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Hire a Freelance iOS Developer
iOS work carries a constraint no web project has: Apple reviews your release. A freelance iOS developer is paid partly for Swift and partly for knowing what App Review will reject before you build it.
What a freelance iOS Developer actually does
These are the engagements that come up most often. If your project does not resemble any of them, say so explicitly in your brief — it usually means you need an adjacent skill instead.
- Build native apps in Swift and SwiftUI for iPhone and iPad
- Implement in-app purchases and subscriptions with StoreKit 2
- Handle push notifications, background refresh, and offline persistence
- Prepare submissions and resolve App Review rejections
- Modernise legacy UIKit or Objective-C apps
What it costs in 2026
Hourly ranges seen across global freelance marketplaces. Use them to sanity-check a quote rather than as a target — a well-specified project frequently costs less at a higher hourly rate than a vague one does at a lower rate.
Entry level
$30/hr
Building experience. Good value on well-defined, low-risk work with review.
Mid level
$60/hr
Can own a feature end to end and will tell you when your plan is wrong.
Specialist
$120/hr
Deep experience, architecture decisions, and work where mistakes are expensive.
Fixed-price quotes are usually the better structure for work you can describe precisely. Hourly is safer when the scope will genuinely change as you learn — but agree a cap in writing either way.
Tools and technologies to expect
You do not need to understand these. You do need to see them appear naturally in a candidate's answers rather than only in their profile keywords.
Before you hire: a short checklist
Most bad freelance outcomes are decided before any work starts. These four checks catch the majority of them.
- 1 Ask for App Store links. Shipped apps are the only real evidence in mobile.
- 2 Confirm they have been through App Review rejections and know the common causes.
- 3 Agree from the start that the developer account is yours, not theirs.
- 4 Check whether they can also handle the store listing and screenshots.
Questions worth asking in the interview
You are not testing whether you can follow the answer. You are testing whether the answer is specific, whether it comes from experience, and whether they are comfortable saying "it depends" and explaining on what.
“What are the most common reasons apps like this get rejected?”
“How do you handle a user who subscribes on one device and opens another?”
“SwiftUI or UIKit for this app, and why?”
“How do you keep the app working when the device is offline?”
Warning signs
None of these are automatically disqualifying, but each one deserves a direct question before you commit money.
- Nothing live on the App Store
- Wants to publish under their own developer account
- No plan for handling review rejection
Mobile Development services available now
Listings currently published in this category on AMFreelance.
Frequently asked questions
How much does an iOS app cost?
A focused native app with a backend already in place typically runs $8,000–25,000. Apps that need their own API, payments, and real-time features commonly exceed that.
Native iOS or cross-platform?
Native when the app depends on platform features, performance, or a polished feel. Cross-platform when you need both stores covered on one budget and the app is largely screens over an API.
Who should own the Apple Developer account?
You. Always. An app published under a contractor's account is very difficult to recover, and this is one of the most common and most damaging mistakes in freelance mobile work.
Related skills
Projects described as needing a iOS Developer often turn out to need one of these instead, or as well.
Ready to start?
Browse published services with visible scope and pricing, or describe your project once and let freelancers come to you.