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Choosing a Mobile Development Partner in Australia

January 21, 2026•6 min read•Michael Ridland

Hiring a mobile development partner is a significant decision. Get it wrong and you've lost months and substantial budget. Get it right and you've gained a capability.

After years in mobile app development, here's how to choose well.

What You're Actually Buying

Mobile development partners offer different things:

Pure development: You design, they build. Works if you have strong product capability.

Design + development: They design the experience and build it. Better for companies without mobile UX expertise.

Strategy + design + development: They help define what to build and why. Useful if you're not sure about mobile strategy.

Ongoing partnership: Build, launch, and continue evolving. Best for apps that are core to your business.

Know what you need before you shop.

Technical Evaluation

Cross-Platform vs Native

This decision affects your partner search.

Native (Swift/Kotlin): Best performance, full platform capabilities, separate codebases Cross-platform (React Native, Flutter): Shared codebase, faster development, some compromises

For most business apps, cross-platform (especially React Native) is the right choice. Native makes sense for performance-critical apps (games, media) or when you need cutting-edge platform features.

Ask potential partners about their approach and why.

Technology Stack

A good partner should be able to explain:

  • Why they chose their stack
  • Trade-offs they've made
  • How they handle updates and changes
  • What happens if you want to switch later

Red flag: Partners who insist on their stack without understanding your requirements.

Code Quality Practices

Ask about:

  • How they structure code (architecture patterns)
  • How they ensure quality (code review, testing)
  • How they handle performance (monitoring, optimisation)
  • How they manage dependencies (security updates)

Ask to see code samples from previous projects (with client permission).

Offline Capability

Many apps need to work without connectivity. Ask:

  • How do they handle offline scenarios?
  • What's their experience with data sync?
  • Can they show examples of offline-first apps?

This is especially relevant for field service apps and enterprise mobile apps.

Portfolio Evaluation

Relevance

Look for projects similar to yours:

  • Similar industry (they understand the domain)
  • Similar complexity (they can handle the scope)
  • Similar user type (consumer, enterprise, field workers)

A portfolio of consumer social apps doesn't prove enterprise capability.

Depth

Ask detailed questions about portfolio projects:

  • What was your specific role?
  • What were the biggest challenges?
  • What would you do differently?
  • Is the app still in use? Can we talk to the client?

Vague answers suggest limited involvement.

Longevity

Are the apps they built still running? Still maintained? This indicates quality and ability to build sustainable solutions.

Process Evaluation

Discovery Process

How do they start projects?

Good signs:

  • Questions before proposals
  • Interest in business goals, not just features
  • Time spent understanding users
  • Realistic about timelines and costs

Bad signs:

  • Quoting before understanding requirements
  • Jumping to solutions
  • Promising everything you mention
  • No questions about budget or constraints

Communication Approach

During the sales process, they're trying to impress you. This is the best they'll be.

Evaluate:

  • Response times to your enquiries
  • Clarity of their communication
  • Honesty about limitations
  • Proactive updates vs needing to chase

If communication is poor now, it'll be worse when you're a client.

Project Management

Ask about:

  • How they report progress
  • How they handle changes and scope creep
  • How they deal with delays
  • Who your day-to-day contact will be

Meet the people who'll actually work on your project, not just the sales team.

Commercial Evaluation

Pricing Models

Fixed price: You know cost upfront. Risk of scope disputes or compromised quality.

Time and materials: Pay for what you use. Risk of budget overruns.

Retainer: Monthly commitment. Good for ongoing work, less good for one-off projects.

For initial projects, capped time-and-materials often works well: flexibility with a ceiling.

Total Cost

Beyond development:

  • App store fees ($99-299/year)
  • Backend hosting
  • Third-party services (analytics, push notifications, etc.)
  • Ongoing maintenance
  • Support and updates

Ask partners to outline expected ongoing costs.

Payment Terms

Typical structures:

  • Milestone-based (pay on completion of phases)
  • Monthly billing (time and materials)
  • Upfront deposit + progress payments

Avoid paying too much upfront. 20-30% deposit is reasonable.

Intellectual Property

You should own the code. Ensure contracts specify:

  • You own all custom code
  • You have rights to use any frameworks or libraries
  • You can take the code to another developer if needed

This is standard. If a partner resists, walk away.

Red Flags

Promise everything: Real partners say no sometimes.

Outsource without disclosure: Make sure you know who's actually building your app.

No maintenance experience: Building is the easy part. Supporting apps long-term is different.

Dismissive about testing: Quality assurance matters. Partners who minimise it produce buggy apps.

No questions about budget: Good partners help you make trade-offs within constraints.

Can't explain technical decisions: If they can't explain their approach clearly, they might not understand it themselves.

Green Flags

Say no or "it depends": Shows honesty and experience.

Ask about your business: They care about outcomes, not just features.

Talk about trade-offs: Show understanding that everything involves choices.

Introduce the team: Transparency about who'll do the work.

Reference clients you can contact: Confidence in their track record.

Talk about maintenance early: Shows long-term thinking.

Structuring the Engagement

Start Small

Don't commit to a huge project immediately. Start with:

  • Discovery/scoping phase
  • MVP or proof of concept
  • Single feature build

Evaluate performance on a smaller engagement before committing to larger scope.

Define Success

Before starting, agree on:

  • What does "done" look like?
  • How will you measure success?
  • What are the acceptance criteria?
  • How will disputes be handled?

Document it. Reference it during the project.

Plan for Change

Requirements change. Build in:

  • Change request process
  • Impact assessment for changes
  • Budget contingency (10-20%)

Rigid projects break. Flexible arrangements succeed.

Exit Strategy

Hope for the best, plan for the worst:

  • Regular code deliveries (not just at the end)
  • Documentation as you go
  • Knowledge transfer to your team
  • Clear ownership of everything

Our Approach

We've been building mobile apps for Australian businesses for years. We focus on:

  • Honest scoping: We'd rather lose a project than overpromise
  • Technical excellence: Code that's maintainable long-term
  • Business alignment: Features that matter, not features that impress
  • Ongoing partnership: We maintain what we build

We're not the right fit for every project. But if you're looking for a partner who'll tell you the truth and build quality software, let's talk.