While adapting to the new normal of the year 2020, most people indulge in smartphones, download new apps, and spend more time on the apps, increasing their screen time. There has been tremendous growth in the time that a consumer spends on various mobile apps.
As the number of smartphone users grows, it presents the app developers with the opportunity to have more growth in the market. With nothing else to keep them engaged in while at home, users have also spent more money than ever on mobiles exploring various apps.
Today, mobile app development has become a valuable investment to enter the market and establish your business. However, not every mobile app development company in the market can make an app that becomes a hit, provides a good investment return, or suit your preferences. It is not because they might lack in features, but because the cost of mobile app development service might be out of their budget.
In this article, we will talk in detail about how much it costs to develop an app.
How to Calculate the Cost to Develop an App?
Here is how you can estimate the average cost of developing an app:
1. Contact a mobile app development company.
You can get in touch with a team of mobile app developers. They will help you to get an accurate mobile app cost.
2. Choose mobile platforms.
Before the cost of a mobile app can be determined, you have to inform the developer about your platform; do you want to create an app for iOS, Android, or both.
3. App functionality list.
The professional mobile app developers and business analysts will make a list of essential features for your app.
4. Implement mobile app features in MVP.
Developers of mobile apps prioritize the core functions from the app functionality list to confirm your business idea.
5. The app development team estimates your app’s main features.
The app development team helps you make a list of essential features your app must have and evaluate mobile app development’s estimated cost.
Stages of Mobile App Development
Every app goes through the four major stages of the development process:
- re-research stage: It involves extensive market research, project details, and prototype of the mobile app. The app developer estimates the mobile app development cost, and it is agreed upon by both parties.
- App development stage: In this stage, the app developers start working on the app. According to a survey, this stage costs the add developing firms less than $5000.
- App testing: It is crucial to test the app after you prepare it. It is to see if the app is ready to be launched. The cost for this stage can be between $5,000 to$10,000.
- App maintenance: An app requires regular updates and maintenance for smoother application use and proper functioning. It can cost from $5,000 to $10,000 after a year of its launch.
Now let’s move on to the cost of the mobile app development.
Mobile App Cost Estimation: Key App Features
If one app has all the features you need as a customer, then there would be no need to download a few more apps for the same purpose. It will be easier for a user to use all the core features of a mobile app in one place. However, it is understandable that the more features you want in the app, the more time it will take for app developers to make it.
● User Login: This feature is used to identify the user. Most app providers ask for a user email or phone number for registration, which helps store users’ data in one place. This process takes 20 hours and can cost somewhere between $500-$1000.
● Push Notifications: It is one of the primary and must-have features in a mobile app. These are updates that pop-up as notifications to remind you of a service or activities. Here, it is essential to make sure that a message is sent to the right person at the right time. It takes about 20 and 200 hours for development and may cost between $1,000 to $10,000.
● Navigation: App navigation ensures a smooth flow for the user through the app. It explains how the user will move through the app, from one screen to another, how they take actions like scrolling, swiping, etc. It takes 10+ hours to develop the feature and may cost $250 to $500.
● Landscape/Portrait view: The interface is also one of the essential features of an app. The portrait view or landscape view are two ways of how the user wants to use the orientation. This logic needs about 20 hours and costs $500 to $1,000.
● Media content sharing: Apps require features like images, videos, audio files support, and so on. This feature requires Java coding to implement media content into apps. It takes about 20 hours for this, and the cost of development starts at $1,000.
● Geolocation: This feature is vital for apps like taxi, dating, restaurant, business, traveling apps, etc. It is based on GPS technology. The cost depends on the accuracy of the geolocation service. It can take upto 50 hours to develop the feature and will cost $1,250 to $2,500.
● Chat/messaging: This crucial feature is used in many apps, and it is determined by what kind of chat we want, person-to-person messaging, auto-delete after some time, offline mode, emojis, and so on. This whole process might take 80+ hours and may cost $2,000-$4,000.
● Advertisements: We all have seen many apps are displaying ads. The mobile advertising appears as a text, banner, or full-screen pop-ups. This feature will take 20 to 50 hours and cost about $1,000-2,500.
These are just some of the essential app features that you must have. Many others are:
- In-app purchases
- Payments integration
- Database
- Synchronization between devices
- Phone sensors usage
- Customization
- Offline mode
- Search
- Streaming
- Multi-language support
Conclusion
There is no straight-forward answer to the question, ‘How much developing an app can cost?’ It is because mobile apps never have the same business goals and are made for different target specific users. Various applications need some amount of space in mobile devices. Due to this complexity, the app development varies from developer to developer based on its requirements.