Eager to find out what goes into the price of building a mobile app? Have no idea of what factors can affect the app development cost? If you are supposed to build an app for your business, you need to investigate this area inside out. The thing is that mobile app development cost involves numerous factors. And the fundamental cost drivers of mobile app development vary greatly, ranging from a development platform to general app functionality and security. In this post, we’ll break down the main aspects that usually decide your mobile app development cost. Many companies have a software development cost calculator that allows customers to estimate the cost of their future app online. You only need to complete a few fields and enter your requirements for your future app. As a result, you’ll get a free app quote immediately.
If your next challenge is creating a mobile app for your company or business, you have to bookmark this page as you’ll need this information. Let’s review the key criteria that determine the final cost of building a mobile app for your business.
Determine a Business Model
Statistically, people spend around $24 billion on mobile applications and this sum is expected to grow by 2023. Therefore, we may suppose that building a mobile app for your business is a good investment. But one of the main factors that you need to consider is to determine your business model. What type of business do you have? What is your core audience? What design do you want to have? When you finally answer these questions, you’ll frame out your general app development budget. Overall, a lot depends on your requirements – if it’s an app for internal operation, it requires fewer options and UX elements as compared to an eCommerce application.
The Mobile App Development Platform
Your next task is to think about the compatibility of your app with devices. In other words, you need to decide for what operating system, you wish to build your app: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, or Blackberry. This can heavily influence the general cost of app development. And this is where you also need to think about your targeted audience. Make a marketing analysis and define what operating system your users are using. Remember that building a mobile app for iOS and Android is more expensive as compared to building an app for only one operating system.
Integration Points
This is probably the main source that influences the general cost of your future mobile app. You need to consider the following aspects:
- Are you going to integrate any third-party systems? If yes, you need to define what kind of third-party systems you are going to use (Salesforce, Share point, SAP, social media, etc.)
- What kind of content for your app do you want to use? Are you going to create content specifically for this operating system or it already exists in other data structures?
Features
The app cost also depends on a set of features that will be integrated into your app. Firstly, you need to answer the question of what kind of app you are going to build: basic, medium, or large. For instance, mobile apps that can be used on two platforms, with an extensive set of options and customer support are considered big apps.
Remember that the functionality of your app, a set of features (and their complexity) are the main sources that influence the cost of your future app. Therefore, your first and foremost task is to determine how complex your app is going to be.
Such options as fields, screens, buttons, and logic can surely influence the sum of money needed for app development. For instance, a simple messaging app usually takes up to 200 hours of work and if the price is $70 per hour, you’ll pay $14,000.
App Design and User Experience
This is where you need to answer the following questions. Native or custom design? How many screens will your app have? A native design usually uses pre-built templates. A custom design is usually more expensive as this task is more time-consuming and requires a unique architecture for absolutely each element, more working hours, and must be written from scratch. If you are searching for a budget-friendly option, you may choose ready-made designs.
Overall, we’ve just reviewed the main aspects that usually influence the general cost of your mobile app. We hope that now, you’ll have a better idea of how much you need to pay to build a mobile app for your business.