Hire the best iOS developers

iOS is Apple’s mobile operating system. An iOS developer uses the Objective-C or Swift programming languages to build and maintain iOS applications. They can help you take your mobile app development project from the UI/UX design stage through development, testing, production, and launch. The iOS developer can also help keep your mobile app updated with every new iOS or Swift release.

iOS developer skills are separated into three levels, usually depending on their experience and the complexity of the apps they’ve built. Developers start at the junior phase for the first few years, although the number of apps they’ve developed and the apps’ complexity are far more important when you determine the right developer for your project. After working on more complex projects and alongside more experienced developers, they move to an intermediate phase where they can work on more projects independently. A more experienced developer, which we’ll call a “senior developer”, can not only design and code an app, but they can also handle testing, mobile security, and API integrations.

Here’s a quick overview of the skills you should look for in iOS development freelancers:

• Swift programming language (Objective C for legacy apps)
• Xcode IDE
• Frameworks and APIs such as Cocoa, Foundation, and UIKit
• Bug tracking tools such as Bugzilla
• Version control tools such as GitHub

The first step to determining the cost to hire an iOS developer will be to define your needs. Rates can vary due to many factors, including expertise and experience, location, and market conditions. Learn about the cost to hire an iOS developer.

• Developers will be critical throughout the first phase of app development.

You’ll generally work with your developer to define your concept, wireframe your app, storyboard, design the user interface, prototype, then code your app—setting up any server-side architecture, like databases, along the way. An experienced iOS developer can be a crucial advisor and guide through each of these phases until your app is submitted to the App Store.

• The Model-View-Controller paradigm is a core principle of iOS app development.

 The model-view-controller (MVC) paradigm is a pattern that breaks code down into three core functions—user interfaces (views), data (model), and the software that communicates between the two (controller). It’s also the best way to build a solid iOS app. Learn more about the MVC paradigm in Backbone.js: An MV-Style Framework.

The building blocks of apps are objects, and MVC assigns each object to one of these three functions. Each screen of your app represents a view, a data model controls the content it displays, and the controller manages the flow between the view and the model. MVC is just one of the design patterns developers will use while building your app, but it’s the most central pattern.

• Your app’s development starts with the User Interface (UI).

Once you’ve created a wireframe—a document that creates a user roadmap and an architecture for your app’s information—a UX/UI developer will lay out each screen that your users will interact with in storyboards, known as views. The User Interface is developed with Storyboards and the Interface Builder. This creates the foundation for how your app will work—the interactions between the UI, the database, and the user that make it function. The prototype created will establish a style guide, but it will also serve as a mock-up of the app for the developer to get started on the software plan for the front and back ends.

• All iOS apps are powered by event-driven programming.

The interactions mentioned above are always caused by an event. An event is triggered by a user action, which sends a request, manipulates the app’s data, then sends the response back. Defining the interactions that will drive your app lays the groundwork for all the code that will execute your app’s logic.

• Design patterns are like scaffolding for your app’s building blocks.

A design pattern is an aspect of software design that solves a certain kind of recurring problem, and iOS has numerous patterns to choose from. These patterns provide solutions to everyday coding issues, enabling developers to write code that is more solid, extensible, and easy to edit. Design patterns can be structural, creational, or behavioral and frame up the code that is written in the next phase of your app.

• Now it’s time to build the front and back ends of your app.

The software architecture planning phase happens simultaneously with the UI design, and will often go through many iterations of feedback edits. The developer will ensure whatever design is proposed can be well-supported on the back end, optimized for performance, and can be scalable. Using the Foundation framework and Core Data framework and APIs, a developer will create the model for your app—how data is organized so your app’s controller layer knows how and what to pull, edit, or delete from your database. With Objective-C, Swift, and the Cocoa Touch framework, the controller layer is constructed. A back-end systems engineer—or a developer capable of constructing a back end—is critical in app development, whether you’re building your own back end or opting for a BaaS (Backend as a Service) package.