With almost a million apps on the Apple App Store already (as of early 2020) – and just as many, if not more, on the Google Play Store for Android devices – we are definitely living in the “Age of the Apps”.

There are apps to help us with our banking and finance needs, apps to help us with our productivity, apps to help us track our fitness and nutrition goals, and apps to kill time, listen to music, and stream media – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Basically, if you can think of something there’s probably an app for that.

And while the mobile app landscape is more competitive now than ever before the truth of the matter is the reason that there are so many apps is because people are so eager and excited to download new ones, to try them out, and to fall in love with new favorites.

If you have a mobile app idea and are looking for the best mobile app development companies to work with but aren’t quite sure of how to choose one over another you’ll want to check out all the inside information we highlight below.

Let’s dig right in!

Outline Your Project (And Goals) Before Doing Anything Else

Right out of the gate you are going to want to get as much information down on paper (or in a digital document) about the mobile app that you’d like to have created – well before you ever start to shop around for a mobile app development company to bring their project to life.

You’ll want to focus on what your new mobile app will be capable of, the features that it absolutely has to include, the capabilities that you are hoping it will have, and a general idea about the style and design of the application that you want to have created, too.

On top of that, you’ll want to think about things like your project timeline (when you’d like to have your app ready to go), the complexity or relative simplicity of your mobile app, and the budget that you are working with.

Sometimes new mobile apps can be “cannibalized” from existing options with modifications to the code and the design, helping you to hit the ground running really quickly. Other times, though, your app is going to be so unique and so complex that the project timeline is extended significantly. You’ll need to bring a budget to the table that’s a little bigger, too.

The more concrete you can get about your project and your expectations the better off you are going to be forward.

Freelancers or Agencies?

There are a lot of freelancers out there promising the moon and the stars when it comes to mobile app development capabilities.

Some of them are really expert app developers that can deliver on these promises, but a lot of them are just getting started, aren’t quite as experienced in the mobile app world, and may not have the resources or tools available to build your app as fast or well as you’d hope to.

Mobile app development companies, on the other hand, are almost always a little more expensive than freelancers but they do have the tools, the resources, and (almost always) the experience necessary to turn around your project in a hurry without cutting corners and without cutting the quality of the app itself.

Android, iOS, or Both?

There’s a lot of temptation to develop strictly for Apple mobile devices (iPhones and iPads) that run iOS, but it’s important to remember that Android is still the most popular mobile operating system on the planet – with millions more devices out there than Apple has in the hands of customers.

If you’re looking to build out a massive customer base it’s not a bad idea to develop for both of these operating systems, especially if you’re working with mobile app development company professionals that know how to manage this kind of project and can share resources between the two development cycles.

Always Look at the Apps They’ve Built for Others

At the end of the day, the only way to know for sure that you’re working with the right mobile app developers is by looking at the kind of apps they’ve built for customers just like you in the past.

Be sure that you ask for client testimonials, referrals, and a look at the portfolio of mobile apps that they have built already. This would give you a good idea about the quality, the capability, and the overall proficiency of the mobile app development professionals you are thinking about hiring – more than maybe anything else, really.