The best sites to hire an Android developer

There’s a whole lot of places to hire Android developers online today. Quick Google search for Android developers should bring up a couple firms (both local and international), all claiming to your best shot to getting a solid Android app.

There’s a reason you’re here, and I’m assuming it’s to find out which Android developer hiring site is legit among the many that pop every time you perform a search.

I’ve been hiring software devs for a while now, so I know where the good guys hang out. In this review, I outline the best places to hire quality Android developers without any hassle.

But first, what makes a great place to hire an Android developer

The ideal site to hire an Android developer should check three boxes;

• It should have a selection of great Android devs – the type desperate startups looking to bootstrap their ‘wonder app’ call ‘rockstars.’
• The hiring process should be easy and frictionless – StackOverflow hosts what’s perhaps the best selection of Android developers anywhere online, but hiring one will sometimes mean going through a convoluted hiring process.
• The cost of hiring should be reasonable – note that I didn’t say cheap; like it or not, great Android developers charge a pretty penny. So don’t set out looking for a Rockstar with the budget of a local guitarist.

Several sites for hiring meet these requirements, so let’s go through them.

The best sites for finding Android developers

Great Android development sites meeting the requirements I just outlined can be grouped into two;

• Freelance sites
• Dedicated Android dev agencies

Both freelance and Android dev agencies allow you to hire an Android developer with relative ease; however, there are subtle differences in how each operates. For the sum of it, with freelance sites, you get an almost limitless ensemble of Android dev talent. Whatever your needs are, however niche they may seem, most freelance sites will host an Android dev that’s an almost perfect fit. Freelance sites are overall cheaper too.

Dedicated Android development agencies have a tailored, usually more refined batch of Android development talent. So the hiring pool is smaller, but the expertise and skill associated with the best Android dev agencies mean you get predictably stellar results every time asking. Dedicated Android dev agencies will, however, cost more!

Which is the best? Answer depends on your needs. Stick with freelancers if you need the everyday routine app; agencies for when your goal is a multi-tiered, robust and fully floated Android app (platform).

See my piece comparing all methods available for hiring an Android developer for more information on this;

Top freelance sites for hiring an Android developer

Upwork

Upwork is freelancer haven! With millions of freelancers from all over the globe offering various services, it is arguably the biggest freelance site on the web right now. This footprint is well represented in the number of skilled Android developers the platform currently hosts

I know I said agencies are the place you go for top-tier, extremely skilled talent, but over the years, Upwork has managed to attract and retain some of the best Android developers available anywhere. It also helps that some reputable Android development agencies also set up auxiliary shops on Upwork.

A simple job post on the platform or search for an Android dev should land you at the doorsteps of great Android dev talent. But, if you want some handholding, read up my guide on hiring freelancers on Upwork.

What makes Upwork great for hiring Android devs

• Agency level Android developers in terms of skill, professionalism and output
• An expansive array of Android dev talent to work with
• Escrowed payments, dispute mediation and excellent customer service
• Management and monitoring tools – Upwork has an embedded work tracker for tracking the number of productive hours your hires put in the job
• Flexible payment structure – pay either hourly or as a fixed sum

The drawbacks

• There is a learning curve to the whole posting a job and screening candidates hiring structure of Upwork. Again, see my guide on how to hire a freelancer on Upwork for information on how to sort this out.
• Upwork takes a 20% cut from all payments made on the platform. Most freelancers just mark up their prices to cover this commission.

Fiverr

If Upwork is the biggest freelancer platform online today, Fiverr is its close runner up. Launched in 2010, Fiverr started out as a place to get things done at a dirt-cheap price. Today, a lot has changed, and now the platform, like Upwork, has its own professional crop of Android developers. They call it Fiverr Pro, and each Android developer you see on the platform with a Pro badge passed a very stringent set of requirements and tests to earn that badge.

That’s a roundabout way of saying you can also get top Android development talent from Fiverr. Unlike Upwork, where the emphasis is on posting jobs and screening candidates, Fiverr is more of an eCommerce site for Android developers – search for Android developers, and you get a tiered list of what’s assumed to be the best selection of Android devs currently available.

See my guide to hiring an Android developer on Fiverr for some recommendations on top-rated Android developers.

What makes Fiverr great for hiring Android devs

• Easy, straightforward and hassle-free hiring process. You can get in and out of Fiverr in under 10 mins with a skilled Android developer working on your project.
• Fiverr Pro offers vetted services from vetted freelancers
• Competitive pricing, certainly better than Upwork, although with an ever so slight drop in the quality of talent available. If you’re developing a routine app, you’ll be fine with Fiverr developers
• Buyer friendly comprehensive buyer protection. Get back your money’s worth for botched Android dev projects that do not meet your requirements or contract specifications.

The drawbacks

• Fiverr is awash with amateur talent pretending to be the hottest thing on the Android development block. More often than not, people get drawn to their services for their dirt-cheap pricing – you need to steer clear. I outline how to avoid the ‘cheap trap’ in my Fiverr freelancer hiring guide
• Like Upwork, Fiverr takes a 20% cut on payments as commission

Lemon.io

The whole schtick of Lemon.io is that they provide a thoroughly managed Android developer hiring experience. It’s a developer freelance platform that operates much like an agency. You don’t source for Android developers yourself, you don’t screen developers, and you don’t supervise the project yourself. All you need do is provide your requirements, and Lemon.io handles the rest.

This arrangement works really well for some people. Imagine you’re the owner of a fashion design business. You don’t know how your website manages to stay online (that’s the business of the tech guy), let alone know what it takes to list an Android app on Google Play. Lemon.io provides a bespoke android app development service that handholds you through the process.

What makes Lemon.io great for hiring Android devs

• Fully managed service without the need for screening applicants, managing development and ensuring product fit.
• Thoroughly vetted developers – Professional job deliveries and top-draw code base almost always.
• Smooth and effortless hiring process – submit your requirements, and virtually everything else is taken care of.
• Responsive customer service desk

The drawbacks

• Lemon.io is expensive compared to other routes of hiring options in the freelance segment.
• Though skilled, the talent base is narrow. If you’re looking for a specific Android development skill, you might not find it on Lemon.io

Toptal

Like Lemon.io, Toptal is a dev specific freelance hiring platform. The platform claims to have the most intensive screening process and requirements for would-be developers – they say only the top 3% of applicants ever get accepted as freelance devs.

That’s all fair and dandy, but for a freelance platform, Toptal Android developer rates are almost too expensive. Even more annoying is the hiring process, which is kind of opaque and convoluted for lack of better adjectives. Here’s what I mean;

To attempt to hire a developer, Toptal makes you fill out an almost 20 questions long questionnaire. That’s on your first visit to their homepage and before you see any of the talent available.

Depending on the answers you provide (and I’m guessing your country of residence), you either get told to take your business elsewhere (with a generic we have no dev available to fill your role response) or get accepted. Forget about screening a potential hire; Toptal screens you before you ever get to chance to screen an Android freelance developer. And per my attempts at getting past the screening wall, you need to have a pretty sizable Android development gig to be worthy of accessing the platform’s talent.

So why then have I included them on this list, you ask? Well, it’s simple, in truth, Toptal does house some of the finest Android dev talent available anywhere. If you have a ‘robust’ project that’s enough to be considered worthwhile by the platform and want skilled hands handling said project then Toptal makes sense.

What makes Toptal great for hiring Android devs

• Top-draw, Android dev agency level talent. If quality code is what you seek, very few platforms beat Toptal.
• Unparalleled level of professionalism above what you’d find on any other freelance platform for hiring Android developers
• Superb customer support desk
• Probation period for testing project fit with hired talent. Money-back guarantee within this period.

The drawbacks

• It’s hella expensive – the most expensive freelance option on this list
• You’re probably going to get ignored if your project is the typical, ‘small,’ run of the mill Android dev project

Youteam.io

For number five in this top-five list of the best freelance sites to hire an Android developer, I had to choose between Youteam.io and Gun.io. I eventually settled for the former for the following reasons;

• The ease of matching up with a developer – compared to Gun.io, Youteam operates an open and transparent dev hiring marketplace. There’s a bit of the Toptal style gatekeeping going on on the Gun.io homepage. With Youteam.io, you can snappily browse through a list of available talent to see what’s on offer.
• The developer pool is larger – Youteam floats a larger pool of Android devs, so there’s a better chance of finding a perfect match for your project.
• Managed – involved hybrid – While you can get involved in the hiring and supervision process, Youteam also offers a managed service similar that allows you to hands-off your project if you wanted to.

What makes Youteam great for hiring an Android dev

• The hybrid model is enticing, especially for hypochondriacs like me who like to be in the thick of it all even though we still don’t want the burden of micromanaging freelancers.
• Pricing for an Android developer is okayish – not exactly cheap but not neck breakingly expensive as you’d get with Toptal. Quality, however, almost matches what you’d get with Toptal devs.

The drawbacks

• Like Toptal, Youteam has a preference for full-scale projects. You might not find any luck trying to hire a dev on Youteam.io for a quick tweak to an already deployed app.
• It’s still expensive to hire a You team Android developer – it’s just cheaper compared to other premium options.

Top agencies for hiring an Android developer

Android development agencies are more than a hundred thousand in number. Although I did say they are the best if you wanted a managed service, reading through my list of the best freelance sites, you’d understand that some platforms have merged the goods of the agency dev model to the freelance structure.

That’s all a long way of saying Toptal, Youteam, or Lemon.io are good enough platforms for hiring Android dev sites to stand in for actual Android dev agencies.

For the purpose of making this complete and in case you’re still hellbent on hiring an agency, here are a few I’ve worked with that produced some really stellar results;

• Surf.dev
• Sidebench.com
• 10Pearls.com
• Itcraftapps.com
• Citrusbits.com

Conclusion

Whatever your needs are, I’m more than sure one of the platforms for hiring an Android developer I outlined above should cover them all. But to summarize;

• Full-breadth freelance sites like Upwork and Fiverr are where you go to if you have a regular app to develop – nothing serious, nothing in the realms of, say, the Call of Duty mobile game. It’s cheaper and more efficient to hire here for those kinds of needs.
• Toptal is where you go if you have the budget and a robust full-scale app you’d like to develop. It’s a little bit more complex to hire a Toptal dev or dev team, but the stress is worth the effort. Remember, you’ll be charged premium rates for any Android app you develop on Toptal.
• If you wanted a bit of the premium Android development experience at a slightly lower price point, but without the almost aristocratic treatment that comes with Toptal, Youteam and lemon.io are just what the doctor (read: senior dev) ordered.

Each hiring option has its positive peculiarities. Your final choice should come from how those peculiarities align with your needs. Personally, I’ve mostly worked with freelance Android devs on Upwork and Fiverr. But that’s because all my projects were simple to mid complex Android applications.

Someday, I’ll probably need to build something as robust as Spotify, and just maybe I might pass the Toptal ‘see if you’re worth any trouble’ test. Maybe I might just trust the guys I’ve been working with so far to handle It; maybe … we’ll see.

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