Most of us have looked for mobile app development cost calculators or have asked the question, how much it costs to make an app for your business.

However, there is no one answer to this question, because there is no fixed price for building a mobile application.

Considering when you are buying a product or service, whether it’s a bike, a smartphone or salon service, they all would charge you differently depending on a number of factors. It’s the same way with mobile apps. How much it costs to make an app for your business, will depend on what you are trying to achieve through it.

Moreover, you cannot expect to create an exceptional app for a small amount of money, on the other hand, spending a lot of money doesn’t always mean a successful mobile app.

Think of it as spending a fortune on cooking supplies won’t help make you a good chef if you can’t cook. Similarly, spending a lot of money on developing your app, won’t automatically make it a success if you don’t know how to run a business.

You will have to consider a number of things to know how much it costs to make an app for your business. The main factors that affect the cost of your app are:

How your mobile app gets built?

Who is building your app?

What you need your app to achieve?

Identify the type of mobile app you are building

If you want to build a basic app, you may be able to get it done under a few thousand dollars. Few examples of these apps can be the pre-installed apps on devices, like a calculator, timer and calendar.

However, the cost of your app rises as complexity in the app increases. So, if you want your app to have features like real-time GPS or sync with the internet, it is going to cost you more. Complex apps are also more expensive to build because there are other factors that play a part like extra design costs, back-end development, architecture, security, and testing.

Furthermore, it is crucial that you have a clear category for your app. Apple App Store, asks you to pick a primary category for your app that describes it the best. Few examples of these categories include:

• News
• Education
• Music
• Photo & video
• Lifestyle
• Health & fitness
• Travel
• Social media
• Sports
• Games

Once you decide the type and category of app you are going to build, stick to it, otherwise, the cost may rise quickly. The upward shift in the cost can easily take $10,000 up to $50,000 if you keep on adding features that change the app category. So creating a social media app that also offers games as well as help users file their taxes, is not a good idea.

Another point to think about is if you want to create a native or hybrid app. Since native apps follow specific guidelines for certain platforms, they usually offer better user experience. Hence, building a highly-functional, native app may cost you close to $100,000 rather than $10,000. On the other hand, building hybrid apps are relatively less expensive.

Understand the development process for your app

You will need to hire a developer or a number of developers, who can create your app with all of its complexities. The higher number of developers you hire the higher it is going to cost you.

Hence, if you want to keep your app under $1,000 then you may have to outsource the job to an app development company. However, in the U.S. you may just be able to get away with building your app for a few thousand dollars. But, it would have to be a simple app. Outsourcing can also be a great possible option for you. Some people prefer to find a reputable mobile app development company overseas and outsource their app for a relatively lower cost.

Who is building your mobile app?

The complexity and location are not the only factors, there are also the types of developers that you could hire, from a freelance developer and a small app development company to a big corporation. Depending on the type of developers you go for, the price to build your app is going to change. There are reasons for this difference in the pricing structure for different app development options.

From the above development options, freelance developers would be the least expensive option. If you want to build your app within $10,000, you are likely to find a freelancer who will be willing to take on the job. However, you have to keep in mind, a freelancer may not be able to offer the best of the business services.

If you plan to hire an app development company, the size of the company will impact the cost of the app. But, they might have more experience and proven track record, which means they can change relatively more for their services.

However, big corporations often charge you much higher for the services they offer, probably because they have professional teams of developers, designers and in other creative areas who work on your project. These developers have a great experience, they are highly qualified and are considered some of the best in the industry. But, you have to pay for the top-notch services, big corporations often charge around $100,000 for building a mobile application.

There are many factors that will impact the cost of building your app, however, it makes sense to hire someone who has experience of building similar mobile apps. On the other hand, you also have to understand that while trying to create your app within the range of $1,000 and $10,000, you may have to work with a developer or a small agency with limited experience.

Conclusion

We know there are many different factors that affect the cost of building your app. It depends on the type of app you want to build, who is building the app and how it gets built.

But, after reading the article we can say that building an app isn’t cheap, $1,000 is the bare minimum and can’t get you too far. However, having $10,000 to spend on your app can definitely get you started on the right track and build a functional mobile app.

However, having a budget of around $100,000 will make it much easier for you to build a feature-rich, highly-functional mobile app with a better chance of success in the market.

This article is contributed by Joaquin Suazo, Senior Marketing Executive at TekRevol — mobile app development company

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