Hire an AppHandler
Find someone to work on your app by the hour, and see what hiring does before any money moves.
An AppHandler is a person you hire by the hour to work on an app you built. They open the app you already have and change it there, and you approve every bill before you pay. This guide covers finding someone and starting a contract; the estimate and the money are in The estimate and the agreement.
Where to find someone
Open the AppHandlers directory to browse everyone who is listed. Each card shows the person's name, a line about what they do, the kinds of work they take on, their hourly rate, and whether they are Available, Busy, or Not taking work.
Use the search box to look for a type of work, a name, or the problem you have. The filters narrow the list further:
- Hourly rate — any rate, under $80, $80–$100, or $100 and up.
- Availability — anyone, or only people who are available.
- Language — the languages a person speaks.
- Type of work — the kinds of app they build, with the number of people who list each one.
Clear filters returns you to the full directory.
Read a profile
Select a person to open their profile. About is their own description of their work, and Works on lists the kinds of app they take on. Details shows their hourly rate, availability, time zone and languages.
Two blocks answer the questions people ask before hiring. How paying works sets out the four steps from agreeing the work to releasing the money, and What they can and cannot see explains that they work on your app and its data but never see your credentials.
The profile also shows how many jobs the person has finished on AppHandle. A profile with none yet says so plainly.
Three ways to start
- From the directory, select Hire me and choose the app you need help with.
- From a profile, use Hire me to choose the app, or Chat with me to start with a conversation.
- From the app itself, open the app in the desk and find the AppHandlers card. It offers Hire an AppHandler, showing a few people who are available, and Browse AppHandlers to see the full directory.
Whichever way you start, you land in Messages with that person, where the contract is worked on. Once you have hired someone for an app, the same card shows how many contracts the app has and takes you to the conversation. You can also open a new contract in Messages with New contract and choose the app it is for.
What hiring does
Hiring opens a contract and a conversation. It charges nothing: no money is held and no work begins until you have read the AppHandler's estimate and agreed to it.
The contract holds everything about the job in one place: what you asked for, the estimate, the agreed rate, the clock, every bill, and the conversation itself.
The AI the AppHandler uses is billed to their own account, not yours — that is what keeps the work efficient. You pay the work and our fee, nothing else.
One contract at a time
An app can have one open contract with a given AppHandler at a time. If you try to open a second one, AppHandle tells you there is already an open contract for that app and that person instead of creating another.
Only the app owner can hire
Hiring is the app owner's decision. If someone invited you to edit an app, you can work on it, but you cannot hire an AppHandler for it.
The rate is fixed when you hire
The hourly rate on the profile is fixed for the contract at the moment you open it. If the AppHandler changes their rate later, the contract you already have keeps the rate you started with.
Where to go next
The estimate and the agreement explains what happens next, and The work clock and your bills covers the time and the money.