Senior iOS, Android, Flutter and React Native developers from Appfront, contracted for your project. Embedded in your team, in the EU time zone, with code ownership for your organisation. No junior bench-warming, no offshore handover, no vendor lock-in. We fill the gaps where your team lacks capacity or specialist skills; you retain control over your mobile stack.
When you outsource, you hand a project over: we take on the scope, the planning and the delivery. When you augment your team, it works the other way round: you retain project leadership and ownership, and we supply mobile specialists who work within your team. No handover friction, no scope barriers, simply additional capacity within your own organisation. The difference sounds small, but it shapes how work runs day to day: who prioritises the backlog, who makes the architectural decisions, and who is ultimately accountable for the release.
We're hired by scale-ups that need to move fast, by enterprise teams with a specific skills gap, and by software agencies that need a mobile specialist on a project basis. Our developers work from Amsterdam, in your stand-ups, on your board, with code ownership that stays with you. No handover to an offshore cell, no extra layer of project management in between, no separate time zone slowing your release cycle. If you'd rather outsource the entire process, take a look at our app development or building a B2B app pages.
The question we hear most often is: when is augmentation smarter than recruiting? The short answer: when you need capacity now rather than in six months, when the skills gap is temporary, or when you want to see how a senior mobile developer fits your team before you recruit yourself. The longer answer is further down this page, in the section on when augmentation is the right choice.
Our pool consists of senior developers with at least five years of mobile experience. We match on stack, domain and working style, not just CV keywords.
iOS engineers who have built production apps with Swift and SwiftUI in financial, retail and healthcare settings. Android engineers who know Kotlin and Jetpack Compose inside out. Experience with App Store and Play Store release management, App Transport Security, StoreKit and in-app purchases, Android permissions, and the specific release requirements of both platforms. No developers who have "also done a bit of iOS work now and then" — only people for whom it is their core specialism.
Cross-platform leads who can take a single codebase seriously into production, not just prototypes. Experience with Dart and the Flutter rendering pipeline, with React Native's New Architecture, with Hermes as the JavaScript engine, and with platform-specific native modules where Flutter or RN fall short. We also give you an honest view on when cross-platform is not the right choice — for example for heavy AR, audio or low-level graphics workloads — and when a proper native build is the smarter option. See also our React Native overview.
A mobile app is more than the UI layer. We also supply backend engineers (Node.js, Spring Boot, .NET) who build specifically for mobile, think offline sync, push notifications, real-time channels and APIs that have to run on a limited mobile connection. Mobile DevOps with Fastlane and EAS for pipelines that publish to TestFlight and Play Internal Testing. Mobile QA engineers with device farm experience on BrowserStack or AWS Device Farm, and mobile UX designers who think in Figma and know both iOS and Material guidelines. One of these roles often needs more attention than you expect, so during the intake conversation we advise whether the gap in your team sits in the UI, backend or DevOps layer.
Not every capacity question fits a full-time contract. That is why we work with several models — choose what suits your planning, your budget and the stage the project is in. The most chosen model is embedded; we also see squad staffing often with scale-ups in a growth phase, and augmented squads with enterprise teams that only want to close a gap in the stack.
Which model you choose depends mainly on three questions: who holds the architecture pen, how stable your backlog is, and how much governance overhead you are willing to carry. In the intake conversation we help you choose the right model — sometimes that is a hybrid form.
We often see five patterns. If you recognise yourself in one of these, hiring is likely a smarter route than recruiting again or outsourcing a full project.
You have a product with momentum but not enough hands. Hiring senior developers gives you capacity straight away, without waiting out a recruitment cycle.
Your team handles Android well, but an iOS version needs to be built too. Or perhaps you need someone who knows SwiftUI inside out. A targeted hire fills that gap without you having to write a new job profile.
You build for clients and sometimes face four months of unexpected extra mobile work. White-label hiring through Appfront gives you senior capacity without stretching your bench.
The code, the architectural decisions and the domain knowledge should stay with your team. When hiring, our developers work in your repo, on your stack, following your conventions, without knowledge leaking to an external partner.
You don't have a mobile team yet and want to set one up. An Appfront squad joins in while you recruit yourself, so knowledge transfer and stack decisions are documented from the start.
The team consists of mid-level developers with nobody who can make the architectural calls. A fractional mobile CTO gives your team the senior voice without an expensive full-time hire.
We talk through your project, your team, your stack and the challenge you need capacity for. No sales pitch: first we establish whether hiring is the right route at all. Sometimes a targeted freelancer or an internal recruitment fits better, and we'll say so.
Based on the intake conversation, we propose two or three candidate profiles. You review CVs, see examples of their work and can have a no-obligation introduction with the developers themselves. We deliberately don't run a "matrix match" on CV keywords; we look at working style, domain affinity and how someone will fit into your team.
Once you agree, we start at short notice. Our developer takes charge of your onboarding, gets access to your repo and joins stand-ups and planning from day one. We treat the first sprint as knowledge building: small, contained tasks so the developer gets to know the codebase before working on critical features.
You remain project lead. We safeguard quality and continuity: if someone is unavailable, we provide a replacement with a proper handover; if the scope changes, we adjust the profile quickly; and if there are doubts about fit, we step in proactively. A brief monthly check-in on progress and collaboration, separate from your own team rituals.
Hiring external developers requires clear agreements on data, code ownership and quality. We have these arranged as standard, so you don't need to go through the legal fine print before we can start.
We work to the same terms for scale-ups as for enterprise clients; only the lead time of the legal process differs. With larger organisations, vendor onboarding via procurement and a security review is common, and we are familiar with it.
There are many routes to hiring a mobile developer. Below, we are honest about where we are strong and when another channel may be smarter for your situation.
Offshore is usually cheaper per hour, but it costs you time-zone differences, language barriers, GDPR jurisdiction issues and handover overhead. Our developers work in the EU time zone, speak Dutch and English, fall under EU law and integrate into your team without a translation layer. For long-running or compliance-sensitive projects, that pays back quickly.
Large staffing agencies offer breadth but rarely senior mobile talent. You risk junior developers warming the bench at a day rate that doesn't match their level. At Appfront you only work with senior developers; no "available" mid-level developer slotted into the role.
Platforms give you choice, but you carry the scouting risk, the backup risk and the onboarding burden yourself. We make the match rather than running a marketplace, guarantee continuity if someone drops out, and provide people who already know each other, which helps in a squad.
Recruiting a mobile developer yourself often takes months and a considerable recruitment fee. Hiring through us bridges that period and gives you the option to see how someone fits your team before you fill a permanent role yourself. Some clients hire us precisely to keep the roadmap moving during their recruitment process.
What clients most often want to know before hiring a mobile developer.
A half-hour introductory call, no obligation. We listen to the project, the skills gap and the timeline. Afterwards we propose, or decline to propose, a suitable profile. For broader questions around technical leadership, you might also look at interim AI tech lead or enterprise software development.
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