Boy, do we get this question a lot. “How much does it cost to build an app?” has become a trend. It’s good that we’re happy to advise you on app development costs and ways to optimize an app development budget.
The mobile app economy is booming. We’ve already seen both the App Store and Google Play celebrate their 10th anniversary, and their growth rates show no sign of stopping. Both app stores are growing by more than a thousand apps a day and their future looks even brighter.
Reading: How.much does it cost to create an app
“Sensor Tower expects global gross consumer spending to exceed $270 billion by 2025″
— Sensor Tower
The company continues to report growth in spending on regular non-gaming apps. All that data screams: now is the time to invest in mobile apps. What you need to do before you tap into this lucrative app market is get your mobile app budget in order.
Read on to learn more about:
- Average app development costs
- App development budget per phase
- Cost to build an app based on functionality
- App cost considerations behind the scenes
- Cost to update an app
- Time to develop an app
- How to reduce app development costs
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Reading time: ~20 minutes
It can cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop a mobile app, depending on what the app does.
The short answer is that a decent mobile app can cost $10,000 to $500,000 to develop, but YMMV.
Believe me, I feel the urge to smack your fingers right now , and no, I’m not going to give you another autohand ler analogy. We will spend some time reviewing why your mileage may vary in a minute. In the meantime, please take a look at some real app development budgets:
Cost of an agency developed mobile app with US based management and a distributed team:
- Cost of offline standalone app: $12,000 to $25,000
- App with moderate online connectivity: $5,000 to $45,000
- Chatbot app development costs: $20,000 to $50,000
- IoT or wearable application costs: $20,000 to $60,000
- Messaging application development costs: $30,000-$70,000
- Augmented reality/virtual reality apps cost: $40,000-70,000
- On-demand development costs -Apps: $50,000 to $100,000
- M-Commerce app cost: $30,000-$80,000
- Mobile social app cost: $30,000-$90,000
- Enterprise Mobile a cost per Individual: $50,000 to $120,000
Cost of a mobile app developed by a US-based agency:
- Offline standalone app cost: ~$50,000
- App with moderate online connectivity cost: ~$80,000
- Chatbot app development cost: ~$90,000
- IoT or wearable application cost: ~$1,350,000
- Messaging application development cost: ~$300,000
- Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality app cost: ~$400,000
- On-demand app development cost: ~$800,000
- M-commerce app cost: ~$600,000.00
- Mobile social networking cost app: ~$350,000
- Enterprise mobile app cost: ~$500,000
Cost to create a mobile app with an offshore team:
- Offline standalone app cost: ~$5,000
- App with moderate online connectivity cost: ~12,000 $
- Chatbot app development costs: ~$19,000
- IoT and wearable application costs: ~$28,000
- Messaging application development costs: ~$35,000
- Augmented reality/virtual reality apps cost: ~$45,000
- On-demand app development costs: ~$50,000
- M-commerce app cost: ~$40,000
- Social networking mobile app cost: ~$50,000
- Enterprise mobile app cost: ~$60,000
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These price points show the cost of developing a single app for one platform: iOS or Android. The costs here include the integration of an app with a server, but not the development of a server component.
As you can see from the graphic, the range is huge. Let’s take a closer look at why your mileage can vary when budgeting for app development. Read on to learn what constitutes a mobile app budget and what the average cost of developing an app is. I’ll also share some tips on how to control app creation costs.
The app development process consists of several distinct phases. Each phase takes a portion of your app development budget. So, if you know the best practices for budget allocation at each app development stage, you can answer the question, “How much does it cost to build an app?”
1. Cost of Business Analysis in App Development Budget
Your brilliant app idea needs review, market analysis and requirements documentation.An experienced mobile development team will ask you countless questions to create an accurate app development quote.
A good rule of thumb is to allocate at least 10% of the total app development budget to the business analysis phase. Click To Tweet
Business Analysts will participate in all phases of the app development project. Your job is to ensure that your request is:
- Reachable and understandable for programmers
- Follows Apple and Google best practices
- on the most effective technology stack
Business analytics budget share of mobile app development costs: $1,200 to $11,000.
Advice on how to cut of business analytics budget:
- Find other apps with exactly the functionality you want to replicate in your app. Clarify how this functionality differs in your app.
- Provide UML diagrams to the development team.
- Discover best practices for business analysis in mobile app projects.
2. Design and clickable prototype costs in app development budget
Once the requirements document is ready, it’s high time to start with the UI. Flawless UI and UX is a must in today’s apps. So you should be prepared to cash in on the design.
Learn more about the difference between UI and UX design
A lot depends on whether you already have a brand book have, but typically 10-15% of an app’s overall cost is design. Make sure you get a clickable prototype as part of the deal.
A click-thru prototype allows you to test the UX before the most expensive phase of app coding begins. Some of the most popular tools for creating click-thru prototypes are:
- InVision
- Adobe XD
- Marvel
- Proto .io
Here’s a great video from InVision showing how these prototyping tools work:
Design budget in app development costs: $2,500 to $10,000 .
Tip on how to cut app design budget:
- Take some screenshots of the apps you like , and explain why you chose them;
- Use standard UI elements provided by Apple and Google;
- Check sites like ui8 and Freebiesbug for ready-made UI kits Check out this collection of free UI kits for iOS and Android.
3. App coding costs per se
App coding costs more than all other app development phases. Imagine thoughtful developers sitting in front of shiny iMacs writing strings of code. This image is just part of the bigger picture.
Add daily stand-ups with development team members to make the image more realistic. App development is a collaborative process: even a small app needs two or three team members.
App architecturecom/nEJwBnJfMgrepTdEKiQJQkImAnkTSHTG/assets/images/optimized/rev-e1ccb3b/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/project-management-app-cost.jpg” alt=”Project management budget in app development” />
Project Management budget in app development costs: $1,200 to $12,000.
Advice on cutting project management budget:
- You should never cut project management budget , period.A project manager can make or fail your project, but there must be a project manager for your project.
- Get rid of a project manager who doesn’t respond within 10-24 hours cases, this PM is his money not worth it.
A decent project manager is worth every penny Click To Tweet
5.App cost through lens of development stages
Now you’re answering the One step closer to asking, “How much does it cost to build an app?” Read on to learn how different features en affect the budget for mobile apps.
See also: Angular Responsive Design: Complete Guide
Mobile apps in their early days were far from accessories or marketing stunts Rich app for $999.99 in app store when it opened? Now we have apps as feature rich as Slack, Gmail, Uber, YouTube – you name it.
These apps have many features. The more features you plan for an app, the higher the price of building the app will be. Let’s go through a list of features that will impact your app development budget to help you clarify “How much does it cost to develop an app?”
1. UI Optimization for Tablets
If you expect your app users to enjoy working with the app on their tablets, the app needs to adapt to large e-screens. Such optimization increases your app development budget.
In practice, many apps launch on tablets. But without an interface that takes large screens into account, the user experience is downright poor.
In order for your app to support tablets, you should increase the app development budget by up to 1.5x. Click To Tweet
The high cost of optimizing apps for tablets is the main reason why so few apps support tablets.
Usually only big brands have a universal app, the separate UX for phones and tablets offers. From iOS 14 there is a separate operating system for iPads. So the 1.5x increase in app development budget to support iPad still applies to iPads prior to iOS 14.
Developing a standalone iPad app based on the iOS app should however fit in a budget increase from 1.5 to 1.7. The source code remains the same, and the new iPad apps work virtually on the Mac with minimal effort from the app development team.
2. Landscape
- Will your app only have cloud-based notifications?
- Will your app also rely on local notifications on the device?
- How many triggers will there be notifications?
- What will be the logic behind notifications: location or time based; some user actions?
- Will you track what happens with notifications?
- Will you support 3D Touch and include custom elements in your notifications?
Expect to spend between $1,500 and $2,500 to add basic push notifications.
Here is a video from MacRumors explaining extensive notifications in iOS:
Make sure that your development team doesn’t reinvent the wheel. There are many off-the-shelf push notification solutions: Urban Airship, Pushwoosh, OneSignal, etc.
The cost of custom push notifications can go up to $4,000-$5,000.
The cost of implementing custom notifications includes a server component and integration.
6. user profileFor example, did you know that if you reach a large user base, you have to pay to use Google Maps in your app? Again, keep in mind that there may be ready-made solutions on GitHub and other resources.
A mobile app is more than an attractive icon that you download from an app store and tap on until a miracle happens. The app is more than the combined efforts of the app developers and more than your idea. Click To Tweet
What is it that usually goes unnoticed by the user, while also being a significant part of the answer to the question “How much does it cost to build an app?”
1 . Include backend development in your mobile app budget
If your mobile app loads content from a server or syncs to a database, you need to plan for the server component. Sometimes it can be an existing server, e.g. B. a news website from which you want to retrieve news. In this case, there is no need to develop a server as the mobile app connects to the website using an existing API solution.
However, in most cases a server is required for:
- Save data online
- Sync with cloud data
- Allow communication with other app users
- Outsource images, Videos, etc. from a mobile device
There are many off-the-shelf server solutions on the market that can help you set up a backend in one snap. However, it is enough if you only know two – Firebase and AWS. Firebase is Google’s renowned product which is a universal backend platform. And Amazon Web Services is Amazon – everything they touch turns to gold.
The average cost of the server component that works with your mobile app via an API varies widely: $6,400 to $28,000.
Opt for Firebase, AWS or similar backend services to keep server-side development costs in a safer zone.
2. App patenting costs
3. App Marketing Budget
Once you’ve developed your app, it’s time to submit it to the App Store or Google Play.
In fact, your marketing budget is incremental budget into development.
Minimal app marketing initiatives include:
- Get app reviews with top releases
- App Store Optimization (ASO): description, user ratings, etc.
- Social networks
- App trailer
Even if the app marketing budget is a separate thing, you should plan this within the overall app budget. Gone are the days of amazing apps that sell themselves. With so many apps in the app stores, marketing is critical to your app’s success.
According to the Business of Apps, you need to set aside at least $10,000 to plan a go-to-market strategy for your app.
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— BusinessofApps
According to a survey by AdColony, video ads play an important role in mobile app marketing:
Source: AdColony
You might find a wealth of app marketing information, including do-it-yourself workarounds, in this incredible app marketing resource.
For some reason, the top Articles about app cost accounting, you have to spend 20% of the app development budget on app updates and maintenance every year. What does it even mean – update or maintenance of a mobile app?
Maintaining an app means updating it to support the latest versions of iOS and Android. Get ready for a big aha moment:
Every new version of iOS and Android supports all the features that are already available in apps.
See also: How to Create Your Own Server at Home for Web Hosting
You don’t have to spend a penny to have your App will work on a new iOS when it comes out. The only problem with iOS was when Apple asked all developers to upgrade their apps to a 64-bit architecture.
This anomaly occurred once and Apple gave developers more than a year to fix it update their apps. Also, before moving to a new architecture, Apple had supported 32-bit apps for two years.
According to Clutch’s survey, you should spend $10,000-$14,000 for the app Schedule for maintenance is still quite high.
Source: Clutch
It’s a different story if you want some new features that come with a new version of the mobile operating system: Face ID, ARKit, Core NFC, etc. Implementing this functionality can cost well over a penny and depends on how robust the new features need to be. Here is our answer to the question “How much does it cost to update an app?”:
Velvetech’s experience says that 15% of your app development budget is enough to maintain an app annually. Click To Tweet
This estimate includes things like adding a night mode or similar.
The time to develop an app is of course crucial for the app development budget, so “How much time does it take to build an app?” is the second most common question we receive from our customers.
As you might expect, the answer depends on the type of app you’re developing and what resources you have available. How much time to develop an app if your app development team consists of two developers? Twice faster than with a single app developer? Well, on a rare app project, yes – if your app can be roughly split into two equal parts.
However, on average, depending on the complexity, you can predict the following time to spend on your app:
Type of app project
Time to develop an app
MVP 2-3 weeks Simple app 1 month Enterprise apps, consumer apps with advanced features like maps, etc. 2- 3 Months Scalable On-Demand Mobile Apps 4 Months+
So if someone asks you, “How long does it take to develop an app?” you know it will take anywhere from 1 month to 4 months.
The longer the development takes, the higher the app costs. So you need to think about ways to reduce app costs.
There are numerous ways to optimize your app development budget. Remember that you have to balance between an optimal budget and a feature-rich app with potential. Let’s summarize some of the variants to reduce mobile app development costs.
1. Cross-platform development
Use Flutter, Xamarin, or a similar framework to accelerate your mobile app development. This allows you to develop versions of the app for both platforms at the same time.
The cross-platform approach saves you 10-30% of your budget compared to native app development.
Avoid the cross-platform approach if your app depends on many custom animations. We recommend Swift for iOS and Java or Kotlin for Android when developing advanced apps.
You will find even more reasons to use the mobile cross-platform development approach to cut costs of app development costs in one of our blog posts.
2. MVP First
Starting out with an MVP may sound like giving up in the first place. However, it’s a viable way to test your idea in practice with real users – on a small budget. Click To Tweet
The initial feedback will help you plan an optimal budget for a fully featured app release. You will focus your efforts on MVP features your users are craving.
In our separate blog post, you will learn why most MVP apps fail and what you need to do to have a successful MVP app to create a solid MVP version.
3. Design and development by the same agency
Instead of being an intermediary between a designer and developers, find an agency that can do both. It will save you a lot of time.
4. Use off-the-shelf solutions
As I mentioned earlier, developing a custom part rather than an off-the-shelf solution is not the best idea. The mobile economy is so strong that you can create an entire app using different SDKs. However, you should be able to distinguish between code templates (aka code snippets) and mobile SDKs.
Never buy code snippets. Your development team will ask you to throw these away, or you will ask for an expensive refactoring phase. Click To Tweet
Code snippets from sites like codecanyon.com are not at all like mobile SDKs. SDKs come with official support – they’re a safe bet, while code snippets are sold as is.
5. Avoid supporting older operating systems and device models
Support only current versions of iOS and Android and newer device models to save up to 1.5x to 2x the app budget.
Summary
As you can see, defining the cost of mobile app development is not a trivial task: too many moving parts. It depends on who you ask, when you ask (high or low season), etc. So it’s not that I’m reluctant to let the cat out of the bag. It’s just a different story with each app. I just hope you’ve found enough information here to answer the question, “How much does it cost to build a mobile app?”
I haven’t covered some extreme variants, such as: B. Partnering with a developer who agrees to make an app for equity. These are awkward situations and I haven’t heard of any that have gone well in the last five years or so.
I advise you to proceed carefully and choose a trusted software provider with proven experience in the mobile app space. Development.
Your partner should be flexible and work as part of your team and genuinely care about the success of your app. Such a vendor is hard to find.
According to Clutch, “The average minimum project size is $5,000 to $10,000. However, the typical cost of creating a worthwhile app is likely well over $5,000 and $10,000.”
If you’ve followed our guide carefully, you already know that you’ll end up depending on the following app budgets will the company you choose to develop the app:
Company type
App cost
US agency with a US based team 50,000 – 1,350,000 US dollars US agency with a distributed team US$5,000 – $120,000 Offshore companies US$5,000 – $60,000
In short, with Velvetech you can have a mobile app developed for as little as US$5,000 and up to US$120,000. The only advice is let the features drive the budget, not the other way around.
Oh, and ditch the $10,000 offers for an Uber-like app from certain mobile development companies. Your time is money and you know better.
See also: Tips on How to Create an Android App Without Coding? Top 20 no-code Platforms
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