How is Mobile App Development Cost Calculated?

How is Mobile App Development Cost Calculated?

How much does a mobile app cost is perhaps the most popular question everyone is preoccupied with in the tech world. As you are reading this maybe you are a businessman or an entrepreneur and thinking of developing a mobile app for your business. Well, that’s a good decision you have taken. As per research by Stone Temple, the percentage of visits from mobile devices grew from 57% to 63% in 2017.

After going through all of this, the big question remains what is the actual cost of developing an app? You won't get a direct answer until and unless you are having all the details of your app with you. To get a budget from a developer or a mobile app development company there are a lot of things you need to understand. We are going to discuss some of those details through the course of this blog. 

App Development Cost Based on Platforms

The cost may vary according to the country and platform where the app is being developed.

The cost is further dictated by the functionality and feature set of an app. For eg. an app with no back-end database or API functionality would cost much less than ones without them. 

• The average cost of developing an iOS app average cost is – about $28k
• The average cost of developing an Android app average cost is – about $23k
• For developing a Windows Phone app average cost is – about $18k
• For developing in react native average cost is – about $5k – $25k

It also varies from company to company around the globe

• Apps Developed by Large App Development Companies – $450,000 to $1,500,000
• Apps Developed by Mid Cap App Development Companies – $150,000 to $450,000
• Apps Developed by Small Cap App Development Companies – $27,000 to $150,000
• Apps Developed by Freelancers– $2000 to $25,000

Breakdown of Cost Through App Development Stages 

If you want to hire some freelancer to build your mobile app then you need to understand the given things down below:

App Complexity

The main cost of app development depends upon the platform you are choosing to build it. Because every platform has a specialized developer and they all have a different hourly rate as per country. So first you’re going to figure out it on which platform you need to build your mobile app.

Features

This will decide the cost of your app after choosing a platform. How much functionality do you need in your app? If you only want a handful of basic features, your costs will remain relatively low but if you want advanced features, you need to accommodate your budget according to that.

Before consulting someone you need to make a list of all the features you need in your app.

Design Stage

App designing is another key phase of mobile app development. So that the developer has a better understanding of the app he/she is working on. As per the survey of 2017 by Hackernoon, the cost of hiring UI/UX designer across the globe is.

• $10–20/hour — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh
• $25–45/hour — Eastern Europe
• $40–60/hour — Western Europe
• $65–130/hour and up — United Kingdom
• $150–200/hour and up — United States 

Developing Stage

Developer comes in the role once he/she has got the designs given by the UI/UX designer. As the UI/UX designer, the developer's and a mobile app development companies cost varies from country to country. Here is the cost of mobile app development across the globe

Freelancer: $200 – $1000 ($20-$100/hour)

Expert Consultant: $500 – $2000 ($50-$200/hour)

Company: $700 – $2500 ($70-$250/hour)

Testing/QA 

App testing is essential throughout the development process, you can not launch an app without a tester because first, you need to check all the bugs, eliminate them and only then you can launch it. Otherwise, you may get a bad rating from the users. The hourly rate of tester also varies from country to country.

App Maintenance 

Even after developing your app in the marketplace your work is not over. You need to make a contract with a developer or a mobile app development company for some amount of time to fix the issues that the app may face in future. The industry average accepted cost to maintain an app is roughly 15-20% of its original development cost.

Final Thoughts:

According to me, you need to contact a mobile app development company as it can be hectic for you to find all the developers for different stages separately. Having said that freelance developers will cost much cheaper than that of a mobile app development company.