Svetlana ShevchukRecent research by PWC indicates that most businesses want to attract top-tier talents and then find ways to keep them. This is one of the top concerns that companies’ HR departments have worldwide. Likewise, many companies around the world have invested in different hiring models.
As with all software engineers, if you want to hire a React Native developer, it isn’t easy. React Native is a prevalent open-source mobile app framework, leading to extremely high demand for professionals.
Many different solutions promise you to help hire a top-tier React Native developer quickly, efficiently, and without spending a fortune on the flip side. For this reason, we have created a detailed guide to include every model you can follow when hiring an engineer.
We will analyze how you can use the differences in the average salaries of engineers and the different employment types in your favor. By the end of this article, you will have every piece of information needed before hiring a dedicated React Native developer.
Table of Contents
Is React Native popular? How does this popularity influence the hiring process?
React is the most popular framework amongst all APIs when it comes to building applications with the JavaScript programming language. Even though most people confuse React.js with React Native, these are two entirely different platforms.
React Native is a well-known platform that allows programmers to build cross-platform mobile applications, while React.js is a JavaScript library. Thus, if you need to create a dynamic, high-performing mobile app, React Native is simply the best platform to do so. According to Stack Overflow, React is the second most popular framework amongst developers. 42.62% of the engineers mentioned React is the framework they will learn next.
Unfortunately, this means that the demand for React Native developers is enormous. This hits the market and makes development rates rise every year. In the table below, we collected an average cost of involving a Senior React Native Developer for a one-month project in 2023.
| Average monthly payment to Senior React Native Developer | Extra costs for the company | Hiring costs | |
| In-house hiring in the US | $14,000 | Taxes, bonuses, non-financial benefits, office rent, and support | HR costs, job promotional ads |
| Staff augmentation via YouTeam | $9,000 | YouTeam commission | YouTeam does candidates’ sourcing and assists with interviews for free |
| Freelance contractor on Upwork | $8,000 | Upwork commission | Managers’ time for candidate sourcing, screening, and interviewing |
Sources: Glassdoor, YouTeam, Upwork
However, the situation is not critical. There are specific tactics your business can follow to hire a top-tier React engineer. Let’s have a look at those different solutions.
React Native developer hiring options
Hiring developers in-house remain the #1 way to involve specialists in React Native projects. Companies like this engagement model because it’s safe and well-known, consequently, decision-makers have a better understanding of how the hiring process works. But it is no longer your only way to go.
It has been more than one decade since other models were developed based on geography and the type of employment. Let’s explore all those models separately by analyzing their pros and cons.
Hiring a React Native developer: Solutions based on the type of engagement
Apart from your choice based on geographic parameters, you can also hire React Native devs through four different collaboration types: in-house software development, freelancing, staff augmentation, and outsourcing.
Engagement types: Hiring an in-house developer
We already mentioned that in-house hiring is the traditional way of scaling a team. By hiring an in-house React Native engineer, you add a member to your front-end development team and provide a monthly salary.
Although this means that you hire an enthusiastic professional in your business, this is also the most expensive employment type. To be more precise, when hiring an in-house full-time employee, you have to pay every worker’s benefit, financial and non-financial.
If you still decide to go with in-house hiring, we recommend starting your search by posting your job on Angel.co as it’s the #1 website that startups choose for their candidates’ searches.
Engagement types: Hiring a freelancer
Freelancers are an excellent solution for those looking for a temporary employee. By hiring a freelancer, all you have to do is pay them for the job done. You can easily find a freelancer for your upcoming React Native project via online platforms such as Upwork, Freelancer, and Toptal.
Although freelancers are an affordable solution, many companies complain that they usually face delays and cancellations. Thus, this is a great, affordable solution for quick tasks but not ideal for a big React project management.
Engagement types: Hiring dedicated React Native developers via staff augmentation
Like freelancing, staff augmentation is a temporary collaboration model. And like in-house hiring, staff augmentation is a way to involve a full-time dedicated engineer to work solely on your project. However, with staff augmentation, you don’t have to worry about delays or cancellations (unlike the freelance case) and don’t need to care about benefits and other parts of employee motivation (unlike in-house hiring). Apart from that, this model is safer than freelancing and much more affordable than in-house hiring.
All you have to do is choose high-quality React engineers from a development company and sign an outstaffing agreement. There are numerous trustworthy dev shops. Just do research and check their rating and customer review on platforms like Clutch and G2. Don’t forget to ask for case studies proving the dev shop has had a positive experience with a project similar to yours.
Another way is hiring developers with the help of YouTeam. This can save you time as we have already vetted and partnered with reliable development companies from Eastern Europe and Latin America. Thus, if you need a trustworthy partner to help you find the best developer for your project, staff augmentation is the best temporary hiring model. And with the help of our platform, you can get the first candidates sourced in 48 hours.
| Minimal Rate | Maximal Rate | Average Rate | |
| Junior React Native Developer | $25 | $46 | $32 |
| Middle React Native Developer | $32 | $85 | $39 |
| Senior React Native Developer | $45 | $130 | $47 |
Source: YouTeam
Browse 500+ Dev Teams Available for Hire
Engagement types: Outsourcing development services
If you need to get the job done without being fully involved in the web development process, software outsourcing is probably the best possible option. In outsourcing companies, you can hire the whole team, including PMs who will coordinate the working process, UI/UX designers that will take care of the user interface and all visual elements, React Native app developers, and QA engineers to test all possible bugs and user experience. Whether you need a native iOS or native Android app, or you haven’t decided yet—outsourcing gives you the flexibility to choose from your IT partner talent the exact team you need.
Hiring a React Native developer: Solutions based on geography
Suppose your company needs to hire a programmer to build a React Native application. In that case, you have three different solutions based on geography: you can either hire someone locally, hire a nearshore engineer, or choose an offshore one.
Hiring a local engineer: Usually, this is an option for companies that want to hire developers in-house. There are numerous places to find a professional if you choose to hire locally, from online job boards such as Glassdoor to hiring through your HR services, tech conferences, or hackathons.
Hiring nearshore or offshore engineers: Choosing to hire a remote engineer is a cost-saving alternative to local hiring. This option is perfect for companies residing in countries with high living costs. Just think of it. For US startups hiring a top-notch engineer locally is a challenging and almost impossible task. They have to compete for talent with the world’s top tech companies. But if they try to hire top-performing engineers from Mexico or Ukraine, their chances are way higher. The same level of developers’ experience and expertise, but so different market situations, make offshore development more affordable.
But do more affordable developers in countries like Ukraine or India have the advanced skills you request for your upcoming React Native projects? Let’s answer this question with facts.
How much does it cost to hire a dedicated React Native developer?
When it comes to hiring a React Native developer nowadays, it is essential to understand that you are no longer limited to your local market. Thus, exploring the differences in the developers’ average income is crucial.
For this article, we have gathered those salary differences globally and translated the following income amounts into US dollars.
North and Latin America
As with most developers, React Native developers in the US have one of the highest average incomes worldwide. According to Glassdoor, a React developer in the US earns around $96K per year. On the flip side, Latin American countries have much lower average salaries for pretty much every job.
The same situation applies to the React developers’ average income. To be more precise, a front-end React Native developer in Mexico earns around $40K per year. Thus, due to their inexpensive living cost, countries like Mexico provide more affordable engineers. Let’s have a look at the average income in Europe.
| Country | Junior Developer, $ | Middle Developer, $ | Senior Developer, $ |
| Mexico | $29,000 | $32,000 | $83,000 |
| Brazil | $18,000 | $56,000 | $93,000 |
| Costa Rica | $14,000 | $44,000 | $75,000 |
| Uruguay | $12,000 | $47,000 | $86,000 |
| Colombia | $15,000 | $33,000 | $58,000 |
Source: Glassdoor, Indeed, PayScale
Europe
In Europe, we have enormous income differences between Western and Eastern countries. For example, in countries like Germany and the UK, where the living cost is higher, the developers’ base income is higher. On the other side, Eastern European countries like Ukraine offer lower average salaries to React engineers.
More precisely, as of 2023, the React developers located in the UK have an average income of $78K yearly. Likewise, software engineers in Germany earn up to $77K per year. Oppositely, Ukrainian and Bulgarian React engineers located in the Eastern part of the continent make around $30K and $50K, correspondingly.
| Country | Junior Developer, $ | Middle Developer, $ | Senior Developer, $ |
| The UK | $41,000 | $77,000 | $91,000 |
| Germany | $45,000 | $67,000 | $85,000 |
| Czech Republic | $27,000 | $58,000 | $74,000 |
| Poland | $25,000 | $56,000 | $89,000 |
| Ukraine | $18,000 | $30,000 | $66,000 |
Source: Glassdoor, Indeed, PayScale
Africa and Asia
As with countries like Ukraine, most countries in Africa and Asia have relatively small salaries. To be more precise, React developers in India have an average income of around $15K, and a software engineer in South Africa earns $48K per year.
It becomes evident that Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe are the most affordable places to look when hiring a developer. Thus, let’s dive deeper into how these average incomes can benefit your company.
| Country | Junior Developer, $ | Middle Developer, $ | Senior Developer, $ |
| India | $7,000 | $12,000 | $32,000 |
| Pakistan | $6,000 | $13,000 | $16,000 |
| China | $23,000 | $51,000 | $75,000 |
| Japan | $30,000 | $45,000 | $89,000 |
| Philippines | $11,000 | $16,000 | $35,000 |
| South Africa | $24,000 | $46,000 | $81,000 |
| Egypt | $5,000 | $14,000 | $21,000 |
| Kenya | $7,000 | $12,000 | $24,000 |
Source: Glassdoor, Indeed, PayScale
How can knowing these average salaries help your company?
If we answered this question twenty years ago, our answer would be completely different. However, due to the rapid popularity growth of hiring models like outsourced mobile app development and staff augmentation, your company isn’t limited to the local pool of talents anymore.
Thus, you can now hire a top-tier React Native engineer from across the world and work efficiently on your application development process. For this reason, we have gathered the different options you have when hiring a developer abroad.
Average salary, in this case, is a baseline given for comparative reasons. Think of it as a starting point to compare your hiring options. Here are some examples:
- The average salary is always lower than the final amount you will pay for an in-house developer with this salary [as you need to count taxes, benefits, and so on];
- The average salary is always lower than the average salary of a senior developer [as a senior developer is superior to an average one];
- The average salary is always lower than the rates offered by an outsourcing company [in the last are already calculated taxes, benefits, and so on];
- The average salary shows how the job market of one country is more expensive than the job market of another country.
Comparing the React Native Developers’ expertise: the US vs. Europe vs. Asia
According to Hackerrank research, countries like Ukraine not only have great software developers but, in many cases, those developers have better IT scores than more expensive engineers from countries like the US. To be more precise, Ukrainian developers had a fantastic score of 88.7% across Hackerrank’s challenges, which gave Ukraine 11th place on HackerRank’s scoreboard. On the flip side, US developers ranked in 28th place and Indian engineers at 31st place. It becomes evident that many countries like Ukraine, Bulgaria, or Mexico provide top-tier, affordable developers.
For this article’s purposes, we have also created a table to examine some other crucial hiring parameters (time convenience and English proficiency).
| The US | Ukraine | India | |
| Yearly Salary | $120K | $48K | $30K |
| Time Convenience | Perfect for the US and Europe. | Perfect for Western European countries and the US. Big time differences with Australia. | Big time differences between European countries and the US. Suitable for Australia. |
| English Proficiency | Native | Intermediate to High level of English | Basic to Intermediate level of English |
| Skills | Ranked at 28th place | Ranked at 11th place | Ranked at 31st place |
Where to find React Native developers?
Here is the list of job boards and communities dedicated exactly to React Native:
- We love React Native
- Reactnativejobs.com
- React Native developers at YouTeam
- React Native contributors on GitHub
- React Native Jobs on Twitter
- React Native Community on Facebook
Why is YouTeam the best company to hire React Native developers for your business?
If you want to hire a top-tier React developer via staff augmentation, YouTeam is simply the best way to go. Let’s see all the reasons why:
- Unlimited options: With YouTeam, you can find the best dev individuals and companies in no time. Our company has vetted the most professional, affordable developers from Eastern Europe and Latin America.
- Hire top-tier developers: Although our engineers are not freelancers, the YouTeam platform allows you to have the final decision when it comes to the hiring process. By interviewing as many developers as you need, you can check their skill sets and find the best React developer for your company.
- There are no hidden costs for our clients: If you choose to hire a React developer through YouTeam, the sourcing and interviewing process is free.
- Numerous good reviews from previous clients: In our platform, you can check all the good reasons why YouTeam is the best choice for you. Most of our clients fully trust our vetting process and choose to stay with YouTeam after trying our matching service.
What should you ask when interviewing a React Native engineer?
No matter if you choose to hire a React Native developer via staff augmentation or outsourcing, platforms like YouTeam allow you to interview their vetted devs before you make your choice. So, what types of questions should you ask when interviewing a React Native developer?
- Hard skills: You should always make sure that the interviewee has the technical skills you are looking for. Therefore, you can ask questions about their previous experience. Asking questions about React (i.e., the framework’s features, creating a cross-platform app through React Native, functionality questions, etc.) will help you verify a candidate’s hard skills.
- Soft skills: After examining an interviewee’s skills, you should ask questions about their cultural fit and background. It is equally important to ensure that each candidate is a great team player who will fit perfectly into your company.
Conclusion
Since React Native app development has become the most popular way for programmers to create a modern android or iOS app with the help of this framework, finding and hiring an engineer with years of experience has become hard. For this reason, we analyzed all the hiring alternatives your business has and concluded that hiring a developer to work remotely on your projects is the most intelligent solution.
Countries like Ukraine provide top React Native developers who prove to be both experienced and affordable. In the end, we explored why YouTeam is simply the best partner for those of you who want to hire a React developer through staff augmentation.
Artem Vasin
