With the increasing usage of mobile apps, various businesses are looking forward to taking their business online. However, the first question that appears in mind of an entrepreneur is “How much does it cost to develop an app?”
In general, a mobile app development cost depends on a lot of things such as platform, framework, development team, UI/UX design, release, etc. However, one needs to have a deeper understanding of all these things to determine the cost of developing an app.
To clear all your doubts, here we will provide a list of all these factors.
Without wasting your time, let’s look after each of these factors one-by-one.
Factors that Influence Mobile App Development Cost
Table of Contents
Which Platform? Android or iOS or both
The platform on which you want to develop an app, affects the development time, which in turn affects development cost.
Firstly, you should decide whether you want an Android app development or iOS app development considering your potential customers.
There is not much price difference whether you choose to develop an android or iOS application. However, if you choose to develop an app for both platforms, then the price will be more.
Type of Framework: Native Vs. Hybrid
Native App Development Framework
Using native framework, you can develop an app for a particular platform such as Android or iOS.
Hybrid App Development Framework
Using hybrid framework, you can develop an app for multiple platforms (Android or iOS) using a single code.
If you don’t have any issues regarding budget and want to provide the best security along with reliability to your audience, then go with native framework.
If you have limited resources & budget, but you want to launch app on both platforms(Android & iOS), then go with the hybrid framework.
Who will develop the app?
Who you are going to hire to develop your mobile application? You should hire a freelancer Or hire an in-house development team? or You want to allocate your project to Outsource development company?
When you choose to go with a freelancer, you may be able to develop an app for low cost. However you will face issues regarding quality, deadline, accountability, transparency, etc.
When you choose to go with an in-house development team, you will be able to communicate easily with the team. But, you will face issues like higher development cost, hardware/software cost, recruitment cost, etc.
When you choose to go with an outsource app development company, you may have to pay more as compared to a freelancer. But, you will get a lot of advantages like high-quality, reliability, accountability, transparency, expert team, proper project management, etc.
Based on your requirement of project, you can choose to go with a freelancer or in-house team or a professional app development company.
Type of App
An app is mainly categorized into three types: Simple, Medium, and Complex.
Simple Mobile App: An app which is quick to develop and has less number of features. It takes less than 2 months to develop such kind of application.
Medium Mobile App: An app with medium functionality & features is considered medium app. It takes around 4-6 months to develop such application.
Complex Mobile App: An app with modern features and complex functionality is called complex app. It takes around 6-12 months to develop such application.
Development Team Size & Location
App development cost highly relies on the size of the development team and its region. For example, App development cost in Asia is around $10-$80 per hour, While app development cost in US, Europe, Australia and other countries starts from $35 and goes upto $250.
Primarily, app development team consists of one project manager, mobile app developers, UI/UX designer, a QA tester, frontend & backend developer, etc. All the employees charge different cost per hour.
Backend and Testing
If you app works offline, then you don’t need backend, However, if you app works online and there is a continuous exchange of data between the server, then you will require a backend.
Managing a backend is not like a walk in the park. If you want your data to be stored at a secure place, then you will require a database server.
Which type of server? It relies on the total amount of data. Here, you can choose to go with a cloud server or an in-house database server. Undoubtedly, cloud server is cost-effective and more suitable option for majority of businesses.
Moreover, you might also want to incorporate different third party apps in your app. This can be achieved using specific APIs. It is mainly an interface offered to you by a third-party to utilise their features. Here, cost of API depends on features and is popularity.
During different stages of development, an app should undergo testing of bugs and system errors. For the app to function smoothly, it is essential to test it on a regular basis.
Prototyping & Design
Suppose you have started developing your mobile app and all of a sudden you realize that your app idea is not viable, then all of your money and effort will be wasted.
If you don’t want to face this issue, then consider developing a prototype and design model of the application which consists of things such as creating a sketch, building wireframes, building app skins, and lastly developing a clickable prototype.
App Security
Security is the most essential for any app. You should make sure that your app remains stable in case of attacks from hackers.
Data is highly important, if you are developing a complex app or an enterprise app. All the company details, user information, passwords, etc should be stored securely.
To achieve all these things, you have to continuously detect flaws in your app and solve them as soon as possible. You should use the latest tools and technologies to detect vulnerabilities in the app.
Lastly, please note that to achieve next-level security, you have to spend more on the application.
App Release
After developing your app, your work is not over. For people to access your app, you have to publish in on the relevant store online.
Different app store charge differently. To publish an app on the App Store, a developer has to pay an annual amount of $99, while to release an app on Google Play Store, a developer has to pay a one-time fee of $25.
App Maintenance & Updates
After releasing the app on the relevant store, your work is not over. For your app to survive in this highly competitive market, you have to update it on a regular basis.
Generally, the cost of maintenance an app is mainly 15-20% of the total app development cost.
After releasing your app on the app store, talk with the development team and design a proper budget which includes app maintenance and update costs.
Don’t invest your money initially in the maintenance, rather obtain customer feedback and update your app as per the requirement.
Conclusion
There is no accurate answer to the question, “how much does it cost to make an app?” until you provide complete details about your app to the development team. Why? Because the cost of mobile app store development relies on all the above factors and some other features which you might want to integrate into the app.
Hence, we suggest you to provide all the details of your app to the development team. By doing this, they will be able to provide the best solution as per your requirement.
