If you want to hire a developer for a small app, an MVP or an internal tool, the first real decision is who builds it: a solo developer or an agency.
I am a solo developer, so I am biased, and I would rather say that up front. This guide explains what you actually get from each option, where a solo developer is the better choice, where an agency clearly wins, and how to check a solo developer before you pay for anything.
What you buy from each
The two options sell different things, even when the proposal looks similar.
An agency sells capacity and continuity. You get a team: a project manager, designers, developers, sometimes testers. If one person leaves, the project continues. You also pay for the coordination between those people, whether your project needs it or not.
A solo developer sells focus. One person designs, builds and ships. You talk to the person who writes the code. Nothing is lost in a handoff, because there are no handoffs.
Neither is better in general. The right one depends on the size and shape of what you are building.
Where a solo developer is the better choice
The scope is small and clear
A product that does one job well does not need five people. An MVP, a small SaaS, an internal dashboard, an integration, an MCP server for an existing product: these are one-person projects. Adding people adds meetings, and the work does not go faster.
Decisions need to be fast
When the person you talk to is the person who builds, a decision made on Monday is in the product on Tuesday. With a team, the same decision goes through a manager, a ticket and a sprint.
Design and code should match
Many small apps look fine in the mockup and worse in the browser, because one person designed them and another interpreted the design. When the same person does both, what you approve is what ships.
You do not want to pay for overhead
An agency's price covers offices, sales and management. A solo developer's price covers the work. For a small project, that difference is often the whole budget question.
Where an agency is the better choice
A solo developer is the wrong choice more often than solo developers admit. Hire an agency when:
- The scope is large or parallel. Web, iOS, Android and a back office at the same time, with a fixed launch date, needs several people working at once.
- The work is regulated. Healthcare, finance and legal products need compliance processes, formal testing and legal review. I do not take compliance-driven projects, because a mistake there is too costly for a one-person shop to carry.
- You need guaranteed support hours. A contract that promises a response at 3 a.m. needs a rota, and one person is not a rota.
- The product must not depend on one individual. Some organizations have rules about this, and those rules are reasonable.
If two or more of these describe your project, a good agency is worth its price.
The real risk of a solo developer, and how to reduce it
The honest weakness of a solo developer is simple: there is only one. If that person gets ill or disappears, the project stops.
You cannot remove this risk, but you can make it small:
- Own the accounts. The code repository, the hosting account, the domain and the app store account should be in your name from the first day.
- Insist on an ordinary stack. Common tools and plain code, so another developer can pick the project up.
- Ask for deploys anyone can run. Pushing to the repository should publish the product, with no steps that live in one person's head.
- Get a short written handover. How to run it locally, how to deploy, where the data lives.
With these four in place, losing your developer is an inconvenience, not a disaster.
How to check a solo developer before hiring
A portfolio of screenshots proves very little. Look for these instead.
- Shipped products you can open. Live apps and sites that you can click through yourself. Mine are on the apps page.
- Tools they use themselves. Someone who builds software for their own daily use has opinions about what makes software good.
- A stack they can explain. Ask why they chose it. A clear answer in two minutes is a good sign. "It is what everyone uses" is not.
- Clear writing. Most of your contact will be written. If their emails are confusing, the project will be too.
- Things they refuse to do. A developer who says yes to everything will also say yes to deadlines they cannot meet.
A small paid first task tells you more than any interview. Pick something real that takes a few days, and judge the result and the communication.
Questions to ask before you start
- Who owns the code and the accounts?
- What happens if you are unavailable for two weeks?
- How will I see progress, and how often?
- What is included in the price, and what counts as a change?
- How do I deploy an update without you?
- Which parts of this project have you built before, and which are new to you?
- What would you remove from my list to launch sooner?
The last one is the most useful. A developer who can cut your scope understands your product.
What working with me looks like
I work alone on purpose. When one person designs, builds and ships, every app stays small, fast and focused.
What I take on:
- Custom MCP servers that connect a product to AI assistants such as Claude. This is the main thing I do, and I wrote a full guide to MCP servers.
- Web apps and SaaS products on Cloudflare, including payments.
- Android apps built with Flutter and published on Google Play.
What I do not take on:
- iOS apps. I build for Android and the web only.
- Compliance-driven products in regulated industries.
- Projects that need a team working in parallel.
Most of what I build starts as a tool I needed myself, so you can judge the result before you write to me.
Frequently asked questions
Is a solo developer cheaper than an agency?
Usually, for small projects, because you are not paying for management and overhead. For large projects the comparison flips: one person takes much longer than a team, and time costs money too.
What if my solo developer disappears?
If you own the repository, the hosting and the store accounts, and the project uses an ordinary stack, another developer can continue. Set this up at the start, not when there is a problem.
Can one developer build a whole SaaS?
Yes, if the scope is focused. Modern hosting and payment platforms remove most of the work that used to need a team. The limit is not technology. It is how many features you want at launch.
Should I hire a freelancer for an MVP?
For most MVPs, yes. An MVP exists to test one idea quickly, and that is exactly what a single focused developer is good at.
Have a product in mind?
Tell me what it should do and who it is for. I read every email: collab@vhirty.com.