How Much Does An App Cost
How much does creating a mobile app cost
This section serves to shed some light on mobile app development and to help you understand the actual complexity as well as the potential of an App for mobile devices. Through the analysis of these elements you can expand on the elements of App development and have a first estimate on how much an app costs.
Choosing the platform
Back in the day (actually just few years ago) everything was different; when companies – even the well-structured ones and corporations – came out with a new product or a new App, they usually developed it for a single platform, restricting resources to see if there was a market for their ideas or not.
With the rapid development of mobile technology, high competition, the need for rapid rank climbing, the widespread and extensive distribution of the two leading platforms, iOS and Android, coming out with a single App is not the best choice, which is why those who design innovative ideas and services with high added value for users immediately develop their projects for both platforms.
It’s different when we talk about apps for internal use of the company, since in these cases it’s sometimes more convenient to develop solutions for Android for a very pragmatic reason: if you don’t need high performance, you can find devices, smartphones or tablets, with good value for money that can support the feasibility of the project. So, how much an app costs also depends on which and how many platforms we choose for our project.
The devices
The cost of an app is also determined by the devices you want to adapt it for, as having an app for smartphones is not the same as having an app for tablets or other devices. Sure, in some cases it is possible to make the app downloadable for all devices, but the results can be disastrous; in the best case you will have a smartphone app enlarged in the middle of a tablet screen.
Every device has its own characteristics, which you need to consider when it comes to designing a mobile app. Other than the pure technical aspects, we also need to remember that the surface of a smartphone is not the same as the surface of a tablet or a smart watch or a smart tv.
These devices not only differ in more substantial ways like positioning, occupation, direction, orientation of spaces and data, but also in their behavior and user experience. Consequently, developing an app for smartphone and tablet is not a single step, but not a dual development either, as the philosophy and constructs remain the same.
Geolocation
Geolocation affects the cost of an app because in addition to impacting the functionality of the App itself, which must be taken into account, we must consider the inclusion of the best practices for the correct management of the app, on how, when and why to ask for authorization, because depending on the platform it could be more or less complex to lead the user to reconsider their initial choice of denying consent.
Proper management of localization and its many implications is undoubtedly something to keep in mind when evaluating the App.
Login and profiling
Including the login and user profiling functions has an impact on the complexity of the App, as all the implementation principles related to authentication take over. These vary according to the way in which the user is authenticated: if we do it via username and password, it is necessary to develop a server part that takes care of this as well as all the profile mechanisms and management.
You can also log in using a social media account, and depending on the social media platform the management and interactions of the data can be more or less complex.
Push notifications
The ability to send Notifications based on events and on what your users are doing is an important development to consider when designing an App. If you believe that sending notifications to your users is necessary, you need to understand what that entails.
To develop a notification system it’s necessary to develop a communication channel between the apps through a server. Notifications can be of different nature, sent at different times, in different ways depending on the device and on what the user is doing (if the app is open, running in the background, closed, if the smartphone is on or in standby).
The combination of all these factors also influences development times and the complexity of the app.
The Server
If we want the apps to communicate with each other we surely need to develop a server part, which entails developing a software residing on a remote server that manages communications to and from the apps. This software can be more or less complex depending on what you decide to do with the app. At its core it’s a difficult aspect to estimate and it needs a preliminary study to be evaluated on the real demands of the project, so it is a defining aspect to understanding how much the app will cost.
Quality of the interface
It goes without saying that more refined graphics will cost more than an interface built with standard system components; between these two extremes there is a range, which depends a lot on both the budget and on the type of app you want to create.
Sometimes for B2B applications it’s not necessary to design a pixel perfect interface, and it’s enough to use standard components, because we know the target users and their skills well, so the product is not intended to increase the number of users but to solve a business problem.
When we address the wider public, instead, unless we’re solving a crucial issue, the level of quality of the graphics very much influences the number of downloads and the use of the app, consequently it greatly impacts the cost of the app.
The language of the App
The language of the app will influence the costs as well as how many languages will be implemented, for two simple reasons: managing multiple languages means adding complexity and work to the development of the app, and you always need to be careful when you’re translating content, since there won’t be a lot of space available and a translation that is longer than the original will skew the visuals, making them unappealing.
In this case we will need to find appropriate words that can stay faithful to the original text while respecting the space they occupy.
Landing page
A Landing Page is usually a page where you land after typing a web address or clicking on the result of a web search. We only have a few seconds to catch the visitor’s attention and convince them to download the App. It is often important to have a project landing page, for two reasons: one, to promote SEO and be found on the web, not only on the stores but also among the results of a Google search, and two: because some contents are not always placed on the stores. A landing page, on the other hand, is the best place to insert guides, explanations, and news regarding the product.
Status of the project
The status of the project affects the complexity of the development and therefore how much an app costs. If the App is still just an embryo of an idea, the steps towards designing it are made up of a certain number of stages; if the idea has already materialized in some way, there are some requirements, a working draft, maybe some graphic resources, which will probably (but not always) facilitate the development, so this aspect must also be taken into consideration.
