Have you always thought about launching your business app? As BIG as your competitor’s. Did you just say yes?
Sounds nice!
Who are your competitors by the way… do you think they started as big as they are today? Let’s talk about it some other time.
Anyways, if you have a ‘validated’ idea in your mind and you want to transform that idea into a real app before you die, that’s awesome!
But, intimidating costs and overwhelming app development processes can put you down easily.
Maybe, you have been hogwash…?!?#$? (giggles)
On a serious note, the myths surrounding mobile app development costs are not going to do you any good.
You bet I have put down some really interesting things you have always wanted to know about mobile app development cost breakdown, RIGHT here.
Even if you have no clue about the technical stuff related to mobile app development processes of the companies, and dev freelancers, this is still the right place (read: page) to be.
However, if you are that kinda funny who thinks there is some mobile app development cost ‘calculator’ to give you the exact one, you need to get a life.
Well, jokes apart, let’s start…
Factors that Have a Significant Impact on Mobile App Development Cost:
Building an app is certainly not like building castles in the air.
It has something to do with logic, the real technological logic- that apps are made of. And CODING is not the only thing that exists in the mobile app dev space. Clear things up, please.
A successful ingestion period that gives birth to a great app helps you “sell” your business to your target audience. Therefore, it is an outcome of a multitude of factors.
Size of the App
There are apps built for SMEs, and then there are apps for big enterprises. The architecture behind mobile app development can be quite complex to build even when the app screens are just 3-5 in number. Many appreneurs might have a notion that the cost of an app is essentially influenced by “how big is the app” in terms of screens. But, it’s about the hourly effort needed to create the architecture at the back-end.
However, executable app size can also mean the literal database size of the app which is 100MB for an Android app and 60MB for an iOS app. Interestingly, it won’t have much to do with the cost.
Hourly effort determines the hourly rate depending upon experience and agency reputation.
Complexity of Features
Because every mobile app demands a completely different set of functionalities, costs will vary too.
If you want a very basic app without any complex features, you are good to go within $2k- $5k. On the contrary, if you are looking for a feature-rich app, with difficult-to-integrate features, it will call for more hourly effort pushing your budget to anywhere between $25k- $50k.
For instance: Wireframing alone can take 60 hours which can be then multiplied by the hourly rate of the company/ agency or a freelancer.
Company Location
Have you ever given a thought that the location of the company also makes a direct impact on the cost of mobile app development?
If you hire a mobile app development company from the US and Canada, it would cost anything between $120-$150/ hr. European companies would be able to take up your app project at $80-$100/ hr which is of course, quite in sharp contrast to what companies in India would charge, near about $20-$80/ hr for a high-quality app.
Cross-Platform Compatibility
Another pointer that weighs heavily when it comes to estimating the cost of mobile apps is the cross-platform compatibility. Building an iOS app is costlier than building an Android app. The starting cost of building an iOS app is roughly around $25k and a basic Android app would cost $8k.
What if you decide on getting a hybrid app that is cross-platform compatible?
Hybrid apps are the need of the hour for any business that plans to scale up. It saves a lot of time in terms of development as compared to native app development because of code reusability, thus saving you a lot of bucks.
UI/ UX Design Preferences
So, it’s just not only about development, app design has an equal impact on deciding the cost of the app. Design principles shift very frequently.
To give incredible user-experience to your users, you should decide considering different factors.
Would anyone be interested in using an app with an old sloppy design?
The simple answer is NO!
However, following current mobile app design trends will give you an edge over your competitors. An app is a great investment in the future of your business and gets a high ROI. Although, choosing a simple design will cost less over a trending modern design but you better choose the best to hook app users. Pure wisdom words.
And so many other factors have an equal share in deciding the cost of app development such as post app launch maintenance, offline mode, chat features, social media integration, etc.
Most of the time, experience and time are the dominating factors that decide the cost of developing a mobile app from scratch. Here is why it makes complete sense.
How do Mobile App Development Companies go about Setting Costs?
Well, it’s an industry insider ‘secrets revealed’ kind of moment. Geeez!!!
It’s as simple as it seems.
We already told you in the first place that most of the dev agencies set their hourly costs per hour/ per resource who does the actual work. If the mobile app developer (the resource) is extremely talented & experienced, comes with a ‘wow’ knowledge, uses scalable and modern technologies and is proficient in full-stack development with Swift, Java, Kotlin, Objective-C, Dart and so on, the company is bound to charge high rates.
On the similar lines, if the frameworks are top-notch such as ReactiveCocoa, Flutter, RxJava as well as Firebase, SQLite, Realm, and CoreData are used as a database, it’s just common sense that the development costs will be higher.
According to a Council Post on Forbes,
“Enterprise software companies need to invest more resources in developing delightful, mobile-first products.”
Higher the investment, the higher the costs, the better the product. It’s just a full-cycle. What goes around, comes around.
See, it’s a no-brainer.
Take another example: There’s a Company A, with a good number of years of experience in creating high-end, simple & complex, hybrid & native mobile apps for clients belonging to various industry verticals across the globe.
High reputation, top-of-the-line industry resources, and high-end infrastructure- You expect to pay them peanuts?
Watch for the slammed door. Uh-oh!
And, we have Company B, with an industry experience of just a couple of years, average resources, not-so-good infrastructure and obsolete, medium level technology know-how…you can bargain.
But you get what you pay for!
Explore who’s honest out there and stay away from the guesstimates when it comes to mobile app development cost per hour. Ask for mobile app portfolio, ask for REAL business app solutions from web and app development companies that work.
You have to be wise, money-wise.
Before I leave you informed about the mobile app development cost, I would love to hear about your app idea today and share my thoughts & expertise to help you transform your business.
Happy launching to you:)
