Should You Hire Flutter Developer Freelancers, or an Outsourced Flutter Development team?
Tags: Flutter, Outsourcing, Hiring Tips, Software Development, Flutter App Development

Should You Hire Flutter Developer Freelancers, or an Outsourced Flutter Development team? Pangea.ai Sep 7·8 min read

by Ian Deed, Software Engineer | Pangea.ai

Google’s Flutter platform is making entirely new things possible in application development. Capable of targeting both mobile ecosystems, desktop, and web apps with a single codebase — the revolutionary new toolkit is having a major impact in the technology marketplace.

Cutting-edge tools, of course, also come with their fair share of problems. Finding developer talent with the skills and background to make the most of the Flutter platform is just one daunting business challenge. If you need help selecting the right company, tell us what you need. We can do the work for you and connect you with up to 5 companies within 72h that match your need- all for free.

The goals of the task should be to bring Flutter development talent into your firm in a way that is efficient with costs, resources, and time. Something achievable with only a little knowledge and experience.

Two commonly used options for the task include hiring freelance Flutter developers or bringing on board an outsourced Flutter development team. Each has advantages and drawbacks that can potentially make a better or worse fit to your firm’s unique identity.

Whether you value a low cost, a highly flexible approach, or strict adherence to process and deadline, there are several ways to instantly add Flutter development as a tool to your toolbox.

Here, we analyse which choice might work best for you. Aiming to find a best-fit solution, we take a look at the decisions to make and requirements to analyse to bring Flutter developers on board at your firm.

Why Flutter

With their latest update to Flutter, Google has announced their intent for the platform to play a major role in the future of user applications. In March this year, early support was introduced for desktop and web applications alongside the platform’s traditional base of cross-platform mobile apps. For tech analysts, this was a sign that Flutter will continue to have a strong market presence for the foreseeable future.

Now capable of targeting Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and the web from one single codebase, Flutter development is certain to be a key asset to have in the future.

Creating apps in Flutter is a great way to reach more users across multiple application platforms. Building a consistent app interface while shifting from one platform to the next, users are provided with more brand exposure and an increased sense of trust in the software underneath. Choosing Flutter for your company ensures a strong app presence wherever it’s needed as platforms and operating systems rise and fall.

Responsibilities of a Flutter App Developer

Whether you’re currently leaning towards taking on a freelance Flutter developer or reaching out to an outsourced development team, it’s important to consider the precise role in your firm you’re looking to fill. To help you through this process we’ve prepared a comprehensive guide to hire flutter development teams.

A developer’s responsibilities are likely to vary slightly from one company to the next, but the core responsibilities of a Flutter App Developer should include:

Designing and developing a functional Flutter application. The primary responsibility of a Flutter software engineer. A freelance developer or outsourced team should have extensive experience in design and development in both Flutter and, ideally, native application development too.

The primary responsibility of a Flutter software engineer. A freelance developer or outsourced team should have extensive experience in design and development in both Flutter and, ideally, native application development too. Creating clean and maintainable code. Code that’s easy to maintain, extend, and debug is worth many times more than code that ‘just works somehow’. Clean code saves many hours of future engineering effort and prolongs an application’s lifespan.

Code that’s easy to maintain, extend, and debug is worth many times more than code that ‘just works somehow’. Clean code saves many hours of future engineering effort and prolongs an application’s lifespan. Participating in all stages of the development life-cycle. From initial design through to post-mortem — application engineers in any role should have valuable insight and input to improve the app and head off early issues.

From initial design through to post-mortem — application engineers in any role should have valuable insight and input to improve the app and head off early issues. Finding and fixing bugs and errors. Whether coming in from early development, QA, user testing, or reports from the deployed app — application developers need a strong set of problem-solving skills for tracking down and eliminating subtle bugs and errors.

Choosing a Flutter Developer Freelancer

A Flutter developer freelancer is someone who often specialises in producing Flutter applications for a wide variety of businesses. With a background in related technologies, Flutter freelancers have a passion and in-depth knowledge for the technologies they use, which can scarcely be replicated anywhere else.

Advantage of a Flutter Freelancer

Organisations often choose to hire freelance talent because they are available to dedicate 100% of their working time and resources into a single project for its duration. Freelancers often have the opportunity to come into the firm as a full-time employee would and stay to see out the duration of the project.

For companies, the flexibility of freelance developers enables them to bring in high-quality, specialised talent at very short notice.

In recent years, the industry as a whole has shifted to incorporate far more freelance work. To assist with this transition, several freelance platforms have arisen with software development in mind. These platforms have created an environment that makes finding, vetting, and hiring specialist Flutter developers a comparatively easy task.

It’s now easier than ever to bring in specialised talent to work on a single project, task, or assignment.

As a way to create Flutter applications cost-efficiently, without investing in a full-time Flutter engineering team, freelance Flutter developers offer a chance to try out the platform with as little as a single small project.

Drawbacks of a Flutter Freelancer

Just as freelance platforms have risen to encourage companies to take on freelance talent on an as-need basis, they have similarly encouraged large numbers of freelance developers to enter the market. With so many developers available, it can be difficult to find the ideal fit for the role you need to fill.

The addition of so many new developers on the market can lead to further difficulties too. The quality of work produced by freelancers can be highly variable. Clean, maintainable code and strong design experience aren’t easy qualities to develop.

Even using previously completed projects to assess developer skills, you don’t always know the details, resources, or various contributions that went into their construction. Addressing these issues takes additional time and careful evaluation before ‘breaking ground’ on a brand new app.

On the other hand, when you find a high-quality freelancer you can trust, it can be very useful to have a name to call on for future development.

Effective communication is another common concern when hiring a freelancer developer. Both communication between the developer and company and internal communication within the project team can raise significant further challenges. When time-zones, working environment, and expectations are wildly different between team members, these challenges are only ever going to escalate further.

Mitigation strategies to solve some of the drawbacks of hiring a freelance application developer should include looking for verified reviews, testimonials, and previous examples of work to gain early insights into previously produced applications.

Choosing an Outsourced Flutter Development Team

An outsourced development team shares some superficial similarities to a freelance developer. Both add expertise and resources to your organisation at relatively short notice. Both offer specialised development skills to add to your organisation.

An outsourced team, however, typically comes as a more complete package than an application freelancer. The similarities are akin to adding an additional employee to the firm versus adding a new department of developers. It can be a hard decision to make when looking at development companies. If you need help selecting the right company, tell us what you need. We can do the work for you and connect you with up to 5 companies within 72h that match your need- all for free.

Advantages of an Outsourced Flutter Development Team

Outsourced development provides added value to an organisation by almost instantly expanding the pool of developers working on your project. Teams often include more expertise and experience than individual engineers. By design, an outsourced team requires less management, supervision, and feedback to progress through a project than either skilled freelancers or in-house developers.

Expert teams can bring vast experience earned over many individual projects to implement cost and time savings in developing your application. Despite Flutter being a relatively young technology, outsourced teams can have decades of combined experience to solve the challenges which application engineering may present.

The knowledge, reliability, and experience of an outsourced team makes buying a custom application as close to buying an off-the-shelf component as application development gets. Delays in project implementation or delivery are that much rarer when an entire team of Flutter professionals is brought in to solve issues.

Drawbacks of an Outsourced Flutter Development Team

Organisations are often concerned with losing direction or control when outsourcing projects to external development teams. Because outsourcing companies can often take an application from a rough sketch or brief outline to production and deployment; it’s often feared that project managers and staff will have few opportunities for further input in the process.

The solution for these fears is strong and consistent communication. Yet, this is another area in which outsourcing can be a challenge. Introducing time-zone barriers, conflicting schedules, and multiple team members can throw up additional barriers between client businesses and outsourcing firms.

Maintaining a constant link with an outsourced team will always be inherently more difficult than having staff in-house or bringing in an individual freelancer to work internally.

An effective mitigation strategy to address these concerns should involve regularly scheduled meetings, app demonstrations whenever progress allows, and check-ins to ensure internal and external teams remain on the same page.

Effective Strategies to Maximise Working Potential

Whether you’re leaning towards an outsourced model of development or considering bringing in a specialised freelance engineer, there are some things you can do internally to maximise the value of your relationship.

Push for Agile development. The iterative nature of Agile makes it ideally suited to both freelance developers and outsourced teams. Natural breaks in development, such as Scrum sprints, provide ample opportunity to keep on top of communication and keep tabs on progress.

The iterative nature of Agile makes it ideally suited to both freelance developers and outsourced teams. Natural breaks in development, such as Scrum sprints, provide ample opportunity to keep on top of communication and keep tabs on progress. Remove extraneous features and functionality from the core app. Developing towards a minimum viable product before adding on things that are nice to have can help to focus a project and keep the final product as close to your initial vision as possible

Developing towards a minimum viable product before adding on things that are nice to have can help to focus a project and keep the final product as close to your initial vision as possible Create clear and concise specifications and requirements. This one may require some input from developers themselves, but creating clear and verifiable things the application must do and the goals it should meet is a great way to ensure everyone on the project shares an aligned vision

Both choices, between Flutter Development freelancers and an outsourced Flutter team, will move you towards your goal of producing a production-ready Flutter app with your firm in mind. To help you move towards that goal more efficiently once you’ve established your team, we’ve prepared an article on the do’s and don’ts of managing an outsourced Flutter development team.

The shape of your business and the shape you want it to take in the future is the single most important factor to consider when choosing the path which will take you to the next stage in Flutter application development.