How Much Does it Cost to Make a Mobile App?

Whether it is ordering food, chatting with your friends, reserving a cab and booking a flight, the one thing that comes to the mind is your smartphone. Mobile apps have become a need of the hour to capture the huge market that is rapidly going mobile. The developing mobile apps are the new moneymaking moves for the business. The best mobile app development company considers every factor to make the mobile app success and ease of use.

No doubt, developing custom software is a costly process. Some people know it by experience while some know it by research. Time and Materials or Fixed-price are the two main models used in the vast majority of software development projects.

Now the critical question arises: How much will it cost to develop a mobile application?

A lot of factors, including the platform on which app is being made, complexity in-app, the experience of the development team and several other factors too. The top mobile app development companies in India discussed all the important factors in advance so that you can decide whether to go with these factors or you need something else

Confused!!!! Let’s discuss some of the variables that affect the development cost of the app.

1 The Business Model

The main journey of developing an app for your business starts from the core of your business plus its revenue plans. The revenue and business model is the biggest force behind the app development cost.

Thus, the main point to be considered are:

The platform preferred by your target customers.
The products you are trying to sell.
The devices that needed to be integrated to make the app responsive.
Free or Paid Apps
The role of visual designs
Advertisements- It may be the third party or of your own product.

These and numerous other factors play a very important role in the cost and time needed to develop the mobile application.

For instance, the monetization strategy plays a very important role. A paid app is easier to develop applications that need to integrate in-app purchases.

An e-commerce app involves even more time and cost.

2 Location of your customers

The most important part of your business model is to know your customer. It is easily possible to lose focus on what is it that customers need. Even the biggest of startups have made mistakes on similar lines. For example, Snapdeals failed to win the trust of its customers as it had compromised quality over quantity. It also lacks the customers in the international market while on the other hand, Flipkart and Amazon have gained huge market traction by inking exclusive smartphone launches. As a result, it’s market share dropped from one-fourth to 4% in a year. You won’t get any profit if there is no real hunger.

3 Free or Paid Apps

E-commerce is the marketplace revenue model based mostly selling their own products or earning commissions from sellers listed on the app.

Paid apps upfront money from the downloads. Therefore, The ability to generate revenue or even cover the cost of developing the app largely depends on the number of times the app is downloaded.

Several paid app in the android market and app store listed from anywhere between a dollar to $25.

Therefore, setting the right price determines the hold you might have.

It is important to consider the willingness of your customer to pay for your app and do a competitive analysis.

Free apps are free to download from the app stores but have a different revenue generation model.

Now, how does a free app make money?

The Free app is one of the best ways to expand your existing customer base and make permanent customer to which you can sell your app later.
These apps also maintain a trust-based relationship between you and your customer helping build up the value of an existing product.
With the help of advertising and affiliate marketing, direct revenue can be generated.
In-app purchases are also a direct revenue generator, especially for addictive games.

A definitive model depends on your goals and your customer preferences, in any case, a mobile app can be highly profitable.

4 Types of the Applications

A mobile application is a software program developed for a program, especially for mobile devices and tablets. Essentially, it may perform the same tasks as your website, but the process is made significantly more efficient and user-friendly. “Ease of use” is, therefore, a significant prerequisite in an app.

All these apps are not the same. There are three types of mobile applications such as Web, Native and Hybrid. Let’s discuss these types one by one:

Web Application

Several surveys have found conclusive evidence that over 80% of smartphone users prefer apps over mobile websites. Web apps are your websites optimized for mobile phone users.

Native Application

A native application is a type of mobile app developed for specific operating systems that are either built on Android or IOS and can be downloaded from the apple store or google play store.

Native apps are more complicated and complex but provide an unmatched user experience.

They have to be developed separately for Android and IOS Platforms and need to be approved to be listed.

Hybrid Application

It is mainly a simple app to develop, a hybrid app functions on a single programming language and can work on both platforms. In this app, you can reuse the code for the Android and iOS apps.

They generally perform like native apps, easier to develop and manage. However, the user experience of native apps is better.’

5 Platform

After settling down the types of the application, the next question is which platform is better for mobile apps.

The app can be made accessible across several platforms like iOS, Android, Windows, and Web or all together. It mainly depends upon the location of the customer.

Android and Apple IOS have significantly different interfaces and systems, therefore apps developed for these platforms are definitely different.

Android vs iOS is not an easy choice. It is advised to go for both if the pocket allows.

Both platforms have their own advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages of iOS versus Android cons

The performance of an iPad or iPhone device usually seems more fluid than some Android devices. This is because iOS is only exclusive for Apple devices, while Android must adapt to many different gears and models.
Apple App Store apps tend to look cleaner and nicer than Android apps usually. This does not mean that Android apps are worse.
Backup copies with iCloud. The Apple cloud helps to better save your data, apps and everything you need to have a backup. In Android, although with Google accounts you can save certain content, not everything is possible to keep it safe.
IOS is highly secured than Android, fewer chances for an IOS application to crash than Android.
Android devices are easily available other than IOS devices.

Advantages of Android versus the cons of iOS

Limitations regarding hardware and software providers. Likewise, iOS is a more closed system.
You can use SD cards in most terminals with Android to expand the storage capacity if necessary, something that in Apple is impossible.
The battery can be removed on most Android devices, while on iPhones and iPads it is not possible, something that particularly bothers me despite not being critical.

6 The Functionalities and Features of the App

As mobile apps are becoming more and more advanced, there is virtually no limit to what an app can do. Therefore the cost of these apps starts from few dollars to thousands of dollars. Let’s discuss the types of apps are:

A List App

The app is a mobile-optimized version of the website and will generally list out in various categories, all the information. It is simple to develop and will not cost a lot.

A Dynamic App

These apps work alongside other platforms and applications through APIs. For example, Apps based on Facebook will need to be connected to a server to gather information from the app.

Games

There are the most complex apps to develop and arguably the most expensive. The games that use AI technology is more complex as compared to the other apps.

Every unique functionality will carry an additional cost. While some seemingly complex functionalities may not cost a lot, integrating a simple thing may vary the cost. When you have decided what your app should do that is the basic functionality, the features that needed to do that will come into play.

7 Visual Design and UI/UX

The first impressions count a lot whether it is a date, a new car or the virtual design of an app, so make the best one. The first look of the app can be a maker or a deal-breaker. The app market is competitive and every company wants a unique design to reach to the top quickly. Great designs come at a price. You will note serious differences in the designs of $200 designer and $2000 designer, and to make an app look fantastic shelling out a few dollar bills is an investment rather than a cost.

8 Development

Therefore, What platform you get your developed on, What should be the business model, what features you want and what are the functionalities are important, all these factors decided your cost. Big teams of experienced developers come at a cost which is higher than freelancers and small companies. After this maintenance also cost a lot of the successful continuity of the app.

9 Total Investment

The time and cost of app development will largely depend on the complexity of the app. It is difficult to put a number on how much your app might cost because of the numerous and subjective determinants. A basic app, without a back-end database, API functionality or social media integration will cost between $2000 to $10000. In the US, it may cost around $8k however, in India the development cost of the same app may be half. A full-fledged takes 1 to 3 months to build and function properly. The cost may vary according to the platform and the country where the app is being developed.

If you are also interested to make a mobile app for your business, consult Richestsoft, the best mobile app development company in India and get the desired results.