A Detailed Guide to Mobile App Development Cost in 2023

The market for mobile apps is proliferating, with no sign of stopping anytime soon. People use apps for everything from online shopping to booking movie tickets, playing games, and watching any show or movie. 

Mobile apps are an excellent platform for businesses (irrespective of the industry niche) as they offer better personalization. They are expected to generate over $613 billion in revenues by 2025. 

With the increasing popularity of mobile apps, business owners are investing in a mobile app development company for a successful app. However, the main concern of entrepreneurs is the cost of creating an app.

This blog post explains a complete guide to a mobile app development cost, including the factors influencing the overall price.

How Are Mobile Apps Impacting Our Lives?

Apps have revolutionized how we work, communicate, play, shop, and entertain. As a result, their demand has increased. Various factors have led to the growth of mobile app development, one of which is user convenience. 

Apart from it, social networking apps, like Instagram or WhatsApp, have made it easier for users to communicate with their long distant friends or family.

Digital buyers have grown to 2.64 billion this year, over a third of the global population. As a result, mobile apps are becoming one of the most significant sources for users when it comes to online shopping.

App Development Cost For Different App Niches

Booking tickets, reading news, conducting business transactions – we do it all differently now, thanks to mobile apps.

If you are thinking of building one to take advantage of this burgeoning market, you must wonder, “How much does it cost to launch an app?” Let us answer this question with a few examples of industries that have been impacted by the widespread use of mobile apps and their costs: 

• Entertainment Apps

The entertainment industry is changing tremendously. People can now watch live matches, listen to music, or binge-watch any show/movie on the go.

One example is Netflix, one of the most popular entertainment apps, with almost 238.4 million subscribers in June this year. The average cost of building an app like Netflix can range between $50,000 to $150,000.

• Healthcare Apps

Healthcare is another booming industry that has gained technological acceptance and will continue to thrive at an unprecedented rate. According to a study, Covid-19 has led to a 25% increase in healthcare app downloads.

There are various healthcare apps, like MyFitnessPal (a fitness mobile app). Its average healthcare app development cost is between $15,000 and $80,000.

Also Read:- How to Develop a Healthcare App?

• eLearning App

Schools and colleges have begun to embrace eLearning, and the industry has indeed witnessed growth over the last decade. Research and Market predicted that the online education market will reach $350 billion by 2025. 

edX is one of the credible eLearning apps, and the estimated cost of developing mobile apps like edX can be around $50K – $180K. 

If you also want to develop an education app like edX, you can consider hiring an eLearning app development company to ideate and build an interactive app and boost your business

• Social Apps

Social apps are specially-designed communication platforms with many features, such as real-time interactions, file upload, screen sharing, engagement, and instant messaging. 

There are many types of social apps based on their purpose and targeted audience, such as social networking apps like Facebook and Twitter, media sharing apps like Instagram and Snapchat, and interest-centric apps like Goodreads and Discord.

Developing a social app is lucrative due to the demand for highly-customized apps worldwide and excellent monetization opportunities. The development of a mobile app for social networking can cost you from $30,000 to $200,000 based on the number of features, design complexity, etc.

• Travel Apps

The travel industry has gone to new lengths to become digitized completely, and its market size is expected to reach $1,835.6 billion by 2031.

An online travel app like MyTSA focuses on easing the user experience while booking tickets. The cost to create an app like MyTSA can range between $20,000 and $80,000. You can avail the services of a travel app development agency to create a bespoke mobile app.

• eCommerce Apps

Every online retail business owner is jumping on the bandwagon by investing in enterprise app development to elevate their business growth and brand name.

An app like Amazon is one of the most popular shopping apps in the United States, with an average cost of $50,000 to $80,000. You can also consult an eCommerce app development company to estimate your app’s cost and understand how to strategize the eCommerce mobile app.

• Navigation Apps

Navigation apps are bound to be popular in an era of GPS tracking. These provide navigational directions to users, helping them reach their desired destinations with real-time information about traffic, road closures, and other obstacles.

Also known as smartphone mapping apps, these are built to take advantage of the built-in GPS circuitry and powerful processors present in present-day smartphones. Depending on the specific business requirements, navigation apps may offer various features, such as real-time map streaming and map downloading for offline navigation.

Apps like Scout GPS Navigation, MapQuest, and Google Maps all offer turn-by-turn navigation, and building an app like these will set you back by at least $30,000. Making an app can cost up to $150,000 based on the features, design, and functionality you add.

• On-Demand App

As the term suggests, an on-demand app provides instant services, like food, grocery, or vehicle rentals, and delivers an excellent user experience.

Kroger is one of the examples of an on-demand app that is flexible and lets users pick any grocery item within a few clicks. The costs associated with on-demand app development, such as grocery delivery app development, is $20,000 to $100,000.

How to Decrease App Development Costs For Your Project?

Below is a list of ideas that can help business owners ensure cost-effective app development. Let us take a closer look at them one by one.

• Better Visualization With an Interactive Prototype

The first thing you can do to keep the app development cost low is to create an interactive app prototype. It helps avoid unnecessary features and integrates the essential ones.

Mobile app prototyping also helps clarify the user’s requirements early, leaving no room for future integration that may require more time and money.

• Choose a Tech Stack with Future Sustainability

Another way of reducing the app development cost is investing in futuristic technology that will be worth the investment. You can pick a suitable technology stack to make your mobile app sustainable and expandable.

In short, if you make the correct choice while selecting the technology at an early stage, it will help you achieve your business goals smoothly and save money in the future.

• Analyze the Need for an MVP

Creating a minimum viable product can help you save costs even before you build a final product. MVP is a simple version of the app introduced in the market with basic features to gauge the targeted audience’s expectations.

A minimum viable product helps launch the app on the expected delivery time, with user feedback that helps improve the app accordingly. With the help of a reliable app development company, you can achieve the desired response through MVP app development.

• Choose an Effective Project Management Style

You can reduce app development costs by choosing a development team that goes with an optimum project management technique. In that case, the suitable project management methodology to choose is the agile technique.

Agile methodology has a short development cycle that continuously enhances the project’s performance. It further helps in boosting the app’s efficiency, resulting in cost-effectiveness. It is an excellent choice that avoids the wastage of resources, leading to lower app development costs.

Features That Determine the Cost of Mobile App Development

Here is a quick analysis of the mobile app development costs based on complexity and features:

Basic Features:

An app with basic features is affordable because it integrates only necessary features, such as a login page, push notifications, and more. In simple words, the fewer features you want in your app, the less money you have to spend.

Complex Features:

A mobile app with complex features is quite expensive compared to an app with basic features. Conceptualizing and creating an app that balances those features with seamless design and functionality will most likely require an experienced mobile app designing company. However, it will be worth the investment because it boosts the user experience.

Mobile App Development Cost Based on App Types

It will help to decide which platform you wish your app to target before inquiring the cost of Android app development or that of a specific OS.

• Native Mobile App  

In simple terms, native app development is the process of developing a mobile application for a single platform. App developers write a single code from scratch using the programming language of the respective platform, regardless of whether you hire iOS or Android application development services.

For instance, developers use Java for Android mobile app development and choose Swift for iOS app development. The average Android app development cost is $50,000-$300,000, similar to the iOS app development cost.

However, the price of mobile app development for iOS and Android can vary based on the feature complexity. Furthermore, native apps are faster and more reliable in terms of excellent performance.

• Hybrid Mobile App

Here come hybrid apps that are actually web apps put in a native app shell. Hybrid mobile apps like Twitter or Netflix work with multiple operating systems. Business owners can save money by building a high-end mobile app for various platforms.

App developers use JavaScript, HTML, and CSS languages, giving apps a cross-platform functionality. The estimated hybrid app development cost can range from $40,000-$200,000.

Cost to Build an App Based on Each Development Phase

• Discovery Phase

The best way to begin the app development process is by conducting market research that helps understand competitors’ insights and users’ preferences.

As a business owner, you can define the mobile app opportunities and reflect on the pre-existing solutions.

Here is a list of questions businesses can define in the discovery phase to get an expected mobile app.

• What outcome are you expecting from your mobile app?
• How is your competitor fulfilling their targeted customer’s requirements?
• Which technology do you think will fit your app development best?
• What are the areas of improvement to receive better business profits?

• App Prototyping 

After conducting the market research, you can move forward with app prototyping to get the app’s mockup before finalizing it. Mobile app prototyping exhibits the app design and reduces the cost of expensive rework.

For starters, app prototyping can cost up to $4,000 (minimum amount), and can reach $15,840. App designers create wireframes explaining how users interact with the mobile app.

In simple words, app wireframing is an app’s layout that includes sketching, mapping out user flow, and later adding the details accordingly with the user’s feedback. Also, creating a unique (yet engaging) user interface is an additional expense for the project.

• Mobile App Development Process

App developers can finally begin with the mobile app development process and integrate the decided set of features.

In this stage, business owners will pick the platform of their choice to reach their targeted audience and fulfill their business expectations. They also choose the suitable technology stack for building the top-quality mobile app in order to deliver a great user experience. 

The app development process has three essential aspects- back-end, application programming interface (API), and front-end. 

• The back-end includes a database and a server-side object supporting various mobile app functions.
• The application programming interface (API) is an intermediate between the app and the back-end. 
• The front-end is everything a user experiences on the mobile app. In simple words, the front-end is where an end-user will interact with the app.

• App Security 

Mobile app security should be every business owner’s concern because that builds trust in users and helps in creating a loyal customer base. 

As a business owner, a two-way standardization on personal data security must be guaranteed in creating a secure environment for users. Thus, you need to focus on mobile app security testing and start doing security checks in advance. 

App security adds considerably to the total app development price, ranging between $70 to $320 monthly. 

• Mobile App Testing

Another aspect that can affect the app development cost is testing. However, conducting mobile app testing is also crucial. Do you know why? Because it focuses on everything, from the app’s performance to the user’s experience.

Conducting app testing aims to eliminate the risk of bugs, glitches, and other technical issues. The quality assurance (QA) team follows proper techniques to ensure mobile app reliability, security, functionality, compatibility, stability, and usability.

• App Launch & Maintenance

If businesses want their app to be on the user’s phone for a longer time, they need to keep it updated according to the latest technologies and features. Therefore, it is important to keep an eye on the latest market trends, new versions of iOS and Android platforms.

It is true that your mobile app cannot remain error-free; you can only fix them with the help of mobile app maintenance services, which come at a price. Apart from this, the app’s design requires regular updates over time to attract new users and keep them hooked to the app.

The app maintenance costs are calculated yearly and typically evaluated at 20% of the entire mobile app development cost.

A Complete Breakdown of App Development Cost Based on the Team:

Revenue Model for Mobile App

• Paid Apps

Business owners can provide paid membership or premium subscriptions to their intended users, where they will have to pay a nominal monthly fee.

Paid apps help businesses generate higher revenues that help get more income, leading to better business growth. Moreover, subscription-based mobile apps keep the audience engaged and convert them into loyal customers.

• In-App Purchase

Here comes another revenue model- an in-app purchase that business owners (like you) can leverage.

For instance, in healthcare apps like MyFitnessPal, users can pay extra money for advanced workout videos. In short, users can have a better user experience by upgrading to a better level.

• In-App Advertising

In-app advertising is one of the greatest sources of generating higher income. Business owners can run personalized ads through banners or push notifications and make the users aware of ongoing or upcoming offers/deals.

Consult Today for an Accurate Cost Estimate 

It has now been established that various factors affect the cost of developing a mobile app. The factors mentioned above will help you understand the approximate cost of a mobile application.

If you want to know exactly how much it costs to create an app, you will have to contact a well-established mobile app development company (like AppsChopper) for a no-obligation consultation. That’s because there isn’t a fixed price for every mobile app. The cost to design an app won’t necessarily be the same as the overall cost of mobile app development.

FAQs

• How much does app development cost on average?

The average cost of developing a mobile app ranges from $50,000 to $250,000. This variation is due to factors such as complexity, features, platform, and region.

• How Does App Complexity Affect the Cost?

 App complexity directly impacts development hours. A basic app with minimal features costs less than an app with advanced functionalities like AR integration or real-time tracking.

• Are Native Apps More Expensive than Cross-Platform Apps?

Yes, native apps (developed specifically for iOS or Android) typically cost more due to the need for separate development for each platform. Cross-platform tools like React Native or Flutter allow for a single codebase, potentially reducing costs.

• Does App Design Affect the Development Cost?

A user-centric and intuitive design is crucial. Professional UI/UX design can add to the cost but improves user engagement and retention.

• How Much Does It Cost to Update My App?

Updates depend on their nature. Minor tweaks are cheaper, while overhauls or new feature additions can be costlier.

•  Are In-app Purchases Worth the Investment?

In-app purchases can be a revenue stream. They can offset the app development costs and generate profits if implemented correctly.

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