Figuring the cost of mobile app development

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Mobile App Development Cost or How Much For Making a Dream Come True?

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Table of Contents 2 4 10 15 16 27 28

Introduction

Types of Apps

Cost calculation

How much do Big Boys pay for Apps?

How to go about developing an App? Give Us Feedback

Conclusion

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Introduction The ways in which The Internet has changed our lives are countless, but one of the most influential novelties it brought is the new, groundbreaking type of business - App development.

Life without Apps, on your smartphone or tablet, is considered very limited nowadays.

So, naturally, the commerce around them grows at an astonishing pace. At this point, when Apps like Uber are worth billions of dollars, lots of business-minded people see opportunities and wonder - what

is the cost of developing a mobile App and how exactly is one created?

If you’re curious too, but haven’t yet put much thought and research into this subject, don’t bother - the following, conveniently structured white paper will acquaint you with the basics of App creation pricing.

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Before proceeding any further, let's discuss what kinds of mobile Apps are there. You may classify them by platforms they can be run on, the types of functionality they provide, their design patterns, complexity levels, etc.

However, since we’ll be analyzing the costs of creation, we’ll take

Types of apps

these basic categories as the point of departure:

- Native Apps - Mobile Web Apps - Hybrid Apps

Instagram Navite App

Native Apps

Are typically developed for and must be installed on a particular platform through marketplaces such as App Store and Google Play.

They are rooted in your device and often utilize its features - camera, contacts, notification system, the GPS - to perform the tasks they’re meant to perform.

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Mobile Web Apps

Financial Times Mobile Web App

Are often confused with websites since the line between theses two concepts is blurry. The common understanding, however, is this: web Apps are actually websites that disguise themselves by functioning similarly to native Apps. In other words, they complete helpful (or entertaining) functions for users and rely fully on the web and web browsers to do so.

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Khan Academy Hybrid App

Hybrid Apps

Combine elements of both Native and Web Apps as the title suggests.

They live in your phone, are downloaded from App marketplaces, might have access to your device’s features, but are developed with HTML, CSS and Java technologies much like web Apps. Their most distinguishing features are an embedded web browser and usage of a native container for hosting.

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To quantify somehow the level of features, we’ll use business objects as units. Known also as API endpoints, they are basically relative entities, pages within the app, such as your profile, menu with its settings and so on.

As far as features go, there are such types: Simple Apps.

Imagine an initial menu that appears after opening an App. It has a few clickable titles, all of which branch into other, more detailed tables once you click them. That’s the common, first level functionality App type, the easiest and the cheapest one to build. Simple Apps include 10

business points or less.

Mid-level Apps.

These Apps contain 10 to 30 business objects and are one step higher on the difficulty ladder. They usually have much more content to display and, thus, are arranged in a more creative way to avoid boring the user. The costs they require depend on whether you want them to be Native or Web based, to include large database or a small one, etc.

Graphically advanced.

Enterprise Apps - the most costly and difficult ones to launch, they might contain hundreds or even thousands of API

endpoints, depending on purposes they’re being developed for.

Many big businesses rely on gamification to make their Apps entertaining and understandable. Therefore, they might add a simple PONG functionality to them, or a modern 3D physics engine, an integration with social networks, a chat, and tons of other features that determine development price.

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When it comes to App creation - time and skills are main price factors.

The work of a top developer (or designer) costs $150/hour on average.

A less skilled, but still solid contractor from U.S will charge you about $100/hour and a

Cost calculation

low-end guy - $65/hour.

Take these rates, correlate them with the complexity of your future App and you’ll be able to get approximate expenses.

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So, a simple app that barely does anything requires 100 hours on average of developer’s work and 40 of designer’s (both of them don’t have to be prodigious, so we’ll count $65/hour as their salary).

Roughly, it’ll cost you this: 140

work hours times 65 dollars = $9,100.

Don’t expect such apps to do miracles though. Plain displaying data is usually their functionality limit.

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Mid-level complexity Apps are usually created by three people - two developers and one designer, in 5 to 8 weeks. In this case, when there’s a unique and a bit more complex idea in your mind, it’s scary to entrust it to the shoddy contractors. Therefore, we’ll hire solid ones for $100 per hour. Now, let’s see the spendings it will take - 3

professionals, $100 per hour, 5 to 8 weeks - the price could be anything from $60,000 to $96,000.

Costs will depend largely on whether you want your App to be standalone or have a server built-in and/or API integrated. The later functionality usually costs twice more expensive.

However, usually doesn’t mean always - there are standalone Apps built for five figures and API integrated Apps built for six figures.

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Finally,

graphically advanced, enterprise Apps.

It takes top talents to create those and a lot of man-hours - an amount hard to establish.

There is rarely an exact cost for them too, since highly complex development is typically done within non-fixed price agile projects.

However, to give you an idea, let’s take a hypothetical but very probable

700 to 2,000 hours. That is three to six months of work, depending on timeframe -

the number of people working simultaneously. So, if you truly want quality - expect not less than a six figure number, anything from

$100,000 up to a million or more.

These estimates

are based on U.S. market rates,

but you can cut the expenses by using an offshore development company, freelancers or simply by developing yourself, or with friends, if you’ve got what it takes.

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Different companies voice different figures. Here’s how some rough estimates look like

How much do Big Boys spend on Apps?

from development agencies: Applico - $100,000

to $300,000 Savvy Apps - $150,000 to $450,000 Fueled - $150,000 - $500,000 StarMobile - $50,000 to $250,000 from industry surveys: Kinvey - $270,000 Enterprise mobility exchange -

$250,000 to $500,000 Clutch - $171,450 OSX Daily - $150,000 from prominent app cost calculators: Otreva - $147,000

$267,000 Kinvey calculator - $321,000 Tusnua Designs calculator - $228.210 imason calculator -

Therefore, considering the figures above, our average app cost is

$175,000 to $375,000

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How do I go about developing an App?

Let’s check the options in front of you.

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Master app development, come up with an app idea and realize it on your own.

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Purchase an app template or app making software.

Hire freelancers to do the work for you.

Work with an app development company.

Launch your own App company

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1.Master app development, come up with an app idea and realize it on your own

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Pros

This option seems tempting as it is the most affordable one. Various

free manuals and

tutorials are available in abundance on the

web, and Apple even provides an official documentation with coding instructions. Also, it implies a guarantee that no

one

will mess up your vision, as you’re the only one stirring the wheel.

Cons

In the perfect world, where studying isn’t hard, boring and confusing, this choice would be ideal. However, in reality, one can’t

just have knowledge and skills uploaded to his brain like Trinity has when learning how to fly a helicopter in Matrix. Coding and design self-education

is immensely difficult.

It requires time, effort and money investments - not in the development itself, but in your personal training. Everyone knows that despite all the free info out there, learning is done much more efficiently when it is structured, in a form of courses or personal coaching with a mentor to address the issues to.

Each of those options might vary in price from $10 per lesson to thousands of dollars per workshop, and none of them can guarantee a successful outcome - the high quality App.

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2.Purchase an app template

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Pros

Generic apps, something simple and similar to what's already on the market, can be developed for a fairly

low cost.

The general rule is this: each time some App hits the market big, tons of its look alikes influx the web soon after. So it is very likely to find and buy

source code (for $50-$150) of a

similar - to-a-popular App and customize it according to your needs. If you’ve got some graphic skills as well, to change the standard design packed in the code you purchased, any further spendings won’t be necessary.

Cons

This approach obviously won’t work if you’re hoping to launch a unique, big scale application - those require much more

development and maintenance. Plus, various issues might occur with the code template - it could turn out different than expected, contain many bugs or just be too similar to tons other popular App’s

of

clones that are already on the market.

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3.Hire freelancers to do the work for you

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Pros

Cheaper than hiring a whole App agency and can potentially bring high-quality results. Since freelancer sites allow

to see each freelancer’s previous experience and reviews of their work, it is possible to find qualified specialists for

a reasonable price.

Cons

Lack of organization. If you go with this approach, you won’t have a project manager to coordinate the work efficiently,

make sure everyone’s sticking to deadlines, administer communications and clearly convey your vision to each project team member. That might result in unexpected outcomes a different functionality and looks from what you ordered, missed deadlines, extra costs, and most importantly, poor App quality.

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4.Work with an app development company

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Pros project to fail -

If you’re a business hypochondriac who tends to sleeplessly lay in bed every night, psychotically listing the reasons for his

this option will bring you peace.

Your only responsibility, when you hire a software development company, is to explain what you want. Afterwards, the skillful team of project managers, developers and designers will take care of the rest. They will ask you to describe each aspect of your idea, so that no info is omitted and the end result - the live App you ordered, meets all your demands precisely.

Hiring a software company is the surest

way to get a project

done strictly as scheduled and ensure the top quality of work.

Most of your beloved, popular App Store and Google Play Apps were built by an organizations like that.

Cons

If you take an offshore development company, that is possibly located in a different time zone, some miscommunications might

happen. However, organizations with proven reputation will likely not let you down. In case you hire a U.S based agency, communication will be easier, but the price - way bigger. Usually, software engineering companies pay their employees hourly, so the entire procedure of bringing your App concept to life

might end up costing you a sizeable amount.

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5. Launch your own App company

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Pros

Full control of the situation - you are there, at all times, to voice your requirements.

You can hand-pick developers, project

managers, designers, build rapport and understanding with them and ensure that App creation is proceeding in the

way

you want it to. Also, since your employees are doing the work for their own company, they will probably be much more responsible and caring of the project.

Cons

Running an App company is something only

guys with very deep pockets can do.

Operational funds for accounting, legal fees,

salary for the development/design team, marketing expenses, budget for further updates and other costs are all on you.

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Many obstacles might occur while turning a raw concept into an advanced live App. As a business person you probably know by know

Conclusion

that dealing with bottlenecks

is essential to reaching success. You also know that a substantial research reduces business risks by a lot. Therefore, by providing the info above we hope to have made the realm of App development a bit clearer for you If you’d like to receive an additional, more detailed advice

from an expert, however – be our guest, talk to a specialist at Perfectial right now.

Talk to expert

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