How Much Does it Cost to Build a Mobile App?

We do get a question a lot of times, just after the client shares their business startup ideas; “How much does it cost to build an app?” Today, it has become an important mobile app development trend to ask for the app development cost to evaluate what exactly one will get. However, the mobile application market is not going to take any pause in growth. So, top software developers around the globe are finding ways to cut down the app development cost in different ways and resolving issues in cost-effective ways. We use several mobile applications for communication, games, lifestyle, business, food, sports, etc. Looking at this great demand for apps, creating your app for your business matters for the growth of your business. 

The best part of this writing is that developing a mobile app for your business isn’t really as expensive as most people think. But to be honest, the most common response to the question ‘how much does it cost to build my app’ is just “It depends.” It intrigues you; what does the price tag depend upon? You may come across any app development cost estimation tools and resources on the internet, but the only thing you need to focus on is your requirements. Long story in short, app development costs can vary from $20,000- $250,000. Surprisingly quite a big gap, isn’t it? You don’t need to worry about it, as the app development price tag depends on a bunch of factors that we are going to discuss in this article. 

Important Stats of Mobile App Development World to Grasp

With more than 3.2 billion smartphone users worldwide, it’s no surprise that the mobile app industry is heating up day by day. Besides the increasing smartphone users, we have more than 1.14 billion tablet users worldwide, which has increased over 36% in the last six years. It takes just a few seconds to scroll through a social media app or send a text message on communication apps. Thus, the average American checks their phone every 12 minutes, plus 10% of these users will check their phone every 4 minutes. But what are these smartphone users doing on their mobiles? Well, these users spend 88% of mobile time on installed apps.  

Key Mobile App Statistics: 

• Mobile Applications are expected to generate a revenue of $935 Billion by 2023
• There are over 3.57 Million apps on Google Play Store, making it the “Biggest App Store in the World.”
• Apple App Store – Second Largest App Store has nearly 2.22 Million apps available for iOS devices.
• According to Statista, consumers downloaded 218 billion mobile apps, which grew from 140.7 billion app downloads in 2016 to 218 billion downloads.

• Nearly 98% of app revenue worldwide is generated from free apps. Google Play Store has almost 96.9 percent free applications.

• Google Play Store app downloads increased 31%, while in the case of the Apple App Store, the growth rate observed was only 2.5% in the year from 2019 to 2020. 
• According to Statista, the most popular category of iOS apps is Games, with 21.49% active apps. And business apps are the second most popular category in the Apple App Store, with a share of 10.10%. 

• According to Statista, the most popular Android app category of the Google Play Store are tool-based applications. And the second category of most popular apps of Google Play Store are communication apps with a 99.39% share.

• Mobile Apps are so much into our lives that there are certain apps that Americans can’t live without. 

• App Store Revenue Generation: Google Play Store gross app revenue: $10.3 billion and Apple App Store Gross App Revenue grossed app revenue of $19 billion in Q3 of 2020. 
• App Development Costs also vary according to the location; according to Statista, here is the average rate (in USD)/ hour in different countries. 

Top Trending Types of Mobile Apps and Their Cost

Based on the type of user experience, optimization, and fast work, there are six types of mobile applications. Each type of app uses different device APIs and also provides a wide range of features at the same time. 

• Native Apps

Native apps are getting expensive day by day on the basis of the platform they should support. The cost of native apps is relatively higher as it involves more experts in the app development process. Mostly, business apps, education apps, and entertainment apps are found to be native apps. 

• Hybrid Apps

Cross-platform apps are the best types of mobile apps for those startups who want to reach a bigger audience. However, the development and maintenance of the apps can also be cut down if it is built by a time and single code form that works for all platforms. The downside of cross-platform app development is that they are less optimizable, lack access to APIs, and do not provide user experience as that is provided by native apps. Thus, cross-platform hybrid apps are mostly meant for small and medium communication apps like lifestyle apps and game apps. 

• Database Driven Apps

These types of mobile applications are meant to handle complex and bulks of data to be stored directly in the device memory or web server. Such mobile apps are also developed when additional mobile features like a camera, internet connection, or accessing phone data are also required to function together. Some native database-driven apps use the device memory to store data, including mobile dictionaries and encyclopedias. 

• Basic Functionality Apps

Basic Functionality apps, as per the name, explains that they only possess a few functionalities and are very fast to create. These apps are mostly built for the personal use of the owner, and these apps are also not available on app stores. Mostly, basic simple functionality apps are developed to view the list of topics where you can click and ask a question. As these types of mobile apps are simple and quick to develop, their development cost is also lower. 

• Firmware/Hardware Dependent Apps

These types of mobile apps access mobile devices and focus on enhancing the functionalities of the device. They can be linked with functionalities like alarms, flashlights, cameras, etc. For instance, we’ve several image enhancement apps like Snapchat, which is a social media app as well as an image enhancer. 

• Mobile Gaming Apps

At times clients question is How Much Does it Cost to Build a Game App? Just like the cost of other app development is affected by features, the same is the case of mobile game development cost too. Mobile game apps can be simple and advanced by adding on various features like 3D graphics and physics, global ratings, AR support, and social media integration. The more advanced game apps you want to develop, the more it will cost. However, mobile gaming apps are quite popular worldwide, and this fame can bring great profit to your business revenue.

How to Develop a Mobile App with Top Notch Features and User Experience? 

App Development Cost Per Phase:

Developing a mobile app is not the task of a single developer. As the mobile app development cycle consists of different phrases, proportionally different resources are also required during the development process. Each phase of the development process will take a piece of time and cost in your app development process. So, learning out which phase of the development process will affect your project development cost most and least can be a better practice. 

 

Resources Required in Mobile App Development Process

• Business Analyst

If you’re planning to outsource your mobile application development project, the benefits of a business analyst in the development process will take all your attention. The business analyst is the component of the app development team who understands the project requirements and comes up with possible solutions and technologies that can increase the success rate of your app. The job of a business analyst starts with understanding requirements, preparing the scope of the project, and sending it back to the client for feedback. This detailed study of business analysts will cut down additional charges and ensure the successful execution of your app designing and development idea. 

Role of Business Analyst:  

1. Gathering requirements and information
2. Identifying problems and presenting practical solutions
3. Analyzing Competitors and creating reports
4. Defining the Project Value
5. Writing down the project specifications

• UI/UX Designer

Designing the complete mobile application mockups is an integral part of the application because it has the potential to hold the customer. Thus, a captivating design is the reflection of a well-experienced and prolific designer. App Design is an essential part of app development, and hiring an innovative app designer is an expensive task. A senior designer with years of experience could charge $150/hour; at the same time, a fresher will charge $40/hour. 

Role of UI/UX Designer:

1. Analysis of App Design into Similar App
2. Detailed Study of Preferences and Requirements
3. Wireframe Creator
4. Final App Design Mockup Creator

• Mobile App Engineer

Mobile app engineer is that element of the development process with whom you can trust and share your app idea. Coding experts will take the responsibility to execute a properly functioning app. Which mobile app engineer will be part of your proposed team depends on the mobile app platform, i.e., iOS and Android. As the business analyst has provided the project’s scope and the designer has created the app design, now the developer will build a robust application with all the necessary functionalities and integrations. App developers are the ones who charge the highest amount as they take the complete responsibility to develop an app from scratch. 

Roles and responsibilities of Developers: 

1. Understanding what the client wants
2. Identifying Key App Features and Functionalities
3. Designing Prototype For Client’s Reference
4. Code High-Quality Program to Execute the project
5. Detect Bugs and Offer an Effective Solution
6. Looking for deficiencies and offering solutions

• Quality Assurance Team

Once the developer is done with coding the product, the process moves on to the QA team. They perform the robust testing of the application to find bugs, systems, glitches, and non-effective functions of the application. The software testing team of the application keeps an eagle eye on the application to ensure successful execution. On average, QA experts charge around $20/hour to perform testing and detection debugging of bugs. 

• Project Manager

The project manager in the team of mobile app developers is responsible for assigning the tasks to different team members after receiving the requirements from the client. Project managers implement a smooth flow of the development process throughout the project. Project managers just charge $20/hour. But some big companies don’t charge for project managers and business analysts. 

What Affects the Mobile App Development Cost?

Are you planning to build a handy mobile application? Here are the accurate insights that affect the cost while developing a mobile app. Before jumping into the question – how does it cost to build a mobile app, you should decide the niche of the application. You have to understand the demand of users and analyze what type of app can answer their multiple questions. 

App Cost = Development Time * Hourly Rate.

Here is a simple calculation structure with factors that affect the tag directly: 

Building a successful mobile app across top platforms demands lots of investment and tremendous efforts throughout the timeline. All these factors affecting the application development cost can be controlled either by targeting a single platform or initially launching MVP (Minimum Viable Product) with tremendous benefits like observing the audience feedback. 

What Features are necessary to bring under consideration while Developing an App? 

You need to know that features and functionalities are the most crucial factor that matters when deciding the cost of app development. Reading out the estimated number of hours and charges per hour will help you a lot in developing a fully-fledged mobile app:

 

 

How Long Does it Take to Develop a Mobile app with Basic Features and Functionality? 

As described in the above table, the process of creating a mobile application for iOS, Android, and other platforms usually involves different stages to be followed in an organized approach. However, it is impossible to specify precise terms always as it depends on the complexity and individual features of each type of mobile application. 

• Free Cost Estimation from an Organization > 1 – 3 days
• Detailed Study of requirements, analysis of market and competitors > 5 – 10 days
• Prototyping and writing the technical assignment > 10 – 15 days
• Designing the structure > 5 – 15 days
• Programming > 18 – 60 + days
• Deployment and Testing > 5 – 10 days

Mobile App Categories Affecting App Development Cost

The features and timeline directly depend on the type of mobile app development idea. So, another factor to bring under consideration while finding out the development cost is to identify the app category your idea belongs to. For instance, some types of mobile apps are frequently used for regular activities, while some apps are rarely used, like travel or holiday apps. However, there are unlimited mobile app development ideas, which entrepreneurs can watch to start a successful business. Here, the most popular mobile applications are widely used with their description and how much it costs to build that particular app.

• Social Media Apps:

Social Media applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc., are online apps that are generally communication and interactive tools among a group of people on the same page. However, the marketing and promotion cost of social media app development makes them expensive. 

• E-Commerce Apps:

E-commerce mobile apps like Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Ali Express, etc. prices are usually higher than other ordinary apps due to several complexities of development. These types of mobile apps also require many third-party integrations like payment gateways, CRM, warehouse management, and much more to handle various activities of online stores. 

• Travel Apps: 

Travel mobile apps like Airbnb, Booking.com, and Trivago have 130% more traffic and conversion rate as compared to other websites. These types of mobile apps have many revenue generation opportunities with the help of Google AdSense, in-app purchase, and many more. All your travel needs to be dynamic, highly interactive, and consistent in performance to satisfy the customers and gain fame.

 

• Banking and Finance Apps: 

Fintech and banking apps have brought a great revolution in the banking and payment sector. Now, users can enjoy easy banking around the clock and anywhere worldwide at the tips of their fingertips. While developing a mobile banking app, all you need to keep in mind is to make it user-friendly design, ease of use, and have the highest security level. However, you will also find banking and finance mobile app prices higher than others due to heightened security issues. 

• Healthcare and Fitness Apps:

We all might have different fitness apps like JEFIT and Noom Diet installed in our mobiles to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Developing a mobile healthcare app aims at helping doctors to keep a better track of a person’s vitals. Besides providing features like guidelines from trainers and information about exercises, healthcare apps also require integrations of smartphone sensors to show accurate results. 

• On-Demand Apps: 

On-demand mobile apps are popular among categories like an online marketplace, transportation, food, and grocery delivery services. These apps consist of more than one app solution like a client-side app, a customer-side app, and a third app for tasks handling. As multiple apps are required to be built as a part of on-demand apps, it costs higher than regular mobile apps price tags.

 

• Gaming Apps: 

Mobile gaming apps count on different app stores is increasing day by day. These games can be played in both online and offline modes. The world of gaming apps does not end here; there are many subcategories of gaming apps like racing games, trivia quiz games, shooting games, and lots more. Based on the type of gaming experience the app will provide, the cost and development time differ accordingly. 

• AR/VR Apps: 

Augmented Reality and virtual reality apps have unlocked new possibilities of mobile app development in this era. It has revealed unimaginable possibilities for businesses to attract more customers by providing a better experience.

 

Mobile App Development Cost Difference with Location

One of the crucial factors you need to consider while hiring a mobile app development company or freelance developers is the location where you will get your app ready. Generally, different locations around the world have different average mobile application development costs based on their developers’ pay scale and skill set. Thus, to find an efficient and cost-effective solution for your app, consider where your developers are located.

 

 

App Complexity Creating Three Different Categories 

While developing a mobile app for both iOS and Android platforms or either one of them, you need to consider the complexity level affecting the total budget. To make you understand how the complexity level of app development affects the budget, here are detailed three most commonly used categories. 

 

Note: The cost, timeline, and resources defined under this category are just an estimation. They can vary depending on your project, and there is no hard and fast rule to be according to described packages only. 

Basic Mobile App Development Plan: $25,000 – $50,000

• The app development team will serve around 350 – 650 hours of development on the whole project. 
• The QA plan included in this package will be of about 50 hours. 
• The project timeline will be around 4-9 weeks which will roughly have two developers for each platform.
• The best types of apps are usually built by start-ups looking for their market compatibility. 
• A Basic Mobile App development plan is mainly meant for an MVP app with the following specification: 

1. Simple Features with Elementary Business Logic
2. May consist of up to 5 screens and fewer
3. Basic UI without custom elements

Medium Complexity App Development Plan: $50,000 – $100,000

• For this type of app, the development team has to work for about 650 – 1100 hours. 
• Moreover, the QA plan of the app development process will also be extended, containing 80 hours of work per month. 
• The development timeline of the project will be around 10-15 weeks ( approximately 2-3 months). 
• Medium complexity apps are not concerned with the MVP approach. It means a complete app with the following specifications: 

1. Few Complex features with intermediate business logic
2. Comprises of 6 – 15 screen app displays
3. A few Custom UI elements and animations
4. Up to two languages localization

Complex App Development Plan: (More than $100,000)

• The development team will serve infinite efforts in more than 1100 hours. 
• The QA recommended plan of these apps is nearly 150 hours of QA specialists’ services per month. 
• The development timeline will take at least 16 weeks (more than three months) to deliver the final product. 
• Complex apps are those successful apps being highly downloaded different devices with features:

1. Complex features with advanced business logic
2. More than 15 screens app layouts
3. Fully Customized UI and advanced animations
4. Large-scale user base 
5. Complicated architecture, multiple integrations, and high-security demands

Who will Develop Your Mobile App in a Cost-Effective Way? 

After learning all the other necessary factors to consider, the question comes to the fact that who will develop your app? Well, the answer is simple with only two options: Mobile App Development Companies or Freelance App Developers.

It is quite heated talk that hiring a mobile app development company will burn your pockets more than freelancers do. But have you ever thought about why mobile app development companies are more successful than freelancers? So, here is the answer to why mobile app development agencies are reliable options and provide your best experience. Another fact that makes companies the best choice is their development team consisting of designers, programmers, and project managers with excellent skills and vast experience.

However, the hourly rate of companies differs from country to country, so note it down in the list of Questions to Ask Before you Hire a Mobile App Development Company. Here are the benefits of hiring a software development company over freelance developers.

Significant Advantages of Hiring a Mobile App Development Company: 

• Top companies have skillful staff, and you don’t need to find programmers, designers, and testers separately. 
• You can see why you need to pay them, justifications with portfolio, project estimation, and hourly rates. 
• Companies always make sure to complete projects on a given deadline and deliver excellent results as desired.

On the other hand, freelancers can also provide you with good mobile apps at a lower price. So, you can call them cheaper value small companies as compared to reputed software companies.

A Few Disadvantages of Hiring Freelancers…

• You have to look for designers, programmers, testers, and other experts separately. 
• There is a huge communication gap between members working on the project.
• There will be no professional to manage the whole project and take up reports of activities.

Mobile App Development Cost: Real-Time Examples

How much does it cost to create a mobile app? To provide a better understanding of the cost concept, real-time examples can be a perfect fit. In recent years, mobile apps just flooded the market with over 3 billion smartphone users; nearly $109,658 Million was just spent on mobile game app development. 

• WhatsApp

WhatsApp – the most popular and essential application of our life is a real-time application that has broken all the records of downloaded apps. Here is a table showing up the basic features of WhatsApp MVP and its total time:

 

 

• Facebook

According to Ben Schippers, an engineer stated that it would take nearly nine months and $500,000 to develop a real-time app like Facebook. This social media app has the most significant community users. Facebook offers you the following key features: 

• Registration and Signup Feature
• Automatically contact sync
• Text/Photo/Video Sharing option
• Notifications
• Chat and Messaging Service
• Group and Pages Creation features

Facebook is the giant of the mobile applications world that is found installed by every next person’s mobile phone. However, the Facebook mobile app is powered with thousands of features and a wide range of functions, making it difficult to determine the cost of building such a type of mobile app. Some of the features that cost lots of time and cost in Facebook are; news feed, video calling, live chat, etc. To conclude a rough estimation, one can say that building an app like Facebook, and Messenger application could take around 3000 hours. Furthermore, the Facebook application has more than 220 million mobile downloads and is expected to increase with the rise of smartphone users in the future. 

• Instagram 

How much does it cost to build an app like Instagram? Well, Instagram is also a social media application similar to Facebook and connects people across the globe. With similar features, the social media app Facebook is also owned by Facebook. Instagram was initially developed as a photo-sharing application. However, gradually with increasing popularity, it took the shape of social media, where people like, share, chat and discover new things. Here are some key factors that were kept in mind will developing Instagram: 

• Affordable and Economic Selection of Development Company
• Technology platform for Android and iOS platform
• Hybrid and Native Approach Selection
• Features and Functionalities efficiency
• Backend or MBaas

Jumping into the cost of building an app like Instagram will take $60,000 from your pocket. Like Facebook, which was initially created for photo comparison, Instagram was also made with just the aim to upload images; later on, investing more and more, it was enhanced to its current version.

• TikTok

TikTok is a musical video creating and sharing app. It is a Chinese application that allows users to record 15 seconds videos for their users. Building an app like TikTok requires taking the MVP features under consideration: 

• Basic UI of the app
• Registration and login functionality
• Video Creation
• Music Library
• Posting, uploading, and sharing videos
• Searching for users

According to the research, the estimated cost to build an app like TikTok requires around $80,000 to $100,000. However, the expenses of gaining a license and other authentications are not included in this price tag. Whereas, in terms of hours, it would take 985 hours to make an app like TikTok. 

• Spotify

Spotify is smartphone users’ most preferred music player application and has around 207 million monthly users. The best tech fact about this app is that it is available across multiple platforms, from Android to iOS users to desktops and handy laptops. 

Artist/Album40 – 50

 

• Uber

How much does it cost to build an app like Uber? An unimaginably successful 24-hour service providing on-demand cab service app connects drivers and riders. It is an on-demand application because it has two interfaces: one for the riders and the second for the drivers. So, the cost of building an app like Uber can be evaluated only after viewing both riders’ and drivers’ apps and features common in them. 

This was the significant difference between rider and driver app interfaces. Developing an app like Uber requires an online payment system; that is why the app has an integrated payment gateway. Now, let’s have a look at the user interface features and breakdown calculation of the Uber rider and driver MVP:

 

 

Furthermore, many other tech startups stepped in the field with a basic MVP and in no time upgraded to generate significant revenue. Here are the types of those apps and the top trending applications of that category. 

• Dating apps like Tinder
• Video Streaming App like Twitch
• Educational App like Coursera
• Fitness app like MyFitnessPal 
• Food Delivery App like DoorDash
• Travel app like Trivago
• Real Estate App like Zillow
• Hotel Booking App like Airbnb
• Concierge Apps 
• Telemedicine Apps

How to lower the Mobile App Development Cost? 

Some particular elements can help you cut down the project cost. These tips are especially beneficial for entrepreneurs to invest less initially and lower the risk of failure. Every business startup developing a mobile app has the budget as its primary concern. So, here is a list of factors that can help cut down the cost of app design and development and save plenty of time. 

• Cross Platform Development 

Cross-platform app development means creating an application for multiple platforms and presenting a similar environment across all the platforms. Top experienced developers are capable of developing such mobile applications that consist of similar software environments or products.

There are plenty of technologies available in the market to help developers build an application across platforms. In cross-platform app development, developers can use Phonegap, Xamarin, and other similar technologies to fasten up the app design and development process. 

On the other hand, we have a native mobile app development platform, which is expensive and requires effort to write separate code for creating the app. However, you can only use the cross-platform development approach when the app is independent of custom animations. Here is the significant difference between both the mobile app development approaches: 

• Design and Development from Same Company

Entrepreneurs have an idea, budget, and audience requirement in mind, but it is all worthless if they don’t have someone to execute that idea into a virtual presence. It is the point where mobile app development companies click in mind. For business startups developing an app, it is preferable not to spend their entire budget making the application. They have to keep themselves prepared for any type of pitfall at any time. However, hiring and investing such big amounts of money isn’t easy, especially when related to someone’s dream of becoming an entrepreneur. Thus, here are the pros of hiring a software development company over freelancers: 

• Technical expertise and assurance of work completion
• Affordable choice when it comes to detailed research, including geographical, long-clientele, etc. 
• A team consisting of all necessary experts like developers, UI/UX designers, QA testers, and others with a good amount of experience. 
• Testing the app and delivering the highest quality product. 
• Support and Maintenance

• Open Source Framework

The open-source framework is best for startups to build a mobile application with all top-notch features and functionalities. With budget constraints, entrepreneurs can fulfill their business idea of mobile app development with open source frameworks. 

Generally, an open-source framework refers to a program wherein the source code is available for the general public. And these users can use this code and modify it according to their design preferences. Thus, in this way, it saves lots of time and cuts down the development project cost as well. 

How Much Does It Cost to Build an App? Total App Development Cost

We totally understand the fact that clients face lots of difficulties in finding accurate application development cost estimation. Many of them would have tried several app building cost estimation tools like How Much It Cost to Build an App to get an automated report of the budget required. However, all such cost estimation tools are AI-based tools that often leave untested waters, and estimated cost breaks down the courage of users. 

To overcome these challenges that an entrepreneur faces, at Clustox, we have our tech consultants to guide you through the mobile app development process and cost factors.

On average, the cost for mobile app development ranges from $25,000 – $50,000. However, there is no hard and fast rule for the mobile application development cost to be precisely in the range mentioned. We have mentioned all the subjects brought into consideration that impact the overall cost of mobile app development.