As an app developer, I frequently get asked how much it costs to build an app. Without context, this question makes as much sense as "How much does a new car cost?" It depends what kind of car you want.
In this article, our senior mobile app development trainer Chris explores how the features that you want in your app will affect the price - and what you can do to keep costs down as low as possible, and the critical issues that you really need to consider if you are commissioning someone to build an app for you.
A simple app with one or two screens that does
not access or store data via the internet might be possible for less than £10K, but the
price can increase dramatically as screens and more complex features are added.
The number and complexity of screens
By screen, we mean 'log-in screen', 'home screen', 'options screen' and so forth. Several days of effort are likely to go into making and testing each screen. Screens that are just a list of items tend to be easier to build than screens that have many fields and buttons.
The need to read data from / save data to a server
This is often quite an overhead for an app. If the data is saved to a Cloud platform such as Firebase, implementation and usage tends to be significantly cheaper than if you are making a custom solution.
The need for management features for the server data
The previous point addressed the issue of saving and recovering the data for a single user. If it is also necessary to work with data from different users at the same time, then the complexity (and the cost) will be greater.
Using interesting device features
Implementing notifications / maps / photo taking and storage / use of accelerometer etc. can add significantly to an app's cost.
Security and robustness
If your app has important user data, then you should be planning for higher levels of security, and of testing to make sure that is the case, than might be needed for an app without such data.
Internationalisation
If your app needs to work in different languages (French, Italian, German, Spanish tend to be the defaults for an app targeting the Western world), or different languages plus different scripts and directions, then planning and implementing that, plus testing it works correctly in each language can be a significant addition to the costs.
Cross-platform availability
If you only deliver your app on a single platform (iPhone tends to be the first choice in many markets), then it will cost less than if you target both iPhone and Android - that is true whether you make two separate apps or use a cross-platform tool to make both apps.
How clearly you can express the requirements for the app you want built
If you are asking someone what it will cost to build an app for you, then one of the major factors in the price you will be quoted is uncertainty. If you don't know exactly what you want, it is hard to decide how much it will cost to build.
The first question to ask is whether you really want an app, or whether something simpler such as a web site or a downloadable document would fit the need better.
If you decide an app is called for, then the next step is to focus on the features that most users will want from your app, and put them in the first version. This is a place where the 80/20 rule will apply There are many things that your app could do, but 80% of your users will be happy with 20% of the possible functionality, so build that first.
Prototype screens for each of the functions that are central to the app, and write a narrative to describe what is happening on each screen.
At this point, you have a storyboard. You can
talk through the app with potential app users using the prototype screens, and
get an impression whether it really meets their needs. If it does, then you
also have a description of the app you are going to build that you can use to
get a cost estimate from a supplier, or even to build the app in house.
Our one-day course "Developing your idea into a mobile app" guides you through all of these issues, helping you produce a clear picture of what you want from your app idea and what it is likely to cost. If you have any questions, please get in touch with us to find out how we can help.
