The number of apps deployed monthly on the Play Store and App Store is on the rise. It directly draws our attention to the fact that more and more companies as well as individuals are developing mobile apps every day. Mobile apps hold crucial importance in the success of a business. Consequently, it is no longer a question of whether you should be building a mobile app for your business or not. However, when it comes to mobile app development, a very significant factor that cannot be overlooked is the cost involved in doing so. Therefore, we have crafted this guide specifically to give you a brief overview of the different factors that are involved in the app development cost calculation. So let us take a look at all these factors.
Factors Involved in App Development Cost Estimation
App development cost estimation involves multiple factors. However, below we have roughly tried to capture a bigger picture of the most important factors. They can potentially affect your app development budget.
Mobile App Complexity
The complexity of a mobile app plays a very vital role in the overall cost incurred on its development. By complexity, we can essentially refer to all those features that will be a part of a mobile app. Based on the total number as well as the intricacy of these features, your overall mobile app development budget will be impacted accordingly. For example, your company intends to build a mobile app with cloud integration. But your current team lacks these capabilities. Therefore, to fulfill this need, you will need to hire cloud developers. This will be an add-on to your overall mobile app development cost. Similarly, if one app is simply designed for doing basic calculations and another one incorporates complex functionalities like GPS navigation, etc. Then obviously the cost of the former one will be far less than the latter one.
Deployment Platform
We all know that when it comes to mobile app development, iOS and Android hold almost 99% of the market share. Therefore, most of the modern-day mobile apps are developed for these two platforms. Because of this, it gets really important to identify at the very beginning of the mobile app development process which of these two platforms you wish to target with your mobile app. You can even choose to develop a mobile app for both of these platforms. Depending on the availability of the resources for each of these two niches, the mobile app development cost will vary.
In-House Vs. Outsourced Development
At times, you already have developers and designers in your team to suffice all your mobile app development needs. However, in certain situations, you might need to outsource your mobile app development project. Generally, outsourcing the development of your mobile app costs you more than developing it on your own. But it entirely depends on the level of expertise of the developers that you are hiring for your project. Also, if you plan on outsourcing your mobile app development project, then you need to carefully consider whether you want to hand over this task to a well-established organization like Folium AI or if you can go with some freelance mobile app developers. All these considerations will leave an impact on the total cost of your mobile app development.
Team Members Involved
Whether you are developing a mobile app on your own or outsourcing it somewhere. You still need to ponder upon the total number of team members required for this project. Even for an average mobile app, you need almost 6 team members. They include a Project Manager, an iOS Developer, an Android Developer, a Full Stack Developer, a UI/ UX Designer, and a QA Tester. Depending on the total number of people involved in mobile app development as well as their level of experience and qualifications, the mobile app development cost can fluctuate.
Hourly Rate of the Development Team Members
This also greatly affects the overall mobile app development budget. Considering the skills and expertise of the different members involved in the mobile app development team, their hourly rates will vary. For example, you are building two different apps for which you hire cloud developers as well as UI/ UX designers. The cloud developers might be charging you a reasonable hourly rate but the UI/ UX designers may be very expensive. When you will calculate the total hourly rates of all the team members, only then you will get an idea of how much you will actually have to spend on your mobile app development.
Total Time Required to Build the Mobile App
The total app development cost cannot be estimated unless you decide on a relevant timeline for the delivery of your mobile app. In simple words, you have to figure out the approximate time for building your mobile app. This will depend on its complexity and all the other important factors. After evaluating this time, you will have to multiply it by the hourly rates of your development team members. This will give you a nice view of the total app development cost.
App Development Region
This factor might not make sense to most people out there. However, it still greatly affects the mobile app development budget. For the regions like USA and Canada, the hourly rates of the developers are as high as $150. On the other hand, in developing countries like Pakistan and India, you can even hire developers at an hourly rate ranging between $30 to $50.
Costs of Post-Deployment Maintenance and Support
Finally, people really prefer mobile app developers (companies or freelancers) who also offer post-deployment maintenance and support. This also has a significant cost associated with it. Therefore, while drafting your mobile app development budget, you also need to give due consideration to this factor. If this support will not be provided initially by the developers, even then you will have to spend money on it at a later stage. Therefore, you should simply not overlook this factor while calculating your mobile app development budget.
Conclusion
This guide outlined all the important factors that can possibly impact the mobile app development cost. However, an important point is that these factors are exclusive of the associated costs of the deployment of the mobile app on any of the stores as well as the cost spent on the marketing of the mobile app. When you will include these factors as well, then your mobile app development budget will definitely go up.
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