Do You Need An NDA For Your App?

One of the questions that I often get asked is this: Do I need an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) for my new app?
Some people who have an app idea or have built something, don’t want to share this information and want to protect themselves. So that when they talk to or hire developers, they are legally bound to keep the information private.
Short answer: You only need an NDA if you can enforce it.
There are two things you need to think about:

1. How are you going to enforce your NDA?
Lots of times you go to freelancer sites like Upwork, Fiverr, or 99designs to hire people, and often they’re not in your country. So, what do you do if the person you hired, who did sign the NDA, ends up breaking the NDA? Are you going to fly to Southeast Asia or South America to enforce it? Your NDA is only as good as you can enforce it.
Now if you’re hiring someone from the US or from your native country where you can enforce the law, then maybe you can think about getting an NDA.
2. Building a good relationship with your developers is more important
What’s more important is for you to build a good relationship with your developers from the start. That way, they’re not incentivized to steal anything, especially when it comes to intellectual property.
Developers are not normally in the business of finding people who have good ideas, and using those ideas to build their own app business. Most of the time they’re not interested in your ideas. They’re more interested in the budget and getting the project done.
If you do have ideas that you want to protect, and you plan to hire someone locally or in your native country, there are NDAs that you can get. We have a simple template on Bluecloud Solutions that you can download.
Look for it here:
https://www.bluecloudsolutions.com/how-to-make-an-app-guide/
Know that most developers have heard most ideas before. There are very few ideas that are truly revolutionary. Often, going through the NDA process will just end up costing you more money. And the real money in any business is in the execution, in building the actual product itself.
You can definitely get an NDA. Just make sure you have a plan when you want to use it.
See ya!
Carter