How much does it cost to make an app ? This is probably one of the first questions brands and app developers need to know an answer to when launching an app development project. An app development cost estimate is the most basic and crucial component of a budget for any mobile app development project. Very often a business owner finds themselves trying to answer these two questions: how much does it cost to build an app for my business by hiring an app development company versus how much does it cost to develop an app in-house.
Both approaches have their pros and cons. To shed some light on how each affects the cost of developing an app, let’s review both.
After several years of operating in a market, app development companies can develop the right set of skills. to address cross-platform mobile technology. application development projects efficiently, often application projects can be quite complicated, they can involve advanced mobile technology, including machine learning to drive sophisticated computing, augmented reality, as well as Blockchain, IoT and more.
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Leadi ng app development companies beat the com Competition quickly learning from their mistakes, so working with such an experienced team will protect you from repeating the same mistakes. App development is a multi-step process that involves careful planning with a proper timeline, again, based on previous experience.
If you choose the path of building a mobile app in-house, you can certainly save a app development cost, at least initially, because over time, by fixing bugs caused by a lack of experience, you can achieve the price you would get from an app development company, should you decide to hire one.
As much as we’d like to put a finger on app development cost, we can only come up with an estimate, simply because every app development process involves many factors that collectively influence a cost figure. final. Fortunately, there are several factors that make up the application development budget that will help you get an estimate of application development costs.
Influential factors in application development:
- Application functionality and purpose: what an application will be able to do for its users.
- Supported mobile devices and platforms: yes an app will be developed for iOS only or has an android version as well. What specific device hardware will you support e.g. iPhone 13, iPhone 12 Mini, Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, etc.
- Integration points: Will an app integrate with third-party apps that will be the source of its content.
- Use of visuals: The complexity of visuals within an application will significantly influence cost.
- Use of hardware features of the smartphone : Whether an app will use smartphone features such as GPS navigation, NFC technology, motion coprocessor, augmented reality technology, and other technologies that come with smartphones or tablets.
- Maintenance plan : Once an application development project is finished, it will undoubtedly require technical support from its developer to provide updates that fix bugs or introduce new features.
That being said, there are some typical benchmarks or average for application development project costs that we can apply to different types of applications. These benchmarks vary quite a bit, based on data from several companies that have deducted these app development costs based on research on their clients’ projects.
App Development Benchmarks:
- Simple app development Price tag: $16,000 to $32,000
- Medium complexity app development price: $32,000 to $48,000
- Development price of complex applications: more than 72,000 USD
- Cost of hiring an application developer ~$105,000 / year
Elsewhere From this research, we established the available data on development cost for applications using a variety of different sources and methodologies.
Application Development Cost Benchmarks
Since the inception of major mobile platforms, the cost of developing applications for iOS and Androi d was significantly different.As of 2022, according to multiple researches by established app development companies, the cost of developing apps for iOS and Android is virtually identical. At this point, the main factor that defines the development cost of the application is its sophistication, which can be arbitrarily defined as: simple, medium and complex.
According to the application development company SPDLoad, it takes from 2 to 4 months to develop a simple application, from 4 to 6 months to make an application of medium complexity and from 9 months onwards for a complex one. These are certainly just estimates, because ultimately the actual application development schedule also depends on the quality of coordination and the level of productivity of an application developer team.
Okay With Salary.com hourly app development rates currently hovering around $50/hr, the cost of an app development price in the US for an app with a basic user interface and a A basic feature set ranges from $16,000 to $32,000, a medium complexity app development project costs $32,000 to $48,000, and finally, a complex app project would require an investment of at least $72,000, if not more. .
US App Development Costs ($k)
Source: Salary.com, SPDLoad.com
Again, keep in mind that the numbers above are just a ballpark, the ca Calculation is based on an approximate number of hours that the application development team spends on a single application. They are intended to give you a bird’s-eye view of what the size of your app development budget would be based on the complexity of the app. These numbers do not include the costs of app updates, which are an integral part of the lifecycle of any mobile app, and vary significantly depending on the version 1.0 of the app and the importance of a particular update.
Cost of application development [stages]
Having an estimate of how much the different stages of application development can cost is what allows companies to properly allocate investment capital. risk they manage to collect throughout the entire process. mobile app development cycle.
In 2017, research by Clutch, a B2B analytics company, described data collected from more than 100 app development companies. He provided a percentage of how much companies spend on one of the following stages of application development: discovery, design, development, and testing and deployment.
So when it comes to doing a pre-research stage, 51% of Business reps said it costs up to $5,000 to come up with an initial concept and do research. 22% crossed the $5k threshold and spent $10k and 14% spent between $10 and $25k. Clearly, compared to other stages of application development, Discovery is the least expensive.
Discovery/Pre-investigation stage
Source: Clutch
When app development teams move to the Design stage, 32% spend less than $5,000, but only 9% venture to spend more than $50,000 on app design. Most (60%) say it’s between $5 and $50,000.
UI / Design Stage
Source: Clutch
Development is Most of the entire mobile app development process is about the actual coding of every feature an app is supposed to have. For only 9% of respondents, the amount they spent developing the code for an app was less than $5,000; for 33%, the money they spent in this stage was between $5k-$10k.
Development stage
Source: Clutch
It is impossible to conceive of any application development project without testing and deployment stages. For 32% of those surveyed, it took less than $5,000 of their budget to test the app and deploy it to the market. Another 31% stayed within the $5-$10,000 range, and the rest exceeded $10,000 of their budget to complete the test and deploy phase.
Test and deploy phase
Source: Clutch
Obviously, the central factor that defines the cost of developing an application is the complexity of an application. For example, whether there is a back-end server providing information for the app or not, whether an app has built-in user analytics, back-end CMS support or not, whether it has built-in shopping cart or online sharing features. social networks. , and so on.
The hourly rate for mobile app development varies in different parts of the world, it reflects a level of economic development in a particular country. In the chart below, we can see that out of six regions, India has the lowest average rate at $7/hr and the US is at the higher end at $47/hr, not a surprise in absolute.
Average application development hourly rate ($)
Source: Salary.com
App development cost calculators
The app industry is very competitive, with several million mobile apps on the market, reaching target users and reaching ROI goals are really hard. Companies are eager to find a way to calculate the cost of developing an app up front.In order to address this important question, application development companies have developed various online calculators, but we are going to highlight only the most popular ones.
Cleveroad Calculator
This calculator will walk you through 10+ questions to shape an app development price tag, whether it’s developing an app similar to existing apps on the market (Uber, Snapchat, Airbnb, and others) or create a mobile application from scratch, based on specific requirements. As you make decisions and answer questions, you get development time estimates in hours.
Buildfire Calculator
It’s a seven-step calculator that helps you guides you through various filters that define a price tag for mobile app development. These are Platform, Features, Users, Integrations, Monetization, Maintenance & Hosting, and Buildfire Services.
My App Estimate Calculator
This calculator It takes one approach: all the filters to shape a price tag are listed on a single page. Filters cover app size, UI complexity, account feature sophistication, user-generated content complexity, mobile-specific features like Apple Watch compatibility, cloud sync and more, as well as dates and locations, social media and engagement, billing, and e-commerce. administration, feedback and analytics, external API and security.
Inoxoft Calculator
This calculator is designed to estimate a price tag for desktop software and mobile. In contrast to previous calculators, this one gives you an estimated price range at each step of the price calculation process.
How much to make an app
The eight step calculator with an Inoxoft-like feature to provide a price estimate at each step. The final screen provides a form to fill out with contact details to continue the development of the application project.
Andreasley Calculator
An intuitive tool and easy to use calculator designed in a shopping cart style, when all choices are made to define an app development price tag it is displayed on the right, just as items purchased would be in a real shopping cart system . Calculator calculates cost based on platform, quality, number of screens, custom controls, device types, screen orientation modes, security level, supported OS versions, number of languages supported, implementation, and special features (such as support for in-app payments). , statistics, push notifications, and more).
Litslink Calculator
A seven-step calculator that walks you through a set of 27 questions, starting with the specification an industry for which a mobile application should be created. Along with building an app development price tag, the calculator provides a summary of all the choices made. Once the costing process is complete, the tool provides a contact form to fill out and receive an app development price estimate.
Digitalya Calculator
A five-step calculator that provides an estimate of the cost of app development and the time it will take to develop. A ready-to-use estimate is available in .PDF format for download. The steps to create an estimate are web/mobile/both, the app user profile, features to add to the MVP, way of generating revenue (recurring payments/upfront fees/shopping cart system), and high-tech features to include (AI, IoT, VR/AR).
Cost of hiring an app developer
If a business decides to hire a mobile app developer, the question arises: how much does it cost? naturally. According to Indeed.com data, to hire a US-based mobile app developer, companies need to pay you $120,000/year (up from $105,000 in 2021). After conversion from a local currency to USD, we see Australia and Germany trailing the US with $94,000 and $65,000 respectively. In countries like India, it’s actually much cheaper to hire an app development professional — just $4,100 a year, which we can attribute to the difference between the economies of North America, Europe, Australia, and India. But of course the price of the services should not be the definitive factor for a company to hire an application development team, other types of information such as feedback from previous clients, experience in specific technical areas, how well a team at individual meets deadlines, etc. on should also be considered.
2022 Mobile App Developer Average Annual Salary, by Country ($k)
Source: Indeed
When evaluating the cost of developing an app, one of the first considerations is from which specific location to hire an app development team to meet the budget constraints of the app project while also meeting the quality standards. The next two graphs show data for the US cities that offer the highest paying jobs for iOS and Android app developers. Unsurprisingly, at the top of the chart are West Coast cities.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to work remotely, many app developers have moved out of state to save on rent and housing in general. This trend has a tangible impact on the average salary of app developers in different states and cities. As of 2022, in the US, some of the top cities with Android app developer salaries are San Jose, San Francisco, New York, Mountain View, San Diego, Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta. San Francisco and Mountain View are on the more expensive end at $138k/yr, Atlanta and Dallas are on the cheaper end at $1117k/yr. Naturally, looking at the hourly rates in these cities, one would decide to approach the app developers from the cities with the lowest rate, but you should always keep in mind the previous experience of the app developers in building apps similar to yours and feedback from the companies those apps were built for. .
Best paying cities in the US for Android developers ($k)
On the side of iOS, the 8 highest cities Payment cities are somewhat different than those of Android. San Francisco is still number one, as it is for Android, but then it follows Sunnyvale and San Jose with $142k and $133k respectively.
The highest paying cities in the US for iOS Developers, in USD, in thousands
Application Maintenance Cost
Like any software, the mobile application development cost has a maintenance component. The industry accepted average cost to maintain software is approximately 15-20% of its original development cost. The cost of the maintenance process can be broken down into the cost of hosting, monitoring, engagement, marketing, updating, and licensing applications.
Hosting
The Deciding Factor The factor in calculating a mobile app’s back-end data hosting cost is what type of data the app handles: text or media, such as photos, videos, or audio. A media rich application would require a higher CPU web server with more RAM and disk space. Depending on these factors, an application hosting web server can cost anywhere from $70 to $320 per month. The main web hosting solutions to choose would be Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.
Monitoring
Mobile application monitoring is really essential for your success. To monitor an app’s performance, you can sign up for the mobile analytics platforms we’ve listed in this guide. Because each app has its unique audience and a highly variable number of users, it’s not feasible to come up with an estimate of the cost of monitoring a mobile app, but once you contact the companies on the list, make sure you get an approximate range for your expenses components of the maintenance cost of this application.
Engagement and marketing
A marketing cost of the mobile application, which includes activities to engage a user base mobile application, consists of multiple components. Any interaction with a mobile application begins with the installation of an application; The price an app marketer pays for app installation depends on the country, platform (iOS/Android) and the specific ad unit. In 2021, the iOS CPI (stands for Cost Per Install) was $3.6/app install and on the Android side it was only $1.22/app install. As we get more granular, from a generic app install instance to a desirable action the app user is expected to take, we can talk about an average mobile app user acquisition cost. In 2020, the average AU costs for apps worldwide were as follows:
- purchase made through a mobile app – up to $75
- subscription – up to $70 .
App Updates
Every mobile app ever released on an app store, be it iOS, Android, Windows Phone or other platforms, you must have subsequent updates. to be released after its release. On the one hand, it’s simply not feasible to develop a perfect app with version 1.o, on the other hand, subsequent updates are a great tool for continued engagement of the app’s user base. An actual update release on an app store can take around an hour, but the time it takes to develop an update varies significantly and depends on the complexity of the app.
Licensing
If a mobile app’s design incorporates one or more technologies for which the developer must pay a license, it can significantly increase the overall cost of developing the app. A license fee to pay depends on annual fees to pay, a number of devices, and for example, it can go up to $120k/year for 50 devices.
Final Thoughts
When companies estimate the development cost of their future application, they must first take into account the location of the development team and the complexity of the application; both factors have a large impact on the overall cost of development. Since both the iOS and Android platforms have a high adoption rate, it is a smart strategy for businesses going mobile to develop an app for both platforms simultaneously.Since infrastructure is the largest contributor to the cost of developing an application, it makes sense for companies to go to great lengths to save on things like data storage and scalability, third-party API integration, if multiple options are available for choose.
In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic, by causing app developers to relocate and forcing them to work remotely, has a significant impact on how much it costs to develop a mobile app.
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