Software Development Companies

How We Evaluate The Top Software Development Companies

We have evaluated every highly ranked company in great detail to bring you the ones that keep up with the newest trends and have vast experience in building user-friendly, working software. We considered multiple aspects such as the service focus and the types of software product development, their skills and technologies, customer satisfaction, and customer support. Read on to find out more details.

Website Visit

A company’s website is the base of our evaluation. Once we land there, we learn about their history. A company with at least three years of experience can do a lot more than a newly founded startup. However, we should note that although we appreciate the developers that have been around longer, we always value depth over the length of experience, which brings us to the next point.

Our next step involves skimming of the software company services after which we dive deeper into their expertise by checking the company’s portfolio and case studies. Beyond taking note of the most notable clients, we assess their approach and whether they are able to align the final product with the clients’ goals. 

Furthermore, we gain insight into the company’s focus industries as most of the companies specialize in a certain niche, like gaming, SaaS companies, or healthcare software development companies.  The companies listed here will always be able to make good suggestions, point you in the right direction, and expand your vision in a productive way within those niches. Their experience can produce invaluable advice an equally successful, but less informed, company might lack.

Finally, we consider the company’s client focus. The majority of the candidates on our list work with small to mid sized clients, with only a small number taking on enterprise software development. We consider it important to choose a company that has plenty of experience with businesses of a certain scale since they will be able to devote enough attention to the specific needs of each client. To ensure this, we conducted interviews with clients and companies themselves to make sure they treat all of their customers like VIPs. Also, we made sure to clearly indicate it in the table so you can easily shortlist and find a match.

Company Service Focus

One way to classify software – and its development – is based on the purpose they are to serve. Below are the four types we observed in our methodology to determine a company’s service focus.

• Custom software – developed to meet the specific needs of a business or a client;
• Commercial software – developed to meet the perceived needs of a potential market;
• System software – developed separately and underlines the programming process;
• Embedded software – developed to be integrated with the building of a physical product, e.g. elevators, power suppliers, etc.

The most sought-after type of service, by far, is custom development. The chances are, you are also looking to hire for this type of service, likely within a more specific industry focus, such as healthcare or gaming. In that sense, the vast majority of software development firms on our list are ones that offer custom development as a service.

It encompasses a variety of subsets such as web-based software development and mobile app development. While closely related, all of them are substantially different. That said, in the paragraphs below, we’ll break down the details of how we evaluated companies offering these types of custom development.

Custom Software Development

Custom software is the best way to go if you want to stay in control of the process and keep in touch with the way your vision is technologically enhanced throughout the entire SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). Once you have it, you don’t have to worry about being burdened with unnecessary features that only add to the cost and the overall complexity. 

Companies that create custom software offer an infinitely better experience to users than ready-made solutions. If you’re doing a “facelift” of your own legacy software, hiring a custom software development company can reduce the processes that previously took days or even weeks by as much as 50% or more, and human error can be dramatically reduced, bringing in a substantial increase of revenue. 

If you’re building software for third-party users, the best software development companies should be able to leverage market research and build easy-to-optimize software that will scale over subsequent years and evolve with the ever-increasing business demands. Even though custom software is more expensive than a simpler, off-the-shelf solution, it’s more cost-effective in the long run. 

Software Development Across Platforms

Desktop Application Development
 

The final product of desktop app development is the kind that requires users to download and install it before using it. The software is otherwise inaccessible in-browser. The operating systems like Mac, Windows, and Linux offer the richest user experience, dictated by the software’s immediate responses. When reviewing these developers, we paid special attention to user experience and speed.

Mobile Application Development

As the case is with desktop software, these apps have to be installed in order to be used as well. They run on a mobile OS, like Android, iOS, and Blackberry. Another benefit of this type of apps is that they’re accessible on the operating systems’ app stores. This not only enables easy download access but also every time you release a new feature or an update, the app users will be notified. The lack of screen space compared to web-based and desktop apps make building user-friendly mobile apps a challenge. So – as part of our custom methodology devised for app development companies – when evaluating companies that develop mobile apps, we put special focus on their UI and UX design capabilities.

Web Application Development
 

Web-based software is also very popular because these apps run online and can be accessed via a browser. There is no need to download an app in order to use it, and it can be easily updated. The development consists of front end (client-side) and back end (server-side) programming. When ranking companies offering this type of service, we assessed them against the criteria we developed for the evaluation of the best web development companies.

In-Depth Analysis of Core Capabilities & Specialties

Taking a step further, we try to uncover the core capabilities of each software development company. For our evaluation, how they do things is as important as what they offer to do. Below, you can find the details about the skills and technologies we assess. 

Programming Languages and Frameworks

Some of the most commonly used languages are JavaScript, Python, Ruby, PHP, CSS, and SQL. Each language has its pros and cons and different types of businesses need different types of software development and, therefore, different languages. We made sure to include software development companies with teams proficient in different languages that can readily respond to unique business needs and budgets.  

When it comes to software development frameworks, Django, Phalcon, CakePHP, Zend, and AngularJS are the most used ones. With their technical properties and features, these frameworks ease the development and integration of various components of a project. As with the programming languages, we included companies whose teams are agile enough to develop software within different frameworks.

Software Architecture

Software architecture represents a structured plan which incorporates a set of aspects important to a software product. The software architects are concerned about the performance, reliability, fault tolerance, and scalability of the project, as well as the organization of the system, how its parts will communicate with each other, the guidelines and implementation of technologies, the potential risks, and more. We expect the best software development companies to know the importance of solid software architecture.

Quality Assurance

Software QA’s goal is to make sure that the engineering process is continuously improved to produce products that meet the defined standards (CMMI, Six Sigma, ISO 9000) and live up to the customer’s expectations. The SQA encompasses all aspects of the development life cycle from defining requirements to coding. Its techniques include, but are not limited to, auditing, code and design inspection, functionality and performance testing, standardization, and compatibility testing.

Since QA is extremely important in software development, we make sure the companies listed here implement this practice on every project. Moreover, we focus on the timing of the software testing—the sooner the better. Firms that start developing test plans before they start writing code were our priority.

UX Design

The customers don’t care about technology – they want a great experience. Choosing the best software development company that puts user experience in the center of their planning and building process will ensure you establish long-lasting relationships and get the most out of your software investment. We look for companies that invest time and resources to get to know the client’s users and then leverage that information to create unique, intuitive design.

Project Management

The best software development companies have robust project management. This involves planning, resource allocation, scheduling, tracking, and delivering software projects. These projects have a unique lifecycle which requires multiple sets of testing, customer feedback, and updating. Considering the need to embrace the constant change, Agile is the best project management method. We made sure to list the companies whose team successfully keeps iterations moving forward, regularly demonstrates progress and shares feedback, and continuously improves the process.

Additional Services

Throughout our research, we’ve discovered that some of the software development companies offer additional services. We analyzed them to ensure they meet the high-quality standards and gave those companies a boost in our rankings.

Cloud Computing

Cloud developers are agile in building software that powers cloud storage apps such as OneDrive, GitHub, and Amazon Web Services. They use different, cloud-based tools and resources and the most reputable among them have one of the following certifications: AWS Certified Developer, Microsoft Azure Certification, GCP Certification, or DevOps Certification. We assessed the software companies which offer cloud computing services against our customized evaluation methodology for finding the best cloud consultant companies.

Data Science

Large data sets are useless to businesses unless they know what to do with it. That’s why data scientists are valuable assets to software development companies. They are experts in pulling out actionable insights which enable businesses to get to know their customers and competition. The companies which offer such services are evaluated in accordance with the methodology we’ve employed when choosing the best big data companies. 

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence enables businesses to deal with data in large systems. Many of the best software development companies offer AI services for customers who want to apply smarter solutions to their business challenges and get the most value. Besides checking whether such developers have hands-on experience with Python, Apache Spark, Hadoop, Tensorflow, and PyTorch, we make sure that they meet the criteria we’ve developed to examine the best AI companies.

IoT Development

More and more software developers have embraced IoT and claim to be able to offer robust, secure, high-quality, scalable, and user-friendly solutions. Since only a meticulous approach to an IoT software issue will result in efficient development, we check whether the company’s team stays on top of the programming languages and hardware platforms, as well as whether they are aware of the best tools and methodologies for designing, prototyping, and scaling up the IoT software product. In other words, we employ the detailed criteria we’ve designed to pick the best IoT development companies.

The Team’s Skillset

To make sure you’ll be working with the best in the business, we extended our evaluation to the team’s skillset:

Communication & Collaboration

We conducted interviews with the software development companies on our list to make sure they have a good ear for customer plans and requests and can carry out thorough pre-development discussions.

However, we stayed away from companies who tend to agree with all clients’ requirements. Realistic requirement analysis and knowledge of the industry is key for creating a successful, productive plan but making big promises for undoable things is a sign of poor quality.

Software Support & Maintenance

Support and maintenance are two essential aspects for any top software development company aiming to assure long-term quality. We assess the team’s ability to proactively handle maintenance to ensure the software is bug-free and secure.

Transparency

Frequent communication within the team and with clients significantly reduces the possibility of misunderstanding. That’s why every company we listed lets is known for letting both the team members and clients in on their progress regularly.

Adherence to Deadlines

The manager usually coordinates with the developers to set reasonable deadlines for certain features. The deadlines set by a software development firm need to conform to the product delivery timelines. Even though the development process usually lasts longer than expected, we made sure the listed companies’ rough completion estimations are realistic.

Client Feedback, Reviews, Ratings, and Interviews

There’s a large number of software development companies that brag about their years of experience in the field but can’t showcase their efforts. That’s why we took the time to investigate customer satisfaction, online presence, and every other aspect of each company’s public image and reputation.

Beyond checking the company reviews and testimonials on their website, we went through several third-party review sites to find out what the past clients and employees have to say about their experience about the specific company.

In-House vs. Outsourcing Software Development Companies

All of the companies listed are located in the US; however, some work with outsourced teams. We are here to assure you that, either way, you don’t have to worry. We thoroughly checked team communication and organization tools in every company, and both will serve your needs equally well.

The company and team communication aspect were important for overall company evaluation. Software development is a long, complex, and demanding process, and team cooperation dramatically affects the entire production. Some companies also hire freelance software developers, but this is no challenge for a well-connected team.

Value for Money

A successful company is able to adopt the right mechanism to cope with the continual developments in technology and offer exceptional products and services to clients. The most successful companies that develop software today are empowering their customers to achieve greater heights and excel in a world where excellence is a minimum requirement. With 66% of all large projects running past their deadlines, the cost of software development can be unpredictable. That’s why we insist on transparency and quality, early-stage communication.

Remember, going cheap with this is not the answer. Instead of focusing on a particularly expensive or cheap solution, we chose the cost-effective ones.  With increased efficiency comes higher value. We observed the price per defined result, keeping your long-term software revenue in mind.

How Do I Choose the Best Software Development Company for Me? 

Having reviewed the info we shared with you, take a look at this step-by-step guide to choose the company that best suits your needs.

What Are Your Goals and Objectives?

Before you start shortlisting the companies, define your goals. Clearly identify the problem you need to solve and determine the main goal that the software product should meet. Once you do that, it becomes easier for you to communicate with the team during the initial interview and see whether they can respond to your needs and vision.

What Is Your Business Size?

Some software development companies only work with big enterprises, while others are specialized in small to midsize companies. Make sure to choose the perfect combination of personal service and resources. If you have a large project, don’t go for a company that is too small to handle your big project. Similarly, avoid the company that is too large to add a personal touch in your project or feels too large to deal with your small project.

What Is Your Budget?

We’ve listed a minimum project cost for every company. Be aware that, as we have already mentioned, project costs tend to change as the project advances. Still, the companies we’ve listed make realistic, reliable business plans, so this is the best you can count on.

What Is Your Industry Focus?

What’s your software niche? Ecommerce development? A sports equipment purchasing application? A web-based service that helps people fulfill certain educational needs? Do you plan on cashing in on a particular software development industry, or are you just looking to revitalize your legacy software? We listed industry focus information in our table to help you take all this into consideration while choosing the right company for you. We strongly advise you to hire a business that has worked in your niche before to leverage their experience and expertise.

The Takeaway

Once you know what software services you want to acquire and are clear on the above-listed specifications, you are free to choose any company listed in our table. Check which of the software development companies listed here work with your business size and which ones have previous experience in your particular niche, and you’ll be halfway there. Decide on your pricing preferences and find the right company size according to your project and you’re good to go. Enjoy the process, and your fast, user-friendly, working software.