This review was updated on March 21, 2018 by the client. New content is below.
What challenge were you trying to address with Cuberto?
We needed a mobile application built from scratch.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They did the entire scope for and developed our custom iOS and Android app. However, we had a lot of problems with them after our last review in May, so we ended the engagement in July.
How did you come to work with Cuberto?
I read a lot of positive reviews about them. Their portfolios were one of the best on the Russian market, which is why I chose them.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent over $100,000. My partner said they were tricking me and charged us threefold the normal price.
What is the status of this engagement?
We stopped working together in July 2017.
Describe the impact this engagement has had on your business.
They delivered the product, but there were a lot of bugs and they couldn’t fix everything. They couldn’t deliver integrations with several social networks when they transferred the full assets to us. Their quality of work was so poor that we had to spend three months to completely redevelop the app. We even decided to give up the Android version and are just now starting redevelop it.
We also found out that they were using freelancers for our work. The way they worked was really ridiculous for building such a simple app. They used 12–15 programmers over eight months, which is why the code varied so much and resulted in all the bugs we’ve had to deal with. They couldn’t fix all the bugs quickly enough when we decided to check everything and asked them to fit it. Some bugs took a while, while others weren’t taken care of for several months. We ended up having to do it ourselves.
There were also issues with design. After using the app for 1–2 months, users still didn’t understand that they could use some of the backend. The design was cool and everyone liked it, but it was only to draw in other companies. They have designs and pictures on their website that makes them look great, but none of it’s true. I was really disappointed, as were my users. They all had a lot of questions and some left really bad reviews. We kept the apps live as we fixed them. After we resolved the major bugs and crashes, we moved to redeveloping and redesigning everything to make things more simple for users. We’re now 99% finished.
How was project management handled?
They have a good project manager, so I can’t say anything bad about him. I tried not to tell them what to do because I truly believed that they were professionals. I’d hoped they would do everything with good quality. I just asked them to guide me through it since I didn’t understand and told them the general things I wanted.
In what specific areas can they improve?
They should get really good programmers who are professional and not freelancers. There should only be one or two people coding the entire project. If you’re changing programmers every two weeks, it takes time and you won’t be able to check their work. Our partner was enraged when he saw how bad their coding was.
Design itself is not enough and it shouldn’t be used just to get new clients. You can put work in your portfolio and get new clients, but it’s always better to keep your current ones happy. The design should work with the UI/UX and the users should understand the end product.
Cuberto was highly organized and delivered a top-notch product. Their responsiveness, flexibility, and commitment to quality contributed to a successful engagement.