FACTORS AFFECTING THE COST OF A MOBILE APP
Any business that wants to successfully engage with its customers should invest in a mobile app. A mobile app can be a highly effective driver of traffic, help you to reach out to your target audience, and impact your sales and growth. Therefore, if you are planning to build a dedicated mobile app for your company, then you should know how much it would cost.
You can contact a reputable web application development company in India and they will give you a complete breakdown of costs. However, if you want to know beforehand, then you should read this article. Here we have talked about various factors, including the development platform, app functionality, device compatibility, hosting and maintenance, and others that have a direct bearing on the cost of the app.
8 Factors That Have a Direct Bearing on the Cost of a Mobile App
Here is a list of 8 factors that plays an important part in the cost of a mobile app.
1. What Type of Business Model the App is Targeting?
The cost of the mobile app can vary sharply based on what type of business it is focusing on, the users, and the services it offers, as all of these have a direct bearing on how the app is designed, which in turn impacts its cost. For example, if a business app model requires a higher level of sophistication, then it will increase its development time due to the complexities involved, then the cost to create it will also increase.
If the app is designed for customer service, then it will require an external API, which will inflate the overall cost of development. For example, an app that is created for inter-or intra-organizational needs has fewer functions compared to an e-commerce app, so it will cost less.
2. The App-Building Platform You Have Chosen
Do you want to build a native app, a web app, or a hybrid app? The development cost of each one of these is very different. And even amongst these three, there are further subdivisions. For example, if you are interested in creating a native app, then do you want to create the app for Android, iOS, or any other platform.
The development process and complexities involved in creating an app for each one of these platforms are different and require different types of expertise. Therefore, the platform for the mobile app has an impact on the development cost of the app.
3. App Functionality and Design
In addition to the platform and the business for which an app is being made, its functionality and design also play a big role in the overall cost of its development. To offer a better user experience, you have to add highly advanced functions. If you talk to a reputed web application development company in India to create an app that is either real-time service-based or list-based, then they will charge you differently.
The reason is, that each one of these has a different development process which makes the overall cost to create them vary significantly. For example, if you want to create a simple list-based application with no server support, then its cost would be quite affordable. On the other hand, if you are trying to build a highly dynamic application with the latest features, then it would have a lot of complexity, which in turn will increase its developmental costs.
A complex app design will include a smoother content flow, user data backup, secure payment gateways, and others that will require high-end network operations. Furthermore, if the app is integrated with a third-party service, then the designer has to simplify the task for the user so that they get an enhanced user experience. All of this requires time and extra time, which means you have to pay more.
4. Integration Points
Another important point that affects the cost of mobile app development is the integration points. For example, developing a standalone app is comparatively more expensive than one which is synced with an enterprise system. If you are planning to build an app for internal use only where you will have complete control over the platform and the device, then it is less expensive.
On the other hand, if you are trying to develop an app for the Bring Your Device (BYOD) environment, then it would be expensive. The reason is, that you have to take into account multiple integration points which have to sync smoothly with the external environment, which takes time and money to build.
5. Highly Sophisticated Animations and Other Visual Aids
If you try to put visual animations, interactive animations, or even normal sample videos, then your app development cost will rise. The cost of a basic app with very simple functionalities will be significantly lower than an app with complex animations to make it engaging and attractive to the user.
6. Maintenance Job
The job is not finished after the app is developed. Once you develop the app, then you have to provide regular updates, fix any bugs, and look into any issues that the users are facing. You also may have to adhere to some enhancement requests to improve the user experience. Therefore, you have to think about a maintenance plan right from the beginning of the app design process itself. And it should be included as a factor of your overall app development cost.
7. Security and App Hosting
A mobile app hosts a huge amount of data and it is exchanged in real-time. These data could include employee data, confidential transactions data et cetera. Therefore, if there is even a whiff of a security issue, then it would completely damage your business. For this reason, you have to invest in a highly secure app hosting provider that offers you top-end security measures. Furthermore, as per the scale of your business and how much traffic is generated in your app, you have to rent the servers.
For the best and most secure experience, you have to rent dedicated servers with sophisticated multilayered security measures. However, renting such servers can be quite expensive, if you compare it with the shared hosting services.
8. App UI/UX
The first impression of your mobile app is extremely important. Therefore, you must ask the web application development company in India to create a unique and highly attractive UI/UX app design. However, the more components you put into your app design like icons, graphic images, push notifications, and others, it will require a high level of customization. This in turn will increase its development cost.
However, we suggest that you should not be thrifty while designing the UI/UX of your mobile app. For most users, this is one of the make-or-break points for their decision on whether to use your app.
Conclusion
Apart from the factors that we have shared with you in this article, several other elements have a direct impact on the cost of mobile app development. As the features of the app keep improving, the time involved in developing them also increases, which impacts the overall cost of development.
Furthermore, if you ask your web application development company in India to use cutting-edge techs like blockchain, AI, and cloud-based services, then it will lead to rising costs and an increase in the complexity of app development. You must have a complete understanding of various cost factors that are associated with the design and development process of a mobile app. It will help you understand the approximate cost of building a dedicated mobile app.