Finding software developers isn’t trivial at all: sometimes, all you need is some directions from well-known sources. When we’re looking for great projects to collaborate, it’s the same thing. Throughout the last years, we’ve put together a list of directories that might ease the process of finding partners, which we wish had appeared in our research a long time ago:

Research & Review

In this section, you can find sites where companies are evaluated by their partners:

1.  clutch.co:

We already talked about these guys. They’ve set a benchmark on research & review of B2B companies in various sectors, enabling companies to make a profile for them, with interviews and referrals of successful jobs. There’s also a great program for featuring your company at the front page, not to mention their efforts on evaluating the best players on the market.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 55,190 (63,691)

2.   ContractIQ:

ContractIQ has a great reach with its network, not only offering lots of development options as well as testimonials and resources to validate the possible choices. However, a star-voting system isn’t implemented yet, so you’ll probably want to search for validated reviews on the companies.

Update: Ashwin, founder of ContractIQ, send a comment about the post:

“Giovanni, This is a great resource for anyone that’s looking to build apps. Good effort! You’re right about the star-rating (we’ve them but not at the scale that’s noticeable). But what we do instead, is validate by speaking to customers of these dev shops and then match a project with a dev shop or two that’s best suited and stay on for advice till the project gets delivered. In the sense, the value a project owner gets, goes beyond ‘DIY’ star rating based discovery.”

Thanks for sharing with us, Ashwin! Stay tuned on our blog!

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 134,883 (375,291)

3.   www.sourcelysis.com:

Sourcelysis lets users look for companies’ works through a portfolio section. Another point that’s worth highlighting is the Microsoft Sharepoint and .NET company filters, with organizations that work with these services (not that we really recommend these technologies).

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 414,146 (N/A)

4.   recovendor.com:

From what we could learn about Recovendor, they make lists and small reviews with the top companies on the market, for the different niches they represent. That’s it. Those handpicked names are all 5-starred by Recovendor team.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 523,686 (n/a)

Marketplace

There is a plethora of company/projects networks out there, almost all struggling to find their place in the sun. We’ve organized them in a way that you can choose more easily, based on your modus operandi. Here are the labels we’ve come up with:

• With/without embedded message platform: In the researched sites, we’ve found a few of them offering a messaging dashboard to enable partners to discuss about the collaboration. Their goal is to tag along through the process – partially or entirely -, monitoring both parties and, if they’re succesful, getting a cut of the development costs or sales profits.
• Project and/or company driven: Among the websites, there are those who are just listing projects, others focus on the companies and there are some that catalog both.

1. Crew – With message platform + project and company driven:

 

These guys have put together a network of curated professionals for clients whose projects need premium workforce. 15% of the fee agreement is charged for matching up the two parts (the development company and the project owner), but is nevertheless a fair price for gathering both ends of the spectrum. While you can post your project in Crew and expect for a match-up with a good company, you also have the possibility of applying for their group of vetted developers.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 33,385 (27,596)

2. blur –  With message platform + project driven:

While Crew centralizes the communication between clients and companies, blur enables you to do that in your own pace. You can send your project and manage it yourself, as well as subscribe your profile to apply for partnerships. They also have a bigger scope, listing projects from other business sectors like Art and Innovation through Legal and Accounting. Their quote for closing projects is 20% of the earnings.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 50,646 (70,439)

3.  AppFutura – With message platform + project driven:

 

AppFutura is also a good option for both companies and freelancers to send their proposals for projects around the world. It’s less complex than blur, because it is only about mobile application ideas, and the dashboard isn’t as fancy as the others. They don’t have a really strict policy about the applicants, so you’ll probably find some unreliable projects. But it’s still worth the try.

Update: Marc Coll send some clarifications about our remarks: the dashboard’s getting revamped by next month, aiming better notifications and messaging tool! We didn’t say fancy as worse, but simpler (even easier to use), but improvements are always welcome.

Another point is that the project validation on AppFutura is also manual, that is, they examine all sent projects.

And they’re based on Barcelona, home of the Mobile World Congress, we guess that is great for business!

Thanks for the follow-up, Marc! We’ll keep using AppFutura, so stay with us too!

Alexa Rank – Global (US):  55,591 (283,901)

4.  appindex – Without message platform + company driven:

 

AppIndex doesn’t want to get a share of your deals, they’ve made a mobile-app-related directory instead. There are three lists: App Tools, App Monetization Platforms and App Development Companies. Those three are sorted by their subscription plans, in which AppIndex gets its profit – the more you pay, the easier it is to be on the first places on the index. Advertising fees are ranging from $350 to $1000+.

Alexa Rank – Global (US):  143,731 (173,325)

5.  Yeeply – With message platform / project and company driven:

 

Yeeply is a Spanish platform for connecting mobile app projects and developers. They also have a list of developers besides the projects, but the slim-to-none access you have for proposals in the free account (limited to only two and under 2000€) is really hindering. Even so, the competition in Yeeply is still small and it is a promising platform, taking into account that it’s the only European-based one we could find.

Update: Fernando Ballester reached us for more insights on Yeeply. They operate in Spanish, English, German, French and Portuguese and manage a community of over 7,000 developers. Yeeply also curates the projects as if they would develop themselves, contacting clients, seeing if they really need outsourcing, checking if their budgets are realistic, etc.

Thanks for the follow-up, Fernando! Keep checking our blog for more!

Alexa Rank – Global (US):  283,901 (N/A)

6.  TheyMakeApps.com – Without message platform / company driven:

TheyMakeApps is also a company directory, without any messaging platform whatsoever. It’s only for advertising your company and showcasing your works. There’s also its own different packages of benefits, which could include banners and first-page appearances.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 284,039 (482,306)

7.  mobiledeveloper.net – With message platform / company driven:

A pretty simple directory of mobile companies, in which you can send messages directly via website or subscribe your company to appear on the list. There’s a quote request too, but we couldn’t find to whom the requests are forwarded. Not very explanatory, mobiledeveloper.net just requests a tweet about the service to apply with your profile. Lots of companies are using it, though.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 443,574 (1,047,223)

8.  Rabble –  Without message platform / company driven:

 

 

While the name inspires disorder, Rabble is pretty neat. Straight to the point, they aim to represent the entire Asia-Pacific tech market, with a directory of companies and jobs in many sectors. There’s a page for investors too. It’s still isolated on New Zealand’s market, but we hope that’ll change in the future.

Alexa Rank – Global (US):  527,213 (N/A)

9.  AppTank –  With message platform / project driven:

AppTank is another platform for both project owners and mobile app developers, with most of the features of the others. The detail is on their monetization. As a developer, you’re able to bid on projects if you use their internal currency, the credits. You can’t pitch on projects unless you spend a fixed number of credits, which is defined by the project’s budget. It’s innovative, but it could be more expensive than a monthly subscription, if you’re unable to convert the leads into deals.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 915,975 (998,391)

10.  newappidea.com – With message platform / project driven:

The guys at NewAppIdea charge for the ideas, not closed deals. It’s unusual, seeing that there’s no guarantee that someone will embrace the project (or worse: if it’s even a feasible thing!). Even so, there are some nice projects waiting to be pitched in there.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 1,192,071 (N/A)

11.  studiolist.org – Without message platform / company driven:

 

StudioList has about 200 mobile app development companies in its directory, with a free subscription. The main differential was on their monthly interviews, but looks like they’ve abandoned the project a few years ago.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 1,563,817 (N/A)

12.  appopera.com – Without message platform / project and company driven:

AppOpera links mobile devs and projects, but with a closer relationship with the project owner, making sure s/he not only gets a good team but also the best approach for the idea. It’s not a match-up like Crew, but more like an auction: the project owner gets to pick one of the top 4 pitches, all chosen by AppOpera. After making a deal, AppOpera still keeps track of the project’s milestones, checking if everything is going well. For that service, they earn 20% of the project sales and 10% of development costs. Ouch.

Update: Andrew Parker, co-founder of AppOpera, reach us and clarified about their fees: they charge only 20% of the entire sales of the project (i.e 20% of project cost to the developer), not additional 10%, like we thought. Thanks for the heads-up, Andrew, we hope that you keep reading our blog!

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 6,204,823 (N/A)

13. argura.co – Without message platform / project and company driven:

Argura doesn’t have much to show in terms of information. Apparently they haven’t updated their social networks for a while and there’s not much to say about the company. You can make a profile for a project or a developer and wait for Argura to introduce both parties, but they don’t explain carefully how they’ll do it.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 9,059,218 (N/A)

Freelancers

1.  www.elance.com

Elance started in 1999, at first as a software for supporting remote work. Today, it’s a freelance marketplace, where professionals and businesses can connect to each other. It has recently merged with another marketplace, ODesk, reaching a milestone of 10 million freelancers and 4 million businesses subscribed, not only for tech jobs, but also creative ones, such as writers and designers.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 723 (1,571)

2.  www.toptal.com

Toptal is a little different on its dynamics. Focusing on engineers only, it makes a filter within the freelance candidates, assuming the role of creating the bridge between employers and developers. As a high-end recruiter, Toptal relieves both engineers and clients from all the unreliability of freelancing: underpaying (or not-paying-at-all) clients and poor quality devs. It’s the only one that we’ve found complaints about the service (along with the CEO’s retort!), so we don’t really know if it’s dependable.

Alexa Rank – Global (US): 11,901 (10,841)

Others

1.   mobilesolutiondirectory.blogspot.com

This is Kevin Benedict, senior analyst at Cognizant. He made this list of mobile development companies just for the sake of helping you hiring the right company for your needs. We did some research and he’s very good at what he does! Check out more of his opinions here: mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com

That was our awesome directories list! We’re very happy to collaborate with our fellow partners with something that could really help them out in connecting to each other and creating a better, more responsive tech ecosystem. If you got any other suggestions for websites like these please let us know. Feel free to contact us.