We're a full stack software product development agency building web and mobile apps in communication media, marketing tech and consumer loyalty.

RaftLabs

Are you considering hiring an agency to help you design from scratch, redesign, or improve the usability of your website/app or product? Welcome then! The Goal of This Blog Post Is to Save You Some Trouble and to Keep You From Overspending. Here are 6 very practical and proven tips to boost efficiency while cooperating with a creative company. If you are the kind of person who does your homework before kicking off a new project, then you are in the right place. I take️ the homework and prep work very very seriously because it means when it comes to getting the job done. fewer issues and better productivity Before the website redesign, we completed lots of things: updated mission, vision, and values came up with a new slogan researched personas & all the competitors conducted brand interviews with the team Basically, I had a ton of information to give to the agency that was going to redesign our website. It helped us a lot, and it that they would have spent on getting to know us. saved time (read money) So, here are the while working with a UI/UX Agency. 6 tips to keep you within budget Numero 1 — Start With Setting Your Primary Business Goals ☝️Ask some very basic but important questions: What is the primary goal of the website or app? Is it converting users into customers, selling products, and getting registrations? What is the key goal? Why are you creating this website/app? Example: Goal #1 — convert website visitors into MQL (marketing qualified lead), making you capable of contacting the person. Goal #2 — educate people about your services & expertise. Goal #3 — showcase the work with case studies and testimonials. Numero 2 — Do You Know Your Customers? Do You Know Them Well Enough? You can not assume what people know or how they navigate your website. This is a template we follow: Stop the guesswork, do your research. If you got some time, reach out to various clients and schedule user interviews. This is the best way to get valuable info on the customer challenges, goals, and pain points. Also, if you have a installed, make sure to pull out all the historical data. The same goes for google analytics insights. hotjar plugin Numero 3 — Get a Free Consult From a Ui/Ux Lead Designer There are tons of agencies offering . Why not use it? free consultations Talk to professionals, and listen to their advice. Ask around for recommendations if someone has already been working with other agencies. Most of our new clients are from our past clients. is always happy to conduct an intro call, answer a couple of questions, and provide a better perspective. Our Lead Designer Serhii Numero 4 — Reach Out to the Top 5 Agencies And Compare the Estimate You Get Where to look for an agency? If you want to read valid reviews and get all the companies ranked based on customer satisfaction, go to clutch.co. The alternatives to clutch are: DesignRush Goodfirms Visual objects Awwwards Highlight up to 6 agencies, and reach out for project estimates (time & cost). It’s crucial to get different offers to be able to pick the one you like the most. Numero 5 — Collect All the Visual Materials You Have Ever Produced: Brand Books, PDFs, etc. Pass to the agency that you have signed a deal with an NDA agreement with all the materials you have. It will help them to get to know you better, to see how the brand was developing. You can send them everything, it’s going to be their job to look through all the stuff and ask questions if needed. Some crucial documents to provide are: a brand book, visual guidelines, logotypes, case studies. Numero 6 — Demand a Design Brief The best way to start cooperation is by filling out a design brief provided by an agency. You will be asked to provide some basic info about services, target audience, objectives, challenges, etc. I would suggest going very detailed in a brief. Make sure to list website/app examples that you really like as a reference. Normally, people need at least 2 weeks to finish the design brief. That’s it!🎉 Working with an agency isn’t always about spending lots of money. Come prepared, talk to professionals, and aim for maximum productivity. Cheers! 💜 Ralabs Design Team Originally published here

6 Tips to Stay Within Budget While Designing a Website

HOW TO GET THE WEBSITE YOU DESERVE? While many companies utilize their website to generate interest in their products or services, many fail to convert those visitors into customers. When it comes to the website, the goal is to attract qualified leads and allow them to submit their contact information to the firm, which will then follow up with a sales call or notification. By keeping this purpose in mind, have you been noticing experiencing the following on your own website: Zero to a small number of inquiries? Appearing a little shabby and like it belongs in the 1990s? Search engines aren’t finding your website? Not mobile-friendly and displays oddly on some devices? Branding changes are in the works? 👍 If you said at least one yes, it means you most probably will benefit from a website redesign. This is how popular Airbnb looked back in 2008. Definitely needed to redesign the whole thing! But, don’t worry. It is only normal to do so. And we are here to guide you through it. In this article, we will be discussing website redesign, its cost, strategies in doing so, and the top 3 mistakes you’d want to avoid. Now, You Are Thinking About How Much It Costs To Redesign A Website? The total cost highly depends on the agency you will be working with. Designers at the higher end of the spectrum charge for extra storytelling, deeper research, highly improved user experience, and increased conversion rates. Moreover, if the vendor is quite popular and won multiple awards the price tag will go up. We say that not complex websites like ours can be designed and developed under 4 months; however, the research is not included in this estimate, and the ICP was developed prior to the design stage. The more complex it gets, the more time it will require, as well. More time = more money, as simple as it is. The Website Redesign Timeline: 99 times out of 100, the redesign process always begins with an audit.  It’s the best way to evaluate the effectiveness of your site overall, the language you use, and look at the big picture and the user journey. Audit phase (20h+) Here we examine everything you have got and what are the main struggling point Secondly, we list down all the issues we noticed and think how to solve them with a new design. Research (20h+) Based on the available information, we go deep into market research and user research User Interviews (20h+) If there is extra time or the project is quite complex or new to the market, we advise conducting user interviews We sit down with your target audience and ask them all sorts of questions to get a clear picture of their pain points and expectations Moodboard Creation (20h+) Having all the data we need, we gather together to brainstorm the style ideas for your website We come up with several directions for you to choose from All this is done via online presentation, where we talk about solutions Informational structure (20h+) Since we strive to satisfy user needs, we map out the info structure to organize content in a flow engaging for visitors Wireframes (20h+) This is when you see your website structure and we ask you to approve it You are able to see the content layout, functionality and how all the screens are connected. It’s highly needed for a smooth development process too. Design concept (20h+) When all the technical work is done, we proceed with the first design concept We show you the very first design and what the main Your feedback plays a major part here in navigating us further UI work (100h+) The direction is set, so we get to UI work to make the best design for you UI kit, handover (10h+) After finishing the pages’ design and getting your final approval, we get all the documentation (UI kit) ready, so you can easily use your new graphic elements in other visual materials Development (100h+) Ready to make your design into a functioning site? With all documentation, wireframes you can easily convert them into the website Top 3 Mistakes While Redesigning A Website A website makeover may significantly influence a company’s bottom line. With this, we avoid committing these top mistakes before or throughout your redesign process. 🚫 Starting the redesign process without a proper understanding of what is wrong with the current website At the very least, not every website or page within one should be changed at the same time. Your present design should not be changed only because you are tired of it. That’s a terrible excuse. A typical motivation for a website redesign is to increase usability, update the brand, or bring in a new phase of success for the site. 🚫 Not telling about all your ideas and concerns Be open and vocal to what you expect with the design. If you have any picture in mind of how your future website should look – make sure to translate it to the team and at the very beginning, and we will always send you some examples to see what you prefer. Our team is also here to prevent you from repeating the same pattern of the original design with the new one. Sometimes the cause of low traffic or conversion might be in the product or wording itself. We may help you understand if this is the case. 🚫 Letting perfectionism take over As long as we love to praise ourselves, there are no ideal websites. You can always change, upgrade, test, and experiment with something new. But it’s important to stop on time and try the latest version of the website before improving it more. Wrap Up Are you considering a website redesign because you’ve found one or more of its intended objectives to be unproductive? Then setting a budget and formulating a strategy is a crucial first step for you. Before you begin a website redesign, you must avoid making the top 3 mistakes that businesses usually make, it’s always better to do your homework first. In , we often get inquiries about website redesign however redesigning is not always the best solution. We are here to help you choose the right direction for your website and provide you with a complimentary consultation. Ralabs Design

Website Redesign Strategy With a 9 Stage Timeline

Choosing the right people to join your team can be compared to assembling a team for a space mission. You want to have only reliable people with you on such a risky, bumpy and long journey, don’t you? So we became obsessed with the idea to hire the best people.** What works for us? We are proud to have built a team of amazing software engineers we can go to the cosmos with🚀. So how to hire programmers for your team and what about hiring developers for startups for example? Nearly 500 candidates are processed by our team on a monthly basis. In addition to these, our acceptance rate towards our offers is nearly up to 70%. The key to hiring remote dedicated developers actually varies. It depends on your requirement, budget, and vision of the software. Stay with us until the end of this material and a great secret on how to hire developers for your next mission will reveal itself. NASA Pre-launch The pre-launch or the pre-recruitment is a step in the remote hiring process that is considered the most important as it defines the job, budget allocation for the job, the requirements for the applicant, and the method of the job posting itself. What makes a good job post? A highly convertible job post should be brief, transparent, and straight to the point. It should contain more information on the job opening to enlighten the candidate and keep praising the company. In short, it’s not about you, it’s about your future team. Tell a person what will change in their life, how the work you do will influence their life, inspire them but be honest. Don’t promise the flight to the Moon if you are planning just a regular flight from Bratislava to London. - a recruiter must ensure that the job post mentions the salary range, the team, the tasks required, and the company's mission. The write-up should be conversational and is better to contain a series of frequently asked questions with answers. Must-have . Here you can check how we write them 1st pre-screening interview This is a time saver for both: you and the people who applied. Obviously, you cannot take anyone into space, and at the same time - not everybody gets how serious the mission can be from the job post. The interview should be brief, friendly and cover a series of questions designed to help you understand more about a prospect before conducting a more in-depth interview or introducing them to the mission commander. The pre-screening questions need to have more information from the candidate on their career goals, work preferences, abilities, expertise, and other aspects. Here are some tips on conducting a good pre-screening interview: and highlight what do you want to ask based on the info you got Get to know the CV Keep the interview short to last for a maximum of 30 minutes on the previous job or relevant past experiences or maybe you have friends/hobbies in common you can use as an ice breaker (maybe both of you visited Barcelona last year, or studied the same subject) Do a background check Ask the candidate for their to evaluate their level of interest knowledge about the company Confirm the salary expectations if it is within the salary range The 2nd tech interview__ __ It’s better to be flying with specialists who actually know how to fix the issue they are assigned to while you are in outer space. It’s high time to evaluate tech expertise. This is the part of the hiring process where the applicant will be asked to meet with a tech lead to examine the tech knowledge. The purpose of the technical interview is to: assess problem-solving abilities measure team and corporate fit, discuss and code together. concentrate on activities relevant to your organization, such as those that your development team is presently working on. 3rd cultural interview Now it’s time to evaluate if you actually can stand spending all your time in space with this particular person. ![](https://cdn.hackernoon.com/images/ckyx-43-mrs-000-z-0-as-6-gj-5911-sl.jpg) \n The third is usually the final interview, where the agreement in terms and contract is discussed. Also, this part of the hiring process is where the human resource department conducts a more informal and comfortable interview to check if the person resonates with the company's values. A way to check is to create a conversation about why this person has left their previous company and ask how she or he will respond to some conflict situations. Sending the final offer Congrats! You found your match to the Moon and back! In that case, you can already make a move to consider offering the job during the 3rd interview as it's better to make an official offer on the call than in the email. If you are sending an email with an offer - add a personal letter or a couple of words. If you are offering to someone very experienced, assume you are one of 10 companies who will send the same offer. Ask team leads or the CEO/CTO to include something personal if possible. Mention in the offer the team or at least the manager that will be working with the new hire. The template we follow: Onboarding New Hires quick facts from us Benefits of implementing an effective-boarding program: 50% increase in employee retention, people don’t freak out and stress 54% increase in productivity levels, people know what to do 34% faster learning curve of proficiency from new employees, meaning you are getting closer to your mission The most important action items to onboarding are: Schedule onboarding checkup after the 1st working day to check on the person. in 2 weeks Prepare an online user-friendly (how to write an email to the help desk or ask for a refund) and add some fun. onboarding guide about tech things it’s a very nice gesture to make a person feel a part of the team. Send swag if possible, Ask teammates to reach out, can be totally informal, maybe even a short call can answer a lot of questions newcomers usually are too shy to ask , where they can get to know the organization’s future missions and what planets they want to conquer :) Arrange a meeting with co-founders/C level for a batch of newcomers Additional materials - guide, offer, welcome pack Presentations, brochures, or even physical gifts make remote hiring more human. After the 1st pre-screen interview we always send a recruitment guide with handpicked information about the company. Polish your offer template too, what are your benefits over other companies who will try to hire this candidate too. Keep it short, full of graphics, and fun. A welcome pack is also crucial. Ask your managers or logistics company to ship some swag and gifts for a person’s first day. Here are some companies providing nice company-branded gifts: https://swag.com/ https://sugarwish.com/ https://caroo.com/ Final Tips Whether you are going on a space mission or building a new product, the outcome depends highly on the people you are working with. Dedicated software development teams are behind every digital product. The hiring process and building a software development team is never easy and you need to invest a lot of time to polish it to perfection. Hiring quality talent takes time and effort. The remote era has changed how we hire, and either you stay on top of the game, or lose. LAUNCH now! Also published here: https://ralabs.org/blog/remote-hiring-process-2022/

How to Onboard Software Engineers Remotely in 2022 to Help You Go to the Moon

Looking for iOS/iPhone development company? It must be not that easy as you expected. I searched for the information from a couple of well-known websites. Have a look at the list of Top iPhone and iOS App Development Companies given below. 1. ScienceSoft (USA, Finland, Belarus) Company size: 500–1000 employees | Year founded: 1989 ScienceSoft develops web, mobile, and desktop applications. The company has been delivering software solutions for enterprise and middle-market customers across multiple target industries. Also, ScienceSoft partnered with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Magento, ServiceNow, Episerver and more tech leaders to ensure that our clients will benefit from steady reliability and originality across solutions. ScienceSoft featured on The Silicon Review listing among 10 Fastest Growing Data Analytics Companies. In 2018, ScienceSoft has been featured in a report by Forrester as one of the selected vendors for Application development and delivery services. CRM, Data Analysis, Collaboration & Knowledge Management and Information Security. Services Line: 2. VironIT (USA, United Kingdom, Belarus) Company size: 100–250 employees | Year founded: 2004 VironIT is an international company with experience since 2004, a member of High Tech Park that allows IT entities to take advantage of lower costs or less stringent regulations inside the country. The company provides comprehensive services including development of mobile applications, web-oriented applications, business software solutions, as well as software integration and updating, support, and maintenance of software applications. Feedspot.com included VironIT corporate blog in its Top 50 software development blogs in the world. **Services Line:**Mobile, web, and desktop applications. Blockchain, VR/AR, game development. 3. WillowTree, inc. (USA) Company size: 200–400 employees | Year founded: 2008 WillowTree has launched over 500 applications, websites and bots. Developers teams build software for the world’s leading companies. The company is driven by a goal to amaze their clients by delivering high quality software, and ensuring their projects run smoothly, strategically and predictably. WillowTree is a Top Development Agency in Virginia according to Clutch.co. Also, WillowTree has the highest team satisfaction in the industry, and a growing amount of satisfied clients. Mobile strategy, product design, mobile marketing, web app development. Services Line: 3. Hedgehog Lab (UK, India, USA) Company size: 51–250 employees | Year founded: 2007 Hedgehog lab specializes in multi-platform software and device innovation. The company has also got offices around three continents. The company’s team architects, designs, and develops app solutions that prepare brands for the future of post-PC devices. Hedgehog lab created a series of successful apps for a Norwegian energy company. Designed for both iPhone and iPad, the apps were made to inspire creativity and engagement within key audiences. Workmanship aside, the client also recognized their professionalism and proactive approach. software and applications development Services Line: 4. DOM & TOM (USA) Company size: 51–100 employees | Year founded: 2009 Dom & Tom is a full-service digital agency which offers a range of services which include strategy, user experience, visual design, iOS, Android, web development, and quality assurance, all the way through to website and application deployment and launch. Dom & Tom has developed 400+ web projects and 120 native mobile applications with teams located in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The company’s process begins with an in-depth Research & Planning period, wherein they lay the foundation for each engagement. Android, Artificial Intelligence, Brand Marketing, iOS, iPhone, Mobile, Mobile Apps, Software, UX Design, Virtual Reality,Web Design, Web Development. Services Line: 5. Archtouch (USA, Brazil) Company size: 51–250 employees | Year founded: 2008 An app design & development company which designs and develops apps for iOS, Android, and Xamarin, and bots for conversational platforms like Amazon Alexa and Facebook Messenger. ArcTouch guides clients through the app building process by defining a strategy for the best user experience, planning the visual design, developing and testing the prototype, and ensuring optimization and growth. Xamarin, Blockchain, and Alexa development. Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Staff Augmentation, iOS, iPhone. Services Line: 6. Fueled (USA, UK) Company size: 51–250 employees | Year founded: 2007 Fueled is a product-driven venture-development firm that works with a range of startups and big brands to create compelling, successful, award-winning apps and websites. Fueled specializes in designing and developing award-winning mobile apps and websites that are fast, attractive, responsive, and easy to use. iPhone/Android apps, product design, product development, Web Design, venture capital, Digital Product, UI/UX, UI, UX, Technology, Startup, Enterprise, Consumer products, Co-working. Services Line: 7. IntellectSoft (USA, UK, Oslo) Company size: 250–1000 employees | Year founded: 2007 Intellectsoft is a full cycle software consulting & development company that helps global organizations overcome technology challenges of Digital Transformation. The company’s tech portfolio includes Cognitive Computing, Decentralized Applications, Internet of Things, and Augmented Reality solutions for industries ranging from construction to hospitality to insurance. For over 10 years, Intellectsoft has been delivering impactful software solutions to Fortune 500 companies and established brands, including: Eurostar, EY, Universal, Nestle, and Harley Davidson. Mobile and custom software development, Blockchain. Services Line: 8. Ramotion (USA, Ukraine) Company size: 10–49 employees | Year founded: 2009 Ramotion focused on coding custom mobile interfaces, complex UI animations, visual brand identity, and UI/UX design for Fortune 500 companies and growing Silicon Valley startups. The company is number one contributor of Swift on GitHub, 3rd design team on Dribbble. #1 UX/UI and Web team on Bēhance Mobile app development Services Line: 9. Eleks (United States, Japan, Ukraine) Company size: 1200–10000 employees | Year founded: 1991 ELEKS helps clients transform their businesses digitally by providing expert software engineering and consultancy services. Eleks has been working as a software innovation partner to Fortune 500 companies, big enterprises and technology challengers. Software products that the company build help the world’s leading brands transform their businesses, increase their revenues and save up to 40% of the time and operating costs. Custom software development, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence Services Line: 10. Mentormate (United States, Bulgaria, Sweden) Company size: 250–1000 employees | Year founded: 2001 MentorMate meets complex business challenges with native, hybrid and custom software development. With seven offices in Minnesota, Sweden and Bulgaria, the company’s team blend onshore flexibility with offshore economy delivering value for clients near and far. manage all stages of the software lifecycle, including ideation, architecture, design, development and quality assurance. With over 40% of the business in healthcare, Mentormate works confidently across diverse regulatory environments. Web Development, Custom Software Development, Mobile App Development Services Line: 11. Y Media Labs (United States, India) Company size: 250–1000 employees | Year founded: 2008 Y Media Labs is a digital strategy and technology agency focused on innovation. With headquarters in Redwood City, CA and offices in Atlanta, Indianapolis, and New York, the company splits its time between mobile app development, digital strategy, and UI/UX design. Y Media Labs developed mobile apps for financial services both iOS and Android to complement the existing web-based platform. YML combines world-class strategy, creativity and technology to create lasting impact for clients like The Home Depot, PayPal, The North Face, State Farm, First Republic Bank, eBay, and Apple. Mobile App Development, UX/UI Design, Digital Strategy, iPhone. Services Line: 12. Andplus (United States) Company size: 51–200 employees | Year founded: 2009 AndPlus is a Software Product Development Agency that designs and develops some of the world’s most used applications. AndPlus is the top mobile application developer in New England as ranked by Clutch.co. The company utilizes a wide variety of development languages and frameworks in order to build the right software for the problem our clients are trying to solve. Mobile Development, Web Development, UX/UI Design. Services Line: 13. Magora (United kingdom, Australia, Russia) Company size: 50–250 employees | Year founded: 2010 Magora is a team of web and mobile app designers and developers headquatered in London. At Magora there are mobile and web B2B and B2C applications and bespoke software designed. They integrate them into fully-fledged business solutions, establishing a strong online presence for your company and maximizing ROI. Magora team presents sizable portfolios for their priority directions such as Transport & Logistics, Medicine, Real Estate & Property Management and others. Mobile App Development, Custom Software Development, IoT Development. Services Line: 14. Appster (united States, Australia, India) Company size: 250–1000 employees | Year founded: 2011 Appster has offices in San Francisco, Australia, New York, and India. Its a leading company in mobile app development, web development, and custom software development, and their clients include a range of startups, midmarkets, and enterprise companies. Appster worked with the client to develop a sustainability lifestyle app for the iOS platform. Mobile App Development, Web Development, Blockchain, iOS, iPhone. Services Line: 15. Infinium (United States, Croatia, Slovenia) Company size: 50–250 employees | Year founded: 2005 Infium develops and design software for mobile and web. The clients of Infium are large brands, banks, insurance companies, media publishers, mobile carriers and other companies who need professional software solutions. Many awards prove the quality of the company’s work, the experts share their knowledge on the Infium blog, and the company has also a Facebook and Instagram accounts. Mobile App Development, Web Development, UX/UI Design. Services Line: 16. Atomic Object (United States) Company size: 50–250 employees | Year founded: 2001 Atomic Object creates applications for web, mobile, desktop, and devices. We help companies innovate and grow with custom software products that are beautiful, reliable, and easy to use. They can suggest the most value for a customer’s service. The company serves a national base of clients in the countries they have offices — from startups to the Fortune 500. Software Design and Development, Agile Product Development, Embedded Software Development, Custom Software, Mobile App Development, Mobile Applications Services Line: 17. Five (United States, Croatia) Comany size: 50–250 employees | Year founded: 2008 Five is a mobile design and development agency building award-winning digital products that generate returns for clients. Major brands trust with their core mobile products and strategies, including Rosetta Stone, Marriott International, Crestron, AccuWeather, Penguin Random House, Napster, and Choice Hotels. Mobile App Development, UI/UX Design, Mobile and App Marketing Services Line: 18. Table XI (United States) Company size: 50–100 employees | Year founded: 2002 Table XI is a trusted UX software development and design company focused on building web and mobile applications for mid-market companies. They thoroughly vet each new technology before we decide whether it’s right for our clients. The company works on improving relationships with customers. Twice a year, Table XI gathers people in the industry to trade ideas at Ops Conf and WalkShop. And almost monthly, they bring people from all backgrounds to their Chicago office for design thinking and tech-driven events. Web Strategy, Web Development, E-commerce, Data Management, Custom Application Development, Agile Development, Pair-programming, Mobile, Responsive Design, Hosting, Business/technology Consulting, Business Strategy Consulting, UX/Graphic Design. Services Line: 19. ZCO (United States) Company size: 250–1000 employees | Year founded: 1989 Zco Corporation is a trusted custom software development vendor that has built its reputation for excellence over nearly three decades. They’ve created robust software solutions for entrepreneurs, startups, and Fortune 500 companies alike. Zco Corporation offers its clients access to one of the largest teams of engineers, artists, designers, and project managers in the industry. As one of the largest app development companies in the world, Zco’s mission is to provide expert software services. Its powerhouse team was experienced in mobile app development, enterprise software, and animation services. Custom Mobile Application Development, Hybrid App Development, Enterprise Software Solutions, Enterprise Mobility, 3D Animation Services, Mobile Game Development, Augmented Reality, iPhone. Services Line: 20. Raizlabs (United States) Company size: 250–1000 employees | Year founded: 2003 Raizlabs is a technology innovation firm that designs and develops custom apps, web platforms, and other cutting-edge software. The company has been working with wide range of organizations from fast-moving startups to Fortune 500 by solving their most difficult challenges. Raizlabs specializes in iOS, iPhone, and Android and web applications. The company prides itself in design and development of world-class applications. Mobile, Design, Strategy, Web, Android, IoT, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Product Management, Usability, Accessibility, Research and Development. Services Line: To summarize the article, I want to say that my intention was to provide you with the list of top iOS and iPhone mobile app developers. It can help you to choose the company you would like to hire to implement your projects.

Top iOS & iPhone Mobile App Development Companies

Top Mobile App Development Companies Have you ever wonder what is the best mobile app development company on the market? It’s a tricky question and to make the right choice you need to see various options to compare and make a decision. A few months ago, my friend Bob and I had a mobile app idea. We were passionate about making the best of it, and we went on a hunt for a company to help us grow the idea into a working app. There’s a lot of capable contractors out there, so the choice wasn’t easy. After searching on Google we went on to Clutch, Goodfirms and Appfutura looking for chart-toppers. The most important things for us to consider were companies’ feedbacks and projects. We came up with a shortlist of top app development companies from multiple locations. And now I’m ready to share it with you. Fueled Fueled is a mobile app services company offering a range of solutions focused on app development, design and mobile strategy. The company is headquartered in New York and also has offices in Chicago and London. The Fueled team’s diverse skill set allows tailoring its services to match clients needs across strategy, design, and development for mobile & web projects. From full-project engagements to à la carte services, the company help clients launch the best projects possible. Its renowned strategy & planning team works alongside world-class branding and digital design experts. Fueled craft polished, intuitive designs that top-notch developers bring to life with nimble and immaculate code. VironIT VironIT is a custom software development company that mainly focuses on delivering end-to-end software development services. Company’s core areas of expertise are the development of mobile applications, web-oriented software products, business software solutions, software integration, updating, support and maintenance of developed applications. VironIT has successfully carried out over 500 successful projects to over 300 high-profile companies in eHealth, Sports, Banking, Retail, Marketing, Gaming and other industries. The company’s clients range from SMEs to Fortune 500 corporations based in Western Europe and North America. VironIT’s team consists of 100+ seasoned specialists: software developers, engineers, and scientists with expertise in different technical domains. Having helped JSport.com, Meetville.com, Thumbtack Trelleborg and the Turkcell develop their software, VironIT’s team knows what defines successful software across all industries. WillowTree WillowTree is a mobile strategy, UX design and development agency that provides media support, CPG, retail, hospitality and healthcare-related software development services. Its clients include GE, Johnson & Johnson, Time Warner, AOL, Wyndham Hotels, PepsiCo, and Regal Cinemas. WillowTree regularly appears on Fortune’s ‘best workplace’ list and has won many awards including an Appy Award 2017 for Hatchbaby. Apptology Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Northern California, Apptology is a mobile applications development with over 400 apps published in various app stores. Apptology can provide a solution that includes strategy, scope development, design, project management, front-end and back-end development. Apptology’s customers include enterprise, government, non-profits, small businesses, and startups. Apptology can address clients with smaller budgets by using their commercial template, ReadyBuilt platform, as well as design and develop complex custom projects. Intellectsoft Intellectsoft is a full-cycle software development company with a strong focus on emerging technology like Blockchain, AR, Big Data, IoT, AI, and other. The company offers a robust low-code mobile app platform and full-cycle development services. It shares expertise with companies from a broad array of industries, like finance and insurance, construction, healthcare, retail and e-commerce, travel and hospitality, logistics, telecommunication and more. Its mobile application platform allows brands and businesses to quickly create engaging mobile applications and includes the following features: geolocation targeting, geofenced push notifications, gamification elements, social networking, live video streaming, indoor navigation, order tracking, m-commerce functionality, marketing automation. Company’s key clients include such iconic brands as Universal Pictures, Jaguar Motors, Qualcomm, Ernst & Young, Clinique, Bombardier, London Stock Exchange and Harley-Davidson. Zymr Zymr is a software development services company headquartered in Silicon Valley. Combining agile development practices and cutting-edge open source technologies, it delivers fit-for-purpose software that scales with customers’ requirements. With its integrated cloud, mobility and UI design competencies, Zymr operates as a one-stop technology partner for enterprises seeking to develop and leverage their existing core IP. It also offers several ready-to-use cloud frameworks, called Technology Accelerators, to increase the cost-effectiveness and reduce time-to-market for developing demanding cloud-ready applications. Dedicated Developers Dedicated Developers is a web and mobile app development company that emerges as technical solution partners for small and medium-sized enterprises, helping them cope with modern technology challenges. The company has expert offshore developers and project managers that collaborate to deliver IT solutions such as mobile app development, website development, custom app development and much more. The company follows a systematic and ideal hiring process for web developers, mobile app developers, US bases project managers that help you from development to optimization and integration of a project. Its project managers give you timely updates on project progress and streamline communication to deliver your projects on-time, crafted with sheer technical perfection and at a competitive price. LeewayHertz Based in San Francisco, LeewayHertzis a software development company that designs and develops mobile apps for brands, small businesses and startups alike. The team is comprised of award-winning designers who deliver highly intuitive user interfaces, as well as immensely skilled mobile app developers, who have broad expertise in developing high-quality enterprise solutions. LeewayHertz provides comprehensive mobile solutions including mobile strategy, iOS and Android app development, cloud computing, IoT solutions, and mobile UX. Raizlabs Raizlabs is a mobile app development company which works with a wide range of clients, from start-ups to the Fortune 500 company. The company has 12 years’ experience offering the full spectrum of services in app creation — strategy, design, development and publishing, taking your app idea from its very beginning to its completion. Raizlabs deliver both hybrid apps and native for all the major players, and a particular strength of theirs is analyzing and working with geolocation data. Arctouch Arctouch is a San Francisco based web design and development company with a team of 50+ employees, and software development expertise to create iOS, Android and Xamarin apps. The company also develops bots for conversational platforms such as Amazon Alexa and Facebook Messenger. Arctouch is focused on enterprise software development and aim to help businesses to be better connected with their customers via mobile apps and IoT devices. Eight Bit Studios Eight Bit Studios is a mobile app developer. Company’s portfolio includes work for both large brands such as Hasbro and New Balance as well as smaller start-ups and Chicago-based institutions. Eight Bit Studios provides one with UX/UI design (with personal development, site maps and user flows), front- and back-end development, native and hybrid apps in HTML5 and of course Chicago-born Ruby on Rails. ScienceSoft Founded in 1989, ScienceSoft is an international software development and consulting company that offers embraces the full cycle of mobile development: business analysis, UI/UX design, mobile application development, delivery to market, mobile technologies consulting and testing. The company partnered with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Magento, ServiceNow, Episerver and more tech leaders to ensure that its customers will benefit from steady reliability and originality across solutions. Currently, ScienceSoft is recognized with 3 Gold Microsoft Competencies in Application Development, Collaboration and Content along with Data Analytics. In 2018, ScienceSoft has been featured in a report by Forrester as one of the selected vendors for Application development and delivery services. Y Media Labs Founded in 2009, Y Media Labs is an interactive digital agency specializing in mobile solutions. Today, its process envisions the mobile client — connected, always on, and on-the-go. The company creates digital products and experiences that have a lasting impact on people’s lives and its customers’ businesses. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, YML combines world-class strategy, creativity and technology to create lasting impact for clients like The Home Depot, PayPal, The North Face, State Farm, First Republic Bank, eBay, and Apple. Its work has been featured by Apple, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Forbes and Mashable among others. Softeq Founded in 1997, Softeq is a full-cycle software development company with one of its main focuses being mobile application development. The company develops custom software and hardware solutions for startups, small businesses, medium enterprises, and large corporation irrespective of their industry. This mobile product development provider offers both application- and hardware-level engineering services. Softeq’s team has hands-on experience in machine learning and AI, and employs AR and VR technologies to reinforce clients’ app functionality with advanced features. hedgehog lab Headquartered in Newcastle upon Tyne, hedgehog lab is a software company that focuses on developing mobile applications. Its team architects, designs, and builds mobile applications for platforms like the iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Symbian.ompa. Also, the company offers a range of services in Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality development. Mubaloo Mubaloo is a mobile development and consulting company, having worked across multiple sectors developing innovative mobile strategies and intelligent digital products. Mubaloo provides business transformation consultancy for businesses and the project management, design, integration, development and testing of mobile apps. Its team helps to transform business processes, staff productivity and customer engagement, all through the use of mobile and location-based technologies. Mubaloo’s clients include Intelliflo, SEI, Aviva, AXA, MTRCrossrail, Maersk, RAC, Hargreaves Lansdown, London’s Air Ambulance, EE, Scania, UNITE and Zurich. Apadmi Founded in 2009, Apadmi is a mobile application development company based in Manchester. The company develops applications for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices as well as web design, and strategy. Apadmi Mubaloo has worked across multiple sectors developing innovative mobile strategies and intelligent digital products and produced apps for UK companies and organizations such as the British Museum, BBC iPlayer and The Guardian. ELEKS ELEKS Software is an international company that provides custom software engineering and consulting services. Its development offices, consisting of approximately 1000 professionals in Eastern Europe, is strengthened by a local presence in the U.S., EU, and the UK. Since 1991, the company has been helping businesses innovate and build advanced software products that matter, leveraging technologies such as Data Analytics, the IoT, mobile, and wearable. Its award-winning solutions have significantly contributed to the success of customers, including Fortune 500 companies, and are recognized as a valuable part of international best practices. GBKSOFT GBKSOFT is a software development and consulting company headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is specializing in building custom web and mobile applications. GBKSOFT’s portfolio lists over 700 software development projects. In 2014, the company released Defend Ukraine, a mobile game dedicated to the armed conflict in the east of Ukraine, that went viral with over 1 million downloads. In 2016, GBKSOFT created App Idea Crush Test, a project that allows for testing app ideas before a development process is commenced. Appster Founded in 2011, Appster is an Australian app development agency, that develops mobile, web and wearable apps for startups, public figures and enterprises. The company states its ambition is to be the world’s first ideas company. Its vision is to create an unprecedented development hub for the greatest software ideas and innovations in the world. The company has opening offices in 42 countries, with current staffed offices in USA, Australia and India. Hope this list of best app development companies will help you to find seasoned developers and boost your business. Please feel free to relay your comments, suggestions or improvements.

Best Mobile App Development Companies

Top Web Development Companies in 2018

Over the past fews years, I’ve been fortunate to have worked with multiple successful startups whilst I built out my own platform, . Two of the three startups I built products for have been acquired and the other is still growing strong. With statistics saying that, as many as 9 out of 10 new businesses fail and my recent , I wondered why the main startups I worked with have the opposite record of 100% success rate. Stock Market Sensei analysis of heavily funded startups that failed Here’s a quick summary of the startups: 1. The first company I worked with, , was subsequently and the product I helped build, Heywire LiveText, is now part of the . Heywire acquired by Salesforce Salesforce Service Cloud 2. From there, I built the first android versions of from scratch for . The Dark Sky Company is the provider of a leading hyperlocal weather forecasting api and it is one of the most loved weather apps. Dark Sky The Dark Sky Company 3. Finally, with I built products for Fortune 500 companies and venture backed startups alike. Raizlabs was recently acquired by , a larger agency. Raizlabs Rightpoint As their profiles show, these companies varied in funding amount. has over $20 million listed in venture capital funding whilst only has a half a million dollar debt financing round listed. So, funding size alone is not the differentiator between failure and success. Crunchbase Heywire Raizlabs However, it was clear to me that each of these companies had the right key ingredients cooked together in the right way. And knowing the progress I’ve made in my own based on my experience with them, I realized that building a startup is as simple as making an omelette. startup Below is a step by step video guide of what I learnt about building a startup omelette the right way. And, a key ingredient for a great startup omelette is patience, serious patience. I mean the kind of patience required to watch a ~10 minute Omelette/startup-tips from start to finish! youtube video

How & Why Building a Startup is as Simple as Making an Omelette: Step by Step Video Guide

Some thoughts about the new Room library for Android By Google. In the last Google I/O, Google announced a new . One of them is Room. Room is an (another) ORM solution for the Android developers. Combining with some other elements Google released (like LiveData, ViewModel, and Lifecycle Listeners)- basic app’s flows should be much simpler. architecture components Indeed- Google did some nice work here. Straightforward tasks like displaying items from DB and update them was a pain, and you had to write a lot of code over and over. . This will save time for developers: you will write less code, and you will have fewer bugs. Now you can just use those out-of-the-box components When examine those components, I feel most of them bringing new things to the table. But about - is there a need for another ORM library? Room ORM? Let’s start from the beginning: For the ones that not familiar with, ORM stands for “Object Relational Mapping”. That’s a prettier way to let the developers works with persistent objects instead or tables rows. This means that if I want to save all my users data in a database- I need to work with the User object and the ORM layer will handle all the persistency stuff for me. Fun. Current solutions This concept is not new, developers used that technique for a long time, and it was natural that Android developers will need this kind of thing too. Soon enough we got a couple of 3rd libraries to handle it, just look on and understand we’re getting into crowded space here. The most popular ones are probably , and . AndroidArsenal page ORMLite GreenDAO DbFlow Creating a Model There are two main ways to define the mapping between your objects and the tables in Java: some DSL + code generator (like what GreenDAO is using), or using annotation (like ORMLite, DBFlow and most of the libraries). Although I’m not a big fan of annotations, I must say the later is an easier solution. These why it’s no surprise that the Android team chose to go with this approach, so simple data model looks like this: @Entitypublic class User {    @PrimaryKey    private int uid;    @ColumnInfo(name = "first_name")    private String firstName;    @ColumnInfo(name = "last_name")    private String lastName;    // Getters and setters are ignored for brevity,    // but they're required for Room to work.    //    // (Author note: please go and switch to Kotlin)    // (Author note #2: ok maybe you should wait a bit)} As in any other library- you can set a custom name for the table or the columns, you can choose to index some stuff and specify relationships between models. The API To interact with the data models, we use DAO- Data Access Object. So nothing new from Google here also. For each model, we need to declare a DAO with CRUD operations. Every library covers the main functionality and offers kind of the same sets of features. while most of the ORM libraries using some in-code query builder, Room doing something nice and let you declare your queries in slick SQL formatting. BUT For example, here is how you’ll do a simple query for specific users in each one of the platforms: //Room:@Query("SELECT * FROM user WHERE age > :minAge")public User[] loadAllUsersOlderThan(int minAge);//DbFlow:List<User> users = SQLite.select()                         .from(User.class)                         .where(User_Table.age.greaterThan(minAge)                         .queryList();//ORMLite:List<User> users = userDao.queryBuilder()                          .where()                          .gt("age", minAge)                          .query();//GreenDAO:List<User> users = userDao.queryBuilder()                          .where(Properties.Age.gt(minAge))                          .list(); On the one hand- it’s cleaner and most of us familiar with SQL syntax, but on the contrary, you’re losing some of the power of your object mapping (no autocomplete, and you need to remember the object’s table). Live Data The Room library is playing nicely with the other architecture components Google announced, specifically with . So you can easily be notified (with or ) about changes in your data, and you do not need to worry about updating your data in real time. Live Data live queries RxJava This is great, and I feel this is one of the strengths of Room. However, I believe that this kind of behavior can also be achieved with existing libraries by adding another layer on top to handle all changes. (I edited the article and added the Live Data section, thanks to comment) Zhuinden Performance Reading and writing to the database is an expensive IO operation. If you’re working with lots of entities in your app, it might be a bottleneck. That’s why GreenDAO and DbFlow are heavily investing in performance ( ). it might even get ugly some times I decided to check how Room performs in relation to the others, so I take the GreenDAO benchmark (I looked on too, but I felt it’s too biased), and added Room. You can see the source code . Raizlabs benchmark here I compared the results to the libraries discussed in the post. I ran all tests on an emulator and took the average of each library results (I’ll attach the full results of each library, so you’ll able to take a closer look). It is a simple, fast setup benchmark, and I didn’t analyze the results too much. From first looking at the results- you can see that Room has no advantage in any aspect of performance over the other libs. While making small operations one by one- ORMLite has it’s own advantages, when moving the bigger scales- DBFlow and GreenDAO obviously win (because the caching they use). Summary Google did a fantastic job by taking a step forward to help developers architect their apps better. The last components that Google introduced are right in place and should help each one of us write better code in less time. BUT, choosing to deliver ORM solution, instead of adapting one, is something that I do not understand. I would expect that the team will take an existing solution that works, or even just recommend one ( ). another like what they are doing with Retrofit If you liked this post click the ♡ bellow. As a writer it means the world. If you want Medium to tell you about new posts click the Follow button. Full reports: PerfTestDbFlow-1by1.tsv PerfTestDbFlow-batch.tsv PerfTestNotNull-1by1.tsv (GreenDAO) PerfTestNotNull-batch.tsv (GreenDAO) PerfTestOrmLite-1by1.tsv PerfTestOrmLite-batch.tsv PerfTestRoom-1by1.tsv PerfTestRoom-batch.tsv Originally published at shem8.github.io on Jun 2, 2017.

RaftLabs

raftlabs.co

11-50 employees

Since 2017

COMPANY RANKING

RAFTLABS

EVERGREEN INDEX #8595

RaftLabs WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!

RaftLabs

raftlabs.co

11-50 employees

Since 2017

COMPANY RANKING

RAFTLABS

EVERGREEN INDEX #8595

RELATED COMPANIESRANK

STORIES ABOUT RAFTLABS

RaftLabs WIKI

Apply to get your Tech Company News Page live on HackerNoon.com today!