You think that you have a million-dollar idea? So, now you want to know how to create an application, wondering how much does it cost to make an app, right? You’re not the only one — the mobile industry is booming more than ever and you have many options how to make an app.
There’s an enormous difference between freelancers, big agencies, and everyone in between. Let’s take a closer look at how much does it cost to make an app and everything that goes into the price.
If Your Application Is Simple, a Freelancer or Two Might Be Everything You Need
Hiring a freelancer is enough to build a personal portfolio to impress your clients with. Depending on the experience, region, and responsibilities, the charge sets between $50 and $200 per hour.
The biggest downside you could face with is the lack of guarantee that the app will turn out great. It is possible that in the middle of the development process you might discover that you need to hire an extra freelancer to finish the product. With the two or more people you need someone to coordinate the work. A project manager makes a project flow smoother, but it means extra costs.
Hiring a Small Team to Not Worry About Anything Else Besides How Much Does It Cost to Make an App
The UI/UX designer, one or two developers, and a QA engineer would charge around $50,000 for a simple app. Mindsea warns being attracted to price quotes of about $30,000 from offshore development companies.
Hiring a team is not a panacea. Just like with freelancers, you might not get what you want, making the total product cost much higher than the initial figure.
If You Are Ambitious Enough to Build the Next Twitter or Uber App
Get prepared to shell out approximately $1,000,000. That’s how much it takes to hire a large app development company for the following services:
- Design
- iOS and Android native development
- Back-end development
- Web development
- Project management
- Quality assurance
Of course, you get what you pay for when it comes to application development.
The Number of Features You Want Your App to Support Goes Hand-in-hand With How Much You Will Pay for It
That’s why it’s a good idea to start with a proof-of-concept with only essential features. Only after the app turns out to be profitable, add more functionality. It might not be possible to always create an app this way. The method is excellent as it keeps the cost of the final mobile product as low as possible without sacrificing quality.
The integrations that make the app even more expensive:
- Third-party services
- Social media support
- Admin panel
- In-app purchases
- Use of various hardware components.
The More Platforms You Decide to Target, the Higher the Cost of the Application You Want to Create Will Be
According to Thorn Tech:
iOS has 33.6% market share in the U.S., while Android owns 62.8% of the American market. Android further dominates internationally with almost 85% of the world’s smartphone users. The iOS owns 13.1%.
Modern hybrid app development platforms are trying to make cross-platform development more accessible, but such tools are currently not suitable for complex projects. That being said, they can be handy for iPhone mobile development because the average iPhone mobile development cost tends to be steep.
Read also: App Store vs Google Play. Stores in Numbers
The Moment Your Product Appears on the Apple App Store or Google Play Is Just the Beginning of the Journey
To make the application succeed, you have to spend a lot of money of post-release support and ongoing maintenance. You will discover bugs that need to be fixed. The users will request features that you should implement unless you want your competition to make your app obsolete.
With over 2,000,000 applications on the two most popular stores, you won’t get too far without a solid marketing plan. Online advertising can cost some serious money. The same is true for cloud hosting, legal and accounting help, and many other expenses that you are guaranteed to encounter along the way.
The Cost of Mobile App Development, Especially iOS App Development, Can Vary Dramatically
On one end of the spectrum are independent freelancers and small, cookie-cutter apps that cost a few thousand dollars. On the opposite end – renowned agencies and complex applications with server back-ends and support for all popular mobile operating systems.
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