For any business, attracting potential customers, highlighting their brand, and expanding their reach are the success criteria. Companies operating today are in complete contrast to the time when there was no technology element in any business. Printing and posting flyers, brochures, newsletters, and banners were the typical activities of any brand. Then the invasion of mobile devices and applications changed the battleground; new rules, new weapons, and new troops.
Presently, the solution to gain customers’ interest in the brand has a practical mobile application. We all witness how mobile phones have disrupted the entire world in such a small amount of time. The need for a mobile application, regardless of company size, is prevalent.
However, the development of an application requires ample time, resources, efforts, and cost. Every business aims to achieve the result at minimum cost without any trade-offs on quality and performance.
Several factors become involved when determining the app development cost like platform, technology, complexity, design, and other preliminary elements. You can analyze the price with fewer challenges if you adopt specific strategies to visualize the outcome with the quality you are expecting from it.
Breakdown of App Development Cost
Application Functionalities – The feature and services the app will provide to its users.
Devices the app will Support – Will it be for Android, iOS, or both. The operating system version and type of screen (like notch display, waterdrop notch, or infinite display)
App Integration – Will you provide the third-party app integration that will root its content.
Visual Objects Use – The cost raises when the objects transit into more complex territory.
Using Phone’s Hardware Components – Application based on AR or VR require GPS, accelerometer, and compass sensors to function correctly. If you plan to develop an app of a similar concept, then the cost will be higher than traditional development as it encompasses more technicalities.
Maintenance – Maintenance is the ongoing process essential to maintaining the app’s smoothness and consistency in new device models.
Prior Research
The mobile application cost for development does not end with the launch; you have to fix identified bugs and release the updated versions time-to-time, ensuring a great user experience. But the need for modification will become less if you carry out thorough research on multiple aspects, resulting in reduced maintenance and update cost. Touch the points mentioned below while conducting preliminary research.
- Give developers a background of your company, tell them about your values, principles, mention your audience and what you want to achieve from an app.
- Help them visualize the whole concept flowing in an app to understand the requirements and expectations better.
- Do not forget to touch time and budget to collect everything in this circle tightly.
Choosing Type of Development
What type of development you want to go with for your application determines the big chunk of cost and budget.
There are four primary mobile app development services in Canada you can find and determine cost accordingly.
Native Mobile Apps
Native mobile app built for the specific operating system in their native language. These apps are blazing fast and can access the phone’s hardware components like camera and storage without the need for any third-party bridge. Besides, some native applications can work without internet connectivity. That is why many casual offline games we found today on app stores are native applications. If your top priority is performance, go with the native app development.
Hybrid Mobile Apps
Hybrid applications are the midway of native and web apps. It possesses the attributes of both dimensions. Like a typical app, it resides in the app stores and utilizes JavaScript (JS) and HTML, similar to a web app.
Cross-Platform Mobile Apps
These applications are built for multiple platforms simultaneously. The developer writes the code once and can use it for different operating systems. The reusability of code here makes this type of development more cost-effective than the others. However, the cross-platform mobile application’s performance is relatively lacked compared to the native applications. But, frameworks like Flutter and React Native are bridging this performance gap, making applications parallel to the native-like performance. Today, most enterprises are opting for cross-platform development to expand their reach cost-effectively.
Progressive Web Apps (PWA)
A PWA app is like an outer shell on a website that makes it look like the typical native app. Its functionality depends on the web browser, and you can also add it to the mobile’s home screen as a shortcut to let it run in the background process. They are more affordable to develop and meet the user’s expectations suitably.
Designing
The average cost requires to design an app’s user interface (UI) ranges between $20–$40/hr. The significance of efficient UI is as vital as innovation. You hide all the complexities and working mechanisms of the app under a beautiful, appealing, and eye-catching UI. But it requires a cost to doing that effectively and intelligently. You have to invest a substantial budget to achieve a high-end and compelling app design, diverting everyone’s attention towards it.
Coming to the user experience (UX), it is all about user interaction with the application. How they use the app and what experience they get while using it comes under the umbrella of UX designing. Again, it is not the aspect that you can neglect in the app development process and think to save some bucks – A viable investment will light the future.
Besides, icon and brand logo prices are comparatively less than other designs. It differs depending on the geographical location. Like in South America, for instance, it cost somewhere around $34. But, a heavily noticeable difference is visible in a costlier and inexpensive version to everyone.
The right approach would be to invest good for app designing, syncing with the brand’s theme.
Underlying Costs
Some costs are not in notice initially but put weight on a budget, increasing the development cost. If you want to perform the QA test over your newly developed app, the bugs and errors that the process will identify will require a charge to fix them. Thus, you have to invest until it becomes acceptable to the audience.
Marketing and sales, on the other hand, also demand some budget to promote the app. Without paid marketing, it is near to impossible to make your product noticeable in the audience and attract their attention. Missing that part can drive the entire project on the failure side. So, do not miss that.
Bottom Line
To conclude, the cost of mobile app development is wholly dependent on the aim you want to achieve from it. Uber application, for instance, revamped the whole personal transportation system. They recovered more if they invested. Although, along with hefty investment, it took significant time and resources to manage and hold their position in the market.
A thorough study can give you the estimated cost idea that will not fluctuate much as the development process starts.
In the end, if you need a reputable development agency for your project, touch base with Cubix. They have worked with several clients globally, operating in different industries, and can help you with your ventures in writing success.