Why companies hire app developers in Turkey
Turkey offers a large pool of mobile engineers and designers, rates that are typically lower than in Western Europe or North America, and a time zone that works for both sides. Turkey stays on UTC+3 all year, which overlaps the European working day and the Gulf, and leaves a morning window with the US East Coast.
Cost alone is a poor reason to choose any team. The real advantage is a partner that combines reasonable rates with product thinking, clear communication in English and a record of apps that are live and maintained.
What to verify before the first call
Most of the signal is public if you know where to look. Spend an hour on this before you book meetings.
- Live apps you can download, ideally on both stores, with recent updates and real ratings.
- Apps in a category or with features similar to yours, such as subscriptions, AI or Bluetooth.
- The developer name shown on the store pages, and whether the company publishes and maintains its own apps.
- Independent reviews on platforms such as Clutch, and references you can actually contact.
- A registered legal entity with a clear address and the people behind it named.
Questions to ask in the first meetings
Good teams ask you hard questions about users, scope and success metrics before they talk about price. Their answers to your questions are equally revealing.
- Who exactly will work on my project, and will the same people stay through launch?
- How do you run discovery, and what do I receive at the end of it?
- Is the estimate fixed for a defined scope or time-and-materials, and how are changes priced?
- How often will I see working builds, for example through TestFlight and Google Play testing tracks?
- How do you handle store submission, review rejections and the first weeks after launch?
- What happens after launch: maintenance, OS updates, analytics and growth support?
Ownership, accounts and code
The most expensive problems with agencies are not technical; they are about who controls what. Settle ownership at the start, in writing.
Your app should be published under your own developer accounts. Enrolling a company in the Apple Developer Program requires a D-U-N-S Number for the legal entity, which is free but can take a week or more to arrive, so start early. On Google Play, new personal accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 consecutive days before production, which is another reason to open an organisation account in your company’s name.
- Apple Developer and Google Play Console accounts in your company’s name, with the agency added as team members.
- Source code in a repository you own, with access from day one, not at the end.
- Design files, backend infrastructure, domains and third-party service accounts registered to you.
- A contract clause transferring intellectual property on payment.
Data protection and compliance
If your app processes personal data of people in Turkey, the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698, known as KVKK, applies. Its rules on transferring personal data abroad were amended in 2024 and now rely on adequacy decisions or safeguards such as standard contracts, which must be notified to the authority within five business days of signing. If you serve users in the EU, GDPR applies as well.
A capable team will raise these points without being asked: where servers and backups are located, which third-party services receive user data, how consent is collected, and how the app’s privacy labels and Data safety form are kept accurate.
Red flags
None of these alone proves a team is wrong for you, but each deserves a direct question.
- A firm price before anyone has asked about your users, scope or integrations.
- A portfolio of designs or screenshots with no live apps you can install.
- Insistence on publishing the app under the agency’s own developer account.
- No access to the code repository until the final payment.
- Promises of guaranteed downloads, rankings or store featuring.
- Vague answers about who is on the team, or frequent changes of contact person.
- No plan for testing, store review or maintenance after launch.
How we work
We are dagtech, a team-based app development studio in Istanbul founded in 2022. We have published more than 30 apps for clients and partners, with over 300,000 total downloads and a 4.8 average rating, and we run our own iOS apps, including an EV charging station map, a Bluetooth device finder and an AI fitness planner. We start with a discovery call, send a fixed estimate for the agreed scope, and typically deliver an MVP in 4 to 8 weeks. Whoever you choose, use the checklist above; it will protect your project.