own backend architecture or just collaborate with an existing team?
Defining the must-haves versus the nice-to-haves will help you filter for the right candidates and avoid wasting time on people who don’t match the work ahead.
Write a job description that reflects real needs
Generic job descriptions attract generic applicants. Focus your listing on the specific frameworks, platforms, and tools that actually matter in your environment.
For example, say you’re hiring for a cross-platform app written in React Native, you should mention that explicitly. If you’re working in a microservices environment or using serverless architecture, call that out too.
You can find more guidance in our software developer job description guide.
If you’re unclear on the stack—get help before hiring
Some companies may not be able to define what kind of app developer they actually need because their tech stack has evolved over time or was built by an external agency.
If that sounds familiar, consider working with an outsourcing partner first to audit your stack and outline what kind of developer will deliver the most impact. In cases like these, outsourcing to app development companies can provide interim support and avoid costly mis-hires until you have some certainty.
Stage 2: Evaluate for execution, not just experience
Use real-world tasks to test actual skills
A resume shows history and not ability. That’s why our recruiters recommend a short, role-specific challenge that mirrors your real development needs. It could be debugging a broken feature, refactoring a piece of legacy code, or building a small API.
Reviewing the solution together reveals how a candidate communicates and explains their logic, not just how they write code.
Look for ownership—not just output
Top developers think critically about their work. They also ask why they’re doing it and how it affects the product or end user. Ask candidates about a project where something went wrong and how they handled it. The best answers will include self-reflection, collaboration, and a clear explanation of their role.
According to our recruiters, a red flag is when candidates can’t clearly explain what they did on a project. In a worst-case scenario, they avoid talking about challenges altogether.
Dig into problem-solving and communication styles
Great developers don’t hide behind code. They’re able to explain architectural decisions, trade-offs, and technical constraints in a way that product managers and designers can understand.
During interviews, ask them to describe a technical decision they made, and then ask how they’d explain it to a non-technical teammate. According to one of our tech recruiters, “If they can’t do that, it could be a sign they don’t truly understand the reasoning behind their choices.”
Stage 3: Close the deal before someone else does
Move quickly and don’t ghost strong candidates
Top developers have options. If your interview process drags out or feels disorganized, they’ll move on.
From our experience, setting clear expectations upfront (and then sticking to them) is key. Share your hiring timeline, respond promptly after interviews, and be ready to make a decision when the right candidate appears.
Highlight the benefits developers actually care about
A competitive salary is important, but it’s rarely the only factor. Our recruiters consistently see that work-life balance, flexible hours, and room to grow are major drivers for top app developers.
In addition to these, forming a collaborative partnership with your developer is key. Many candidates are looking for long-term impact and ownership, not just project-based tasks.
Start onboarding before day one
Don’t wait until a developer’s first day to get organized. Set clear expectations during the offer stage about what their first two weeks will look like. Outline initial tasks, who they’ll work with, and what success looks like in the first 30 days. That clarity sets the tone and reduces early churn.
For an in-depth look at how to do this, check out our guide on making a good job offer to hire and retain top talent.
Top Interview Questions for Hiring Application Developers
Interviewing app developers isn’t just about checking for technical knowledge. You need to structure questions that allow you to understand how they think through problems, collaborate with others, and approach decisions that impact the quality and usability of your product.
Below are five open-ended questions that reveal how an app developer approaches tasks and which red flags to watch out for.
“Walk me through how you’d structure the release of a new feature that impacts both frontend and backend.”
This question tests a candidate’s ability to plan cross-functional development. It uncovers their understanding of release planning, backend integration, testing, and coordination with other teams.
Strong answer: A good developer will talk through planning the API changes, syncing with the design and frontend teams, writing tests, and choosing the right deployment strategy (e.g., feature flag, phased rollout). Bonus points if they mention rollback planning or QA staging environments.
Red flag: Vague answers that only address the code itself. If they don’t mention coordination with other developers, test coverage, or the release’s user impact, they may lack experience with real-world deployments.
“Tell me about a time when you inherited poorly documented or messy code. How did you handle it?”
This question highlights problem-solving, patience, and technical curiosity. It also shows whether a developer can improve code quality without blowing up timelines.
Strong answer: Top candidates will describe how they evaluated what the code was doing, added documentation or comments, wrote unit tests to lock down behavior, and refactored iteratively. They should show respect for legacy systems while finding practical ways to improve them.
Red flag: Blaming the previous developer or dismissing the code entirely. If they show no interest in understanding before rewriting, they may cause more problems than they solve.
“How do you decide whether to build a custom solution or use an existing library or service?”
This explores architectural decision-making, time awareness, and understanding of technical debt.
Strong answer: A thoughtful developer will weigh trade-offs: customization needs, long-term maintenance, documentation quality, licensing, and how critical the feature is to the business. Look for someone who understands both the temptation and the hidden costs of writing everything from scratch.
Red flag: Rigid thinking, such as always defaulting to external libraries or never trusting them. You want someone who evaluates, not someone who blindly commits.
“Describe a time you worked closely with non-engineering teammates to solve a product or user problem.”
App developers don’t work in a vacuum. This question assesses communication skills, empathy, and the ability to contribute beyond code.
Strong answer: Look for someone who collaborated with design, product, support, or marketing to understand a user issue or improve a feature. They should describe how technical decisions align with business or user goals.
Red flag: Answers that focus entirely on technical implementation with no mention of collaboration. If they don’t value non-technical input, they may struggle on cross-functional teams.
“If we gave you full ownership of our app for 48 hours, what’s the first thing you’d change or investigate—and why?”
This is a creative test of initiative, product thinking, and technical prioritization.
Strong answer: Candidates should show curiosity about the user experience, security, performance, or technical structure. Whether they focus on analytics gaps, API speed, UI inconsistencies, or test coverage, what matters is how they justify their priority.
Red flag: Overly technical answers that lack business context, or no answer at all. If they can’t identify a single thing to evaluate or improve, they may lack the initiative you’re looking for.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring App Developers
Even with a solid hiring process, it’s easy to make decisions that derail your search or lead to a mismatch.
Here are five common mistakes we’ve seen when companies hire app developers and what to do instead.
1. Over-prioritizing degrees over real experience
Some of the best developers in the market have never completed a traditional computer science degree.
In regions like Latin America, many developers start coding professionally while still in school or skip formal education altogether in favor of hands-on learning.
Dismissing candidates without a degree can mean missing out on experienced, product-minded developers who’ve already built and shipped real-world apps.
Instead: Focus on past projects, contribution history, and how well a candidate can explain their work and decision-making process.
2. Underestimating onboarding complexity
Hiring a great developer is challenging. But getting them productive quickly can be even more of a struggle. Many companies assume app developers can jump right in, but complex stacks, undocumented codebases, or vague roadmaps can stall progress fast.
Instead: Build a basic onboarding plan before making the hire. Include documentation, key contacts, and a clear 30-day success goal. This sets expectations and reduces early churn.
3. Prioritizing cost over quality
It’s tempting to focus on salary expectations or hourly rates when you’re trying to keep hiring costs down, especially when exploring talent outside the US. But when you make cost the deciding factor, you risk hiring someone who can write code but can’t deliver real business impact.
App development isn’t commodity work—it’s foundational to how your product functions and grows. If you cut corners on talent, you’ll likely spend more fixing things later through rework, technical debt, and missed deadlines.
A developer with a lower rate might seem like a bargain until you factor in the extra time needed for code reviews, bug fixes, or complete rewrites. Meanwhile, an experienced developer who charges more upfront often delivers cleaner, more maintainable code that scales with your business.
Instead: Focus on value, not just savings. Look for developers who understand your business goals, can explain trade-offs clearly, and deliver quality work that doesn’t require constant oversight. The goal should be finding skilled developers whose rates reflect their local market conditions, not a lack of capability.
4. Not defining your tech stack’s future direction
Many companies hire based on the tools they’re currently using without thinking about where the product is headed. If you’re planning to migrate from a legacy framework or rebuild part of your stack, you need developers who are familiar with the new tools, not just the old ones.
Instead: Align your hiring with where your stack is going, not where it is now. Include planned transitions in the job description and ask candidates how they’ve handled similar changes.
5. Skipping cultural and team fit assessments
It’s easy to focus only on technical skills when hiring app developers, especially under tight deadlines. But even a highly skilled engineer can slow a team down if they struggle with collaboration, feedback, or communication norms.
Instead: Make culture and team fit part of the interview process. Include scenario-based questions about working through disagreements, handling feedback, or aligning with product changes.
If your teams rely on async collaboration or distributed workflows, make sure the candidate is ready for that environment by asking thoughtful remote job interview questions.
Why Working With a Recruiting Partner Makes a Difference When Hiring App Developers
Hiring app developers on your own can work well, especially if you have an experienced team, clear requirements, and time to spare.
But it’s not always the best option, particularly when you’re hiring under pressure, exploring hiring offshore app developers, or looking for hard-to-find skills.
In these scenarios, working with a recruiting partner can make a real difference.
The right partner helps you avoid misaligned hires, accelerates the screening process, and navigates tricky issues like cross-border contracts and compliance.
This becomes especially valuable if you want to pursue offshoring your app development, as working with a recruiter makes the process of hiring from abroad as easy as hiring domestically.
While there is a cost involved, it often pays off in other ways, including:
- Time saved on sourcing and screening
- Lower risk of hiring the wrong person
- Faster onboarding and ramp-up
- Better offer acceptance rates
- Reduced total cost of hire—especially in offshore markets
A recruitment or staffing firm that specializes in offshore hiring can help you move faster and more confidently.
They understand how to assess both technical skills and remote-readiness, surface candidates who are genuinely aligned with your needs, and structure offers that make sense in the local market—so you’re not unintentionally underpaying or overpaying.
The real advantage isn’t just speed—it’s accessing the significant cost savings that come with offshore hiring without the typical trial-and-error period.
Instead of spending months learning these markets yourself, you can tap into proven talent pools immediately and start seeing the 30–70% salary savings that make offshore hiring so attractive.
Final Thoughts
Finding a great app developer means you will need to do more than just tick off some technical boxes.
You need a structured hiring process to find someone who understands your goals, works well with your team, and builds apps that actually deliver. Getting that right from the start saves a lot of time, money, and mistakes down the line.
If working with a recruitment partner seems like the right approach, consider a specialized firm that can make the hiring process seamless, efficient, and stress-free.
At Near, we connect companies with pre-vetted app developers from across Latin America. Our candidates offer strong English fluency, time zone compatibility, and real-world experience building mobile and web apps that work.
You’ll meet skilled developers ready to contribute from day one, without the usual hiring delays or guesswork.
Book a free consultation to get started. You can interview candidates for free and only pay once you make a hire.