How Much Will it Cost to Build a Custom Mobile Application?

Building a mobile application is same as building a website. Just like buying a template for the website, one can buy an app too. Though, various businesses require custom platforms to grow their business successfully and add in their digital efforts.

Whenever the word custom is heard, the price is the first thing that comes to mind. If a company has determined application building as the right strategic move, then it must evaluate the mobile app development cost, time, and manpower of the building procedure.

Below are some aspects to be considered during application development:

Strategy

Cost: $125/hr - $250/hr

Time: Depending on the complexity, 30 hours for a simple application to 150 hours.

Team: 1 strategist, but can be a team on the basis of project size.

Just as a site, the cost of an application is largely based on the number of features the application will have. The more elements demanded by the platform, the more people and planning will be assigned to it. Before the designing and building, an application is started, one must have a clear understanding of what their end goals are. How different is their application and how it will be used? The strategy procedure will estimate all of this while analyzing the needs and wants of the audience. Just like cost, the manpower and time required to complete a strategic plan vary on the basis of complexity and size of the project.

Information Architecture & Usability

Time: 40 – 500 hours

Cost: $125/hr - $250/hr.

Team: 1 – 2 members, along with the strategist

The information architecture is the place where the project begins to take form. 1 or 2 people have to work with the strategist to present the correct layout the application. This consists of wireframe, specification documents, and structural diagram. These plans lay the foundation of working going within the application. The way of platform navigation by the user is determined through these plans.

Mock-up in Photoshop

Time: 160 – 1,000 hours

Cost: $125/hr - $250/hr.

Team: Can range from 1 designer to a team

Whenever a website is designed, ideally a responsive design is needed that fits into the desktop, mobile devices, and tablets. While with an application, the mobile platform is the only thing to worry about. This process ties together the information architecture and strategy and brings life and color to a mobile application. The mock-ups are generally done through Photoshop, and they can be easy visual representations, or interactive to give an idea of how an application will actually perform. The usage and complexity play an important role in the time taken by the designers to make the mock-ups.

Coding & Quality Assurance

Time: 1,000 – 10,000 hours

Cost: $125/hr - $250/hr.

Team: A team of around 10 people

The development and maintenance of the application are where the building takes place actually. An application will be constantly tested as it is being created to confirm its functionality via each step of the process. Generally, 20% of the development process is dedicated to testing the product. That means, with every 5 hours of development, 1 hour of quality assurance will be needed

Depending on the complexity of the project, the team may include a System Admin, an Accounts Manager, a Technical lead, Designer, Digital Strategist, IA/UX team member, QA engineer, and 2-3 developers. This can vary from company to company.

Launch

The launch of a mobile application is the fun part. Though, there is still some work that needs to be done for the marketing of the product to make sure it gains traction and visibility, especially during first few weeks before the release.

Continued Quality Assurance

Even after the launch, a quality assurance team is needed that is responsible for staying on the application to make sure that is working correctly and consistently. That is your maintenance team who will be able to regularly improve the application, and add updates when necessary.

Overview

Generally, a simple custom mobile app development cost will be about $35,000 - $50,000, while the mid-level designs will cost about $75,000 - $100,000. Complex and deeply customized mobile applications will usually be $200,000 and above. The price varies from company to company.

In terms of time, 400 hours would not be sufficient to build a low-end application, while other projects can take up to 10,000 hours to complete. Applications like Amazon require more capability with marketing integration and customer information, causing designs like these to consume a lot more time.