How Much Does it Cost to Create an App: Full Cost Analysis and Comparisons
Mobile devices are continuously evolving with time, nowadays the platform is not just limited to a communication tool. With the advancement in technology, people are getting more and more addicted to these handy devices.
Mobile applications in the past were just some games of entertainment, but time transformed the coal into a diamond. From e-commerce to social media to delicious cuisine, now these in-hand applications do all the money-making games and that’s why every business is taking their presence to the mobile platform.
But now the question is how much does it cost “of on-demand app development” to create an app? The answer could be very simple that it depends upon various factors of the development of the application. But there are a lot of things to be considered while estimating the cost to create an app.
- The functionality of the application, its features, and its design are the main pillars on which the cost depends.
- For which platform the application should be developed, android or iOS or web or it should be a hybrid platform.
- Backend servers are also required to handle the complex transaction from the user-end so that the website can have traffic tolerance, which also adds cost to it.
- Development team requirements and their salary is the main requirement.
- Whether your application is paid app or free.
This is not sufficient because there are much more factors on which the cost to develop an app depends. This question can actually be replied through a combination of questions that will help to unravel the response, how much does it cost to develop an app or how to make an app with minimum development requirements and more features? So, let’s move forward to take a view on full-cost analytics to build an app.
Also, Read – How to Protect Your Phone from Data Breaches?
Table of Contents
How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App?
To get a response for this answer, the first thing to be considered is that who is going to build the app, for example, the app can be developed by a high-end development agency or by a freelancer and this will make a huge difference. But this completely depends on your needs, if you want to develop an application for cross-platform definitely it is going to be the contract with the professional agencies because they work by dividing the task into various sub-tasks. The cost will definitely vary.
But if your target audience is only for a single platform, and you don’t want a paid app, then you can rely on the freelancing part as these people are highly skilled by practicing on a single framework for development purposes.
If we analyze the cost of developing an app may vary from $500 to $2000 for a freelancer to build the app for the basic platform.
But if the same contract is to be made by the development agency, then the price is going to vary from $5000 to $2000. The reason is that in the high-end agencies, you just have to give your requirements and rest all is their job, no time waste. Moreover, they will take care of its maintenance for a lifetime and update its features with time.
But in the case of an online app building platform, you will be dealing with a freelancer who will be developing it according to your current requirements and you have to think yourself for the future scenario, the cost of developing an app is in developing and updating the application.
Now another question is how much does it cost to build an app? Well, this completely depends upon the type of technology used for the app, as according to the current scenario the future of applications will be based on hybrid frameworks such as react.js, Laravel, or node.js. These frameworks are used to develop hybrid and cross-platform applications. Somehow these are all open-source, so you need a development team to work in these so its cost will be only limited to the developer’s labor and time spent.
But if you want to save the cost of paying the team and build the app through tools, then it’s going to decrease your cost value more. This is preferred if you are building basic apps only like account detail applications or static management app.
How Long Does it Take to Make an App?
Time taken to develop build and start an app depends upon factors like what functionalities you want in the application, how many developers you have hired, and how you have divided the modules among the developers.
There is a simple way to calculate that by an example if you want to develop an app for e-commerce, hire three developers on the contract of $20000 – $50000 max with a time limit of 3 months and divide the modules among them as like
- Developer 1 will take care of the design
- Developer 2 will take care of the database and server
- Developer 3 will take care of requirements tools
In the app building process using tools like Google app maker, there is no cost of developing an app under the subscription period, so be free if you are using tools to build apps, your only deadline is your last subscription date.
Android App Development Cost and iPhone App Development Costs
Android and iPhone are both native platforms so if you are building an application for only one platform then the cost is easy. For example, for developing applications only for Android, you have to hire a single developer who works an android studio with java or Kotlin and pay him $5000 – $8000 a month.
Similarly, if you want to develop an iOS application for iPhone only then you have to hire a swift developer and pay him $7000 – $10000 a month for making your application.
But if you want to build a hybrid application for both Android and iPhone or any other multi-platform, you have to hire more than two developers or you can hire only an experienced developer for building your applications for cross-platforms. The estimated cost for a react.js developer would be $15000 – $20000 a month (for an experience of more than 6 months).