If you’ve ever searched “hire a web developer” or “mobile app developer near me,” you already know the truth: the internet will happily give you too many options and not nearly enough clarity!
Freelancers. Agencies. Offshore teams. Off-the-shelf products. Your cousin’s roommate who “knows React.”
And then there’s the big question everyone asks right after:
“What’s a fair rate?”
Let’s simplify all of it.
First, Let’s Talk About Your Options
There are four main paths most companies take when hiring development talent. Each one has a place. Each one has trade-offs.
Freelance Developers
Where to find them: Upwork, Fiverr, LinkedIn, referrals
Typical Rate: $40 – $150/hour
Pros:
- Flexible
- Quick onboarding and offboarding
- Lower upfront cost
- Great for small projects or enhancements
Cons:
- Single point of failure. One person, one codebase, one code reviewer.
- Limited bandwidth. Often they are juggling multiple projects at once.
- Often more tactical than strategic. May not understand how to deploy your solution at scale.
- Questionable experience. Reviews help, but often it is hard to know how good a developer is until it is too late.
Don’t get me wrong, freelancers can be great, and they are the right choice for many small projects. But too often I’ve seen them disappear mid-project, get overbooked, or hit a technical ceiling or scaling issue that leaves the client hanging.
Offshore or Nearshore Development Teams
Where to find them: Eastern Europe, India, Latin America
Typical Rate: $25 – $75/hour
Pros:
- Lower hourly rates
- Large teams
- Can move fast with the right management
Cons:
- Time zone challenges. Working while you sleep sounds great, but 4am sprint reviews are a nightmare.
- Communication gaps. Chat tools help, but nothing beats face-to-face communication.
- Lack of project management resources. They can build, but project organization can lack.
- Quality varies wildly.
- You usually still need strong technical leadership on your side to guide the project.
Offshore teams can work well if you already have a seasoned tech lead managing architecture, scope, and quality. Without that, things can unravel fast.
In-House Developers
Typical Cost: $120K – $200K+ per year per developer (before benefits)
Pros:
- Deep company knowledge
- Long-term continuity
- Total control
Cons:
- Slow to hire
- Very expensive long-term
- Hard to scale up and down
- One skill set doesn’t fit every phase of a product
In-house teams make sense at scale. For many growing companies, they’re a future-state move, not a starting point.
Experienced Development Agencies (This Is Where We Live)
Typical Rate: $150 – $250+/hour
Typical Engagement: $50K – $500K+
Pros:
- Proven systems and processes
- Architecture + execution
- Security, scalability, performance built in
- Strategic guidance, not just code
- Teams that already know how to ship
Cons:
- Higher upfront cost
- Not the right fit for small, one-off jobs
You’re not just paying for code. You’re paying for:
- Experience
- Fewer mistakes
- Faster time to market
- And not having to learn everything the hard way
So… What Is a “Good” Rate?
Here’s the honest answer:
A good rate is the one that gets your product built correctly the first time.
You can absolutely find someone to build an app for $30/hour. What you usually can’t see at that price point:
- The hidden technical debt. Cheap now, expensive later.
- The lack of scalability. You need a plan if you actually want to get your app to market.
- Security, scalability, and performance built inof AI, even well-coded apps are vulnerable to attack.and
- Hosting and infrastructure costs can skyrocket when deploying poorly optimized code.
And yes, we are very aware that’s not the cheapest option on the internet. But, it is also very rarely the most expensive option in the long run.
Why We Lean Toward Experienced (Even If It Costs More)
Here’s what seasoned development talent really buys you:
- ✅ Better planning before a single line of code is written
- ✅ Cleaner, scalable architecture
- ✅ Fewer rewrites and bugs
- ✅ Faster iteration after launch
- ✅ Stronger security and compliance
- ✅ Smarter use of AI, data, and automation
- ✅ A partner who actually challenges bad ideas (instead of just building them)
Cheap builds you an app. Experience builds you a business platform.
A Simple Rule
If your app:
- Drives revenue
- Manages sensitive data
- Powers operations
- Or is core to your business strategy
Then your developer is not a commodity. They are a strategic partner.
And like any strategic partner, the cheapest option is rarely the best one.
The Bottom Line
You can find web and mobile app developers anywhere.
You can also find:
- Rebuilds and rescues
- Budget blowouts
- Half-finished products
If you want:
- Speed without sloppiness
- Innovation without chaos
- And a product that actually scales with your business
Invest in experience. It pays you back.