The Real Cost Of Developing a Mobile App

Mobile Apps have become a necessity in our lives. We are all dependent on them in many ways. From ordering a food, hiring cabs to socializing we need mobile apps for almost everything. In fact these apps has now made the simpler websites look obsolete and it’s not long before they will take over the desktop applications rusbank.net. Currently, it is a multibillion dollars business with scopes of making huge profit. As a result lots of entrepreneurs are taking mobile app development as a tool to establish them in the business world.

However, building a mobile app is not as easy as it seems, and it isn’t as cheap either. All number of procedures and strategies should be followed to make sure that the app runs in the market. Also a lot of hidden costs are involved as well which is needed mainly during the app development.

 

 

There are mainly three types of mobile apps:

• Native Apps: Apps that are installed on the device itself. Only available for the specific platform only on its specific market/store.
• Mobile web App: Apps that are accessible through the web browser and run on different platforms.
• Hybrid Apps: Combination of the other two apps. They can be installed on the device and also accessed through the web browser.

In this article we will elaborately discuss about all the costs that you may come across while building a successful mobile app.

 

1. Cost of Testing: This is one of the most underrated costs in app developing. People generally do not emphasize much on the testing part. But the truth is proper testing is very important while developing an app. The app needs to be tested repeatedly on different platforms (like android and IOS) and checked for any problems. Although it increases the budget in the initial stages but it ensures that there will be less problems when it gets functional.

 

2. Cost of Designing: A catchy design is very important for an app. People are generally attracted by the appearance of the app at first. So, the designing should be done in a proper way with a user friendly interface. A qualified designer should be hired to look after the designing part. It is advisable the developer does not handle the designing as developing and designing are two different entities of app development.

 

3. App Store/Play Store Fees: For keeping an app in the app store you need to give a nominal fee to the store. Apple and Microsoft charge 99$ per year while Google Play Store charges a one-time fee of 25$. Native apps and hybrid apps cost more than normal mobile web Apps. So this charge increases the budget as well.

 

4. Cost for running in different Platforms: A same app cannot run in two different platforms. For this you have to code them in different programming languages. IOS, Android, and Windows devices all have their own operating systems and for the most part, different native SDKs and programming languages. So if you code an app for android it will not run in IOS platform. This means you will need expert programmers to develop the app and also separately test the apps which are bound to increase the budget.

 

5. Cost of Hosting: The data of the data driven app has to be stored in a web hosting server. This means an additional fee has to be paid to the hosting server (like cloud).

 

6. Cost of editing and changes: Most of the time the apps are not perfect and certain changes needs to be made on a regular basis. Sometimes there can be functional problems as well which needs to be corrected. Designs are also an issue and with time that too needs to be look upon. This means extra development and designing charges.

 

7. Maintenance cost: There are lots of maintenance issues that need to be look upon on regular basis. You can’t just put an app on the store and keep it as it is. Some of the maintenance issues include security updates, bug fixes, app update and several others. This is the cost you can never get rid of.

 

8. Cost of Marketing: Marketing is the most important aspect of any business. You need to ensure that you app is getting noticed and that people are downloading it and using it. For this you need excellent marketing strategies from expert individuals. This will cost you a good amount of money. Even a low end app will need a minimum of 10,000$ for PR and Marketing. Although it would be highly beneficial in the long run and can fetch you a huge profit.

 

Developing an app is not as cheap as it seems. It is not a one-time process. Constant expenditures are involved in it. Most of the times, the cost exceeds the budget by a huge margin. So, you need to be aware of all the costs that are involve in making and owning a mobile app. Once you can figure out the approximate budget you can plan your business accordingly. Mobile apps are ruling over the business world. So even though there are lots of expenditures involved, a successful app can bring you huge revenues.