There are two types of aspiring businessmen – one who executes their business ideas after estimating the development cost of their product, and another is one who put their product first, without even considering the development cost.
And, mobile app development is one of the expensive processes that require a lot of time and money. If you want to build a highly intuitive and feature rich mobile app, then you need to add hefty cost to your project.
There is no doubt that mobile applications are the powerful and advanced marketing technique that drives traffic, boosts the popularity of your products that in turn increases the sales and growth of your business.
However, development of a mobile app is not cost-efficient, and this is the main reason why most of the companies skip the idea of getting into the mobile application market.
In fact, there are various factors that are affecting the development cost of mobile applications; therefore, many business organizations face challenges while building their mobile app.
In this blog post, we will have a look at some of the key factors affecting the mobile app development cost. And, also give you some resourceful tips that will help you make the most affordable decisions, and offer you the best ROI of your development budget.
Factors Affecting the Mobile App Development Cost
Operating Systems (OS)
Developing a mobile application for internal user is comparatively less expensive than doing it in a bring-your-own device (BYOD) or external environment because here you can solely decide on how many mobile devices or platforms you will support.
But for BYOD or external users, you need to create an application that will work across every mobile platform and device. First, you need to decide on which operating system(s) you will support and latter you will determine on how to support cross-platform applications.
This wastes both your development time and money.
Mobile Devices & Platforms
Many web app developers find difficulties in deciding whether to support Android, Windows or iOS platforms or all of above. But by deciding this, you will easily estimate both the development time and cost.
As we know, all platforms available on the web market are different from each other. Native apps are developed in the operating system’s specific language such as Objective C or Java, while web applications are developed as web pages and thus not reliable on a specific operating system Language.
However, developing the HTML5 web applications are much cheaper than developing the OS-specific apps. But still, 25 % of app developers are using at least three different mobile devices or platforms to go online.
So, it is better to decide at the beginning of the development process if you want to save your development cost and time.
Functionality of Your Application
At the time of development process, you need to finalize the functionalities that you want to embed in your app. Well, the involvement of functionalities completely depends upon the category of the app and for whom the app is developing – potential customers.
For example, if you want to include two-dimensional games then it would cost you less, but if you want 3D animated games, with robust sound effects to attract more customers, then you need to incorporate extra functionality in your basic ones and thus you need to spend more money on it.
Backend Verses Native
You may need to pay more if your mobile application requires a backend. It is because another resource has been embedded into the project as it requires web based programming skills. Plus, the developers need to put extra efforts to build a backend that are reliable on the complexity of features.
Usually, a backend is used to store all the user-based information. Another example of a complex backend is when you require social sharing network fundamentals like sharing data, connecting two different users and more. In such a situation, you need to pay cloud hosting cost, along with development cost.
Content Management System
Another addition to the cost will be a Content Management System (CMS). If you want to update the content of your mobile app on frequent basis, then you need to integrate a Content Management system.
The CMS allows multiple stakeholders to add their content from the backend (managed and controlled by your or the admin). You can easily add/edit product information, categories, pricing on an online app, etc.
Social Media Integration
In the present day, it becomes essential to integrate a social media into your website and mobile app if you want to engage more and more web customers.
In order to integrate social media features into your mobile app, you need to spend more money during the development process. However, it is better for you to determine what type of social features you want to add into your mobile application.
You can opt for a feature that allows your visitors to share your content on their social media profiles or want a feature where your customers can share data with each other. Well, there are two ways that will enable your visitors to share your data – Twitter-type follow or un-follow or Face-type friend request management.
Distribution of Mobile Apps
There are various distribution channels for your mobile app deployment, and each channel has its own sets of costs. For an example, Google Play – a commercial distribution channel charges higher developer license cost. Therefore, it is important to choose the cost-effective as well as reliable distribution channel.
However, you can find other options on the web market such as corporate app store, which is administered via an enterprise mobility management (EMM) platform. Under this, all the mobile apps are deployed to the corporate storefront for authorized devices and users.
Use of 3D Animation/ Visual Objects
Today, most of the app developers want to integrate complicated UI components into their mobile app with an objective to give a high-end user experience to their potential customers.
Therefore, many of them are integrating real-time 3D animations/graphics, visual transitions to make their app more real and user-engaging. If you want to do the same, then you need to contribute more into your development cost.
Third Party Integrations
A mobile application either can be self-contained or connected with an enterprise system. If your mobile app doesn’t want enterprise data, corporate access, or enterprise system, or central business logic, then the cost of development will be reduced and restricted to app development procedure only,
But, if you want a mobile app with third party integration, the development cost will exceed to enterprise web services and data access, third party APIs and other integration tools.
Thus, it is important to consult enterprise architects before taking any decision. They will calculate your basic requirement and let you know about best deals.
Maintenance – After the Deployment of A Mobile App
Maintenance of a mobile application is crucial that needs to be done very cautiously. If you are thinking that your mobile app development cost will cease after its deployment, then you are completely wrong.
Generally, user feedback is immediate and that includes problems, issues, suggestions and modification requests and much more. Therefore, it is better for you to hold up your entire development team for some more time after the deployment, so that you can instantly solve the issues and make quick enhancements.
Conclusion
With the help of this blog post, you can easily determine the multiple factors affecting the development cost of a mobile application. Now, you can strategize your plan and estimate the budget before getting into the mobile app development procedure.