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Keep up with the latest tech trends and get easy-to-understand tips from Darly Solutions on how new technologies are changing the digital world.
MVP Mastery: Understand, Develop, Iterate, and Launch Your Software Product
If you have a great idea, and it involves creating something innovative, aiming at solving standard problems using unconventional methods and tools, it’s probably worth bringing it to life gradually. This way, you will move from priority features to secondary ones, relying on real users’ opinions – both positive and negative ones. Actually, here, we described the essence of the MVP development process. Below, we will explain its definition and check its benefits and specifics of implementation.
Understanding MVP in Software Development
If you are going to build an MVP, you should first understand exactly what it is.
In a nutshell, a minimum viable product (MVP) is a product that has basic functionality to satisfy some needs of the target audience. Its main goal is to attract first users, determine their impression of interacting with it, and think through a further strategy for its development.
Key advantages of an MVP approach
When you decide to build MVP, you get the following benefits:
- Ability to confirm or refute hypotheses about the product
- Attracting investors through accelerated confirmation of the idea’s viability
- Help in analyzing the target audience
- Reduction of financial risks
- Development costs reduction thanks to proper prioritization of the product’s features
- Faster engagement of the target audience, long before the launch of a finalized product version
- Early bug fixing
- Reduced time to market
Thus, by resorting to MVP building, you can start to earn faster. At the same time, the development of a minimum marketable product is especially relevant for startups as it allows you to find out the real needs and pain points of your target audience in practice.
Developing Your MVP: Focus on Core Functionality
Now, let's find out what the MVP process looks like.
Identify your target audience
No matter how universal your solution is, its audience still has something in common, be it goals, pain points, demographics, or something else. Therefore, before you hone your product concept, you will have to define who it will be intended for – that is, conduct user research. To do this, you need to draw up a detailed portrait of the client – gender, age, place of work, hobbies, income level, desires, needs, problems, etc.
Come up with core functionalities
Surely, you have already seen a picture on the Internet that reflects the essence of MVP – a skateboard gradually turning into a car. Formally, this means that you need to understand which functions will be fundamental, that is, without which no user will be able to implement the task assigned to your product. These will be your MVP requirements. Then, as you receive reviews from real users, you can add features of less priority that make your solution more usable than the previous version.
Prioritize correctly
Before you start to develop MVP, think about which stages of your project are the most resource-intensive – they will need to be implemented first. As resources become available, you can assign lower-priority tasks to individual members of your team. Actually, this prioritization will determine your product roadmap. Thanks to this approach, you will eliminate downtime in your work processes and will be able to bring the MVP software launch date closer.
Define tools and resources
Finally, you should determine what tools you will use in development and what resources will be needed for this. We are talking about programming languages, wireframing and software development tools, platforms for project management, business messengers, etc.
Iterating Based on User Feedback
Any MVP strategy consists of iterations – that is, constant repetition of the development cycle based on user feedback received after testing its previous version. Let's look at the nuances of implementing these iterations.
Data collection methods
Depending on the resources available, you can collect data from real users by applying different methods. This could be live interviews, questionnaires, A/B product testing, supervised and unsupervised testing, and so on.
Feedback analysis and prioritization
Once the data has been collected, you will need to identify which reviews should be processed first and which ones can be postponed. In fact, everything is simple: the highest priority belongs to those that indicate that the user cannot perform the target action in your solution at all. Second in priority are reviews related to the complexity of the functionality – that is, those in which users claim that they did not immediately figure out what to click, or that they had to spend too much time to perform a simple operation. Everything else that does not affect the accessibility and simplicity of functionality can be optimized later, in subsequent updates.
The importance of iteration
Since building MVP for startups involves creating a primitive version of a full-scale solution, most likely, you will have to deal with a lot of negative feedback. Some will not like the typography, some will find the navigation inconvenient, and some will not even understand what actions need to be performed to achieve the goal. This is okay. At the same time, those who leave you reviews now are likely to use your solution after its optimization, too – therefore, in order not to lose their loyalty, you should constantly improve it. This will show your audience that you appreciate their opinion and that they also contribute to your project.
Launching Your MVP: Getting It Out There
Each iteration that brings your MVP closer to its finalized version must fulfill a specific business task – this could be confirming or refuting hypotheses, testing functionality, attracting users, choosing the best version from several proposed ones, identifying competitive advantage, etc.
This means that with each new iteration, you may have to take different approaches to each stage of the development cycle, from MVP planning, as well as choosing development tools and startup methodology, to testing and determining methods for collecting user feedback. Ultimately, this flexibility will open up further development prospects for your minimum viable prototype and reduce the risks of its possible failure.
Conclusion
Generally speaking, the benefits of creating an MVP from a business point of view cannot be overestimated. This approach helps reduce the risks of failure, attract investors, ensure a more moderate expenditure of the project budget, evaluate its competitiveness, and much more. In addition, it allows you to quickly enter the market because instead of the time-consuming development, you can spend less time creating its primitive version and, thus, more quickly test its viability and prospects in practice.
If you are just considering the possibility of implementing your business idea in MVP format, feel free to contact us. We will take on all stages of its implementation, from concept approval to usability testing and launch, and will repeat iterations until it transforms into a full-fledged product.
Mobile: Native, Hybrid or Web App For Your Business
With more than 2.7 billion smartphone users across the world in 2020, it’s no surprise that the mobile app industry is expended with no signs of stopping. Nowadays, smartphones have become a useful and convenient instrument that offers multiple benefits such as communication through emails and social networking, web surfing, entertainment, GPS and various other productivity apps.
In fact, studies show that the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes. 10% of people check their phones every four minutes.
We use our phones every day at work, at home, on the street, in bed, while we are eating, in our cars. You might be reading this article from a mobile device right now.
What are people doing on their phones? Well, 90% of mobile time is spent on apps.
According to these facts, many companies considering mobile apps are facing a common challenge — which app development approach to choose? Should we build a native, mobile web, or hybrid app? More importantly, which is the most appropriate app type for you and your business?
Let’s find out what are native, mobile web, and hybrid apps, analyze the differences between them, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each. After reading, you will be able to understand which approach will be the right one for your business idea.
Web Apps
A web app is a software program that uses web technologies like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript. It exists entirely within browsers such as Safari and Chrome and is essentially a mobile website. It is therefore not possible to download them from an app store.
Also, the web app is not connected with the device’s operating system and does not use its storage. Unlike an iOS or Android app, there is no software development kit (SDK) for a developer to work with. There are templates and frameworks for developing web apps like Angular, React, and Vue.js that you can use to get a quick start.
So, here are some pros of web application
- Developing a web app can be simple and quick. So, web apps are a cost-effective way to put your product in the hands of a lot of users.
- Web apps can be built for all platforms as long as they can run in an appropriate web browser.
- The user doesn’t have to manage updates manually. The newest version always loads when a user opens a web app.
And some cons:
- Searching for an app might be difficult because the user doesn’t find it in any app store.
- A browser is required to run a web app. It means that users have to take more steps to use a web app, whether that’s searching for the page or typing in a URL.
- Web apps can be slower and lack a lot of benefits. They only work online and they don’t have access to as many phone features like push notifications, contacts, etc.
However, as browsers and web apps become more advanced, PWAs (progressive web apps) offer a wider functionality like:
- Sending push messages
- Using some touch screen elements
- Using some of the device’s hardware
So, If your startup is on a budget and doesn’t require complex functionalities or access to operating system features, then building a web app can be the most suitable solution.
Native Apps
A native app is a software application that is built for specific platforms and is written in languages that the platform accepts. For example, Swift and Objective-C for native iOS apps, Java or Kotlin for native Android apps and C# for the most part for Windows Phone apps. Native apps are also built using the specific Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the selected operating systems.
Advantages of the native application:
- Native apps offer the fastest, most reliable and most responsive experience to users.
- Good integration with the hardware of the device (e.g. camera, GPS, phone, touch screen)
- It comes with the push notification functionality.
- Great design and user experience possibilities. For example, the implementation of sophisticated UI/UX design and animation.
- These apps can be downloaded from app stores and installed on mobile devices, where they can be placed as a designated icon on the home screen.
- Native apps are also more suitable for working offline.
Disadvantages:
- Need more than one codebase. iOS apps will not run on Android and the opposite, so you will have to work with different codebases for every platform you choose to build in.
- Native apps are usually more expensive in developing, especially for companies that need apps on multiple OS platforms. For both platforms, it will require two separate developers or teams.
- A lot of time is spent on development. Also, it takes time to update the app for different platforms.
- Require constant updates to keep with the current OS versions.
- Expensive to keep your native app updated
- Both Apple App Store and Google Play get a 30% commission from every in-app payment.
To sum up, a bigger budget is required if you want to build your app for multiple platforms (i.e. iPhones and Android) and to keep your native app updated. Native apps are not the best option for simple applications.
By offering a great user experience, better performance and accessibility, native apps are able to offer users a more personalized product.
Hybrid apps
Hybrid apps combine the power of native and web apps to reap the benefits of both. Actually they are made, so they look and feel like native applications, but like web apps, are built with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. Also, there is a shell that is downloadable and loads the code using a WebView.
Advantages of the hybrid apps:
- Hybrid apps don’t need a web browser like web apps.
- With a hybrid app, you only have one codebase to manage. So, instead of building two apps like with native apps, you’re building one app, and it works on both platforms.
- Hybrid app developers are often less expensive than native application developers. You will probably require half the number of developers two native apps would have required. Or, with the same number of developers, a hybrid app could be published in half the time.
- Hybrid is a great option for developers that create visually intense applications, for instance, games
- Hybrid apps let you retain the same ability to access device features as with native apps.
- Easy to work with, maintain and upgrade
- Because of their native infrastructure, hybrid apps can work offline.
- Hybrid apps are easier to scale to another platform. Once you’ve built for one platform, you can launch on another, like Windows Mobile.
The downside:
- Getting your hybrid app to run appropriately on each platform generally takes substantial work. Sometimes, the total cost might become comparable to that of fully native apps. It all depends on how close you want to get to the “native user experience” or how simple your app is.
- Hybrid apps can be slower than native apps.
- Need to customize to a large number of exciting browsers
- Inability to implement complex features (e.g. in-app analytics, charts, diagrams)
- These hybrid systems make bug fixing more difficult.
- Hybrid apps load in a WebView, so performance can be worse than native applications.
Say you have an idea for an app, and you don’t know if people will like it or not. If you understand that a web app doesn’t really allow you to test this app, the simple version of the hybrid app will be a good solution for you.
You give to people to download and use the app on their device, although you are short on resources. Usually, a startup project is decided to create a hybrid app that in the startup world, this is called an MVP, or minimum viable product.
Conclusion
There are many different directions in which you can take your app, all of which have their pros and cons. The choice between web, native, and hybrid development is dependent on a number of factors, including business needs, app requirements, developer skill, budget and timelines. What’s important is to spend enough time thinking and analyzing before you start building because the apps are expensive enough. So, you may only have one go at getting it right. Find out the information as much as you can about the different kinds of apps and the development stages.
React SPAs: The Future of Interactive Web Applications
Single-page applications (SPAs) have earned a strong position in demand long ago. Such apps have one page where most information remains unchanged, and only its parts are updated when a user interacts with them.
Maybe, you don’t know precisely what they are. However, you probably use them daily. Most social media, Gmail, and other programs are single-page apps. They are quickly adopted thanks to their fast load times and user-friendliness.
As for React, it is quite a favored instrument for SPA web development. Programmers can build SPA’s components with React to ensure their scalability, reuse them with few configurations, and refresh them instantly without manually reloading a page. Besides, React solutions are optimized for SEO while delivering high flexibility thanks to the Virtual DOM.
What Are React Single Page Applications (SPAs)?
SPAs consist of one HTML page. To access it, you make a one-time connection and then – load and modify data without refreshing an entire page. Only the blocks engaged in the interaction process are updated while other page elements remain unaffected.
A clear illustration of a one-page application is Google Docs. While reading a text, you scroll through sheets, but the top row with the menu and the left panel with captions stay put. Whatever changes you make, certain things stay untouched.
React is very common for SPAs because of its convenience — it speeds up the programming process significantly. Also, note that it is not a framework, it’s a library. The main thing in it is the components as they represent particular items on a page. Each one of them contains the entire set of data and methods needed for work.
React allows you to save the state of the elements. This makes them isolated and self-contained. This feature, in turn, provides developers with the ability to reuse the elements as needed. Specifically, the same element can be applied to another page or parts of the website as many times as you want. This way, a developer doesn't need to re-write a significant part of the code. Therefore, the absence of complex dependencies between elements simplifies troubleshooting.
Pros of React SPAs
Why do giant companies like Meta choose React SPAs? It becomes clear after looking at its main advantages:
- Versatility. SPAs can be used from any device that has access to the Internet.
- Accessibility. There are no problems with сompatibility, as well as memory limitations, capacity, or installation time.
- Enhanced usability. These apps are straightforward and enjoyable to operate.
- Better responsiveness. It can be ensured thanks to the high speed of data load.
- Ability to process large volumes of data. The device's memory does not limit the processing power of an app and the volumes of data it operates.
- Code reuse. React allows developers to reuse parts of code as often as needed in the same app.
Let's look closely at the main merits of React SPA development.
Enhanced User Experience (UX)
The primary advantage of a single web page application is immediate data update, resulting in a smooth sensation from using and improved responsiveness. Since SPA doesn't have to implement full-page reloads during use, the contents of a page refresh very quickly. The program only needs to connect to the server at the start, and then simply loads the necessary segments as a visitor needs them. In a single-page app, everything works quickly after the first load and doesn’t keep users waiting.
Improved Developer Efficiency
Programmers who use React receive a lot of tools that simplify the assembling of the single-page application architecture. Moreover, React allows reusing code in software architecture to speed up the work. For instance, if you decide later to evolve a one-page app into a full-featured multi-page application, you’ll be able to reuse about 30% of the code instead of writing everything from scratch. Plus, it will help your startup save time and reduce costs.
Rich Interactivity
React is a freely accessible framework library that has a JSX (JavaScript XML) compiler with a focus on the users’ comfort as it provides prompt rendering. Thus, by utilizing React, you can create a UI-centric product which is common to SPAs that should have fluid interfaces, rapidly responding to the actions of users.
Cons of React SPAs
Surely, React SPA development has its drawbacks. Otherwise, every app would be written using this framework.
The most important cons of these apps are:
- Lack of SEO optimization. The whole point is in the structure of such applications, which consist of just one page.
- Longer initial loading time. Since all user-side data of the application must be loaded during initialization, this can cause unpleasant delays for users.
- The client-side routing challenges. React may not be the best choice for creating applications with complex business logic and data routing.
So, let’s check each of them in more detail.
SEO Challenges
Single-page applications are quite problematic to index because not much text can be recognized by search robots. At the same time, you can’t put all the keywords on one page because it will look weird and lead to spam problems. What's more, the page will have only one URL.
You can eliminate this issue by resorting to server-side rendering. It's a way to render a one-page application on the server side. The app is still one-paged, but the main work is done on the server. The application receives a finished page with the required SEO elements from the server immediately after its initialization. However, due to the complex introduction of this technique, the cost of SPA development might be higher.
Complexity for Large Applications
Managing complex states and data traffic can be a problem in large SPAs. That’s why using React SPAs relates mostly to projects with rather limited functionality. At the same time, if applied skillfully, this library can still be useful when creating large projects – evidence of this is the digital giants that actively use it in the development of their services and applications.
Initial Load Time
With React’s ability to load all content during initialization, people can wait a lot when opening a SPA first (in comparison to other websites). However, after initial loading, all other data will be pulled up automatically, and there will be no issues with delays in provisioning page content.
Code splitting solves the problem of slow app loading by reducing the volume of data sent on the first session. Rather than uploading the entire code at once, users do it only with the parts that they need right now. This, in turn, facilitates the coding procedure.
React SPAs vs Traditional Multi-Page Applications (MPAs)
These kinds of apps are paralleled and characterized as competitors. However, multi-page applications (MPAs) are unlikely to lose the race because each alternative works for certain products and commercial pursuits.
Let's look at the core strengths of each application type:
As you can see, each application type has its drawbacks and advantages. So, when choosing between them, come from the specifics and tasks of your company.
What kind of companies should pay attention to one-page solutions?
- Products that run on a captivating platform with low data volumes. SPA is commonly applied to SaaS platforms, social media, and private communities. Some examples include Grammarly, Netflix, and Slack.
- Startups focused on usability. Single-page apps allow you to create an easy-to-use and intuitive interface that attracts the eye and encourages customers to explore the product.
- Startups planning to go big. Later you can reuse some of the code of your single web page application. This helps reduce the time and expense involved in developing new, full-fledged digital solutions.
- Businesses for whom SEO is not a key metric. If your company doesn't require to be ranked high on Google from its first launch, to successfully implement your idea, SPA is right for you.
- Companies with their own APIs. You can build a one-page application based on a pre-built API.
Conclusion
Today, we see that one-page applications gradually replace classic applications and begin to play an important role in the construction of large-scale web systems. Now, these apps are everywhere, and we use them every day without noticing it. Moreover, the big players in the app market already use SPAs.
What are the rewards of single-page applications? They are pretty speedy, don't keep visitors on hold, and generally improve their experience when dealing with the solution. in turn, overall consumer comfort has a direct impact on conversion rates and profits.
Still, SPAs are not ideal for all startups. But for those seeking a dynamic, high-speed, and lightweight digital solution, SPAs are an excellent choice.
The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT): True Milestone
The healthcare industry is an area that strongly needs innovations at all times. Diseases constantly evolve, and the care methods should go one step ahead. Infrastructure in healthcare and streamlined communication are not the last points in fostering positive swifts in this industry. These two elements, in conjunction, create favorable conditions for bringing innovations or merely positive changes. The more automation and advancements are introduced, the more effort can be devoted to curing and preventing diseases. That is why the Medical Internet of Things is so emphasized nowadays. Its role is impossible to overestimate, indeed.
Essence and Aim of the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
IoMT stands for a tech advancement that envisages the mutual coordination of various elements inside the health system, such as medtools, apps, and other arrays that facilitate steady and ongoing data circulation. The pillar objective of the IoMT is to foster and ease the non-stop collection, handling, transmitting, and sharing of the medinfo among the interested subjects. Most typically the latter ones are state authorities, hospitals, and other members of the healthcare industry.
Among the main deliverables that IoMT ensures are multiple options to track and manage the state of patients on a real-time basis. It also makes possible timely cure and disease prevention. Variable IoMT devices are already utilized for these purposes – health monitors, intelligent implants, remote diagnostic tools, and patient tracking systems, to mention a few.
How IoMT Works at a Glance
This tech approach is aimed at connecting multiple physical devices, including sensors and implants, through the Internet networks, most typically Wi-Fi. This endeavor is accomplished in order to grasp and transfer the most up-to-date info regarding the patient’s state.
IoMT also makes it feasible to collect a large scope of data and ascertain the outcomes of treatment as well as the tendencies of disease evolution. At a glance, the said technology is about multiple devices, software, informational systems, algorithms, and storage facilities. All of these elements are related to each other instantaneously and deliver error-free info about the things that fall under the survey.
Based on that info, medical personnel and other interested subjects highlight measures that have to be taken for the effectual care of the patients. IoMT is also in charge of elaborating on the list of actions that are needed to be accomplished to prevent similar cases from appearing in the future. Any information obtained during such an operation is extremely valuable and derives numerous benefits.
Benefits of IoMT
This tech advancement is definitely under the stage of its next development and upgrade. Therefore, the number of benefits may be higher in the short-term perspective. As of now, it is proven that IoMT guarantees these positive swifts across the industry:
- Bolstered efficacy of performance within a healthcare institution – the work of the medical personnel becomes more effective and coherent enabling quick decision-making which is especially crucial in emergency cases.
- Better and easier identification, including across multiple institutions – people don't need to input the same data many times. Once they have done that, it is transmitted through the internal channels of communication between the medinstitutions.
- Enhanced surveyance – IoMT software ensures timely and correct treatment as well as further post-medical support. The info is collected and processed steadily allowing the interested parties to make relevant conclusions regarding the efficacy of the chosen methods.
- Tackling diseases – collecting the info regarding the reasons why patients suffer from certain diseases enables scientists to elaborate on findings that are very precious for disease prevention. Most typically this is made by eliminating the conditions for such diseases to occur.
IoMT issues and challenges
On balance, the adoption of the considered tech advancement is associated with specific threats and risks:
- Coherent interaction of various medsystems – frequently, such medsystems have multiple peculiarities of operation since different independent producers develop them. Making all the integrated systems not only joint but also coherent may be quite challenging sometimes.
- Effective information management – this covers clinical data monitoring, storage, and processing. The outputs have to be accurate, relevant, and up-to-date.
- Secure data handling – since the info processed is very sensitive in nature, it requires more advanced measures to be implemented. Fairly saying, this type of data is very nourishing for cybercriminals. Still, encryption and specialized IoMT security software can substantially decrease, even eliminate at all, the risk of data leaks. The goal of ensuring robust data protection is required not from the ethical perspective solely – this is also a compulsory rule among the norms applicable within the industry.
- Alignment with the regulatory standards – the applicable legal rules are quite strict, taking into account the essence of services. To this end, a failure to comply with such often leads to severe fines and other sanctions, up to the liquidation of a medical institution. In addition, the applicable regulatory framework is frequently updated, resulting in the need to take other measures allowing to remain compliant.
What Prospects Does the IoMT Have?
IoMT in healthcare definitely opens wider perspectives, among others, thanks to the following tech advancements:
- AI&ML implementation – these two elements are equally good at bolstering analytics and personal care approaches. This can be achieved through automation in decision-making. Most common cases will not require excessive time to ensure correct treatment – these technological advancements, like AI platform for clinical diagnostics, will handle them quickly, efficiently, and at lower costs.
- Bolstering the quality of wearables and implants – upgraded serviceability and preciseness will deliver more faultless data regarding the patient’s state, particularly one’s life parameters. The advancement will also enable quick and more productive feedback in response to possible changes, especially adverse ones.
- Automated internal arrangements – monitoring the inventory and machines plays a pivotal role in ensuring the straightforward operation of any medinstitution. The less time medical personnel devote to routine assignments, the more time caregivers have for their visitors. Even more, optimized internal flows reduce associated costs drastically as well. The quality of medservices is not sacrificed but boosted under such terms.
- Utilizing big data benefits – IoMT ensures the effective and timely handling of large volumes of medical information for multiple purposes: tendencies, patterns, typical treatment outcomes, opportunities for innovations, etc.
- Quality and upgraded involvement methods – future IoMT will facilitate far more effectual involvement of patients and their awareness of the medcare applied. Informing, consent giving, and providing the updates will be made automatically and faultlessly, preventing any unreasonable delays or discrepancies.
- Effectual dealing across the healthcare sector and the remainder of the sectors concerned – IoMT architecture opens another room for diverse independent service providers, financial institutions, and state authorities to interact and exchange data with each other swiftly and straightforwardly. As a consequence, the interested subjects can drastically bolster their performance and the speed of decision-making.
Conclusion
The Internet of Things medical application is a powerful tool on the way to ensuring top-rated services within the industry and effective disease prevention in the future. It already offers multiple benefits, such as on-time and effective performance, multifunctional diagnostics, disease treatment and prevention, cost-effective operation, and, finally, more accurate forecasts. This tech advancement will undoubtedly bring even more opportunities in the short term since it is evolving steadily.
So, it was definitely a wise decision to incorporate such tech upgrades in a business yesterday. Now, they have already become compulsory things to have in possession. Our company is a reliable service provider experienced in custom medical software development. We will facilitate you to take the next step ahead by rendering top-notch services swiftly and at a reasonable cost. Enjoy the condensed expertise gained through the years.
iOS vs Android App Development: Uncovering Key Differences
Specifically, according to the Exploding Topics resource, in 2024, Android has a 70.93% global market share while iOS only has about 25% of it. However, both platforms are undoubtedly popular, and each of them, with the right approach to development and promotion, can provide product owners with a stable income. Below, we will reveal the differences and similarities between iOS and Android development, paying special attention to security and customization options.
Android vs. iOS App Development: Key Differences
Let's first look at the fundamental differences in Android and iOS development.
Programming languages
When it comes to native development, the most popular Android development language can be considered Java or Kotlin (they are both officially supported by Android’s original IDE, but the last one is preferable for new projects). As for native development for iOS, here, developers will need knowledge of Objective-C or Swift (generally speaking, this is the best option for new projects, while Objective-C is mainly used to support existing solutions that were originally written in this language).
Development environment
As the primary development environment for the Android platform, Android developers use the open-source Android Studio IDE, although in some cases their choice may also fall on Visual Studio, Eclipse, and some other development environments. At the same time, iOS developers usually resort to the help of Xcode with the integrated iOS SDK.
Differences in design
iOS development requires following the platform’s own principles for user interface design listed in the Human Interface Design Guidelines (the main aspects of which are color variety without shadows (Flat Design Depth), minimalism (Clarity), and content-first approach (Deference)). In the case of Android development, these are the recommendations for recreating Material Design (the main aspects of which are expressing the hierarchy of elements through their size, colors, and shadows (Metaphoric Nature), using bold typography to highlight important elements (Bold Graphical Design), visualizing reactions to user actions (Meaningful Animation), as well as adapting the design to devices of different form factors (Adaptive Design)). Also note that Android allows the development of applications for operation in Kiosk Mode – this will be useful for businesses presenting their services and/or products through software installed on corporate Android-based devices.
Hourly rates
According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary of an Android developer in the US ranges from $91K to $135K, while for an iOS developer this range is from $101K to $174K. From this, we can conclude that, on average, the iOS app development cost (if you stick to the hourly rate for specialists) will be somewhat higher compared to the Android app development cost, all other things being equal (in particular, the same number of supported device formats and OS versions).
Complexity of development
It is worth noting that native Android development tools and iOS mobile app development tools are quite easy to deal with and, in general, have a low entry threshold. That is why the complexity of implementing software for a particular platform should be considered primarily from the point of view of ensuring compatibility. The fact is that if you are planning Android development to cover as many user devices with different form factors as possible, your team will have to spend a lot of effort and time. Also, there is the need to provide compatibility with earlier versions of Android and, accordingly, adapt the software for devices that support them. Therefore, the development process for Android can be much longer than in the case of iOS, a platform that is characterized by a relatively small number of compatible user devices. On the other hand, for iOS development, the entire team must be equipped with macOS-based devices — only then will they be able to build the software and successfully test it in an emulator.
iOS vs. Android: Security and Privacy
The main difference between iOS and Android in terms of security lies in the fact that iOS security is more focused on providing strong software protection (which is facilitated by its closed nature and limited number of supported devices), while Android focuses on a combination of software and hardware protection (due to its initial open source nature, which can still be violated by individual vendors creating their own Android-based OSes, as well the variety of supported user devices). In the end, it is impossible to say that one of these operating systems is more secure or, on the contrary, more vulnerable, since by following the standards and generally accepted rules of secure development, you will be able to achieve optimal compliance for your software as well.
Which Platform Has a Bigger Market Share?
At the very beginning of this article, we indicated that Android is the undisputed leader in the mobile software market, with almost 71% market share. However, it is worth noting that the ratio of market shares between platforms may vary depending on the business niche for which the application is created. Moreover, there is rather old research that owners of iOS devices are more willing to download paid applications, while owners of Android devices prefer free software. As a result, this factor can determine your monetization opportunities for your app, too.
Which Platform Has More Customization Options?
In terms of customization options, Android gives developers more flexibility due to the open nature of the platform. Thus, they get more space for creativity, which allows them to implement non-trivial designs and functionality. In turn, the iOS platform is a closed ecosystem with its own strict compliance rules. This concept is aimed at maintaining uniformity of user interfaces, so it will not be possible to create something too non-standard on its basis.
Android vs. iOS App Development: Which One to Choose
Ultimately, we cannot say that development for any one of the platforms, be it iOS or Android, is more profitable. Everything depends on the niche for which the software solution is being implemented, its localization, and many other factors that determine the size of the target audience.
Additionally, it is important to be aware of app store fees for paid software and software with in-app purchases. In particular, iOS paid apps, in-app purchases of digital goods or services, and/or linking out to purchase digital goods and services on your website are subject to a 17% fee (or 10% If you're enrolled in the App Store Small Business Program/the Apple Video Partner Program/News Partner Program or renew a qualifying auto-renewal subscription beyond one year); also, if you use App Store payment processing and related commerce services for in-app purchases, you will be charged a 3% fee. As for Google Play, here, the fee is 15% on the first $1 million in annual revenue (or 30% on annual revenue exceeding $1 million), 15% on products with an auto-renewing subscription (regardless of annual revenue size), and 15% or less for developers who qualify for the Play Media Experience Program.
By the way, if you find that the ratio of potential users for each platform is approximately 1:1, you can consider the cross-platform app development option, which involves creating a single code base for iOS and Android platforms. In this case, you can save about 30% of the budget compared to developing two native applications, and also bring the launch date of your mobile solution closer. The only thing is that, like any other type of software development, this one also has some restrictions.
Regardless of whether you are considering cross-platform or native mobile app development, you can always choose us as a reliable service provider of custom mobile solutions. We will implement your business idea with the minimum possible budget without compromising its quality and select the best approaches and tech stack to ensure its competitiveness and profitability over the long term.
How to Incorporate Social Platforms Into B2B Solutions
In today's world, social platforms have become an integral part of our everyday lives. They provide the opportunity to communicate, share information and create communities, making them a powerful tool for business. Their popularity and influence on modern society have led many companies to realize the potential of social platforms in the context of B2B solutions.
Let's break down the process of implementing such social platforms step by step:
- Defining goals and requirements
The first step in developing social platforms for B2B businesses is to define specific goals and requirements for your project. You need to be clear about what features and capabilities should be available on your social platform. These include user profiles, sharing features, instant messaging, community building, and more. Determine what specific goals you want to achieve, such as expanding your network, attracting potential customers, or strengthening customer relationships. Understanding your goals will further guide your overall strategy and implementation. Prioritize and develop an action plan to address all the requirements of your B2B business.
- Choosing the right technology platform
The next step is to choose the right technology platform for developing a social platform. Many frameworks and tools can help you in this process. For example, you can use popular open-source frameworks such as Ruby on Rails, Django, or Laravel or choose ready-made social platforms such as BuddyPress for WordPress or Sharetribe for developing marketplaces. The appropriate choice of technology platform depends on your needs and your company's capabilities.
- Designing the architecture and database
After choosing a technology platform, it is essential to design the architecture of your social platform. This includes creating the database structure, defining modules and system components, and establishing interactions. A modular approach is recommended to ensure the flexibility and scalability of your social platform. Divide functionality into modules such as authentication, user profiles, messaging, community management, and others. This approach will simplify your platform's development, testing, and support.
- Designing the user interface
The user interface is a key element of any social platform. Designing an attractive and intuitive user interface will help attract and retain users on your platform. Remember your company's brand identity when designing and ensure user-friendly navigation and clear and attractive interface elements.
- Implementing functionality
At this stage, you can start implementing the basic functionality of your social platform. Provide the ability to customize user profiles, set access rights, filter content, and other features necessary to ensure the platform's security and usability. Create modules for registering users, creating profiles, sending messages, forming communities, and other elements that meet your requirements.
- Integration with external systems
Integrating with external systems is a crucial step when implementing a social platform in a B2B business. Enable data exchange between the social platform and external systems to provide a unified flow of information and improve the efficiency of your business. These can be CRM systems, electronic payment systems, analytics tools, and other applications your company uses.
- Testing and launching
Conduct thorough testing before launching your social platform to detect and fix possible bugs and issues. Perform functional testing, compatibility testing with various browsers and devices, and security testing. Once testing is successfully completed, you can begin launching your social platform. Install the necessary server resources and configurations, and configure the security and scalability of the system. As you launch, monitor the process and ensure all components work correctly.
- Support and update
Developing and implementing a social platform is just the beginning. It's essential to continue to provide support and updates to your platform as needed. Regularly release updates, fix bugs, and add new features and enhancements to meet the needs of your audience. Provide timely support to users, answer their questions, and guide how to use the platform.
- Analysis and optimization
Integrating social platforms into B2B solutions provides an opportunity to collect valuable data and metrics. Analyze this data to understand which features are used most often, what issues arise, and what improvements can be made. Use analytics tools to measure the effectiveness of your social platform and make informed decisions to optimize it.
Summary
Incorporating social platforms into B2B solutions can significantly benefit your business. However, for this process to be successful, you need to properly plan, design, and implement a social platform, taking into account your company's technical aspects and requirements. By following the steps outlined above and paying attention to detail, you can create a powerful tool to help strengthen your business connections, expand your customer base, and make your company more competitive in your business domain.
How to Hire the Best HealthTech Website Development Company?
The medical field has been developing for ages, but over the past twenty years, we’ve seen the flourishing of healthtech. And it’s not surprising: this technology is a game-changer for patient care, workflow, and life-saving.
The healthcare industry includes producing portable devices to monitor vital signs and online medical consultations provided by modern digital health solutions. And, similarly, every private clinic should have a top-notch website where patients can book an appointment with a doctor.
What are the roles of a medical site?
- A communication tool with patients. A site can be easily googled. Also, it contains information about available services and specialists. Thus, it makes it much easier for clients to reach out to you.
- A communicational channel. Internet marketing is one of the most effective tools for attracting customers, but you need a web resource to use it. Thanks to a site, you will be able to find customers among users of search engines and social networks.
- An image-maker of your organization. You need to give a good impression to make others want to collaborate.
- A source of getting feedback and statistical data. Thanks to analytics systems, you can track changes in behavioral factors, perform A/B tests, and monitor the effectiveness of various traffic channels.
So, a medical website must be very comprehensive, secure, and accessible at all hours. To achieve this, it’s important to involve specialists responsible for different aspects of the work at each stage of the healthcare website development.
Key Considerations When Hiring
Before you hire a health tech development company, it’s essential to ensure their team has the necessary hard and soft skills. The task of the dev team will be to make the site appealing to users and customize traffic channels. In turn, the site owner should provide the essential information and approve tasks in time to avoid excess of the final healthcare website development cost and pauses in the work process.
What should you bear in mind while searching web development companies for healthcare?
- Relevant experience. The more projects related to medicine they have, the better.
- Technical knowledge. Find out if the developers know the required programming languages.
- Communication skills. Website development is a team effort not just for the performers but also for the customers, so soft skills are vital here.
- Ability to comply with regulatory requirements. The company must know about HIPAA compliance and other legal provisions.
Experience in HeathTech
The company you want to hire must understand your business. That’s why your healthtech development company must be experienced with medical data and technology. Look for the company that has previously worked on similar projects. They could have a background in developing electronic health record systems, medical visualization software, remote care platforms, or other products related to healthtech website development. Companies with extensive experience in this field are well prepared to meet the specific demands of healthcare software development.
Technical Expertise
The company’s tech team should have certain skills required for medical website development. First of all, they need to ensure the security of the medical website. Secondly, it must be able to scale. This will allow you to upgrade a site following current changes like adding new services, functions, categories, or sections. It will also increase functionality and optimize it based on customer requests and company interests.
Another important aspect is defining the right tech stack. The developers must be able to choose a health tech website development programming language that meets business needs. The most popular ones are HTML/CSS, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Java, Ruby, and Swift. The final choice of one or another development tool must be made according to the goal of creating responsive web design and providing a brilliant user experience. The company should also have a skilled designer who can transfer your brand identity into the website’s UX/UI design.
Regulatory Compliance
A team working on a health tech site must guarantee its security as patients leave their personal data there – this can be ensured by its knowledge of how to create a secure website for healthcare providers. Specifically, such websites must meet HIPAA regulations and other confidentiality rules in health care, such as GDPR and PCI-DSS. Make sure the company is aware of these norms and can perform HIPAA-compliant website development.
Communication and Collaboration
Healthcare website development requires ongoing communication between the client and the contractor. For example, in the beginning, you and the tech team will negotiate on choosing the right CMS for the website. Consider hiring only those who are accessible, transparent, and timely. If there are no meetings or any other forms of communication, move on to the next candidates.
Partner’s Reliability
Make sure the chosen company is trustworthy. It must be present on social media and have its website with a portfolio. Seek for clients' feedback on special resources, forums, and social networks. This way, you’ll quickly see what prior customers have said about a company's service delivery. And, if some field-specific media have published case studies about the company’s work, it’s a very good sign.
Compliance with Your Request for Proposal
Once you decide on a candidate, it’s time to write a project proposal. Health tech website development proposals include stating the project’s objective, target audience, budget, and other features specific to your project. This way, the potential company will understand your business needs better and be able to provide an individual proposal.
Impression After Personal Interviewing
A key to successful collaboration lies in communication. Interviewing health tech web developers will allow you to test their understanding of your specific demands and the concept of the website.
Crucial moments to clarify during interviews:
- Ask for details about their experience. Get candidates to talk about a project related to health tech they have participated in. Go into detail to assess their role and expertise.
- Ask about the development process. Give them thorough questions to test their technical knowledge and figure out the workflow. You can also provide them with a test task to evaluate their skills firsthand.
- Uncover their management style. Ask if the team has worked on any cross-functional projects. Look for leadership qualities like guiding, empowering others to succeed, and handling conflicts constructively.
- Find out the team membership. Alongside those who are usually present in the technical team, such as engineers, QA testers, and tech leads, there should also be a UX designer.
- Ask who will own the code. It’s much better for you if the web development companies for healthcare offer a total handover. Yet, the agreement may include a clause that allows the contractor to keep the code. The worst thing that can happen might be that the company charges you more money because of the constant glitches they fix.
- Question what happens if the team fails to meet the deadline. Find out how the company can repay for the lost time.
Portfolio
Ask companies included in a shortlist to demonstrate their previous projects. A voluminous portfolio is usually a sign of a company that has extensive experience. This way, you’ll wind out what they’re capable of. The portfolio will show you if the team can manage challenging projects and meet high regulatory standards. Also, it will show how good and user-friendly their software is. And, naturally, pay strong attention to websites related to the medical field.
Conclusion
Ideally, a website solves several problems of a healthcare business at once. First, it is one of the most effective tools for attracting new clients. It also acts as a channel of communication with existing patients, forms the image of your organization, and allows you to get feedback and collect your customers’ data. All this is possible if the site is developed by the pros. That’s why you should be very picky when you want to hire a health tech development company. Follow the recommendations listed above to find the perfect fit.
The Outsourcing Edge: How to Find the Perfect Custom Software Development Team
Evolving companies regularly look for new ways to bypass competitors in today's dynamic world. At the same time, software development for business is one of the most effective strategies. External expertise enables them to achieve higher levels of efficiency, innovation, and financial savings. However, finding the perfect outsourced web development team with all the individual needs can be tricky. Today, we will share essential tips on this topic with you.
It should be noted that the demand for hiring software development team has increased significantly in recent years. According to Statista, global income from IT outsourcing will continue its rapid growth for the next eight years. The following figure shows the projected increase in its revenues worldwide:
How to Find the Best Outsourced Development Team
As already noted, the process of finding the perfect web outsourcing team is in most cases an absolutely daunting task, but we are ready to share with you some effective methods that will simplify this process:
- Internet search: Look for companies with high ratings and many positive reviews directly through search engines (Google and so on). It is worth starting with the main search queries and gradually detailing them using filters or keywords. It is also recommended to browse companies' websites, articles, and blogs directly to be more guided in their expertise.
- Recommendations: One proven and reliable way to find real pros is to seek advice or recommendations from your colleagues, employees, or business partners. If your acquaintances already dared to outsource dedicated software development teams, you can directly ask people from your professional network who they can recommend and for what reasons.
- Implemented cases and portfolios: Carefully review the portfolios and cases of your potential partner. This will help you analyze the outcome of their previous projects and determine if their style and approach meet your individual requirements. It is also necessary to pay attention to those projects that are similar in structure and concept to yours.
- Social networks and professional communities: Social networks and professional communities (like LinkedIn) are great options for finding reputable, highly specialized outsourcing service providers and analyzing customer reviews. They are also an excellent way to get more information about your contractor and its professional connections.
- Freelance platforms: Upwork, Toptal, and Freelancer are useful platforms for finding and communicating with experienced specialized specialists. These platforms also provide access to a vast database of freelancer profiles, ratings, and portfolios, which will help you get a complete picture of their professional competence.
- Events and conferences on professional topics: By attending various specialized events, you can expand your network of social contacts. In addition, you can personally communicate with potential partners, ask them questions that interest you, and make more or less objective impressions of them.
What Should You Look for When Searching for an Outsourced Development Team?
Clear positioning
Each company excels in a specific area, focusing on a single or a few related directions, such as mobile and web development. This specialization ensures their expertise and quality in these particular fields. It's important to note that the best outsourcers refrain from attempting to offer design, coding, and a myriad of other services simultaneously.
The presence of the grads and their description
If an outsourcer sells the services of Junior, Middle, and Senior specialists, there should be clear descriptions of what they can do and at what level.
Consent to interview
Even if you plan to interview only some experts, asking the service provider representative if they are open to interviews is beneficial. This step lets you feel more involved in the selection process and ensures that the outsourcing company is transparent.
Cases
The cases may be so problematic that the outsourcer projects for other companies are under NDA, and details cannot be disclosed. Therefore, cases can be impersonal without specifying specific customers.
How Do You Evaluate an Outsourced Development Team?
It is worth paying attention to several main aspects to make an informed, balanced, and final decision regarding outsourcing software development to a dedicated team. Undoubtedly, the portfolio and successful cases should be reviewed first to evaluate their previous projects.
After that, assess the technical skills and ability to work with the tools and technologies necessary for your project. For practical analysis, conduct technical interviews or ask for a test assignment to verify their qualifications.
Pay attention to the level of communication. The remote development team should respond quickly to your requests, clearly formulate their thoughts, and be ready for regular reports.
Compare the cost of services, considering the value for money your future partners ask. No one will argue that when you hire software development team, the cheapest option is not always the best, so it is worth assessing the cost of services in the context of the overall quality of work and the results you will receive.
Clarify the guarantees and level of support after the project is completed when you try to find outsourcing companies. For example, reliable contractors usually offer a specific warranty period and post-project support to ensure the smooth operation of the product.
Finally, assess whether the outsourcer's culture and values match yours. This may not be the most pragmatic metric, but it is equally important during hiring remote outsource developer. Specifically, your contractor must share your values and be prepared to work according to your standards and requirements. This will ensure harmonious cooperation when you hire outsourcing team.
Software Development Outsourcing with Darly Solutions
Choosing Darly Solutions for software outsourcing development gives you several advantages that help solve problems of any complexity efficiently and without compromising your budget. Regardless of the specifics of your project, we will provide you with the necessary resources and support, allowing you to focus on the main thing – ensuring the prosperity of your business.
- Access to new resources for development and support:
When you hire a remote outsource developer Darly Solutions, you get seamless access to talents with experience in new, improved, and specialized tools and technologies.
- Cost-effective development:
Darly Solutions offers affordable prices for programming and support services. Moreover, technical support is included in the service package for a certain period, contributing to reduced overall costs.
- Clear deadlines for the project:
At the stage of forming the technical assignment, Darly Solutions provides you with clear deadlines for the project implementation. Strict adherence to the project terms eliminates the human factor's influence and ensures stability in achieving goals.
- Reliable forecasts and adequate perception of the project:
As your digital partner in outsourcing software development for startups, we always guarantee reliable forecasting of software performance, ensuring a clear idea of the results and investments.
- Competent optimization of any processes:
Systematic optimization of software, increasing its stability, and reducing the likelihood of errors allow us to meet pre-defined standards and business goals.
Conclusion
The aforementioned insights about hiring outsourcing team will allow you to make the right choice and find the best one, considering all the features and details of your project. However, you should remember that choosing a software development company as the right and reliable partner is more than just the immediate outsourcing benefits of high-quality and prompt task fulfillment – it's more about laying a solid foundation for future success.
Flutter vs. React Native: The Best Choice for Your Project
If you are looking for a suitable platform to implement your mobile solution in the most cost-efficient way and, thus, make it cross-platform, it can be a rather challenging task given the variety of different frameworks, libraries, and SDKs.
For example, according to Statista, Flutter and React Native (RN) were the world's two most popular frameworks for cross-platform development by the end of 2023. However, they cannot be called universal, and each is better suited to solving specific problems. Below, we will cover the difference between them in more detail and also conduct a comparative analysis of these two solutions.
What Is Flutter?
Flutter is an open-source framework from Google that first saw the light of day in 2018. It is designed for both front-end and full-stack development of cross-platform solutions with a single code base for iOS, Android, Web, Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Flutter uses the open-source Dart language, which is also a brainchild of Google. Now, it has 162k stars on GitHub.
One of the most significant benefits of Flutter is the ability to accelerate time-to-market: this is ensured by hot reload (which provides the ability to change the program code and check the results in real time), the built-in increased performance provided by direct compilation to native code, as well as the presence of a C++ engine for rendering elements and optimization. In general, according to the unspoken opinion of developers, about 95% of all development tasks can be covered by Flutter libraries and tools.
Benefits of Flutter
Flutter popularity is absolutely justified – it is loved by developers around the world for the following advantages:
- Native-like performance. Due to the use of the Dart programming language, which is immediately compiled into machine code, applications created with this framework are unlikely to be inferior in performance to native analogs.
- Uniformity of visual components. Flutter does not use platform-dependent visualization tools – instead, this framework refers to the Google Skia graphics library, which allows developers to provide a uniform look for UI components regardless of the platform.
- Low entry threshold and a wide variety of available tools and libraries. Flutter is considered an easy-to-learn framework, and such built-in features as hot reloading, widget inspector, and a rich arsenal of tools for solving graphic problems (now, this framework already has graphics rendering at 120 fps) make the process of working on the frontend even more enjoyable and fast.
What Is React Native?
React Native is a cross-platform JavaScript-based framework created by the Facebook team in 2015 and introduced to the public as a solution for reusing the same code. Today, this platform can boast 116k stars on GitHub and the fact that it is at the heart of such world-famous services as Instagram, Facebook, and Skype.
An interesting feature of this framework is its basis on the Flux architecture, which is based on unidirectional flows. This approach allows data to be passed from one parent component to its child components, making it easier for developers to manage data flows in the application. Also, like in Flutter, there is the Hot Reload feature that simplifies the testing and debugging processes, as well as a rich set of built-in components to boost the development speed of high-performance and visually attractive mobile solutions.
Benefits of React Native
The main benefits of React Native are:
- Ability to reuse code by up to 90% and reduced time to market. The reusability of code written in this framework can be up to 90%. In addition, the created assembly, for example, for Android, will require only minimal configurations in order to function properly on iOS. All these features of this framework speed up the launch of projects.
- Fast update in app stores. Thanks to the CodePush function, applications can be updated within the repeated deployment process without an intermediate step involving uploading updates to the app store. In particular, when the update is ready, its version that has already been presented on the store uploads it itself, without the need for re-communication with Google Play or the App Store.
- A wide variety of libraries and access to native components. While it provides access to native platform components, there are also internal libraries with well-developed documentation and, in some cases, even entire application templates, including Native Base, React Native Elements, and React Native Starter Kit.
Key Differences Between Flutter and React Native
Now it's time to start a more detailed comparison of React vs Flutter.
Entry threshold
Even though both mobile app frameworks are considered to be quite easy to learn, Flutter, due to its abundance of internal development tools, practically eliminates the need for developers to use third-party tools and libraries (unlike RN). This means that its entry threshold can formally be considered lower.
Performance
As for React Native vs Flutter performance, the second one has a lot of widgets based on its own high-performance rendering engine, which makes it suitable for developing applications with complex graphics. At the same time, despite the claims of RN creators, this solution can impose certain problems with the speed of work of resource-intensive projects.
Time to market
In our Flutter vs React Native comparison, RN gives Flutter a head start when it comes to developing applications with different designs for each of the platforms since the latter is aimed at building uniform interfaces.
Specifics for creating user interfaces
While Flutter offers developers a variety of ready-to-use widgets based on the Material (Android) and Cupertino (iOS) designs, React Native refers to the native components of the platforms.
Full list of supported platforms
Flutter supports development for Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, Google Fuchsia, Web, Tizen for Samsung Smart TV, LG webOS, as well as for embedded devices. As for RN, this framework is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, MacOS, as well as Android and iOS TV platforms.
Conclusion
We hope that we have answered the essential question: “Flutter or React Native?” and it will be easier for you to choose the best of these two options. At the same time, we would like to note that the future of Flutter is uncertain, as Google has suspended its active development and significantly reduced its team. Therefore, we will keep our finger on the pulse and inform you about all upcoming changes.
Anyway, whichever framework you settled on, an equally important aspect will be the choice of an experienced team of developers. In particular, you can contact us for a consultation and also to find out the cost of development of your project.
How to Hire the Best FinTech Website Development Company?
These days, Fintech is becoming one of the world's fastest-growing industries. Every year, the number of new Fintech startups increases. In 2024, more than 13,000 such enterprises were recorded in the Americas.
Financial technologies include online banking applications, lending platforms, trading platforms, and robo-advisor apps for investing and budget planning. All these innovations demand top-notch Fintech solutions to serve customers, so aspiring Fintech startups need to find a talented team that can build an advanced product.
Key considerations when hiring
Before hiring a FinTech development company, it’s crucial to ensure the specialists have all the essential hard and soft skills. This way, the Fintech application project will have more chances to succeed. So, to hire reliable developers for your project, you need to understand the essential compliance requirements, which you will need to check.
What are the must-have competencies of web development companies for Fintech?
- Technical knowledge. The company's developers must be well-versed in all the necessary coding languages, frameworks, technologies, and security norms.
- Background in your niche. Check if a company has a portfolio of projects related to the financial field.
- Familiarity with applicable finance legislation. The company must know industry norms such as PCI DSS and GDPR.
- Social skills. Seek a team that is able to ensure transparent communication, flexibility, well-organized teamwork, and attention to detail.
Experience in FinTech
Familiarity with the industry is obligatory for financial services development because the specialists must comprehend the main finance principles. A deep understanding of monetary standards and risk management allows developers to craft solutions that meet the niche requirements. Look for a company that has worked on apps or websites for mobile banking, budget management, cryptocurrency wallets, or other products related to Fintech app development.
Technical Expertise
First of all, make sure the tech specialists know the necessary programming languages. For instance, frontend development for Fintech may require knowledge of JavaScript, libraries and frameworks such as React.js, adaptive and cross-browser layouts, as well as principles of responsive web design and great user experience. At the same time, Python paired with Node.js may be useful for backend development for Fintech.
Secondly, developers must ensure the product's security. To achieve this, they must understand finance APIs and data encryption protocols. Similarly, implementing secure coding methods and following best practices are critical to providing data security. Additionally, expertise in cloud and blockchain technologies can be vital for the safe and reliable launch and scaling of Fintech products.
Security and Compliance Knowledge
Fintech solutions must meet the latest regulations and standards for user data security. Since Fintech startups and online banks carry sensitive customer data, they are often victims of cyber attacks. That’s why there are legal regulations aimed at the safety of clients and ensuring secure accounting transactions. So, to get secure Fintech development services, check if a company has relevant experience and understanding of the best practices in data protection along with industry norms such as PCI DSS and GDPR.
Communication and Collaboration
Effective communication is crucial for successful Fintech website development. A simple and streamlined interaction provides quick response, the ability to adjust tasks quickly, and full transparency of their implementation. Also, the tech team members must evolve their problem-solving skills, be adaptable, and demonstrate excellent collaborative skills. The last thing can be reached only by an experienced provider, so you should assess the management style in a company.
Research Potential Partners
Before hiring a Fintech development company, conduct research on your own. A company must have a website providing all the information about its expertise, portfolio, and contact details. Besides, don’t forget to check customers’ testimonials to determine the quality of the services provided. Likewise, case studies of Fintech projects will best demonstrate a company’s expertise and outcomes achieved.
Develop a Request for Proposal
When you already have a candidate for possible cooperation, the next step is to write a project proposal. Initially, you need to define the project's goals, target audience, desired functionality, and budget. This process will help your possible contractor fully understand your business demands and provide you with a personalized offer.
Conduct Interviews
While conducting a technical interview, ask detailed questions about the development process to check your possible contractor’s skills. Secondly, the organization's leadership style and structure should be analyzed. Inquire about any cross-functional initiatives the company has worked on.
It’s also important to find out who is on the team. In addition to the usual members of a tech team, such as a technical lead, developers, and QA testers, there should also be an expert who works on UI/UX design for Fintech. And, of course, don’t forget to ask about their previous experience in the niche and evaluate their grasp of your business needs and vision of the product.
Portfolio Review
When selecting a software development company, experience is a key consideration. And the easiest way to assess it is by checking the portfolio. Companies that have been on the market for a while usually have numerous projects. However, you need to pay the strongest attention to those connected to the Fintech industry. Check for mobile banking apps, home loan calculators, or trading tools technologies to make sure their design, usability, and the achieved results are close to your goals and needs.
Conclusion
Developing a Fintech product is not an easy task. Besides the fact you need to retain customers by providing an outstanding service, you also have to worry about things like regulations and data security. That’s why it’s essential to learn how to recruit decent Fintech development specialists. By following the clues given above, you will be able to find suitable candidates.
How SaaS Products Can Expand Your Business Prospects in 2023
What is a SaaS product?
SaaS (Software as a service) is a software distribution model in which a cloud provider hosts applications and makes them available to end users over the Internet. Therefore, SaaS applications are not set up and maintained by companies. A monthly subscription fee gives users access to the ready-to-use software. To make an analogy, the SaaS using process is like renting a vehicle, for which the lessor pays the price and uses it on demand. Nowadays, SaaS presents not as a service but as a necessary element at the center of the functioning of every second business.
Here are some statistics referring to SaaS software:
- The global SaaS market was valued at $237.48 billion in 2022, with projections to reach $908 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18.7%.
- Over the last seven years, the SaaS industry's size has increased by approximately 500%.
- The U.S. SaaS market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.64% from 2023 to 2028, reaching over $186 billion by 2028.
- By 2026, it's anticipated that public cloud spending will constitute over 45% of total enterprise IT expenditure.
- Large companies (with over 1000 employees) use about 150 different SaaS products, comprising 70% of their total software usage.
Top Industries
Leading industries in SaaS adoption include healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, and retail. This trend highlights the importance of cloud-based solutions in driving business efficiency and innovation.
- Manufacturing: Projected to surpass $19 billion in SaaS market value by 2026, with increased adoption of cloud solutions for supply chain, inventory, and production planning driving growth.
- Web and Video Conferencing: Expected to reach $7 billion by 2026, driven by remote work practices and advancements in IoT, AI, and video compression.
- The healthcare SaaS market: Is projected to grow at a CAGR of 19.5% by 2028, driven by ongoing digitalization efforts, including the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) and telehealth solutions.
- CRM (Customer Relationship Management): Expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.43%, reaching $59.4 billion by 2027, driven by higher adoption among SMEs, cloud-based solutions, and a focus on customer engagement.
- EdTech (Educational Technology): Projected to grow at a CAGR of 19.1% through 2028, spurred by increased demand for virtual learning platforms and educational content.
- HR (Human Resources): Anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 15.8% up to 2028, with growth fueled by the need for efficient management systems, talent acquisition tools, and advanced analytics.
- Property Management: Expected to see a CAGR of 15.5% until 2028, driven by demands for automated rental management and enhanced tenant experiences.
Top Players
To get a clearer idea of what a SaaS product is, here is a list of the biggest SaaS companies known around the world:
- Microsoft Corporation;
- Adobe Inc.;
- Figma;
- HubSpot;
- Trello;
- Zoom;
- Slack.
Suppose you have experience using one of the above products. In that case, you can imagine how it works, why it is convenient, and how important it is to implement such SaaS platforms in your business.
Our company also deals with similar SaaS development services. We implemented the latest technology to build an innovative financial CRM system and booking beauty appointment platform, according to SaaS approach.
Benefits of using SaaS products
So, what are the benefits of this system for you? If you clearly understand what function SaaS products perform and your business purpose, you can formulate precise requirements for the end result of using this service. This section will list the main things that SaaS providers can offer for B2B and B2C businesses.
- You pay only for the resources and functionality that the company actually uses. There is no need to pay for the full range of services that a SaaS provider offers you. You're free to choose the necessary and critical features for your business and pay only for them.
- Economic benefit. This point can be viewed from two angles. First, you know exactly how much you'll have to pay for the subscription period, and you won't have surprises with the increased cost of the resources you've already paid. Second, you won't risk your investment in such a subscription. If your business needs a more powerful or extensive platform to deploy your capacity. You'll end your subscription to one product and switch to another without losing money.
- Accessibility to your team from anywhere. Any device your employees use - PC, laptop, mobile phone, tablet - can use the SaaS product.
- Shared use of the software by the entire team. There is no need to buy a subscription for each user within the same company; the only exception may be the limit of connected users.
- Centralized software updates. There is also no need to worry about updating the paid platform manually; the providers will do everything for the customer.
Business prospects with SaaS products
Enterprises incorporating SaaS products into their business concept are uniquely positioned to benefit from this growing trend. Here are some key business prospects with SaaS products, supported by statistics and numbers:
- Cost savings: SaaS service reduces businesses' need to invest in expensive hardware and software, which leads to cost savings. As a result, companies can save up to 20-30% of their IT costs.
- Scalability: According to 68% of companies, scalability is one of the main benefits of using SaaS. Therefore, a company can quickly increase or decrease its use of software as needed.
- Security: SaaS products offer enterprises advanced security features to reduce the risk of data breaches, including encryption and multifactor authentication. 94% of enterprises report a noticeable increase in security after implementing SaaS.
- Competitive Advantage: 74% of companies claim SaaS gives them an advantage through the quick and cost-effective deployment of innovative software.
Summary
As you have already understood, SaaS products are not only an opportunity to effectively manage business processes and business as a whole but also a practical necessity, without which it will be easy to optimize work processes and implement large-scale projects without a platform for necessary control.
By understanding what working principles SaaS is based on, you can maximize the potential of SaaS in your business and achieve greater success by 2030 and beyond.
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