Flutter has emerged as the most popular cross-platform framework in recent years because of its unique widget-based modular development approach, advanced features, and comprehensive toolset covering each and every aspect of development. Earlier it was React Native that ruled the cross-platform development space, and within a couple of years, it took over the reign from React Native and became the most loved framework.
Since you are here, you must have been convinced about the unique value propositions offered by the Flutter framework. Are you now looking for expert Flutter developers for your app project? Are you confused about where to begin your search? Let us provide a step-by-step guide to hire Flutter developers for your next app project.
Decide between in-house and outsourcing.
Do you want a stable developer team that will continue to build Flutter-based apps for many years to come? In that case, hiring a solid team of Flutter developers to build the app in-house is feasible. But if you are a business with zero or limited technical expertise and development experience, you should rather outsource the entire app project to a development company.
By outsourcing the developers, you can have exposure to the global pool of talents hav8ng varying degree of experience and skills. You can also compare the skills, portfolio, and hourly rate of development among a large pool of developers.
Go to the B2B review sites and tech company listings.
Still, Google search can be very effective in introducing you to many expert Flutter developers with solid project exposure and experience. You can just search by location-specific keywords for Flutter developers or development companies and easily find leading development services and their web addresses.
Another important strategy is to go to the B2B review websites for tech companies and find the most rated and reviewed mobile app development company. You can easily find the customer testimonials of the respective companies and their portfolio of completed Flutter projects there.
Start with a portfolio but go beyond it.
Finding a portfolio of app projects is not very difficult. You can go to the web address of any development company and find their representative portfolio. But taking the portfolio by face value can have some negative impacts. It is always advisable to download the app and check its user experience, performance, and shortcomings that could be addressed better.
After checking the portfolio, it is always advisable to talk to some of the clients they worked for. Since the Flutter development service will be working as a partner alongside you for the project, mere quality parameters of the app will not suffice to judge their working style and how well they are disposed to work with your company.
Even a skilled development team can have shortcomings in regard to communication and collaboration with the in-house team. There can also be shortcomings or a lack of commitment to long-term support and maintenance. This is why having an in-depth understanding of the satisfaction level of the clients is important.
A rigorous coding test and peer programming are musts.
When you have shortlisted the development companies for your app project, it is important to evaluate the developers through a rigorous coding test and judge their Flutter development skills. Start with a technical interview conducted by the core technical team headed by the CTO and try to understand their practical coding and development skills for Flutter projects.
At the very next step, it is advisable to check their practical development skills by providing a simple app project or module based upon Flutter. For remote hiring of Flutter developers, it is always advisable to conduct a peer programming session to judge how the developers really collaborate in the app project and take part in building the app in a collaborative environment.
Don’t undermine the soft skills.
If you think a great developer is only judged by his technical skills and expertise, you still need to learn a lot. The attitude, communication skills, motivation level, and career aspiration all these things are required to make a successful developer apart from the core technical skills and command over programming languages.
Choose the Flutter developers from an offshore destination within the same or suitable time zone to ensure frequent real-time collaboration and communication. Secondly, ensure that the Flutter developers are versed with the latest communication and collaboration tools used in most remote development projects. Ensure the developers are communicative in nature to stay tuned to the in-house team. When hiring a remote developer team, communication skill is a key thing to look for.
Lastly, you also need to check how motivated the developers are to give their best for an app project. Do they aspire to learn new things and experiment with out-of-the-box approaches to develop a concept further and execute it to shape a benchmark app product? Out-of-the-box thinking and motivation to excel with new experiments make an award-winning developer. You should not refrain from looking for your Flutter app project when outsourcing it.
Make sure to own the app code.
App code is subject to intellectual property regulations, and every country has one or multiple regulations corresponding to this. Since the app concept and the codebase rightfully belong to you, it is always important to agree on source-code ownership with the respective development company.
When signing the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), before sharing the app idea with the development company, make sure you mention this requirement. By ensuring ownership of the code and by protecting the app concept with NDA, you can completely protect your intellectual property right for the Flutter app.
Wrapping Up
The last but not the least piece of advice will be to give the least priority to the development rate. Only when the quality is guaranteed and you have shortlisted several development companies with credible track records and abilities, the development rate can appear as a consideration for making a choice.