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iOS App Development
An iPhone app is really two projects: building the app, and getting Apple to approve it. The second one is what surprises people — the signing setup, the privacy questions, Sign in with Apple, the rejection that happens once. As a freelance iOS app developer I do both, and the backend behind the app too.
When to hire an iOS app developer
- You need an iPhone app and want one person who handles the app, the backend and the store.
- You have a web product and iOS is the next obvious step for your users.
- An app is stuck somewhere between TestFlight and the App Store, or keeps getting rejected.
- You need iPhone-specific features done properly: Sign in with Apple, push notifications, in-app purchases, home-screen widgets.
- You have designs, or a Figma prototype, and need it built.
How I build an iOS app
- 01
Agree what version one actually is
The smallest app that is genuinely useful, in front of real people, teaches you more than another month of building. I’ll push for that first.
- 02
Flutter, with iOS-native behaviour where it matters
One codebase that can later ship to Android too, with iPhone-specific work where it matters: Sign in with Apple, push notifications (Apple’s APNs), in-app purchases (StoreKit), permission prompts, and the small details that make an app feel native on iPhone.
- 03
The backend too
Most apps are a thin client over an API. I build that as well — auth, data, notifications — so there is no second contractor to coordinate.
- 04
TestFlight, review, App Store
The signing setup (certificates and provisioning profiles), the App Store Connect listing, the privacy questionnaire, screenshots, and the rejection that usually happens once. Included, not an afterthought.
How long it takes
A focused first version is usually three to five weeks, depending on the requirements — how much backend it needs, and whether payments or offline support are involved. App Store review adds a few days each round. Tell me what it needs to do and I’ll give you a real number.
Questions about this
Can you build something from scratch?
Yes — mobile, web and AI-powered products. It's a different engagement from a rescue: we start with what the thing actually needs to do, and I'll usually push to get a small version in front of real users before building the rest. If your idea is better served by something simpler than what you're picturing, I'll say so.
Flutter or native — which is better for my iOS or Android app?
For almost every startup app, Flutter: one codebase that runs on both iPhone and Android, with native code added only where a platform genuinely needs it — payments, notifications, sign-in. Fully native (Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android) makes sense when the app is the platform: heavy graphics, AR, or deep OS integration. If your app is screens over an API — most are — Flutter gets you to both stores faster and cheaper, and it doesn’t feel like a compromise.
Do I need an Apple Developer or Google Play account before you start?
Not before we start, but you will need them before release, and they should be in your name, not mine — that is what keeps you in control of your app. Apple’s costs $99 a year and Google’s a one-off $25. I’ll tell you exactly when to set each up and walk you through it.
Can you help with deployment?
Yes, and it’s one of the most common reasons people get in touch. "It works locally" is almost always an environment, configuration or build problem rather than a code problem, and those are findable.
Your AI-built app doesn’t need another prompt.
It might need an engineer.
If you’ve spent hours asking AI to fix the same problem and you’re going in circles, stop fighting the code. Send me what you’ve got — I’ll figure out what’s wrong and tell you what I’d do next.
No cleanup. No judgment. The messy version is usually the useful version.