How To Build A Marketplace Website

Let’s delve into how to create a marketplace site, how to estimate your budget and what you can do right now to make your service prosperous.

How to start an online marketplace

The process of building a compelling marketplace business consists of a number of stages that can’t be omitted.

Stages to start an online marketplace

1. Research that includes diving into basics of building a marketplace startup: separating the types of marketplaces, your idea validation, choosing the right business model.
2. Planning. Project manager of the chosen team helps you elaborate the specification document with all requirements, wireframes and estimated budget.
3. MVP marketplace development. Based on the project plan, developers implement the product’s functionality.
4. A marketing strategy creation which is grounded in building supply and demand models.
5. Launch and performance tracking

Development: How to build a marketplace website

There are usually two options for how to make a marketplace website:

• Development from scratch
• Development using one of the existing marketplace platforms

Each of these strategies has its pros and cons. If you are limited with a budget of $5,000, you surely don’t want to spend money on design and development from scratch. So, the platform-based development is for you.

However, if you want to build a marketplace website that responds to all your business needs, focus on development from scratch.

Features for an MVP

User accounts, profiles, and settings

The two-sided marketplace website development implies the creation of two kinds of website users: Buyer and Seller (or Service provider and Service recipient) with their specific needs. Among the features that are important for Buyers are simple registration, well-designed navigation, search and filtering, and access to information about Sellers. In their turn, Sellers would appreciate features that let them manage their private and public information, create new offers of products or services.

Search and filters

It should be convenient for buyers to search for goods or services on your marketplace website. So, think over a system of filters (location, price range, etc.) and relevant suggestions.

Real-time chats

Choosing the product or service, buyers usually have some questions to sellers. It’s very important to let them get answers immediately and the best way is instant messaging.

Payment systems integration

Our main task as developers is to ensure complete security for both buyers and sellers, especially regarding payments. That’s why it’s important to implement transparent and trustful payment system like PayPal or Stripe.

Reviews and ratings

After the deal is over, buyers should be able to leave their feedback about it and rate the seller.

How to Make a Messaging App

How to Create a Chat App

• Step 1. Research the market.
• Step 2. Define the competitors of your instant messaging app.
• Step 3. Select relevant features to make a chat app.
• Step 4. Pick the first platform(s) to create a chat app for.
• Step 5. Think through the monetization strategy for your instant messaging app.
• Step 6. Write your thoughts down.
• Step 7. Decide on features for the app's MVP.
• Step 8. Find and hire a reliable developer or software development company.
• Step 9. Share your vision with them.
• Step 10. Work on your messaging app together to achieve better results.
• Step 11. Draw up a marketing strategy and launch it before the app's release.
• Step 12. Publish the app.
• Step 13. Maintain it and continue gradually adding new features.  

How much does it cost to build a messaging app?

	Price in $ (min)	Price in $ (max)
iOS	$28,900 (578 hrs)	$42,600 (852 hrs)
Android	$28,900 (578 hrs)	$42,600 (852 hrs)
Back-end	$26,200 (524 hrs)	$38,400 (768 hrs)
UI/UX design (one platform)	$3,000 (60 hrs)	$4,000 (80 hrs)
Total sum	$90,000 (1800 hrs)	$131,600 (2632 hrs)

Ecommerce Mobile App Development Cost

How much does the ecommerce app development cost in 2018?

First of all, to develop your software we use the Agile approach. This means that you don't pay a big sum for the whole app once. Agile approach implies dividing the whole app development process into short sprints. Each sprint has its pre-specified price at the end of which you receive a fully workable part of your app.

As you may know, cost evaluation concerning software development starts with defining time required for development team to spend on each feature. The more features an app contains and the more complex they are results in more time consumption. The features that take the most time among the others when developing an e-mobile commerce app are:


Ecommerce mobile app's features and development time

Cart as it includes various payments systems integration. Average time on this feature 70 110 hours.
User profile. It contains shoppers' individual data, a profile image, allows to monitor order and payment history. It takes 35 - 50 hours on average.

Main screen that allows to search and filter products. It also comprises of different product lists: all products, watched, last purchased and popular products. Average time on this feature - 30 - 45 hours.
Product details screen that includes photo slider where you can watch a large product photo, rate a product or write your review about it. This page also allows to share products via popular social networks like Facebook and Instagram. Average time on this feature - 20 - 40 hours.

To calculate the total time on developing an e-commerce mobile application and also see a development process structure, it can be divided by different work types:

• Design: 120-200 hours.
• Android/iOS (front-end): 200-300 hours. 
• Back-end development: 130-170 hours. 
• Non-development and meetings: 150-250 hours.

Total development time

So the total development time for building an e-Commerce mobile app is about 600-900 hours. Of course, you can add or remove some features as all of them are fully negotiated. Planning what features your app will contain is very important because it helps you define the features that are mandatory and the ones that are unnecessary. A wise planning requires taking into account user demands, your budget and business goals.

The final step in calculating your e-commerce mobile app development cost is multiplying it by hourly development rates. That's why choosing a reliable software vendor is crucial concerning your app quality and cost. To calculate the cost of every feature on the following image, we've used an average hourly rate for Eastern Europe that amounts to $50.

For instance, you can order a software development from a company from India for ~$25/hour but receive communication problems because of poor language proficiency and mentality differences. At the other extreme is to hire a development vendor from U.S. for $150/hour but overpay a lot of extra finances for it. The truth lies somewhere between those two options, that's why an increasingly number of customers choose to outsource software development to Ukraine.

Among the most significant benefits of outsourcing to Ukraine:

• High qualification of Ukrainian developers; 
• Large pool of IT specialists; 
• Low cost of living and, therefore, lower hourly rates on development; 
• High dedication and responsibility of Ukrainians. Taking orders via outsource allows them to earn more than the average salaries offer in their country.

Cleveroad is ranked among the top 10 outsourcing app development companies in Ukraine. We have successfully developed hundreds of apps, explored a wide range of technologies and made numerous clients happy. Make a first step towards creating your e-commerce mobile app and contact our managers to discuss any detail of your project.

How to Hire iOS App Developers: Salary, Skills & More

To build an iOS app, you'll need to hire iOS app developer working with Objective-C or Swift in Xcode or any other IDE. In this guide, we also cover the vital points you need to learn before you hire iOS programmers.

iOS developer roles and responsibilities

Many fail to understand the full scope of responsibilities that lay on shoulders of iOS developers. In fact, the borders of iOS developer responsibilities go beyond writing code. They take part at every stage of app development from planning and design aspects (wireframing screens, building UI) to testing and publishing the ready-made app to the App Store. In other words, an iOS developer turns the specifications of your mobile application into a working and user-friendly product.

Design awareness is what you should pay a due attention to while looking for iOS developer candidate. The point is, the care for design isn't something that only mobile designers responsible for since developers are also in charge of transferring good experience to final users. That's why among iOS developer key skills should be an experience with both UI/UX, understand their principles, and, of course, be good at programming in Swift or other languages.

Junior, middle, and senior iOS developers

Typically, the versatility of developers depends on their working experience. Respectively, the more projects a developer has worked on, the more complex and diverse tech problems he/she can solve.

In the IT industry, the skills of programmers are divided into three levels: junior, middle, and senior.

Junior iOS developer

This is the entry level iOS developer. In companies, junior developers most commonly work alongside their more experienced colleagues to improve their knowledge and enhance skills. It usually takes a few years for junior developers to level up. 

Middle iOS developer

After working on a variety of complex projects, developers move from beginners to a more advanced level that's called middle or mid level iOS developer. Here they have more independence in terms of working on projects.

Senior iOS developer

Senior iOS developer is an experienced developer that has seen tons of code and released dozens of apps. Typically, such developers not just code and design an app, but deal with testing, integration of APIs, and security matters. 

Taking into account everything mentioned above, you're willing to choose whether your project requires less or more experienced iOS software engineer. The key factor here is your budget, as salaries for each level may vary dramatically. The project complexity also matters since the junior developer will barely cope well with a large project having a complicated business logic behind.

iOS developer skill set

The iOS developer technical skills largely depend on your project. However, the general skills needed for iOS developer should look something like this:

• Proficient with Swift or Objective-C programming language;
• Knowledge of Xcode IDE;
• Experience with APIs like Cocoa Touch and UIKit;
• Understanding of RESTful APIs;
• Understanding of UI and UX design standards;
• Knowledge of Apple Human Interface Guidelines;
• Experience with Metal or OpenGL;
• Advanced knowledge of code versioning tools like Git;
• Knowledge of Core Data framework. 

iOS developer requirements

How to Create Virtual Assistant App

How to Create Virtual Assistant Apps like Siri and Google Assistant?

Talking to artificial intelligence is no longer science fiction. Living in your phone, watch,
 or TV, it can search the web, plan daily routines, or even control domestic machines
 on your behalf. The ecosystem and scope of activity of virtual assistants are growing
rapidly. A day when we won't be able to live a normal life without them is certainly not
far off.

The onrush of technology definitely opens new opportunities for users but it also can
be challenging for developers. In the near future, the availability of a voice interface in
an app may be considered a par for the course. The applications that don't use this
may end up with the short end of the stick. So, if you want to keep up with the times,
give careful consideration to smart voice innovations. We are going to inspect some
aspects of the mobile apps development supplied with virtual assistants right away
and talk a bit about how to create AI assistant.

So, if you want to keep up with the times, give careful consideration to smart voice
innovations. We are going to inspect some aspects of the mobile apps development 
supplied with virtual assistants right away.

Read how to build your own personal assistant

WWDC 2018: Key Highlights

Apple has a real talent for inspiring with the newest awesome software technologies. Each WWDC and WWDC 2018, in particular, is long-awaited by Apple users, developers and regular people who want to stay tuned to software innovations. All of them go to this conference to discover how their user experience will move to the next level.

WWDC 2018 isn't the exception. In particular, augmented reality and machine learning that sounded like a fantasy not long ago, are increasingly entering our lives. Hence, Apple has updated their ARKit for building AR apps and Core ML for building Core ML models. iOS apps on MacOS are going to be available in 2019 since Apple is developing a iOS-Mac porting solution. Siri shortcuts will anticipate your following activity to suggest the app that will fulfill your request. There also many more upgrades for each Apple's OS.

It's okay if you've missed the WWDC 2018 live stream. In another case, you may want to sort out the messy information quickly presented on it. Then you're in the right place. So let's start.

IOS 12

Apple has paid a decent amount of attention to AR compared to the other iOS 12 features . It's not a coincidence since the company is betting big on the AR, foreseeing that it can change the modern technologies dramatically.

ARKit 2.0

ARKit 2.0 greatly improves ARKit models capabilities

When Apple released the ARKit SDK in September 2017 they provided tools for AR software development to everyone. Now they announce the ARKit 2.0 for iOS 12 containing several major improvements:

Cooperative AR experience

It's a hot feature that allows several users to share a single virtual surrounding. Finally, the dream of gamers is becoming increasingly real. Lego has already showcased a virtual playground where players can communicate with the merged virtual and original reality.

Ultimate Guide to Using Offshore Software Development Services to Build a Product

What is offshore software development?

Put simply, offshore software development implies transferring work to a third-party service provider. In other words, an interested party entrusts implementing a part of the project (or the whole project) to a competent software service provider or a person. There is a vast of tech-related services that can be outsourced. Mobile app development services, web development, UI/UX design etc.

If you want to delegate the whole project to a third-party, you should rather look for a full-cycle software development company than a freelancer. That's because the freelancer may have a good expertise in one or several related areas (e.g. programming). While to create, let's say a mobile app, you need at least one skilled designer, QA engineer, and software developer.

Talking about offshore software development company, you should be ready that its headquarter may be placed somewhere in Eastern Europe or Asia. These are the most popular outsourcing destinations with the lowest pricing on the market and qualified workforce.

If you don't want to cooperate with a firm situated so far away, you may consider a variant of onshore and nearshore outsourcing. Let's consider them in more details:

Offshore software development implies that the headquarter of a company you cooperate with is placed somewhere far away from your native country. As a rule, there is a significant time zone difference.  

Offshore software development model

Nearshore outsourcing means that the company is pretty close to your native country. Respectively, the time zone difference is insignificant or absent at all.

Nearshore software development model 

Onshore outsourcing implies that the company you work with is placed within your native country.  

Onshore software development model

This way, the outsourcing model depends largely on the location of you and company you partner with. If you're from the US and you outsource, let's say, to Ukraine -- it means you use offshore software development services as the time zone can differ significantly. In case you're from Sweden -- it's nearshore outsourcing as the time difference is just one hour and these two countries are close to each other (flight time is about 2 hours).

Offshore software development benefits

First, let's consider the main benefits for you as a customer in case you decided to use offshore development services.

Reduce costs on development

As a rule, offshore software development companies are concentrated in regions with low fees and cost of living. That's the reason why the cost of software development services is lower than in most countries. For instance, in Ukraine you will pay $15-50/h, while in the US this number ranges between $50-200/h, in the UK $50-100/h etc. Besides, many offshore software development companies strive to create the best conditions for their customers and provide certain services at no cost. For instance, at our company, we don't charge money for business analysis & consulting as well as provide free marketing bonuses.

Offshore rates for software development 

Qualified specialists

No doubts, the offshore software development company should be competent. This means it should be placed in a country with a big number of specialists. If you compare the quality of tech specialists in the US or other countries to European ones you won't find any significant differences. For example, there are over 40K of annual tech graduates in Ukraine and this number is growing. Such a wide talent pool is one of the reasons why companies from all over the world open their headquarters and R&D centers in this region.

Scale with ease

Offshore software development model makes it easy for you to scale up and down. Development is a tricky thing and you never know exactly how many developers one or another stage of the project may require. Respectively, if you have too much or little developers involved in a project, it's a matter of a message to solve this problem. This way, you avoid overpayment as well as time-consuming searches of candidates. 

Employees training

Let's say you hire an offshore web development company to help you with a real estate web application. Then, there is no need to waste your time on employees training as your partner company will take care of it. What's more, many offshore software development companies try to form a team in accordance with their employees' expertise in a certain industry.