How to hire an iPhone app developer: freelancer, agency, in-house, or build it yourself with AI

A freelancer. One person, paid by the hour or per milestone. This has been the usual route for individuals and small founders. The result depends on that one person: their skill, their availability and whether they are still around when the app needs an update.

An agency. A team with a project manager, designers, developers and testers. Companies whose main business is not software, such as a venue, a chain of shops or a service company, have usually gone this way: they want the app delivered and updated, not managed.

An in-house developer. An employee who works on the app every week. This fits when the app is the product and the company can keep a mobile developer busy all year.

Building it yourself with an AI agent. You write the requirements, an AI agent writes the code, and you review, test and publish. You act as your own agency: you make the product decisions, and the agent does the implementation.

Marketplaces publish ranges for their own platforms. Upwork, read 13 October 2026: “Hiring an iOS developer generally costs $16-$35 per hour on Upwork, depending on project scope and developer experience”, and “many engagements are scoped and priced as fixed project packages.” For mobile developers in general: “On Upwork, hiring a mobile app developer generally costs $18-$39 per hour.”

The hourly rate tells you little about the total. Two freelancers at the same rate can take very different numbers of hours for the same app. Compare fixed-price quotes for the same written scope instead.

Hiring in Europe. We found no first-party marketplace figures for European iOS or Android rates. Ask three freelancers for a fixed price per milestone against the same spec, and compare the quotes line by line. How much does it cost to create a mobile app covers the total budget, including the store fees and the backend.

Both platforms. A native iPhone app is written in Swift, a native Android app in Kotlin. Hiring for both means two specialists, one developer who writes both, or a cross-platform framework such as React Native or Flutter. Ask every candidate which of these they propose before you compare prices.

Most of an app’s life comes after the first release: Apple and Google change their requirements, users report bugs, and new features follow. Agree what happens then before the work starts.

Ask for a support period in the contract. For example: bug fixes in the delivered scope are free for three months after release.

Ask for a handover. At the end of each milestone, the code is in your repository, it builds on another machine, and there is a short document that says how to build, test and release it. If the freelancer is unavailable later, another developer can continue.

Keep the spec. A written spec for each feature lets the next developer, or an AI agent, change the app without guessing what it was supposed to do. Custom mobile app development lists seven contract questions to ask an agency; most of them apply to a freelancer too.

You should, whoever builds the app. Then give the developer a role in your accounts.

Apple. The person who enrols in the Apple Developer Program becomes the Account Holder, who “is responsible for entering into legal agreements with Apple” and “is the only user that can sign legal agreements, renew membership”. Enrol yourself (99 USD per membership year) and add the developer in App Store Connect as Developer (“Manages development and delivery of an app.”) or App Manager (“Manages all aspects of an app, such as pricing, App Store information, and app development and delivery.”). Keep Admin for people you trust with the whole account.

If you enrol as a company, Apple needs a D-U-N-S Number: Apple says to “allow up to 5 business days to receive your number from D&B” and then “up to 2 business days for Apple” to receive it. Individuals do not need one. How to set up an Apple Developer account covers the steps.

If the app is already in the developer’s account. Apple can transfer it: the developer’s Account Holder starts the transfer and yours accepts. Apple’s criteria include “The app must have at least one version that was released to the App Store.” Before release, the simpler route is to create the app again in your own account.

Google Play. Google has “three different access levels in Play Console: account owner, admins, and users.” Register the account yourself (Google charges a “US$25 one-time registration fee”) and invite the developer as a user with permissions for the one app: “App permissions only apply to the selected app.” Google also transfers apps between accounts; its support team “reviews and replies to transfer requests within 2 business days.”

Code. Create the repository in your own GitHub account or organisation and add the developer as a collaborator. How to add collaborators on GitHub shows which role to give each person.

Install their apps. Ask for App Store links, not screenshots. Use the apps on your own phone: check speed, text size, dark mode and what happens with no internet connection.

Pay for a small test task. One screen from your app, for a fixed price, delivered to your repository. You see how they communicate, how they estimate and what the code looks like.

Ask how they would build it. Native Swift, or a cross-platform framework? Which backend? How will you test builds before release? A good answer names the tools and explains why.

Get a second opinion on the code. If you do not read code yourself, pay another developer for an hour to review the test task, or ask an AI agent to explain the structure of the repository to you.

An AI agent writes code from your instructions, but the decisions stay with you. You write the requirements and a spec for each feature, approve the plan before code is written, test every build on your phone, and publish from your own accounts. That is the work an agency’s project manager and tester do.

Modaal is built for this route. You describe the app, Modaal turns it into a requirements document and a spec per feature, and your own AI agent (Claude, Codex, Cursor or one of the other supported agents) builds a native SwiftUI app and a native Jetpack Compose app from the same project. There are no credits: the AI runs on the subscription you already have. The Free plan covers one project on one platform; Pro is €9 per user per month billed annually and adds both platforms, TestFlight and automated App Store publishing, and Git collaboration. Collaborators join free on one project, so you can also invite a freelancer to review the code or take over a feature.