According to a statistic, there are around 3.8 billion active mobile users all over the world today. With high-speed internet penetrating different parts of the world, more people are set to join the digital revolution. With so much growth potential, it is safe to say that there has never been a better time to build a mobile app. A question that intrigues many budding app entrepreneurs is what is the cost to build an app. In this article, we shall try to solve that question by providing a comprehensive guide on the cost of building a mobile app.

Online or offline every business stands to benefit from a dedicated mobile app. Here are a few benefits that a mobile app can provide to any kind of business

•     An app helps in increasing customer loyalty

•     An app provides better visibility

•     A mobile app serves as a direct marketing channel

•     An app helps in improving the customer service

•    A mobile app helps the business understand its customers better.

There are quite a few factors that decide the final cost of a mobile app. We will start with the basics first.

Platform

The cost of building an app depends upon the platform on which you are developing the app. Mentioned below are a few basic types of platforms.

Native or hybrid

Native: As the name suggests, a native mobile app is an app that is native to a particular operating system. For instance, an app built for Android won’t work on iOS devices and vice versa. If you want to go with a native mobile app, then you will have to shell out more money as native app developers are costlier to hire. Apart from that, in case you want to reach both Android and iOS users, you will have to build two separate apps. Two different apps for Android and iOS means that the costs will also double as you will then have to hire two respective teams to build the apps.

hybrid apps are platform-independent apps. This means that a hybrid app will work perfectly well with both iOS and Android operating systems. A hybrid app is cheaper to build as the developers for hybrid apps charge less than those of the native apps. Also, as a hybrid app works on both platforms, you do not need to build two separate apps.

Android or iOS

In case you have decided that it is best to go with a native app, then the next decision you need to make is whether to build an android app or an ios one? First of all, we strongly suggest you identify your user base. If most of your users are using ios smartphones, it won’t make sense to build an android app. Talking about costs, there isn’t much difference between an Android app development cost and iOS app development cost. Contact us to get a detailed estimate for the cost to make an app for iOS or Android.

The cost of a mobile app is directly proportional to the number and complexity of the app’s features. An app like an airline booking app will require a sophisticated search algorithm that can immediately display the prices of various airlines for different combinations of dates and routes. Such an app would invariably cost more than, say, a simple calculator app. As the app’s complexity increases, so do the developer hours and the number of other resources like third-party integrations.

Plenty of third-party integrations are available in the market that can give a boost to your app’s performance. But these third-party integrations come with a price, and sometimes additional developer hours are spent integrating them with your app. The extra time spent on integrating these third-party integrations adds up to the cost of building the app. Additional hardware components like ELD(electronic logging devices) and other IoT components also add up to the cost of developing a mobile app.

The app developers’ location is one of the major factors having an overbearing effect on the app development costs. While you can get your app developed for an hourly rate of $18-40 in India, the same app would cost you around $100-150 in the USA. Hence a mobile app development company in the USA will cost about 5 times more than an Indian mobile app development company. The Russian developers will do the job for $25-45 per hour, while the European and Australian developers would charge you anything between $60-95 per hour.

Want to know How much it costs to make an app in India? Contact us

Based on the above factors, we can bifurcate the cost of developing a mobile app into three broad categories.

Simple mobile apps

Such mobile apps include some essential functionalities and do not require any third-party API integration. The heavy backend infrastructure is also unwarranted for such apps, and the features of such apps include a simple UI, a feed list, simple filters, and map markers. A simple app would cost around $20000 – 25,000 to build.

Somewhat complex apps

These apps might include building custom UI features, integrating some basic third-party APIs like payment functionality and a basic backend server. The price of building a somewhat complicated app might turn out to be around $40-50,000.

Highly complex apps

Highly complex apps will include advanced functionalities such as audio/video processing custom animations, integrations with third-party API, highly complex backends with several types of database relationships, and more. It usually takes more than 3000 hours to build such an app, and the price starts at $80000 and can go to a million.

Apart from the factors mentioned above, here are a few other factors that one has to bear in mind while calculating the cost of developing an app.

•     App Maintenance Cost

•     Hosting

•     Monitoring

•     Engagement & Marketing

•     App Updates

•     Licenses

When one considers all the costs mentioned above, then mobile app development costs can start from $20,000 and go upto a million-dollar depending on the scale and complexity of the app.

On-Demand

We get a lot of requests for developing on-demand apps like Uber and Zomato. An on-demand app generally consists of a robust backend infrastructure that can serve millions of service requests every minute. It also consists of integrating many third-party APIs like GPS, payment services, and so on. Depending upon the app’s scope and the number of users it wants to serve, the cost to develop an on-demand app can be anywhere between $70,000- 250,000

App development costs depend on a wide variety of factors, and we have covered most of them in this blog. Hiring the right app development team will ensure that your app development costs do not spiral out of control. At Apptale technologies, we have an experienced team of developers, designers, and testers who will execute your project in the minimum possible time at a competitive rate. Please contact us to get a Mobile app development cost estimate in India.

Q1.How much time does it take to develop an app from scratch?

It is difficult to tell an exact period as the time taken to develop an app usually depends on the project’s size and nature. A simple calculator app can be built within 1 week, while a complex e-commerce app with the ability to serve millions of customers every minute can take 9-12 months to develop.

Q2. What slows down the app development process?

Here are the factors that slow down The and development process

Inexperienced team

How your project is executed depends a lot on the mobile app development company‘s experience and skill-set in developing your app. We have seen that often, to avoid costs, companies go with inexperienced developers, resulting in slowing down the app development process and the poor final result.

Mid-way changes in the project

App development is a synchronized process in which all the stages are interconnected to each other in some way or the other. Sudden changes make the process slower as a change in one stage affects the other stages also. To avoid mid-way changes, it is best to do thorough research before proceeding with the development.

Complex technologies

Complex technologies like AR, VR, and IoT are slow to integrate into an app. Although these technologies make the app experience better, they invariably slow down app development as many third-party integrations are required, and a lot of testing goes into the process of integrating these technologies with the mobile app.

Q3. Are there any shortcuts?

Taking shortcuts and cutting corners while developing an app is not what a professional and development company would advise you. This is because we know that while trying to save a few dollars in the app development process, companies often lose much more as the product quality is affected and the app does not gain the required user base.