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How to Hire a Dedicated Front-end Development Team: Overview, Process, Tips

Vladyslav Mozghovyi

Vladyslav Mozghovyi

Content Writer

Maksym Babych

Maksym Babych

CEO

14 min

Are you a startup founder, tech entrepreneur, or product manager looking to hire dedicated front-end developers? If yes, then read through this guide to learn how to hire a dedicated front-end development team.

We’ll discuss the following in this article:

  • What is a dedicated front-end development team?
  • Type of frontend developers,
  • Reasons to hire a frontend dedicated development team,
  • When hiring a frontend development team,
  • Cost of hiring dedicated frontend developers,
  • How to hire frontend developers,
  • And more!

If you’re looking for some practical strategies you can use in your startup today, go right to the bonus infographic.

Let’s dive right into the crux of the article.

What is a Dedicated Frontend Development Team?

A dedicated front-end development team is a workforce of programmers working for an outsourcing agency to convert UI/UX web designs per business and technical requirements.

As with every dedicated team, these front-end developers are hired to work for a contracted period on an app or web development project, usually on a full-time basis.

Without hiding the fact that frontend development is related to backend development, the main difference with backend developers is that front-end developers directly define what the user sees.

Common tech stacks used are angular JS, react JS, HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

You now have some understanding of what the front-end development team means.

What a dedicated interface development team is

We’ll discuss things to look out for before hiring a dedicated backend development team next.

What Types of Frontend Developers are There?

Front-end developers can be classified based on their seniority. An average startup has three types, these are

  • Junior developers,
  • Middle front-end developers,
  • Senior front-end developers.

Each is distinctly different from the others. Let’s describe what they entail:

Level Description
Junior frontend developers These developers are entry-level engineers that assist other development team members in converting UI/UX designs into intractable software.

The cost of hiring these developers in the US ranges between $41-$60/hour.

These programmers have 0 to 1 year of programming experience, and can only create basic software.

Most junior developers only understand the basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript. They charge the least of all front-end developers.

Mid-level front-end developers Unlike junior developers, this set of programmers can independently create software, particularly those of average complexity.

Mid-level frontend programmers have about 3 years of experience, and experience with tech stacks like Angular.js, and React.js.

The cost of hiring this type of developer ranges between $61-$80/hour.

Hiring mid-level skill-set developers is not advisable for highly complex solutions, and may require the tutelage of senior developers in some instances.

Senior frontend developers These are highly knowledgeable developers with over 5 years of experience.

They understand the nitty-gritty of user interface implementation, and the development processes it requires.

Usually, it’ll cost between $100-$200/hour to hire a senior front-end developer.

Senior frontend programmers understand most javascript frameworks for frontend development and can offer deep insights to guarantee a great user experience.

Senior developers provide leadership to other engineers and are crucial in front-end code debugging. However, it’s expensive to hire this type of developer.

Now that you know the types of frontend developers you can hire.

The available types of frontend developers

Let’s answer the question.

Why should I hire dedicated front-end developers over other options?

For a better understanding of the reasons for hiring, I suggest you read on.

Why Should You Consider Hiring a Frontend Dedicated Development Team?

A dedicated frontend development team offers top-notch, and highly scalable expertise in the most cost-efficient way possible.

Here’s a breakdown of reasons to opt for a dedicated team as opposed to other options:

Reason 1. Added Experience and Training for the In-house Team

Hiring a dedicated frontend team exposes your in-house workforce to top talents. Their very presence amongst your in-house team provides added experience to your workforce.

How? Most outsourced developers have years of experience solving a multitude of problems for different industries.

As such, they’ll likely have a knowledge base that’s better than your in-house team.

Also, by interfacing with the top-of-the-class front-end developers, your internal team can improve their coding styles and knowledge of programming languages and frameworks.

They may also hold sessions of training for your workforce.

Reason 2. Flexible Collaboration Model

Front-end dedicated development team offers a great deal of flexibility. Most software development agencies allow users to adjust developers’ composition at will.

This prevents you from keeping coders that you do not need.

Reason 3. They’re Easily Scalable

As with every dedicated team, startups can increase their workforce in a matter of days.

This level of scalability is primarily because most dedicated teams have more than enough programmers, enabling quick onboarding.

Reason 4. They’re Cost-Efficient

Perhaps you have a restricting budget that can’t make you hire the best from your home country, then opting for an offshore dedicated team is the best alternative.

As the hired team of specialists counts the hours worked on the project and unlike the in-house team, you won’t have to overpay for possible sick days or vacations.

Also, there is an opportunity to choose a team, depending on the suitable price category of the country.

For example, the cost of hiring dedicated web developers in the UK is 2-3 times more expensive than hiring a team in Ukraine. 

Reasons for hiring a dedicated front-end development team

Now that you know why hiring dedicated front-end developers is a great option, another question you may have in mind is: “When should you hire a dedicated front-end development team?”

Let’s discuss this!

When Should you Hire Dedicated Frontend Developers?

A dedicated front-end development team model helps startups create highly scalable interfaces.

You should consider hiring a dedicated team for your frontend task for the following reasons:

Reason 1. You Lack Frontend Experts in Your Team

You should hire a dedicated team of front-end programmers when you lack in-house developers to convert UI/UX prototypes from your design phase.

Since they’re experienced and readily available, they’ll guarantee that workflow is not disrupted, and the interface will be of high quality.

Reason 2. You’d Like to Create a Product from Scratch

You’d need to hire front-end developers if you want to create web applications from scratch.

Either for web or app development tasks, a dedicated team of frontend engineers from the right outsourcing company ensures that both the technical and business needs of the product are met.

Additionally, they can create an ideal product development cycle and adopt a failure-proof step-by-step development process based on their expertise and experience for the best quality deliverable.

Reason 3. You Require Frontend Developers for Project Support

Perhaps you need additional staff to support your internal team in creating the user side of the solution through all phases of product development.

A front-end development team can help your staff create very complex functionality that your internal team doesn’t know about.

The time when a dedicated front-end development team should be hired

Now that you better understand what dedicated frontend developers do, and when they’re important to hire, let’s discuss the cost involved in hiring them.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Dedicated Front-end Development Team?

The cost of hiring a dedicated development team with 4 frontend developers varies from $70,000 to $180,000 per month.

The exact cost depends on several factors. Among those factors are team type, the complexity of the project, tech stack, and location.

Each factor influences cost in diverse ways, thus, we’ll discuss extensively each.

Cost According to the Project’s Complexity

Another factor to consider is the complexity of the software. What do we mean by complexity?

The complexity of the front end of software refers to the number of user roles, entities, requirements, and characters in the interface of the platform.

Complexity can be characterized based on simple (websites with basic functions), and highly complex (websites with multiple features).

Here’s the price attached to each of them:

Complexity Price, $
Simple app 60,000
Complex app 120,000

Check the spreadsheet below for a proper understanding of how both app types differ:

Simple App Complex App
A simple app is a mobile application with basic features to perform minimalist activities.

Quite often, these features can be created by junior or mid-level developers as they’re generic to most platforms.

Common examples of features in simple apps are homepage, forms, customer support, map integration, user registration, login, etc.

A complex app is a mobile application with a range of highly sophisticated features.

In most cases, you require the service of senior-level programmers with in-depth knowledge of the technology.

Common examples of features in complex apps are multi-factor authentication, payment gateways, P2P transactions, etc.

For a proper and precise cost calculation, you’ll have to factor in several developmental services, and the time needed to put everything together.

Some things that determine complexity are:

  • Features involved,
  • The development process,
  • The quality assurance phase,
  • The number of 3rd party APIs needed to be implemented,
  • Implementation of compliance laws like GDPR or HIPAA,
  • The number of teams involved.
The cost of hiring a dedicated team of front-end developers, depending on the complexity of the project

Up next, we’ll discuss team type, and explain how it influences the cost.

Cost According to Team Type

Another way to cost your price tag on frontend development service is by team type. The types of development teams available are:

  • In-house developers,
  • Local development agencies,
  • Freelance frontend developers,
  • Outsourced teams.

Here’s the cost comparison of the team types:

Team Type Cost, $ (Hourly, per developer)
In-house developers, US $100
Local development agency, US $140
Freelancers $50
Outsourced developers, Ukraine $80

Confused about what each team type entails? Let’s educate you on it and tell you its pros and cons.

  • In-House Development Team

As the name suggests, these front-end programmers work as full-time developers in the startup and take orders from the company, including what tech stack and development tool to use.

The startup is solely responsible for providing users with an enabling environment, and any operational costs they’ll need to achieve their goals.

Pros Cons
  • They’re readily available to make needed corrections.
  • They help prevent the company’s secrets from leaking.
  • They have a much better understanding of the startup’s expectations since they regularly interface with team members.
  • In-house software engineers don’t require an upfront payment.
  • Its most significant demerit is its hidden costs. If you’re using this model, you can use our outstaff calculator to know the hidden costs in your business.
  • Startups have to ensure that workforce operations align with labor laws.
  • It encourages multiple wastages as payment has to be made for unproductive periods.

Due to its expensive nature, it’s not the best option for startup owners. Thus, we can provide you with alternatives.

  • Local Development Team

This type of team is software development agencies that are within your home country. For example, a startup based in the US partnering with a US-based organization.

This can be a very expensive option for startups located in the US, Canada, Australia, and the US.

Here are the pros and cons of this option:

Pros Cons
  • The development agency and the startup are not limited by cultural, legal, and time zone differences.
  • The cost is exorbitant for startups based in most high-income nations.

This option is quite unrealistic for startups operating from high-income nations. Another option to consider is a freelance team. Let’s discuss this.

  • Freelancers

Freelance frontend developers are independent programmers who undertake projects on a per-contract basis and do not work full-time for any organization.

They take random projects within their niche and can undertake full-stack development at request.

Here are the pros and cons of this option:

Pros Cons
  • Freelancers have experience creating different types of software. As such, they provide reliable insight that guarantees top-notch interfaces.
  • Freelancers can turn down your task, regardless of its complexity, in favor of a more profitable one.
  • There’s a high risk of a data breach as freelancers don’t ensure top-notch data privacy.

One other option to consider is an outsourced team. Let’s help you understand this.

Outsourced Team

Outsourced frontend development teams are a workforce of remote developers based offshore with the primary aim of helping startups implement frontend designs.

This teaming type allows you to hire offshore developers that can guarantee high-quality deliverables in the most cost-efficient way possible.

As with other options, this team type also has its pros and cons. These are:

Pros Cons
  • This offers startups in high-income nations an opportunity to hire top talents across the globe at a more cost-effective price.
  • Scalability is seamless as outsourcing agencies have an abundance of front-end programmers.
  • It offers top-notch workforce flexibility.
  • Time zone differs–creating an impediment to communication.
  • Cultural differences may cause conflict when you hire a web development team offshore. This is very popular amongst startups in the UK, US, Canada, and outsourced teams from Asia or Africa.
The cost of hiring a dedicated front-end development team, depending on the type of team

You now know the different ways of costing front-end developers per team. What else? Let’s consider the cost per location.

Cost According to the Team’s Location

The home country of the software development team affects the cost of hiring programmers. Generally, it costs more to hire coders in high-income nations compared to average and low-income ones.

For example, the cost of hiring a dedicated front-end development team is 2x-3x more expensive than in Ukraine.

Some Ukrainian development companies have better coders than the US.

Here’s a price comparison of how each team stands based on location:

Location Cost, $(Hourly rate, per developer)
United States $120
Eastern Europe $60
South America $55
Ukraine $60

From the perspective of the cost-quality ratio. Ukrainian outsourced teams are the best alternative as their developers rank among the best in the world.

Although there are cheaper alternatives like India and Latin America, those countries often churn out codes that rank low in quality and scalability.

The cost of hiring a dedicated front-end development team, depending on the team's location

Cost According to Tech Stack

Front-end web developers’ hiring cost differs by tech stack. Generally, programmers charge more per the complexity of the technology.

For example, react js developers charge more than those coding with the normal HTML, CSS, and javascript programmer.

Likewise, typescript coders charge more than javascript programmers for this singular reason.

Here’s a cost comparison of charges per tech stack:

Tech Stack Price (Hourly)
React JS–Latest web development environment $116-$120
HTML, CSS, Javascript–Legacy Languages $64-$100
React Native, Kotlin, Swift–Mobile frameworks $111-$122
The cost of hiring a dedicated front-end development team, depending on the technical stack

Now that you know the potential cost of hiring a dedicated team of front-end programmers, what are the steps to begin hiring?

Let’s educate you on how to hire a dedicated software development team for your front-end project.

How to Hire a Dedicated Front-end Development Team?

Before signing an agreement with an outsourcing agency, you should ensure the team can offer you the deliverable you expect by vetting them appropriately.

The steps to hiring a dedicated frontend team are:

Step 1. Finding a dedicated frontend team,

Step 2. Choose the most ideal team,

Step 3. Clarify all requirements

Let’s help you make sense of how to fulfill each of those steps.

Best Sites to Find Frontend Developers

You can find a dedicated front-end development team offline and online. Online sources include freelance platforms, search engines, business listings, etc.

You may also request help within your connections. Let’s help you shed light on any of this.

Below is a table depicting where you can find and hire developers for your startup:

Where to find a dedicated team Details
Freelance sites You can find dedicated teams on freelance platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Truelancer, Toptal, etc.

These platforms customize their search engine to enable users to find specific talent based on a soft skill or programming language.

For example, say you want a programmer with knowledge of HTML5, node.js, and SaSS.

You can simply type those keywords into the search field and a list of programmers with those skills will be displayed.

Business listings Business listings are platforms that provide information about businesses in a specific niche.

It lets past users review the services those organizations provide, helping prospective customers understand their effectiveness.

A popular example of a business listing platform is Clutch.

LinkedIn This is a platform where professionals connect, and provide work-based information. See it as a social media for professionals.

Here, you can also search for coders per development skill.

Job boards These are platforms used by companies to advertise a needed talent. A common example of a job board is Glassdoor.
Your network Reach out to business partners and professionals in your circle of influence for referrals.

Over 50% of roles in the tech industry are filled by referred candidates. So you might take this seriously.

Once you’ve found a set of preferred dedicated development teams for your web or mobile app development project, then choose a preferred one.

Search options, where you can hire a dedicated team of interface developers

Let’s educate you on that.

How to Choose the Most Ideal Dedicated Team

Once you’ve identified some dedicated teams that seem to have the capacity to ensure top-notch user interaction on your platform, sort them by doing the following:

  • Conduct independent research,
  • Communicate with your team,
  • Agree to a blueprint.

Let’s dissect things further for better understanding:

Steps Involved Description
Research about the development company Don’t just hold their words for it. Research the development company to ascertain that their claims match their capacity.

Vet for tech stack suitability, experience, reviews, and also their portfolio of projects.

Also, check out for soft skills like the ability of coders to abide by agile practices established by project managers.

Your interview questions should be construed to find out the following:

  • Ability to use markup languages,
  • Their dedicated team structure,
  • Ability to adapt interfaces with search engine optimization requirements,
  • For web apps, developers should be able to code in Vue js, react js, or any other new tech stack for web pages.
Hold briefs with team members Discuss with team members and the management on preferred dedicated teams.

Highlight their strengths and discuss how to mitigate impediments like time zone differences, international payment, and engagement model.

Agree to a common blueprint The last step here entails meeting with the development agency and agreeing to a common blueprint.

Ensure that both sides agree to a mode of communication, how feedback is handled, expected deliverable, project timeline and milestones, development workflow, and payment structure.

Steps to help select the most ideal dedicated front-end development team

Once both parties are in uniformity, the next step is formalizing agreements.

It’s one of the things to do before concluding your hiring process.

Things to do Before Hiring a Frontend Development Team

After choosing a preferred dedicated team, your legal team should formalize agreements made by drafting a contract that binds both parties. This is extremely important before hiring an app development team.

For utmost secrecy, you may request that the outsourcing agency sign an NDA.

Here’s what this stage entails:

  • Draft a Transparent and Detailed Contract

Ensure that the contract includes every subject that both parties agree on. This contract should clarify the following:

  • Expected deliverables,
  • Expected milestones and deadlines,
  • Warranty conditions,
  • Credit limits and periods,
  • Agreed rate,
  • Payment schedule.

Another document that you may find important is an NDA.

  • Sign an NDA

Safeguard your app idea from duplication, to avoid giving adversaries a competitive advantage by signing an NDA.

The NDA is a piece of document that prevents the dedicated team of frontend developers from disclosing information about your product.

This is particularly important as a competitor may be using the same outsourcing agency.

Steps to take before hiring an front-end development team

Looking to Hire a Reliable Frontend Team for your Software Development Project?

Now that you have a detailed understanding of how to hire a remote team for client-side functionalities.

You should get started by hiring front-end developers from us.

We’re a top-of-the-class software development agency with an all 5-star review on Clutch. You may also surf through our project portfolio for a sneak peek of our past projects.

Bonus Infographic

For your convenience, we decided to prepare a summary of our detailed guide. You will learn how to hire a dedicated frontend development team in a few steps and how much it will cost.

Brief description of hiring a dedicated interface development team

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