How much does it cost to develop an app for a startup?

By Tasha Bronicka from IDAP Group

Are you going to develop the next big thing? The only thing that holds you down is the costs required to build an app.
You’ve got a billion-dollar app idea, but it’s still an idea. To bring it to the next level, you have to build an app. But how much does it cost to develop an app?

Perhaps you’ve googled that the cheapest developers live and work in India. You can get an app build for $10K, but the chances to get ill-coded app are high. Ballpark figures for a simple app start from $75K while an award-winning agency with first-class designers and developers will charge at least $100K. Large agencies might charge as much as $1 million for a full development process.

Note, to operate a startup for the first a year and a half, you will need minimum a million dollars.

The price depends on a wide range of the variables. Let’s find out what factors determine the app cost.

Written by

Carlos Barraza
October 2, 2017
Sin categoría

This post is also available in: English

What factors to weigh up while determining how much does it cost to develop an app?

Development Team

One of the decisive criteria while choosing a development team is a rate per hour. Of course, you can develop an app for a song, but the quality leaves much to be desired. Having developed an app for $50,000 or less, be prepared to pay more to fix the bugs or maintain the app.

Looking for a tech expertise, pay your attention to full-cycle app development agencies. The price for a fully-functioning app starts at $100K. On top of that, you pay for a top-notch code, but it’s just one piece of the development process. The established agencies offer as a rule an end-to-end development process including designers and marketing strategists.
A successful app development team should consist of:

Designer who is responsible for the visual content
Developers who write the code for the app and bring your app idea into life
Account manager who coordinates the app development process
Product manager who oversees the app

Development Time

The app cannot be built in a day. The app development is a multi-stage project involving lots of specialists and long hours of tedious work.
The development steps are:

Project Research
Product Design Sprints
Development
MVP Launch

Everything starts with a market research to find your business niche and study your counterparts. Nothing changes faster than a mobile app market. The key point to consider is the user demands.

Find out what your target users need and start developing your product.

As soon as you come up with the app type, shift to design. You can’t skip this stage and get a top-class app. Keep your design as simple as possible. The users don’t like app overloaded with the icons and other design elements.

The most critical stage is app development. There is no point in cutting down the development process and look for the lowest prices.

The development process can be divided into two stages: Front-End and Back-End.

The Front-End development is everything about ensuring a smooth performance of all design elements. CSS, HTML, and Java are ideal for front-end development.

Without the back-end, your app can’t function properly on a mobile device. The app can do absolutely nothing. It can’t fetch the data and it can’t broadcast alerts. It can’t get a contact list. How the users interact with the app and what they see and touch isn’t an app itself. The app is dead without the integration with back-end databases and logic.

Once you complete the development stage, you can launch your first MVP (Minimum viable project). An MVP can help you find out what the users like and what they dislike. In fact, there can be more than one MVP.

App Features

Even something as simple as a shopping app involves lots of software features to be developed. Defining the key app features is a tedious process. Depending on the app type, target audience, overall app market trends.

At this stage, you can consult a market strategist to look at your core features you want to include in your app and to decide whether they are right features or not.

Key features of a sophisticated mobile app

Back button

User-friendly navigation through the app is a key to the app’s success. Not to lose your last results, consider implementing the back button.

When creating the app design, a back button should be the first thing to implement. A back button offers the users comforts and some kind of convenience.

Push notifications

Your app should somehow communicate with the users. Push notification is an ideal communication if flawlessly built into Android and iOS.

Note, your push notification should be informative and relative otherwise, the users will uninstall your app.

Smart extensions

Apps have become smarter with the advent of smartwatches and fitness trackers. Consider expanding the user experience on smaller devices.

Password and registration free

The users often get annoyed by creating profiles, setting passwords, and typing-in activation codes. Try to eliminate the registration or implement a registration through Facebook or Twitter.

Short Author Bio

Hi, everyone! I’m Tasha. I try hard to explain geek news in a plain (and readable) language. Here you can read one of my coverages on the mobile app development.

To read more, visit my blog or follow me on Facebook/Twitter.