How is Blue Label Labs different from its competitors?

First, we live and breathe cutting-edge/bleeding-edge technology, so your app will similarly be cutting-edge/bleeding edge with a long “shelf-life”. Second, with a perfect mix of local, domestic and international talent you are guaranteed to get the optimal mix of a high-quality product and a fair price. Third, you will be assigned a dedicated Program Manager (PM) after we’ve established a contract who will be your single point-person for all of your needs and questions. This PM will stay with you for the duration of your relationship with Blue Label Labs and is your conduit to all of the resources we have to offer, thus streamlining your communication and preventing you from having to repeat your message to multiple resources or play air traffic control. Our PMs are the best in the business and we’d be happy to introduce you to a projected PM (and project team) once we’ve got an estimate on the table to discuss. Fourth, the size of Blue Label Labs team (now 64 people strong) means you don’t have to worry about the “single point of failure” issue that exists at smaller shops of just one or two developers, nor the burden paying for the high overhead cost associated with larger shops. Fifth, we have a stronger focus on design than most other shops. We split our design team into two specific functions—Product/User Experience and User Interface. It’s a rare unicorn designer that is good at both thinking through flow and product decisions, as well as branding, colors, logos and overall User Interface. To that end, each project team has both a UX Designer and UI Designer staffed to ensure top notch design. Sixth, with over 7 years of operation and over 250 apps completed, we have both the experience and extensive re-usable code base to ensure your app is built as efficiently and as inexpensively as possible. Seventh, our QA and Testing methodology is rigorous and as important to us as the actual development—meaning your app will be as bug free as is possible. We have a dedicated QA Engineer staffed on every project. This engineer is not the original author of the code ensuring the highest quality results from the QA process. Please see the below sections for more details.

How does Blue Label Labs work with clients?

Blue Label Labs Labs begins most projects with a Discovery, Planning & Design Phase (Phase One). First, we determine the proper technologies and development schedule. Second, the Design teams inherit the User Stories that were drafted during the sales process. User Stories are simple one-liners that outline the activities your users will need to be able to accomplish within the app. These User Stories then get grouped together into meaningful features and feature sets. The Design teams work with the client to finalize the User Stories. Third, our design team sets out creating greyscale wireframes to illustrate how a user will move through the app (i.e., the user experience, UX). Fourth, we transition to full color illustrations/designs that have the final look and feel of the app (i.e., the user interface, UI). Fifth, the app designs are then uploaded into a prototyping platform called Invision that allows our team to create tappable and swipeable “hotspots” so that you can show the app on your phone or via a mocked-up phone in a web browser. At the same time, we draft a Functional Specification document that details the technical hows and whys of the project for the development team. Once that work is complete, we them move on to the Development Phase (Phase Two). The Agile development/engineering team works hand-in-hand with the Program Manager and follows the wireframes and the Functional Specifications to build the app. Our first development goal is the First Deliverable milestone—we call this D1; this is a highly functional build of the app that contains a subset of features agreed upon by Blue Label Labs and the client. We then begin an iterative process of finalizing the remaining features. At the same time, a QA Team builds a full test plan for the app. The QA Team continually performs functional and regression testing on the app, reporting issues to the Project Manager. Learn more about our process here.

How long does it take to complete the average app?

Typically, for our average 4 to 5-month project, the Phase One: Discovery & Planning and Design lasts for approximately 4 to 6 weeks, with Phase Two: Development and Testing Phase occupying the remaining 3 to 4 months. At the end of the Phase Two, the final app is prepared for Deployment. Deployment involves moving any web services and server side components to a production environment and submitting the app to the relevant app store(s).

How much does the average app cost?

If we were in full-swing on a new project, a client can estimate a cost of between $10,000 and $30,000 per two-week sprint ($20,000 to $60,000 per month) for the effort—typically billed bi-weekly. If Blue Label Labs is handling everything from Discovery, Planning & Design through to Deployment in an app store, total app costs average about $120,000 for one “platform”–iOS, Android, Web, etc. That said, it very much depends on the complexity of the design and development required for each individual app, we’ve completed full apps at costs of between $50,000 (a bare-bones, simple MVP/prototype) and $2,000,000 (a full featured, enterprise apps). We provide free, no commitment estimates to clients. After the app is submitted to an app store(s) or pushed live on the web, the Blue Label Labs team monitors the app store and customer reviews and deals with any issues, questions, delays or approvals that arise. We have a great track record with app submissions and make sure that the app submitted is highly likely to be approved without issue. Post approval, a maintenance agreement can be put into place to cover and small issues, minor app edits (e.g., color, image or text changes) and any bugs that might linger. At the end of the project, we will transfer all source code and project files to you and you will remain the sole owner of all IP in the app. After that time, we provide our services at an hourly rate of $120/hour for ad-hoc updates or at an hourly rate of $100/hour for a mutually agreed upon set number of hours in a 6-month retainer. The monthly maintenance cost for the average app is $2,000/month: in other words, a retainer of 20 hours per month at $100 per hour equals $2,000/month and guarantees expedited service vs. ad-hoc requests.

What is the difference between a Native App, a Hybrid App and an HTML5 App?

Native App: A Native App is an app written for a specific platform like iOS or Android—in other words, the app is written in the coding language used for development on that specific platform (Objective-C or Swift for iOS and Java for Android). When you build a Native App, you get access to all the hardware features exposed by the native code APIs and SDKs. For example, Apple iOS Push Notifications are one example of a feature that cannot be supported by an HTML5 App. The graphics and user interface of a Native App are far superior to any Hybrid or HTML5 app. You would choose this option, if you want to use the user interface components from Apple’s proprietary user interface libraries (i.e., the usability is better); you want full device hardware access—cameras, microphone, and geo-location; you want peak performance with no lag; you want users to be able to access the app off-line (i.e., without Internet access); you want access to push notifications and in-app purchase; and you want your app to de discoverable in the app store. On the downside, your code is less portable across operating systems and it is often the most expensive development option. It is our recommendation that if you plan to start a true, revenue generating, app-based business, this is the only viable option. Hybrid App: A Hybrid App is a form of web app that is deployed to a native platform like an iPhone or Android phone inside a native shell. This shell is usually little more than a web browser view (to display the HTML5 content) and some other hooks to allow your web app to potentially access some more hardware features that are not available inside a typical mobile web browser—e.g., push notification and in-app purchases. It improves code portability because if you want to port your app to another platform, you only need a native shell on that other platform to run it, the HTML5 content of the app is directly portable. These shells can be hand written, but can also be generated automatically by tools in the marketplace like React Native, PhoneGap, Cordova or Xamarin. These tools allow a developer to push the app out to multiple platforms (e.g., iOS, Android, Windows Mobile) quickly by generating the shell and packages required to do so automatically. This sounds powerful, and it is, but clearly creators of these third-party platforms have a lot of configurations and hardware to support, and thus, the solutions do not always work the same across all devices, and in practice, testing and hacking of special cases will be required by the developer to get proper functionality. You would choose this option if you want a balance between cost and usability; you want access to some (but not all) of the phone’s native APIs/SDKs and hardware; you want to be able to quickly deploy across multiple device types; and you’re not worried about high-end graphics. On the downside, because these third-party hybrid platforms (e.g., React Native, PhoneGap and Xamarin) need to support so many device types there are always implementation and usability issues to workout. In addition, you will only have access to the features of a new operating system 6+ months AFTER it is released by Apple, Google or Microsoft. In this way, your app will never be able to cutting-edge technology. While we are fully capable of building Hybrid Apps, it is our recommendation that this option is only viable for simple, lo-fi apps that are heavy on text and images, but don’t need much in the way of functionality or user interface. An HTML5 Web App: An HTML5 app is essentially a website with JavaScript code written to allow the app to perform dynamically, as opposed to a static website that you need to refresh to see the changes. It works interactively to make it feel like an app, but it is actually running in a web browser. It is essentially a website, which will support multiple viewports or screen sizes so that it works well on mobile. Because it is running in a browser, it is confined to what is possible within a mobile web browser. You would choose this option if you want to support multiple platforms with the same app/codebase; you want to deploy it on the web; you want the widest possible support across multiple device operating systems and manufacturers; and you want to be able to update your source files on your server and have them immediately deployed to all devices (i.e., removing the need for the app approval process). On the downside, your app is not discoverable in the app stores; it will never look and feel like a true mobile app; and you will have limited access to some of the software and hardware functionality of the phone (e.g., push notifications and cameras). It is our recommendation, that this option is only viable for view-only content where users are not expected to interact in any meaningful way.

Has Blue Label Labs ever transitioned an app the firm has built to a client’s internal development team? What is the typical process and how long does it usually take? Is there a fee for this?

Quite often Blue Label Labs transitions an app to a client’s in-house development team. As part of our regular transition for any client, we transfer all functional specs, wireframes, UI design resources, screen flow maps, passwords/certificates/credentials and source code to the client. We also have extensive experience working in tandem with a client’s existing engineering team. For example, Blue Label Labs will build the front-end experience of an app on top of a client’s existing backend web service and databases. These transitions are the quickest, averaging only a few days, since the Blue Label Labs team and the client team have already been working hand-in-hand for months. If we are handing over a complete project with no prior engagement with the client’s development team, then the transition can take a little longer depending on the support needed. This can range from a few days to a couple weeks. The transition is typically free of charge unless engineering resources are needed to facilitate the transition or the Program Manager is required to spend more than a week on the transition and training. We’ve even helped companies to interview potential new technical team members—e.g., developers and CTOs.

How does Blue Label Labs provide training to a client’s development team so that they could make app enhancements and how much would that training cost?

Along with all the project documentation and support outlined in the answer to the question above, we are happy to provide hands-on training to in-house developers/team members as part of the transition. There is typically no extra charge for this if only a few hours are required. If ongoing training is necessary, for example an in-house developer is not familiar with app development and requires a crash course, then we can offer our services at our hourly rate of $120/hour for training. We’ve even aided our partners in their hiring of their own technical/development team if/when the time is right.

How many designers and developers does Blue Label Labs have on staff? How many work on each client project? Where is the team located? Can the client talk directly to whomever will work on the app?

The Blue Label Labs team is comprised of 64 individuals across its UX Design/Product, UI Design, Development, Program Management, Quality Assurance, Sales, Marketing and Leadership teams. We have 6 Designers, 10 Program Managers, 35 Developers, 3 App Marketers—the remainder of the team is comprised of the Sales, Marketing, Operations & Leadership Teams. Depending on the size of the project, a team of at least 7 Blue Label Labs staffers will work on your project: 1 Program Manager, 1 UX Designer, 1 UI Designer, 1 Technical Architect, 1 Front-End Developer, 1 Back-End Developer, and 1 Quality Assurance Engineer—in addition to the technical and strategic oversight provided by Blue Label Labs leadership. The majority of our Design and Program Manager teams is based in New York City, Seattle and San Francisco areas. The Developers and Quality Assurance Testers are also based in the aforementioned cities, in addition to India-based team members. The Development, Design and QA Teams are managed directly by the Program Manager. The Program Manager is your primary point of contact and the liaison across all other Blue Label Labs team members associated with your project. That said, clients are welcome to speak directly with any individual team member as is needed.

Are projects priced based on “time-and-material” (i.e., hourly) estimate or a “fixed-price” quote?

Projects are priced on a “time-and-material” basis. With 7 years and 250+ apps of experience to our credit, we are able to produce very accurate estimates. We do our best to stay within budget or provide you ample warning if we think we may exceed our initial estimate so we can coordinate how to move forward together with you. Prior client references can vouch for the accuracy of our estimates and can be provided to you upon request.

Is Blue Label Labs able to guarantee that our app will be published in an app store?

Unfortunately, no application can be guaranteed for app store approval. However, Blue Label Labs has successfully built and deployed over 250 apps for the Google Play and Apple iTunes stores. We have a solid understanding and insight into what these stores will typically approve or disapprove of. We will warn you well in advance if any particular aspect of you project poses an approval risk. We have had a handful of instances where an app store has rejected an app for publication; not due to technical issues, but due to legal/business/terms of use issues; however, we successfully appealed ALL of these rejections and these very same apps are now in the app store for download today. We led these appeals on behalf of our clients at no extra charge. If your app is rejected due to technical reasons, we will make all necessary corrections needed to get approval at no extra charge. We are happy to connect you with some of our clients who did face some app store pushback to tell you about the rejection and our successful appeal.

What is Blue Label Labs’ policy regarding correcting defects and publishing an update in the app store?

We provide our services at a blended hourly rate of $120/hour for ad-hoc updates or at blended hourly rate of $100/hour at a mutually agreed upon set number of hours over a 6-month retainer. For example, a retainer of 20 hours a month for $2,000/month guarantees expedited service vs. ad-hoc requests. Ad-hoc requests are handled on a first come, first serve basis across all of our clients and development is based on our team’s earliest availability. The monthly retainer of hours functions much like an extension of the warranty period; issues are addressed within 24-48 hours and development will start as soon as the scope of the issue is defined. For those clients wanting a guaranteed 24 to 48-hour turnaround time on maintenance issues, a 6-month retainer is suggested.

What level of Quality Assurance is included and provided by you in your proposal?

A Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer is assigned to every project and builds a custom test plan for every project during the Discovery, Planning & Design Phase. During the Development & Testing Phase the QA Engineer continually tests the app using functional and regression testing. We test on a wide array of physical devices as needed for a given project. If we are building a backend web service and databases as part of the project, we will also have a set of automated unit tests that are run regularly to verify functionality.

What is Blue Label Labs’ quality assurance (QA) and testing methodology?

We believe that Blue Label Labs’ QA and testing methodology is part of our competitive differentiation. The fact that we dedicate resources to solely this function is something that sets us apart from other development shops for whom testing is simply an afterthought. At Blue Label Labs, QA is handled at all levels of development. There are generally 3 layers of QA/testing that happens for every project: 1.) Internal Development Team Testing Each Development Team has an internal QA Tester along with the Developer Lead who perform basic validation on bug fixes prior to builds being released to the broader Project Manager and QA team. Their validation is to ensure that items within JIRA, which we use alongside Trello, to coordinate team efforts and communicate with clients—are properly remedied according to their descriptions prior to “checking-in” or committing code. When items are resolved by the Development Team they are pulled into the “Testing Done by Dev Team” stack of Trello cards and/or within JIRA. When developing new projects, the Blue Label Labs Development Team will also be responsible for creating “unit tests” for our code so that we can quickly run a basic set of verifications. The dev team does the majority of their testing using iOS and Android app simulators. 2.) Dedicated QA Engineer Each project has a dedicated QA Engineer who sits independently from the Development Team who is responsible for: a.) Drafting a milestone based test plan which outlines a list of black box scenarios to verify and the expected results; b.) Performing smoke and full test pass runs against weekly and milestone builds; c.) Verifying and closing bugs that the Development Team has marked as complete; d.) Working with the Development Team to report issues and regressions; and d.) The QA Engineer takes items from the “Testing Done by Dev Team” Trello stack and verifies whether it is actually fixed. If it is, the Trello card is moved to the “Done (Verified)” pile, or sent back to the “Weekly Priorities” or “Product Backlog” stacks, as appropriate. The QA Engineer will generally perform their tests on 2-3 devices, depending on project requirements. 3.) Project Manager (PM) Testing The final QA gate is the PM who is responsible for quality of the entire product. They will also work with the QA Engineer to verify items have been fixed properly in addition to triaging new issues coming in from the client and the QA Engineer. The PM will appropriately schedule issues to be resolved based on their severity and importance. The PM’s testing is done on actual devices.

Can Blue Label Labs help me with Marketing and PR?

Absolutely. We aim to be your full-service app partner. Our Marketing & PR Offering is designed to help you launch your app and gain marketing exposure. Learn more about our Marketing & PR Offering here.

Blockchain

A Blockchain Comparison: Corda vs Ethereum vs Polygon

Using blockchain for widely-available, publicly-accessible platforms means there’s yet another “thing” in the tech world to comprehend – in this blockchain comparison we’re going to examine the relationship between a few systems to explain how each of these systems can be used for different scenarios.

Entrepreneurs and end-users alike should know a bit about how blockchain works so here, we’re going to give a quick rundown on what makes blockchain tick then we’ll explain the major differences between corda vs ethereum vs polygon.

Blockchain & decentralized apps
Ethereum – It powers the second largest cryptocurrency
Polygon – An L2 solution (built on Ethereum)
Corda – It offers a flexible system

The blockchain crash course: decentralized apps

Among some of the most notable differentiators of blockchain-powered apps from those using more traditional storage and delivery models is that they’re decentralized (hence the abbreviation, dApps) either in part or sometimes entirely.

A POV of a “decentralized” desk organization system | Source: Robert Bye on Unsplash

Unfortunately, the nomenclature doesn’t do much for the average person so you probably picture something like the pic above. While it’s not ideal for your work area or storing physical documents, the design is efficient and incredibly secure for storing data or code that’s nearly impossible to tamper with.

What is decentralized?

If you remember during the first big push towards cloud computing, one of the benefits was “centralized” everything which was supposed to be ideal. Now, blockchain evangelists are singing praises because of the “decentralized” nature of these technologies which can seem suspect if you’ve been keeping up.

Source: Enterprise Storage Forum

First, the actual part of “where” data is physically stored is mostly irrelevant for modern computing.

Unlike a vinyl record that electromechanically stores music in a “linear” fashion data can be stored all over the place as it has been done for years in multi-platter hard drives and network storage systems using RAID arrays, among others.

For example, most of your data stored on major clouds such as those from Apple, Google, or Microsoft, uses files systems that mirror, span, and stripe data for performance and redundancy.

Source: ResearchGate

Blockchain works on a similar premise but the entirety of the data is distributed between connected clients and networks, depending on the design. As you can see in the visualization of transactional volumes from different nodes of the Bitcoin network (circa 2016) nodes, data is copied far and wide.

Typically, most blockchains run using two different kinds of nodes – a “full” variety with the entire ledger and a “light” version that usually has the minimum amount of data to function – at each of the many endpoints on the network.

Source: Molicris on Pixabay

You can think of a light node a bit like rolling storage used in many security camera systems where data is retained for X number of days or weeks before the oldest footage is overwritten with new data: here, the node keeps a specific segment of the ledger (usually just enough recent, validated transactions to maintain blockchain integrity) that it uses to cross-reference transactions so it can be of value to the blockchain.

Not only can you use a blockchain to store run-of-the-mill data like text, images, and other file versions but it can be used to store code as well.

This opens up the doors for immutable code that can’t be easily changed (especially at its source) which effectively blocks outsiders from taking advantage of local mods or hacks that could be used to alter code or trick the ledger system.

The main driver for decentralized data is the consensus mechanism

The most notable element of blockchain storage is the secure consensus mechanism that validates transactions across a blockchain and it comes in two primary flavors:

A proof-of-work (PoW) is a computationally intensive method that adds new blocks only after there is a collective agreement from all peers that the work is accurate which can then pool its computational resources into the blockchain.
A proof-of-stake (PoS) eliminates most of the resource and power-intensive processes and instead uses the validation from the largest stakeholders. The various flavors of PoS validation are faster than their PoW counterparts but can be less secure.

Source: David Veksler on Unsplash

The consensus mechanism is not so different from a jury – before data is committed to the chain, there has to be an adequate amount of agreement, depending on the architecture, or it’s rejected. Also like a jury, some require unanimous agreement from all parties, as we see in most PoW consensus mechanisms (i.e., all nodes need to check-in and agree) whereas the different PoS variants can range from requiring agreement from the majority to only a handful of trusted validators.

Of course, there’s a lot going on beneath the surface that makes blockchain work and the implications are immense. For more reading on blockchain, check out this comprehensive article on Medium that does a great job of explaining many other components and nuances.

A high-level blockchain comparison between Corda vs Ethereum vs Polygon

In order to explain the capabilities and potential benefits within the realm, we’re going to look at a few existing blockchains and touch on each value proposition.

Ethereum powers the second largest cryptocurrency and so much more

The Ethereum blockchain has evolved quite a bit over the years, most notably successfully transitioning from a PoW to PoS model which opens up the capabilities for uses in the real world besides its native cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH.)

The Ethereum platform offers developers a ton of tools made possible by the underlying blockchain which are, in many cases, vast improvements over a traditional database from a functionality perspective. However, it’s not a viable replacement for databases across the board though it is ideal for its ability to prevent outside meddling.

Like many open-source tools, they offer a ton of tools that teach developers how to properly use the system plus, it has a substantial developer community whose conversations can be found around the web.

Some of the main selling points of Ethereum for businesses wanting a blockchain are:

A powerful, immutable ledgering system
The ability to accommodate smart contracts (e.g., programs, files, etc.)
Minting and tracking of non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
And access to a multitude of pre-existing, transparent dApps built with Ethereum.

This is what makes Ethereum much different than the most recognizable name in the crypto world, Bitcoin. While the Bitcoin network mostly stores bits of text data (e.g., notes and metadata related to Bitcoin transactions), Ethereum can store code.

As such, use cases for Ethereum are far and wide but to get an idea of what some are doing, check out some dApps on the market today and watch the video below for a rundown of why so many are attracted to the idea of decentralized finance (DEFI) for business.

Polygon is an L2 solution built on Ethereum with its own value proposition

One of the best parts about Ethereum is that by design, it can support Layer 2 (L2) blockchain systems like Polygon.

Polygon is powered by the same validation mechanism used by Ethereum to offer a more refined blockchain with some additional tricks.

One of the most notable offerings from Polygon is its ability to functionally accommodate child blockchains that can be processed off the chain as a batch and then validated in a single transaction with the Ethereum ledger.

This allows Polygon to be incredibly speedy and secure as it still needs the Ethereum validation mechanism but batch processing makes the process significantly less expensive.

This is one of the many reasons that we used Polygon for the Tkkr platform we’re helping develop as it’s ideal for the NFT component of their luxury watch line.

Like other blockchain solutions, this is just the surface of what a Polygon ecosystem can provide a business so check out this article from TheTie to learn more.

Corda offers a flexible system with incredible controls over highly specific blockchain

Corda has done an excellent job of making their blockchain seem as boring as by gratuitously packaging every blockchain buzzword into their web copy but the system offers unique advantages.

One of the biggest selling points of blockchain can also be the biggest drawback – a “blockchain done right” usually means that systems can be manipulated by administrators or power users. This makes it difficult in industries that mandate regulation such as healthcare.

Corda and its community have managed to develop an open-source ecosystem called R3 that relies on distributed ledger technology (DLT) that can be deployed and cultivated with more control than most systems which will typically function as mostly unregulated digital economies.

For example, rather than validate transactions on a public blockchain that can reveal sensitive information, Corda can be configured to only validate with trusted counterparties. The tradeoff here is that data can be better protected (think HIPAA-protected data) by only validating among trusted entities rather than relying on the entire blockchain.

They’ve also designed the architecture to comply with all kinds of regulatory compliances that other blockchains don’t inherently include which can mean faster time to market for businesses in regulated industries.

To learn more about Corda without having to parse their flowery copy, check out their video below.

We can build your blockchain solution to suit

The application for blockchain is vast – we’ve seen how it can be used in play-to-earn economies among many other use cases that are growing by the day.

If you want to learn more or discuss using blockchain in your project then get in touch!

+ posts

A Blockchain Comparison: Corda vs Ethereum vs Polygon

Table of contents

The blockchain crash course: decentralized apps

What is decentralized?

The main driver for decentralized data is the consensus mechanism

A high-level blockchain comparison between Corda vs Ethereum vs Polygon

Ethereum powers the second largest cryptocurrency and so much more

Polygon is an L2 solution built on Ethereum with its own value proposition

Corda offers a flexible system with incredible controls over highly specific blockchain

We can build your blockchain solution to suit

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Are You Using AI In Your Job?

A Blockchain Comparison: Corda vs Ethereum vs Polygon

| April 14, 2022

Table of contents

The blockchain crash course: decentralized apps

What is decentralized?

The main driver for decentralized data is the consensus mechanism

A high-level blockchain comparison between Corda vs Ethereum vs Polygon

Ethereum powers the second largest cryptocurrency and so much more

Polygon is an L2 solution built on Ethereum with its own value proposition

Corda offers a flexible system with incredible controls over highly specific blockchain

We can build your blockchain solution to suit

Want more content like this? Plug in your email to get a monthly roundup of our best content

Subscribe

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