The last few years have been a tipping point for the tech ecosystem. Currently, around 70% of companies either have a digital transformation strategy or are planning to launch one. The spending on digital transformation is at its all-time high - $1.5 trillion in 2021. By 2023, the figure will increase 4x and hit $6.8 trillion.
At the same time, smartphone penetration has entered the mainstream. According to Statista, the current cohort of global smartphone users stands at over 6.600 billion. From a higher perspective, it means that over 83% of the world's population owns a smartphone. It also means that mobile applications are among the main touchpoints for businesses to reach new customers and re-engage royals.
Today, we’ll learn more about the basics of developing a digital mobile app, and how much outsourcing to a professional app development company can help you to not only keep costs down but collect and use data to promote your business's products and enhance your sales.
What is the total cost of building an app? This is a question that is often asked by businesses who are looking to establish a mobile presence. The answer, unfortunately, is not a simple one. The cost of creating a digital solution relies on a wide range of factors, including the number of platforms, the size and complexity of the app, and even the developer's location.
According to popular opinion, you’ll need around $50K to $150K+ to build an application. However, app development is always a world of differences since there is a whole gamut of factors that influences the pricing.
Below, we'll explore some of the factors that affect the costs of building an app.
First and foremost, it should be noted that no software development company can provide you with an accurate estimation at the pre-planning stage. When you first turn out to the provider, they provide you with a ballpark estimate which roughly calculates the total. As the discovery stage begins, your team can put a price tag on every deliverable.
Core features are the most important features of your app. They are what makes your app unique and give it its purpose. When you're planning your app, you need to be aware of how these features will influence your development costs.
Here are four factors to consider:
As for specific features, it will take your development team around 20 hours to develop a social log-in, while push notifications will need around 24 hours for each mobile platform. The navigation bar is longer to create and will require around 40 hours.
One of many factors that affect how much it will cost to produce an app is the number of platforms for which it will be designed. If an app is just being created for one platform rather than multiple, the cost will be lower.
Pricing is also influenced by device compatibility. The more supported devices you have, the more time it will take your development team to optimize the software for each one.
The number and complexity of integrations are among other core cost drivers. According to Gartner, integrations don’t get enough exposure as the main expenditure item. However, a lion’s share of an overall mobile app project cost - up to 70% - can be allocated to connecting your application with a popular enterprise service or data source. Yet, third-party integrations still help bring down your costs since you don’t need to build the functionality from scratch.
Injecting artificial intelligence, IoT, or data processing capabilities into your business solution will inherently put a higher price tag on it. As a rule, AI algorithms can only work on huge data volumes. It means that AI engineers will spend a significant amount of time processing data and training your algorithms.
The complexity and project scope of your solution can ramp up the costs for the entire development process. While building a simple app with a limited set of features is both easy and inexpensive, an Uber-like application is multilayered and includes a wide range of complex connections.
Here’s the breakdown by complexity:
The location of your development team is another essential factor that builds up or down your development costs. Thus, US- and Australian-based mobile programmers traditionally have high compensation rates. Other locations such as Europe offer more affordable hiring opportunities. Thus, a US-based mobile developer gets around $56 per hour, while a European-based coder is paid around $30 to $40 per hour.
With that in mind, a growing number of businesses turn to outsourcing providers to reduce their operational costs.
Finally, you should also factor in additional expenses for supporting and marketing your solution. To make your solution stand out among competitors, you should plan your marketing campaign from the early start. Stable solution support is also important to keep your solution at its peak performance and let it grow in sync with your business.
When it comes to mobile application development, there is no clear-cut formula for calculating the pricing. App development expenses depend on a wide range of factors, including core features, developer location, app complexity, and others. The discovery stage is when your development team will put a price tag on your solution and tie each deliverable to a specific deadline.
