Top 10 Mobile App Development Companies in 2021–2022
Mobile apps have become integral to business, leisure, and everything in-between. But when more than 100,000 Android apps and over 30,000 iOS apps are released each month, then your app has to fight hard to breakthrough.
The mobile app development team you choose to work with has a massive steer over how successful your digital experience will be. The best mobile app development companies come with years of experience, a portfolio of well-known work to validate their skills, and the respect of industry experts and assessors.
If you’re looking for a mobile app development company to work for, then Clutch’s top mobile application developers list is a great place to start. In this guide, we’ll outline the top 10 based on Clutch’s criteria — helping you decide which agency to approach.
The 10 best mobile app development companies to work with right now:
Here is a quick snippet of the top 10 mobile app development companies in 2021!
- hedgehog lab
- STRV
- ArcTouch
- Fueled
- Atomic Object
- Miquido
- Droids On Roids
- techahead
- Hyperlink InfoSystem
- Cheesecake Labs
1. hedgehog lab
hedgehog lab kicks off the list of top mobile app development companies in 2021.
hedgehog lab — quick stats:
- Founded in 2007
- Headquartered in Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $100–149
- Minimum project size: $75,000+
This team based in Newcastle, London, and Boston has worked with big names like Deliveroo, Microsoft, and Santander, with 60% of the business’s focus going toward mobile app development.
Within their remit of mobile specialties, hedgehog lab has experience with Android and iOS, smart tv apps, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, and artificial intelligence.
Keen to learn a bit more about how hedgehog lab operates? Check out this article all about their approach to User Experience Research (UXR).
2. STRV
STRV has developed 400+ apps since 2004.
STRV — quick stats:
- Founded in 2004
- Headquartered and fully based in Prague, Czech RepublicLos, Angeles, USA
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $100–149
- Minimum project size: $50,000+
Having been going a little longer than both hedgehog lab and Fueled, STRV has now expanded its operations to 4 countries: the USA, England, Prague, and the Czech Republic. Most of the company’s 190+ staff members are situated in the Prague office, while the sales team can be found on America’s west coast.
According to Clutch, the majority of STRV’s mobile work involves social and eCommerce solutions, although they do also share travel and lifestyle case studies over on their website.
As well as being recognized in Clutch’s ‘best of’ list, STRV has also been named in the 2018 Financial Times 1000 & 2016–2017 Deloitte Fast 50.
3. ArcTouch
ArcTouch comes in at number three of Clutch’s best mobile app development companies in 2021.
ArcTouch — quick stats:
- Founded in 2009
- Headquartered in San Francisco, USA
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $50–99
- Minimum project size: $25,000+
ArcTouch’s tagline — “trusted by the Fortune 500 and startups since 2009” — shows in its client base, where half of their work is for enterprise companies of $1 billion revenue or more. Today, the ArcTouch team works on mobile development projects spanning digital content, travel and lifestyle, eCommerce, and more. They have also developed their blockchain capabilities, with both Ethereum and smart contracts.
You’ll find ArcTouch offices in San Francisco, New York, and Florianópolis, making them neighbors of Cheesecake Labs (hey guys!)
If you’re interested in enterprise software development in particular, take a read of ArcTouch’s insights ‘How to develop enterprise apps employees will love’.
4. Fueled
Fueled is a mobile app development company working across several sectors, including consumer products and services, advertising and marketing, plus arts, entertainment, and music.
Fueled — quick stats:
- Founded in 2007
- Headquartered in New York, USA
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $100–199
- Minimum project size: $75,000+
Fueled recently started working with both React Native and Flutter for mobile app development — although the majority of its work to date has been for iOS — iPhone (55%) — and boasts big names like MGM Resorts, Estee Lauder, and The New York Times in its client list. The company’s website also promotes its capabilities within enterprise application development, suggesting that no development project is too big for Fueled.
Fueled has offices in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. And you can read what the Fueled product team thinks about other high-profile apps by checking out their semi-regular ‘App Teardown’ series, like this one assessing Peleton.
5. Atomic Object
Atomic Object is the development agency for people who “give a sh*t”.
Atomic Object — quick stats:
- Founded in 2001
- Headquartered in Grand Rapids, USA
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: Undisclosed to Clutch
- Minimum project size: Undisclosed to Clutch
Atomic Object has an even spread of experience between automotive, consumer products and services, and educational digital products. Looking at mobile specifically, the majority of their work is done for the financial sector, followed by education — across iOS and Android.
Both of Atomic Object’s offices are based out of Michigan — in Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, but they serve a “national base of clients”. The company promises that “whatever your market, we’ll help you change the status quo and set yourself apart from the competition”.
Check out Atomic Object’s blog to witness their brand personality and way of thinking.
6. Miquido
Miquido is another full-service mobile app development company based out of Poland.
Miquido — quick stats:
- Founded in 2011
- Headquartered in Krakow, Poland
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $50–99
- Minimum project size: $25,000+
Miquido is a Google Certified Agency, offering clients a range of development services including Android and iOS development, AI, voice assistants, and chatbots. Headquartered in Poland’s second city, Krakow, the team is also scattered across Europe: in London, Berlin, Vienna, and Zurich.
Of the other mobile app companies covered so far in this guide, Miquido has a more prominent focus on future-facing technologies, including machine learning and computer vision. In fact, 10% of their service line focus is dedicated to AI today.
You can read more about Miquido’s approach to artificial intelligence development over on their blog.
7. Droids on Roids
Jokey name aside, Droids on Roids is a keen competitor for the best mobile app development company in 2021.
Droids on Roids — quick stats:
- Founded in 2011
- Headquartered in Wrocław, Poland
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $50–99
- Minimum project size: $50,000+
Droids on Roids maintains an almost sole focus on mobile app development, with only 10% of its focus going towards other projects. Within this work, the company utilizes both React Native and Flutter (with a 50:50 split) and has helped businesses like Unilever and Nestlé to bring digital experiences to market.
Now that the team also has offices in London and San Francisco, the Droids on Roids workforce has had to learn a thing or two about distributed working. You can get a better sense of how they make that possible by reading this blog post here.
8. TechAhead
TechAhead is a human-centric dev shop based in India and California.
TechAhead — quick stats:
- Founded in 2009
- Headquartered in Uttar Pradesh, India
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $25–49
- Minimum project size: $10,000+
Three-quarters of TechAhead’s energy goes toward mobile app development, and they have a keen focus on hybrid and cross-platform development too (React Native, Flutter, Xamarin). In terms of past and current clients, you’ll recognize a few names: Disney, AXA, and American Express.
TechAhead has a presence in both the USA and India, providing clients “unique onshore and offshore value propositions with highest integrity and transparency”, according to their LinkedIn.
In TechAhead’s view, React Native is the future of mobile app development. Follow the link here to find out why.
9. Hyperlink InfoSystem
A first for this top 10 list: Hyperlink InfoSystem is an IT software solutions provider based in Ahmedabad, India.
Hyperlink InfoSystem — quick stats:
- Founded in 2011
- Headquartered in Ahmedabad, India
- 250–999 employees
- Average hourly rate: < $25
- Minimum project size: $10,000
The most sizable mobile development company on this list so far, Hyperlink InfoSystem has a big team of 350+ developers and designers working out of the USA, UK, Canada, France, UAE, and Australia. On the whole, the business focuses mostly on information technology solutions, but its mobile clients come from gaming, social, and eCommerce sectors too.
Hyperlink InfoSystem promotes its capabilities in AI, blockchain, VR, wearables, and other emerging tech. To date, the company has delivered over 4000 mobile apps and had 80 million downloads on the Apple and Google stores.
10. Cheesecake Labs
Last but not least, there’s Cheesecake Labs (yours truly!).
Cheesecake Labs — quick stats:
- Founded in 2013
- Headquartered in Florianópolis, Brazil
- 50–249 employees
- Average hourly rate: $75–99
- Minimum project size: $25,000+
Rounding off the Clutch Top 10 Mobile App Developers in 2021–2022 is us, Cheesecake Labs. We’re a software design and engineering partner with years of experience in a range of industries: consumer products and services, energy, finance, hospitality and leisure, media, retail, and eCommerce… to name just a few.
Our expert team of developers is well versed in both native and cross-platform mobile development — we can turn out hand to both the Flutter and React Native frameworks, for Android and iOS. You’ll find us at home in Brazil, as well as Stateside in San Francisco.
Clients love us for our “structured project management style”, flexibility, communication, and commitment (you can read more client reviews here).
We’re thrilled to be counted within Clutch’s top 10 as this, plus our growing portfolio of high-profile work, helps cement our status as one of the best mobile developers around.
If you want to know more about working with Cheesecake Labs, you can get in touch with us today. You can also learn more about how we approach design and development challenges over on the blog.
FAQs
Q1. How much does it cost to build an app?
The total cost of building a mobile app will depend on what the app includes as well as the simplicity and complexity of what is being designed and built. Next-gen technology, such as voice search and AI, will add to the cost — but they may also pay back in terms of value!
Your mobile app development partner will provide an estimate for the work with most app MVPs ranging between $75,000 to $200,000 based on the complexity and platforms.
Q2. What programming language is used for mobile app development?
Developers have a range of languages to choose from for mobile app development including Java and Kotlin for Android apps and Swift or Objective-C for iOS. There are also several languages that support hybrid or cross-platform development, such as JavaScript and Dart.
Q3. Which language is best for mobile app development?
The programming language your digital partner will use to build your app will depend on a number of factors: what your app needs to achieve, how many platforms and which ones are being targeted, long term development plans, what technology is right for what you want to achieve, who your target audience is (and where they are located), and which languages they are most skilled in, to name a few.
At Cheesecake Labs, our preferred mobile development languages are Kotlin for native Android development, Swift for native iOS development and JavaScript (React Native) or Dart (Flutter) for cross-platform builds.
Q4. What are the advantages of building a native versus cross-platform app?
In native development, you will build one app for Android and another for iOS. The benefits here can include better control over the UI, leading to a better user experience and higher performance.
However, native development also requires a separate code base for each app — and that can bring some drawbacks. It might make you slower to market and it might cost more in the long run too.
We unpack the pros and cons of native versus cross-platform development in this blog here.
Q5. How do I start developing mobile apps?
The journey of developing a mobile app starts with ‘Product Definition’. This is where you’ll take an early-stage app idea and explore its value and relevance to potential users and the marketplace. You may choose to work with a digital partner to complete this initial stage of development, or you can keep it in-house. The best mobile app development partners will always include an element of Product Definition in their process anyway.
