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.