The demand for business applications is consistently upscaling in the current business market. This comes with the desire for businesses to transit from the usual old ways of reaching out and servicing customers and clients—all these gears towards enhancing the mobility of the enormous market. But before you think of incorporating your entire business in a single app, there are considerations you should keep in mind. There are always costs that accompany the development of applications, and the costs are key when you need mobility for your business. This piece explores the cost of building an application by venturing into the key drivers of cost in the development of applications.   

The cost of building an application

Several applications are flooding the online market each year. The number of downloads of such applications is just outstanding. The trend in the mobile application development industry shows no signs of ever-dwindling. This is because most mobile applications have been integrated to provide essential business services. As a result, most people use applications to enhance their businesses.

Determining the cost of building an application isn’t just a quick-to-do task. Therefore, it needs a quick and extensive assessment of every aspect of development. Several factors are quite essential in the development of mobile applications. Let’s explore each of them:  

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Business Model

The world is infiltrated with vast mobile applications. Developers are still on a spree of creating more and more of these applications. Therefore, we should anticipate an influx of more and more applications. Both legit and illegitimate. But it is important to have a business model in the mobile app development sector. As a result, we can be able to determine the cost of building a single application. Before deciding to estimate the average cost of developing an application, you will have to properly analyze where it will find space in the entire business model. You’re wondering what a business model is? Worry no more.

A business model is just but an assortment of factors that are more of an identification of the target audience and their critical areas. All these assures proper business solutions. Furthermore, it gives you an understanding of the centrality of the customer as an essential factor in the business model. Therefore, you will have to prioritize customer demands.   

App Type

Different applications have different costs depending on the features and the type of application. After developing a powerful business model, you will need to employ a team that will venture into a wider view of business technologies that are geared towards incorporating the best within a single mobile application. The development team should be able to research the project at hand and determine the critical requirements for the project. You also have to select the best project manager, who is responsible for choosing the right application in partnership with the app development partner.  

Mobile applications are categorized according to complexity levels. These applications can be categorized as Web applications, Native applications, and Hybrid or Cross-platform applications.  

A web app is just but a mobile version of a website. Web apps focus on the principle of mobile-friendliness and follow responsive design strategies, which make it easier to navigate through features within the app.

Native apps are the complex ones and are built to balance between performance and user experience. Usually, languages that are native to the operating system are used in the development of such applications. Such applications have a higher performance level.

Hybrid Apps are built through a combination of native technologies as well as web technologies. Usually, the approach is also adhered to meet the needs of larger audiences. Such applications have lower maintenance and development costs. But then, the apps aren’t considered the best because of limited access to smartphone hardware.

Platform

There are several approaches that developers follow when building mobile applications. Usually, most of them follow the Stair-Step approach. In such an approach, developers start with a single simple step and, after that, adjust to complex and harder levels. It’s undoubtedly true that the ideal approach seems to develop applications for both platforms at a single time frame. But such an approach turns out to be expensive, tedious, and dangerous. Therefore, it is essential to choose the platforms accordingly effectively. You can opt for a platform that is flooded with a high number of users. There are other considerations to make when it comes to choosing a platform. Let’s consider the following:

Development Complexity

The choice of platform greatly relies on the fragmentation issue. Consider the case with Apple. There are a countable number of devices that run on their operating system (iOS). On the other side, there are a good number of devices that run on Android software. These devices have been designed following various screen sizes and aspect ratios. With such factors, you will need to ensure that your apps conform to the needs of such devices. Remember that iOS applications are cheaper and faster to design. Also, it should be noted that the completion of app development demands making it ready for the market. And a crucial step sets in.

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This step is publishing your already developed application to the app store. This adds some cost to building the application. For the Google Play store, there are certain charges incurred when it comes to uploading the application. There are no longer strict rules adhered to during the entire process. You will have to spent about $25 just in uploading the app. For the case of the App Store, there is an annual fee of $99 charged. Therefore, the publishing process gives credit to Android.      

Let us consider the development time. As initially stated, you can realize that iOS applications are built faster than Android applications. In comparison to their iOS counterparts, Android applications take a 40% longer time when it comes to building them. The reason here is fragmentation. Therefore, the average cost for developing Android applications is a bit more expensive than the iOS counterparts. So, the cost of building a mobile application will also lie within yourself. The choice of the platform for your application is critical in determining the overall costs of building an application. 

Functionality

Determining the costs of developing mobile applications is just as good as establishing costs for setting up a home. The features of your intended application matter a lot when it comes to functionality. Some applications use many and complex features, and some use fewer and simpler features. Day by day, mobile applications are advancing and becoming complex. There is no limit to what an application can do. This means that it’s difficult to establish a solid figure for the cost of developing a given application. The costs vary depending on such a huge range of factors. It is, therefore, key to understand the basics underlying app development. It is also crucial to identify the additional app features and technologies that back them up. This is critical in identifying the range of costs for the entire app development process. 

Design and Development

We have already gone through critical factors essential in determining the general app development costs. Business model, functionalities, platform, application type are but some of them. But here comes another critical factor: Design and development. The cost of building an entire mobile application relies on design and development. This is specially confined to who you hire to undertake the entire app development process. Usually, hiring newbies and starters can be easier, cheaper, and economical. In real sense, this might cost you even more. You will find many freelancers, but then you won’t ever understand their level of skills and whether they are perfect for your project.

In the long run, you’ll find that some are just totally unfit for your project. From another point of view, huge and renowned companies will always hire experienced developers who charge highly. The option is better because most of them will showcase their skillset and bring to the table all the knowledge required in coming up with a successful application. Therefore, it is a good practice to understand that experienced developers are the perfect option for our projects regardless of the charges they impose. The major aim is to bring quality work to the table. This means that you’ll have to spend a cent more in the entire process of building an application.  

Conclusion

According to research conducted by Clutch, you will discover that the highest cost you can spend building an application is$171,450. Therefore, evaluating this cost is of great importance just before starting the process of building your application. You need to be accountable for every cent spent in the entire app development process. Having gone through the five essential considerations, you should keep in mind when building an application; you can estimate costs basing on the type of application you want to be developed for you.    

If you planning to build an application then feel free to contact us today.

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