How much does it cost to make an app?
How much does it cost to get a mobile app built for your business?
This article will help you get your mobile app idea out of your head and launched to the world in the most cost effective way.
By understanding how mobile app development is priced, will help you make more informed decisions during your research. This will help you define the most important requirements you need to launch your app in a cost effective way.
Estimating the cost of your app:
When it comes to estimating the development cost of your mobile app, you need to consider the two main factors involved which are:
- Development time
- Data Storage
Most mobile app development agencies will not quote you on the value of the end product, they will calculate a development cost based on how long it will take to build, and how much it will cost to run on an ongoing basis.
The more complex a mobile app is, the longer it will take to design and build, therefore the time cost will be higher.
Likewise, if your app only requires a small amount of data, the hosting and storage costs will be significantly lower than if you were to build a mobile app like Instagram (Just think of the millions of photos that are uploaded every day!)
You also need to consider how your app will be distributed. There are additional costs associated with distributing your app, whether that's direct distribution or via the Apple or Android App Stores.
On a scale of 1 - 5, ask yourself the following questions:
- How complex is your app idea?
- How much content/data will your app need to store?
- How do you want your app to be distributed, and if that includes the Google Play store or the Apple App store?
Once you understand this, then you are able to explore different mobile app development solutions and discover how much each app development agency will charge you to bring your app idea to life.
What options are available to make an app?
As with most things in life, you can do it yourself, or you can pay somebody to do it for you.
If you have more time than money, then learning how to build an app yourself might be the right option for you. But if your app idea has any level of complexity, then it may take you many months or years to deploy a high quality, professional mobile app that "Wows" your intended audience.
If you're ready to invest in your app idea, then working with a professional app development company to handle the entire project management process will be the right option for you, and that's what the rest of this blog post is all about.
How to find the right development agency for your app?
Most people start with a search on Google, and explore the first few results.
You'll probably discover that most app development agencies won't display any information about how they price their app development process, because they provide a completely bespoke solution, and will need to quote for each individual project based on their hourly rate.
Here are some key points to discuss when talking to potential development teams:
Define your budget
As the saying goes within the tech industry "Anything is possible if you have enough time and budget". If you can think it, then it can probably be built as an app. But your time frame and budget will dictate how it gets built. By understanding your budget and price range, the development team should be able to outline the best way to calculate the development cost.
Outline your objectives
There are always multiple solutions to any project, and the one you have in your head may not necessarily be the best course of action. By outlining your objectives of the app with the development team, you will give the relevant context needed, to align with the vision of the project. This will help everyone involved in the development process identify your starting point, understand the end goal, and then work collaboratively to get there in the best way possible.
Features
Make sure you're clear on all the features you want to include in your app and what the user experience should be like. More importantly, you should rank those features in order of importance. If you create a dream list of 10 features, but your budget only allows for 8 of the 10, then you need to be confident in what stays and what goes on the road map for a later date. You should also be aware that different features have different levels of complexity, so talking to the app development team about which ones take longer than others is important. For example, a messaging system within your app introduces complexity and hosting costs, so a viable solution might be to link to a social media messaging system or Whatsapp to start with.
Look & feel
What will your app look like? The visual design process is critical to the success of an app development project, making sure your users have a beautiful user interface that's easy to use. Talk to your app development team about how the design process works, and if it's included as a key milestone of the project.
Where is your money being spent?
If the app development company you're talking to is building you a custom mobile app, then you should find out where your money is being spent. For example, most mobile apps require a user profile, sign up and log in feature. Are the other app development teams coding this from scratch? Here at Smartichoke, we've invested in building tools that allow us to deploy the most common features quickly, resulting in less development time and reducing the average cost to launch. Ask yourself if you want to allocate 20% of your budget on things that almost every app needs.
Ongoing costs
As mentioned earlier in this blog post, you should discuss the ongoing costs associated with hosting your app. Generally, this is priced on a per GB of data, per month fee. It may seem expensive compared to the amount of data you get with you smart phone contract, but you need to remember that you're investing in a robust infrastructure that hosts your app securely.
Similarly, if you want your app to be made available to download from the Apple and Android App stores, then these companies charge a fee for that. At the time of writing this blog post, Google charge a one time $25 fee to make your app available to download on Android phones from the Google Play store and Apple charges a $99 per year fee to make your app available to download on iPhone's from the Apple App store.
In addition to hosting, you need to be clear on the support and maintenance costs. Clear communication with your software development team to ensure your app is available, working and secure is a must, so make sure this is something you talk about.
Project timeline & key milestones
The app development teams you talk to, should outline a clear project timeline and milestones. This should give everyone involved a clear understanding of who is doing what, and when. Payments should be tied to milestones that have been completed successfully, so that the project progresses, is managed well and launches on time.
It's common to outline projects in the following way:
- Sign contract & pay deposit
- Design stage
- Build stage
- Client Quality Assurance Stage
- Project Completion
- Launching an MVP
In technology, especially when launching an app, it's important to be aware of the concept of "Minimum Viable Product" or MVP for short. This is where you launch your app as quickly as possible, to get it into the hands of your users, and then adapt and make changes to the app based on their feedback.
Most app development companies will be eager to build exactly what you ask for, using up all of your development budget on the V1 of the app, leaving you without much flexibility to make changes. Here at Smartichoke, we're focused on your success and want to develop a long term partnership. This means we'll help you understand what your MVP should look like, launch your app quickly, and help you reach product market fit.
Yes, but how much will it cost to build my mobile app?
We know it can be confusing, but application development costs are very much based on "it depends".
We want to make it easy for you, so if you're interested in having a relaxed, informal chat to discuss your idea then please schedule a call with us here.
In the mean time, here are some average costs to help estimate your development budget:
Typical application development hourly rates*
- Small team = £50 - £100 per hour
- Medium team = £100 - £150 per hour
- Large team = £150+ per hour
Typical time to build an app*
- Low complexity app = 10 - 12 weeks
- Medium complexity app = 23 - 25 weeks
- High complexity app = 35 - 38 weeks
Typical usage of 1GB of data*
- 614 photos (Based on 1.5mb per photo)
- 18,874 word documents (Based on 50kb per document)
- 3146 PDF documents (Based on 300kb per document)
- 3860 Powerpoint Presentations (Based on 10 simple slides per powerpoint)
- 230 songs (Based on 4mb per song)
*Source
Fancy a chat?
Contact us today to request a no obligation call back. We'd love to hear about your idea and help you with your research.
