What is the cost of making a mobile app?

Carlos Rios

I am a self made entrepreneur, Electronic engineering professional heading Daniel Apps leadership since 2012 to provide software development solutions across different industries.

Developing a professional mobile application is a fascinating but complex journey. You probably have two questions in mind: ‘How much money does it cost to make an app?’ and ‘What does the price depend on?’

The median cost to develop an app ranges from around $50,000 to $75,000. The cost to develop an app with a complex set of features can reach up to $300,000+.

But, how is this app development cost calculated?

The cost associated with creating a mobile application can vary depending on the number of screens the application has and its complexity.

Mobile App Development is not one person’s task. It’s a process that requires a whole team of developers, designers, project managers, and quality assurance engineers.

Below we will detail the different phases of creating apps as well as the necessary professionals and associated costs, in order to put into perspective the costs of developing a mobile app.

Wireframes

Wireframing is a way to design a mobile app at the structural level. A wireframe is commonly used to layout content and functionality on a section that takes into account user needs and user journeys. Wireframes are used early in the development process to establish the basic structure of a section before visual design and content are added.

Some iterations could be needed in this stage aiming at a better definition of the mobile app features.

Roles involved:
UX Designer Average Hourly Rate: $100.

UI Design

A mobile user interface, or mobile UI, is the display or screen on a mobile device. It’s the space where users can interact with what’s on the screen – from menu buttons to text fields (and everything in between, depending on whether users can tap, scroll, swipe, type, or just see it).

The UI design is directly connected to the user experience, actually, it’s built on top of the UX design. Therefore, it should also aim to add value to the user experience through visual elements.

When users have more choice and freedom to find mobile applications that work for them, a poor user experience can easily devalue your brand, hurt your revenue, and disengage your users.

Roles involved:

UI Designer Average Hourly Rate: $90

App Development

In mobile development, there are mainly two options nowadays. Native Development or Hybrid Development.

Hybrid Development

Hybrid App Development allows apps to be quickly built with a single project using a framework that can target all needed platforms: Android, and iOS. It is less expensive and works on several platforms and operating systems without requiring redoing the whole app from scratch.

Native Development

Native mobile app development means creating a mobile application that is tailored and dedicated to a specified platform like iOS, or Android.

After deciding if to go for the native or the hybrid mobile app development, the best practice is to start developing an MVP version to prove the app concept, learn from users and validate our hypothesis.

Depending on the complexity of your application idea, it will involve different features and stages of development. But there are two stages that will be applied regardless of the type of application you are creating.

Initial Setup

Every software development involves some technologies that facilitate the execution of the development phase, like repositories to have version control and also a development environment to test new features without compromising the real users that can start to use the application early.

Testing
Before a product is released, it needs to go through a testing process to help validate its functionality and usability before it is released publicly. Testing mobile apps help verify whether the app meets the expected technical and business requirements.

Roles involved:
Mobile Developers, Average Hourly Rate $130

QA Tester, Average Hourly Rate $85

Server Side Development

Not all applications need server-side development, but any application idea that requires features such as authentication, cloud storage or databases needs a server-side solution to maintain data consistency.

Roles Involved:
Backend Developer, Average Hourly Rate $115

Web Admin Panel

Again not all applications may need an administration panel but if your idea allows the users to upload content or have some other complexities you will need to administrate and the App and Play stores will validate that you are moderating the content your users upload to your mobile app.

Roles Involved:
Backend Developer, Average Hourly Rate $115

Front-end Developer, Average Hourly Rate $100

As you can see it depends on how complex your app idea is and how long it takes to develop.

The United States has one of the highest hourly rates in the world, ranging from $60 to $150. This compares to $35 to $60 in other regions. This is the reason why many companies have decided to hire offshore development in Asia, some Eastern European countries and in the last decades, South America with countries like Colombia has grown a lot in their offer of tech professionals.Whether you are thinking of hiring a Mobile App Development Company or you are thinking of jumping into the business of developing mobile apps. It’s very important to have a clear picture of the associated costs and what they depend on.

Daniel Apps is a mobile app development company with more than 10 years of experience developing mobile applications for end users in partnership with companies across the United States. We develop native and hybrid mobile applications. Our development team is located in Colombia, South America, which allows us to be highly competitive in pricing while maintaining a high level of software engineering.