Factors Affecting Cost Of Mobile App Development
Apps are ruling the world. From apps to assist in complicated tasks to apps that keep track of most mundane of our activities, man has become very dependent on apps. We have an app for instant messaging, an app to share media from one device to another, an app for calculations, an app for every other thing. What goes into building these apps? How much money is required to make these apps? In here, we explore the various factors revolving around the cost of development of an app. What are the deciding factors for the cost of development of an app? Before setting out on this venture to build your own app, you need to have a clear idea of what you expect out of your app, who you wish to serve via the app and what is the purpose of your app. Questions like these affect your decisions throughout the Mobile App Development, and they have an impact on the cost, as you go ahead in the process. Once you have done your homework about the idea of the app, you are all set to prepare your budget for the app. Now, this budget will be decided by some critical factors.
Let's have a look at these critical factors that decide the development costs:
Who is going to handle the development part? Who is going to develop your app or the app for your business? Will you hire a freelancer? Should you give your project to a mobile app development company? Or, should you go for in-house development? Deciding on this factor is very important. Though this will depend on the scale of your app, for a small-scale app that is being developed as a side project of your primary business, you can go for in-house development or freelancers. But for an app that your business is going to revolve around, you should consider hiring an app development firm. You can get several other assurances along with the app in this case. Are you going for the Hybrid app or the Native app? Native apps are those apps which are built for a particular platform. For example, the Google Play Store app on your Android device is explicitly developed for Android platforms, and it is native to Android. Hybrid apps are most of the apps that you use in your daily life. They can be thought of as the combined power of native apps and web apps. Now, which of these are you going to develop, will have an impact on the development cost. Native apps require more time for development but once made, are very fast. They bring good user experience with them. On the other hand, hybrid apps don’t take that long for development. But their speed will depend mainly on the speed of your user’s browser, so they are slower than their native equivalents. The cost will be higher for the development of Native apps and lower for the Hybrid ones. For which platform are you developing the app? When you are out to develop the app, you must be having some platform in your mind. Do you want to develop it for iOS or Android? Or do you have some other mobile operating system in your mind? Every platform has its own development intricacies, which demands different amount and type of work for different platforms. iOS platforms are cheaper than Android when it comes to development comparisons. The apps developed for iOS reach out to users who are financially sound. Thus, this platform can help you generate greater revenues compared to others.
You must be aware that Android has a higher market share. Thus, your choice of platform will depend on the purpose of your app and it will be a significant deciding factor in the development cost of your app. What will be the core features and functionalities of your app? The features and functionalities that you are going to shape your app will also design the cost structure of the app. As you can perhaps think, the more the number and complexity of features and functionalities, the more will be the cost. Knowing this, you must distinguish between the primary and the secondary features of your app. For instance, a photo or video editing app, or an app for reading PDFs does not require geolocation services, social media integration, or customization as essentials. But if you are out to develop a food ordering app, complexities such as payment gateways, databases, backend development will be an integral part of the process. These will, in such a case, comprise the primary features of your app. Click here to read more