Costs of Hiring React Native Agency vs Developer

Introduction

The entire process of mobile app development consist of many steps, and choosing the right technology for a specific case is one of the crucial decision.

This is why there were probably quite a few reasons you choose cross-platform development, and added React Native to your tech stack.

The last question is: Is it better to outsource the work to a specialized agency, rent a single React Native developer as a team augmentation, or hire an in-house developer and start building an internal team?

Should I hire a React Native Developer, or an Agency?

To decide between hiring an in-house React Native developer and outsourcing the work to React Native agency, you should consider the costs of each option and their pros and cons.

Often these pros and cons can be translated into costs that can’t be expressed in monetary terms but have even higher value – for example, the cost may be your time that’s better spent elsewhere. Or in some cases, choosing one option may cost you more in monetary terms, but you will save time that’s worth more.

Now, without further ado, let’s move to the relevant part of the article.

Hiring React Native Agency

Outsourcing the React Native development might be a great solution if:

• It will be a one-time project
• You don’t plan future updates
• You don’t have React Native experience
• There is no plan to build an in-house team (yet)
• You’re just building a PoC that might be canceled

Pros and Cons of hiring an Agency

Even if one of the situations above doesn’t apply to you, the list of pros and cons of hiring React Native agency is still worth reading.

Pros of hiring React Native agency

• Bureaucracy limited to the minimum
• Clarity regarding the final cost
• Budget planning is more efficient (i.e., no unexpected leaves or vacancies)
• More options to find highly-skilled people
• No need to spend time micromanaging
• No long-term commitment (when the project is finished, so is the cooperation)
• Ability to get technical consultations
• You are able to take advantage of past agency experience in similar projects
• Ability to scale up and down the external team quickly
• Access to a whole team of architects and seniors, not just one person.

Cons of hiring React Native agency

• Possible language barrier (i.e. if you are a native English speaker and the other side isn’t)
• Slower communication and feedback (these difficulties may time zones)
• Possible security and confidentiality risks
• Agency’s marketing skills can turn out to be better than development skills
• Messy code can make you dependent on further agency work
• Not building inhouse competencies

Costs of hiring React Native agency per city

Let’s look at the rates and total costs of choosing React Native agency from different cities in Europe and the United States.

Hiring In-house React Native Developer

Hiring an in-house React Native developer might be a great solution for you if:

• It will be an ongoing project or many projects
• You already have or want to start building an in-house team
• You are planning to update the application in the future
• There is someone (or you) that have some React Native experience

Pros and Cons of hiring in-house developers

If you are not convinced to outsourcing all the work, the pros and cons of hiring a React Native developer might be a deciding factor to start building an internal team.

Pros of hiring an in-house React Native developer (or entire team)

• Easier communication (sometimes even face-to-face on a daily basis)
• Higher team engagement and dedication
• Fast feedback and the possibility to make quick changes
• Better management, control, and coordination
• No language barriers

Cons of hiring an in-house developer (or entire team)

• High and complex costs (more on those below)
• Time-consuming management
• Long and costly recruitment process
• Unpredictable vacancy needs (dismisses, sickness, parental, etc.)
• Risk of professional burnout
• Motivation that comes and goes
• Necessity of fighting for good employees with other companies
• Limited growth opportunities for in-house developers

Costs of hiring a React Native developer

The cost of hiring a React Native developer is much more complex than outsourcing work to the agency. You must think about the actual cost of hiring a React Native developer. As the research of Joe Hadzima showed, the actual cost of hiring an employee equals his or her salary multiplied by 1.25-1.4.

The actual cost consists of:

• Basic salary
• Recruitment expenses
• Employee benefits
• Space and equipment

Recruitment expenses

The entire recruitment process is demanding, and it can take a lot of time and effort. What about the costs? Sometimes, they are hard to measure, but let’s try to list all of the things you have to consider when hiring a single developer.

The list consists of:

• Costs of a headhunter, HR agency or HR department – depending on your recruitment approach
• Costs of job advertisement
• Time spend on interviews and managing the recruitment process
• Cost of relocation if the developer needs to move from another city

Employee benefits

Let’s be clear – some of these benefits are regulated by law, and some are demanded by developers. And these days, the latter ones are hard to omit because of the huge fight for good employees.

These benefits include:

• Social security
• Healthcare
• Retirement contribution
• Holiday
• Days off (parental, personal, sick days)
• Memberships (gym, cinema tickets, etc.)
• Free food
• Training budget
• Playrooms (chill rooms, quiet rooms, etc.)

Space and equipment

Developers need to have well-equipped workstations, and this equipment includes:

• Comfortable chairs
• Regulated desks
• One or two monitors
• Laptop
• Additional keyboard

Now, knowing what else we need to include (apart from basic salary) to get the actual cost of hiring a single React Native developer, let’s make some calculations.

In-house developer cost comparison per city

Head-to-head comparison between hiring a React Native developer and an Agency

General comparison

Before diving into numbers, check which option – React Native agency or React Native developer – is better in which scenario.

Pros and cons (comparison)

Cost comparison

Is it more cost-effective to hire React Native agency or an in-house React Native developer? Take a look at bald figures.

Costs of hiring React Native agency vs in-house hiring per city

Summary

If you don’t have too much React Native experience and don’t have a team, it’s always worth asking an experienced CTO for advice or book a free agency consultation (you can book one by clicking here).

If you want to build an IT team soon or in the future, remember that agencies often help build internal competencies during project implementation. That’s exactly how we helped Gorilla Agency – you can read the case study here.

On the other hand, if you have React Native experience and you need full-time support and engagement in product development, it’s definitely better to scale up an in-house team by hiring developers.