When launching an app development project, App development cost is likely one of the first things that app brands and developers will want to know the answer to.
But even then, ‘How much does it cost to develop an app?’ is not an easy question to answer. No one can tell with precision what the cost will be without having a deep understanding of your app’s features and functions. There is no set price because it depends on various factors.
How much does it cost to build an app?
The mobile app development cost is determined by a variety of factors, including the app’s type, location, functionality, and design features, as well as their complexity, and the development strategy used.
However, according to our experience the average cost to develop an app varies according to the complexity of the application and can be categorized as below:
| App Type | Cost | Time |
| A basic app (Single platform) | $20,000 – $40,000 | 2-4 months |
| Medium complexity level app (Single platform) | $40,000 – $80,000 | 3-8 months |
| Complex app (Single platform) | $80,000+ | 8+ months |
Being an app development firm, we have done our thorough research and shared our expertise in determining app development pricing estimates based on several aspects.
You can quickly estimate the potential cost of your future application, discover how much does an app costs, how app development expenses are determined, manage your budget, and save money with the aid of this article.
Let’s move on further to the application statistics.
App development cost stats
The market for application development is increasingly popular these days.
- According to Statista, about 230 billion applications have been downloaded since 2021. As a result, developing your app is a smart plan to pursue.
- Every month, over 100,000 new apps are added to Google Play, and over 30,000 are added to the Apple App Store.
- According to Clutch, the average cost to develop an app is $171,450, however, an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) may be built for $10,000 to $20,000.
- The mobile app development industry is expected to grow by more than 18.4 percent by 2026, hitting $407.31 billion in value (Market Research)
- Almost 90% of people’s time is spent on apps. People will soon use a mobile device for 4 hours a day, with 88 percent of the time spent on application activity (eMarketer)
- Sixty-six percent of smartphone owners download games. At the same time, more than 95 percent of all users download messaging, communication, and web browser software. (Statista)
App development cost
How much does it cost to develop an app varies based on the type of the application based on location and further based on development stages.
Based on the type of apps
The most common types of applications and their typical mobile app development pricing are shown below:
- Basic app
The most common type of basic applications include calculators, clocks, and simple game applications. Such type of applications doesn’t require an internet connection or backend development to be completed. These types of apps are not very popular currently.
App development cost ranges from $10,000 to $15,000 for a basic app.
- E-commerce app
The E-commerce and M-commerce applications require a long range of features, such as user registration, social interaction, product catalogs, product descriptions, and payment mechanisms, among others.
The simple E-commerce app development costs between $60,000 to $300,000.
- Data-driven app
Applications such as calendars, maps, weather solutions receive a large amount of data, evaluate it, and share it with users. These sorts of applications have lost their value in recent years and are often offered as byproducts.
The cost of developing a data-driven app ranges from $15,000 to $20,000.
- On-demand services
On-demand services such as Uber connect service providers and customers to satisfy their immediate needs.
These projects combine social networking and e-commerce features and need a significant amount of funding.
From $80,000 to $150,000, you can get an on-demand application like Uber.
- Food-delivery app
Mobile app design, development of both Android and iOS versions of the app, app testing, and app launch will most likely be included in the cost of the food delivery mobile app development firm.
A food-delivery app like UberEats costs between $30,000 and $40,000 to develop, depending on the features you want to include and the resources required to bring your service from concept to launch.
- Social-networking app
Social-networking apps manage millions of contacts and debates, as well as the capacity to trade information. All of this needs a significant backend infrastructure investment.
As a result, depending on feature set and technology, a social networking software might cost anywhere between $40,000 and $300,000.
| App Type | Estimate cost | Time (in hours) |
| Basic app | $10,000 – $15,000 | 600h |
| E-commerce app | $30,000 – $2,00000 | 1500h |
| Data-driven app | $15,000 – $20,000 | 900h |
| On-demand services | $80,000 – $1,50,000 | 1000h |
| Food-delivery app | $30,000 – $1,50,000 | 1000h |
| Social-networking app | $40,000-$3,00000 | 1200h |
Based on location
The location of app developers is the next major aspect that may have a significant influence on the cost to develop an app.
So, let’s look at the most recent statistics on app developer hourly rates to see what we can learn.
| Region | Hourly rate (in dollars) |
| United Kingdom (UK) | 110-120 |
| United States (USA) | 120-150 |
| Western Europe | 75-100 |
| Australia | 115-120 |
| Eastern Europe | 35-50 |
| India | 20-30 |
From the above table, we can see that the app development cost ranges are different depending upon the location.
Based on development stages
The mobile app development cost goes through these phases: planning, designing, developing, testing, deploying, and post-maintenance.
- Planning or pre-research: The pre-research stage involves researching the market, keeping track of project milestones, and possibly creating a prototype or MVP of the app. After conducting the research, the app developer offers a price quote and the development process begins when both parties agree. An app will require less than $5,000 for the pre-research phase.
- Designing: This phase of app development includes the complete wireframing of the application, giving it a proper design. The designing of an application also costs less than $5000.
- Developing: An app developer begins developing the app at this stage. A survey of 102 app development firms found that this stage costs less than $5,000.
- Testing: Once the app is developed, the next stage comes is testing the application. An app is tested to determine if it is ready for launch. This can cost between $5,000 and $10,000.
- Deploying and post-maintenance: For an app to be successful, it will need regular maintenance and updates. A survey suggests that proper app maintenance will cost between $5k and $10k after a year.
Factors affecting the cost of app development
It is important to know that there are a few factors that can help you not only determine the app development cost breakdown but also how you can influence the price of the product.
Type of app: Native or Hybrid
A native application is developed only for a single platform. Hybrid programs, on the other hand, support different operating systems and may be written once for numerous platforms such as Android or iOS.
However, we can say that native applications have been handled independently while hybrid applications are available to operate several operating systems such as Windows, iOS, and Android.
Now, what affects Native app development cost?
Native applications affect cost in the following way:
1) Based on the number of platforms: Native applications are built separately on each platform to diatribe the several versions on the App Store marketplaces. However, building separately increases the cost of building the application.
2) Type of platform: If you’re developing Android apps, you’ll be using Java and Kotlin, however, if you’re making iOS apps, you’ll be using Objective C or Swift, which means a higher app development cost.
Also, let’s have a look at what affects hybrid app development cost?
1) Cross-platform app development: Company mobile app development costs may be reduced by half with a cross-platform app.
2) Single code database: For all operating systems, a single code equals lower app maintenance costs.
Type of platform: Android or iOS
Choosing the type of platform for app development is another factor that influences the cost to develop an app. It helps you identify whether you want it to run on a single platform or numerous platforms.
You won’t notice a substantial pricing difference between Android and iOS if you’re designing an app for a single platform. However, if you want your software to run on two or more platforms, the development cost will go significantly.
So, which platform will you choose? iOS or Android? Let’s compare them.
| Parameters | Android | iOS |
| Programming language | Java, Kotlin | Swift |
| Development time | Slow | Fast |
| Platform | Major choices | Limited choices |
| Cost | High | Medium |
If you want to create a mobile app that works on both iOS and Android, you should consider using Flutter or other cross-platform solutions. It can help you save your development costs and help you provide fast solutions.
The geographic location of the development team
So, depending on where you want to hire, how much does an app cost?
The below table shows the average hourly rates of development team members in different parts of the world:
| South Asia | North America | Latin America | Central Europe | Eastern Europe | Southeast Asia | |
| Developer | $20-$30 | $70-90 | $25-$55 | $35-$70 | $25-$40 | $25-$30 |
| Sr. Developer | $25-$40 | $80-$120 | $30-$60 | $45-$80 | $30-$60 | $25-$35 |
| Scrum Master | $20-$40 | $50-$80 | $30-$70 | $40-$70 | $25-$60 | $25-$40 |
| QA Engineer | $15-$30 | $70-$80 | $35-$50 | $30-80 | $25-$40 | $25-$30 |
| Sr. QA Engineer | $20-$40 | $80-$120 | $40-$60 | $40-$80 | $30-$55 | $25-$35 |
| UI/UX designer | $20-$50 | $50-$80 | $40-$70 | $55-$80 | $25-$55 | $25-$50 |
| Business Analyst | $20-$45 | $70-$80 | $20-$40 | $50-$75 | $30-$65 | $25-$35 |
As is evident, its cost-effective to hire offshore developers to have your app developed.
App features
The ultimate app development cost is also influenced by the number of features and their complexity.
Here are some examples of app features you might want to add to your app and how they affect the overall android app development cost.
| Features | Functionality | Approx time taken | Approx cost |
| User-login | Provide a login option, ranging from a simple username/password combination to simple social network logins. | 16-23 hours | $700-$1000 |
| In-app messages | Connecting and engaging with others is a concept in and of itself that is critical for social media apps. | 70-100 hours | $2800-$3500 |
| Multi-language support | The key operations are data management and UI changes, device readjustments of various programming languages, and instructions. | 15-40 hours | $500-$1200 |
UI/UX design complexity
User interfaces and app designs are at the heart of the whole mobile app development process. The greater the cost per hour of designing your smartphone app, the more difficult the concept.
The user interface design’s core app architecture is mostly made up of standardized and platform-specific components that are easy to create, implement, and enforce. Incorporating bespoke components makes sense to make the entire method dynamic and reduce data server development expenses.
To give you an example, creating an interactive UI user interface takes anywhere from 20 to 220 hours and contributes $1,500 to $15,000 to the average app development cost. The use of OS-supplied components and the creation of daily presentations of parts is the method of choice.
Development team
The development team is another aspect that influences the app development cost estimation. The size of the team should be determined by your requirements, which include:
- 1 Scrum Master
- 1 Quality Assurance Engineer
- 1 Software Developer
- Android developers
- 2 iOS programmers
- Business and market analyst
- UI/UX designer
As a result, the costs of each expert will differ from one mobile app development business to the next, or from one professional to the next.
App maintenance cost
Maintaining the application is as important as developing them. However, app maintenance costs can’t be ignored.
Consumer and industry trends are continuously shifting, and to be competitive, your product must adapt to these shifts. That’s why app maintenance and upgrading are such critical components of the development process – and cost consideration.
In many cases, the cost of app maintenance will account for a significant amount of the initial development cost (about 15%–20%). The projected time and number of hours required for competence help determine the average cost to develop an app.
Hidden app development costs
A few additional charges are added to the ultimate cost of developing a successful app:
- Maintenance cost: Maintaining the application would cost 20% of the initial development cost each year or $15,000 per year.
- App promotions: The expense of app promotion would range from 50% to 100% every year. Fees for third-party integrations such as functional expenses SMS or push alerts, geolocation, and payment gateways are just a few examples.
- Costs of administration or management: Consider the compensation of a content manager.
- Expenses associated with infrastructure: The cost of the server, CDN, and Redis integrations.
- Support charges: Additional charges to update an application, repair issues, or improve it in the future.
Examples of app development cost
Uber like app development cost
Uber is one of the most well-known ride-hailing services. In actuality, an Uber app consists of three parts: two mobile applications for passengers and drivers, as well as a website for the admin panel. As a consequence, the budget for app development should be sufficient to cover three different apps.
The cost of such an application can start at $50,000 and take up to 1,200 hours to complete.
The app has the following features: Payment integration, geolocation, routing, sophisticated route optimization, SMS and push notification integration, and many more features are available.
Fintech app development cost
For a personal finance app offering loans, the fintech app development costs up to around $120000 and takes up to 6 months to complete.
Main features include connectivity with a third-party platform that allows users to link their bank accounts; pay advances and emergency loans; and sign in through email, phone number, or password. granting loans; notice of status changes; Firebase – Performance Monitoring SDK integration.
Game-like app development cost
Through appealing games, an app measures people’s behavior.
These types of applications cost up to around $150000 and take about 7-8 months to complete.
Main features include financial institution integration and the creation of a dozen games with aesthetically appealing graphics.
Medical app development cost
The app assists patients in regaining their health by modifying and monitoring health indicators.
Adjusting and preserving health parameters, prescription list view, pediatric mode, emailing a doctor, adding events to the calendar, alerts, QR code scanning, photo library, and notes are some of the main features.
Tips to reduce your app development cost
- Prioritize your app features
Before you start developing your app, you must first prioritize its features. It doesn’t mean you have to abandon your idea just because you can’t construct a comprehensive software solution right now.
- Consider cross-platform development
Considering cross-platform app development will help you cut down your app development costs. Since developers don’t need to write code several times, and instead single code can be reused for other platforms.
- Hire an outsourced development team
Outsourcing software development will save your business money in many ways. By outsourcing software development, you will be able to lower your costs throughout the project. You won’t be subject to the high salaries and overhead costs of hiring developers in-house. There will be no expenses for salaries, taxes, perks, software, hardware, or workspace requirements.
How to estimate the app development cost in 2022?
Most companies provide you a free cost estimate of your app development requirements.
An application development company like Ailoitte has an easy to follow process set-up, to guide you throughout the journey while building an app.
These are the phases that you go through when making a mobile app.
- Fill out our contact form to get started. Following that, you schedule an appointment with our relationship adviser. During this call, our communication manager will go over the information in the form and ask questions about your company’s objectives and processes, future customer duties and journeys, app cloud computing plans, and so on.
- Then, taking into account the product’s specifications, we assess the preliminary specifications we’ve acquired and undertake basic market research to come up with a solution that meets your priorities and standards. Then we make a guess.
- Then, taking into account the product’s specifics, we assess the preliminary specs we’ve acquired and undertake basic market research to come up with a solution that meets your priorities and standards. Then we make an educated guess.
- Following that, our Solutions Architect reviews the market research findings and produces detailed recommendations for app setup, realistic use cases, and novel implementation approaches.
- We’ll have another meeting after that to provide our feedback, acquire clarifications, and elicit more requests.
- We also aim to define the scope of work for your project (the features required to address your most pressing business concerns) during this discussion so that we can generate an ideal project proposal.
- At the last pre-planning meeting, we present a project bid that typically includes hours of labor, a technology stack, an application design strategy, and a set of software requirements for the initial and future launches.
Finally, we will discuss a contract to determine the best solution for your business.
After you’ve approved the preliminary estimate, we’ll go on to a thorough estimate, in which we’ll define the specifications for each scope of work scheduled, build wireframes that show you exactly how your site, iOS, or Android app will look, and prepare project-related papers.
Conclusion
At Ailoitte, we provide a full range of mobile app development services.
We hope that this post has given you a better understanding of ‘how much it costs to develop an app’ and what aspects influence the overall cost. You may reduce these expenses and guarantee that your digital product is produced under worldwide tech standards by following the guidelines above.
Get a Free Estimate from Us if you’re seeking a capable mobile development team. We’ve completed a variety of projects for clients from all over the world in a variety of sectors.
At each level of your project, we can offer experienced advice on how to cut software development expenses. Our professionals know how to make the most of any situation.
