So you want to hire an iOS developer…

Many people ask me if I can develop their idea for an iPhone or iPad app, or if I can recommend someone. Usually I’m too busy to do anything about it, but I did write something that I think will be helpful for someone with an “idea”:

Generally, a good iOS developer’s hourly rate starts around $200/hr and can go up to $1,000/hr for the very best, and the better the developer, the faster they can do their work. But even the fastest developer would need about 2 months to get to a shipping app (about evenly split between working out the idea, programming, and testing and debugging).

At the very minimum such a project will cost $30,000, and a more realistic estimate is around $100,000 to 150,000. (Because developers don’t usually charge for time in meetings, on the phone, with email, or many other things that lawyers, for example, charge for, only about 50% of the time spent on an app is billable time.)

There are, of course, people who call themselves iOS developers who will charge less, and make an inferior app, but those aren’t the kind of people that I would give a recommendation for. The good ones are very busy and in order for them to take time out of their busy day and even consider your offer, you have to be offering enough to make it worth their while.

And if you were to ask me what my hourly rate is, it would be $1,000 per hour. (Actually I’m joking about the hourly rate, since I don’t offer such a service.)