Mobile App Development Cost: How Much approximately Does it Cost to Develop a Successful Mobile App in 2022?

How much does it apparently cost to develop a mobile app in 2022? What’s the average mobile app development price in 2022? 

These are probably the most frequently asked questions about mobile app development pricing in India. The answer to the above questions remains “it depends” as you get what you pay for. Now, this intrigues more questions like what factors on which mobile app development depends or approximately what is the amount required to make an effective mobile app, or what criteria one should follow to make a successful mobile app most likely cost-effectively. So, as a renowned mobile app development company in Bangalore, we suggest you decide on your requirements before getting the price estimation from your app development partner. According to our ten years of experience and market knowledge, in a nutshell, we can say

• A basic and simple mobile app development for a single platform cost approximately $700- $1400
• A mobile app with a moderate level of complexity and a few advanced features for a single platform cost around $2700 – $13000
• A more complex mobile app with several advanced features and functionalities for a single platform would cost more than $14000

In this article, we have mainly focused on explaining where these numbers come from and what they indicate in practice. The factors that influence the overall mobile app development cost and how you can cost-effectively build your dream app with our battle-tested techniques.

The average cost to develop a successful mobile app

Earlier, we presented the numbers that can be the average cost for a mobile app development for any one platform. However, if you wish to develop a mobile app compatible with both Android and iOS, you need to be prepared to spend almost around $15000. For android/ iOS app development, Bangalore, the best way to estimate the cost of developing a mobile app is by thinking about its complexity. And so, here we present our classification as below.

A simple mobile app with basic features for a single platform costs $700- $1400

• The development team, including the developers and Scrum Master, usually work around 325 – 650 h work hours.
• The QA basic plan recommended for simple mobile apps contains almost 50 hours of QA specialist work per month.
• The overall development process will take around 4-9 weeks.

By a basic app, we refer to an MVP app that includes the following: 

• It has a set of simple features with elementary business logic,
• Can consist of max up to 5 screens,
• Simple UI without any custom elements.

A Medium-complexity app for a single platform cost around $2700 – $13000 for which 

• The development team logs around 650-1100 working hours.
• The QA Extended plan recommended these apps to contain around 80 hours of QA specialist work per month.
• The development process takes around 10-15 weeks or nearly ~ 2-3 months assuming that you have 2 developers.

A “medium-complexity app” includes the following elements

• a few complex features with an intermediate business logic,
• consists of about 6-15 screens,
• Possess custom UI elements & animations,
• Along with localization in up to two languages.

A Complex app for a single platform cost more than $14000 for which-

• The development team will log more than 1100 working hours.
• The QA Enterprise plan recommends almost 150 hours of QA specialist work per month.
• The development process will take almost 16 weeks, nearly more than ~ 3 months if you have 2 developers.

A “complex app” is the one that includes- 

• Several complex features with advanced business logic,
• more than 15 screens,
• fully customized UI & advanced animations,
• a large-scale user base that is multilingual,
• building a complicated architecture with multiple integrations so that it is able to meet high-security demands.

These above rough estimations can help you in understanding how much approximately it can cost to develop a mobile app. Please note: While planning your budget, it’s important to consider the backend development along with app design costs that are not included in the above estimation. 

To give you a better idea, we tried to present here a few popular apps together with their funding levels to help you have an idea how much money is required to come up with similar apps:

• Uber received $200 million in funding for implementing their idea that eventually was hit in the transportation sector.
• Tinder, the most popular dating app, raised $485,000 in seed funding.
• The social media tool Snapchat received a total funding of over $3 billion.
• Instagram received $500,000 in seed funding for its further development.

How do we estimate app development cost?

Above you already got an idea about the estimations, now to understand where the numbers actually come from, we need to check the several factors that can influence the app development process. 

Factors influencing the overall cost of mobile app development

When you set out for the development of your dream mobile app, the first thing you need to check out is its requirements. That means the features you are looking forward to implementing depend on these requirements, which mainly encompasses the app’s parts and functionalities, and the platform(s) you want to build the app for. Customization of visual design and aesthetics, the complexity of the backend infrastructure and administration, and last but not least, maintenance costs; your app development partner will give you the estimations.

The crucial factors influencing the overall app development cost include-

• Project type, i.e., whether it’s a CRM, Marketplace, EHR, etc.
• Features and functionalities (how advanced they are)
• Visual design and aesthetics; whether you are going to use a template or customize it
• Platforms that the app will run, whether it’s going to be any one of the native or hybrid
• Backend infrastructure and app administration
• Location and structure of the app development team, including the number of developers 
• In-house development team or an outsourced development team
• Hourly rate of the app development partner
• App maintenance and other additional costs

1. App features, functionalities and their level of complexity

The most significant factor that affects the development cost of a mobile application is the sort of app that you’re looking to develop. Before launching a collaboration, your development team should estimate how many person-hours will be required to implement your specifications. This step is a critical juncture in starting up your project. It depends on the complexity of your implementation of functionalities like screens, fields involved, and the amount of logic required to develop the particular app. The number and the complexity of features you’re planning to implement in the app will be the most significant cost driver in the app development process. Furthermore, implementing certain elements can be time-consuming, whereas others can be shorter and simpler. Depending on the complexity, the developers even need to check a third-party API and build it from scratch, which will impact the development cost. 

Here are a few instances of app features that you may wish to include in your application and how they can affect the final price of building your app.

User engagement features

Features like authorization, networking, notifications come under this category. User authorization features come in many varieties that can be simple or more complex.

• Including functionalities like storing passwords, password recovery, or logging through social networks will increase the cost of your app.
• Features like push notifications, social sharing, or commenting and liking content via social media profiles will add on costs too.

Note that these often call for integration with third-party libraries and frameworks.

In-app purchase Features 

This range of features is essential for the ways users can purchase things in your app. Credit cards, Apple Pay, PayPal, and Google Wallet, are all popular payment modes within apps. Each payment processing method requires some additional time for inclusion, thereby adding to the overall development cost.

Location-based services and features

If you wish to implement innovative technologies like geo-fencing or beacons, they often come up with the cost of more time and expenses. Also, it would help if you found a development team with the right expertise on board to provide you with such services, which might cost you integrating any of the more advanced location-based services, which will eventually drive up the cost of your app.

Device features

Today, developers can integrate multiple features like near communication field (NFC) chips, various payment modes, and leading-edge device features using platform-specific APIs. For this, development time may increase, affecting the total cost of building your app.

Now, let’s check the pricing of the basic features and then move on to the complex features.

The price of mobile app development usually varies depending on where you are hiring your development team. In countries like the UK, the United States, and Australia, the hourly rate of app developers is much higher than in India, China, Poland, and Ukraine, which is why they are emerging as popular outsourcing destinations.

2. Customization of the aesthetics of your app

Customizing an innovative and unique look and feel for the app is undoubtedly challenging and can add to the overall price range of the mobile app depending on the implementation of advanced elements. However, OS- and screen elements, along with fewer screen costs, you moderate besides imparting decent aesthetics for your app.

3. Platforms that your app is going to be built

This remains a crucial factor. Do you wish to build your app for android phones or iOS phones, or do you want the app to be able to run on both platforms? In case you are thinking of the third option. In the future, hybrid app development or cross-platform app development is a better choice that requires more investment than developing an app for a single platform as it involves testing the code on both devices. You can opt for Flutter app development, which can help you reduce app development costs for cross-platform. Native or cross-platform app development and minimize your product’s time to market.

While developing an app for a single platform, you won’t find a significant price discrepancy between Android and iOS. However, this includes considering a few factors like the programming languages, SDKs, and development tools for each platform. However, you should also consider factors like Android/ iOS market share, device fragmentation, and prevalence before finalizing which platform to opt for. Android app development, Bangalore and iOS application development, Bangalore seek different programming languages with other SDKs and tools.

4. Backend Infrastructure

Backend refers to the OS that enables the developers to exchange data within the app and the database. You can track the user activity and get an idea about your app’s performance with the help of an analytics tool. Now, based on the number of parameters and the specificity of the analysis, the cost may vary. Opting for an adequate Admin Panel is a good option as this panel gives you better control of the app management and users and the overall statistics.

5. Structure of the app development Team

Your app development cost also depends on the team structure. However, the team’s size should be selected according to your needs. A typical development team consists of-

• The Product Owner
• A Project Manager to coordinate the work of the team and ensure that the project is completed within time and the stipulated budget
• Quality Assurance Engineer who needs to check on the app’s stability and performance along with UI and other app components to comply with the specificity of the app. 
• App Developers’ main task is to build and publish the app.
•  Considering all the tech and tools for the specificities mentioned in the requirement. Depending on the e-platform you choose to develop the app, you might hire 1 or 2 android and iOS developers. 
• UX/ UI Designers- Their responsibilities involve analyzing user requirements and preferences, analyzing similar applications, creating wireframes, and the final design, which should be unique and app-specific. 
• Business Analyst- When it comes to Business Analysts, they help you define the high-quality business requirements to make sure that the development team is perfectly aligned with the Product Owner’s vision. In particular, the Business Analyst:
• Identifies your business needs and explains related problem context to the development team
• translates the technical constraints
•  Handles backlog management from the business value perspective and identifies dependencies, priorities, and blockers
• Documents Project specifications using integrated analysis and modeling techniques like user stories, use cases, and other business analysis deliverables.
• Prioritizes and manages the requirements of various stakeholders.

6. App maintenance cost

If you think that app development costs will appear only until the solution is ready, then be prepared to include the app maintenance cost. 

Market trends are constantly changing, and your product should be able to sustain and adapt to these changes to stay above the competition. That’s why maintenance and continuous updates are two of the most critical aspects of the app development process, which are contributing factors to its costs.

Primarily, the cost of app maintenance may account for around 15% – 20% of the original development price. Its price mainly depends on the projected duration and the number of hours required for proper support.

Maintenance is undoubtedly a critical service if you plan to scale up your app or add new features and functionalities to it. It encompasses aspects like code optimization, increasing stability and performance of the app, providing support for the latest OS versions, bug fixing, etc.

App development is just the beginning. The real task starts when you gather feedback from first users and look to adapt your product to the market needs and prepare a befitting solution for a larger scale. That’s why it’s always better to continue working with your app development team even after completing the product. Software development is undoubtedly a continuous process, and Indglobal is known for providing excellent post-release support.

How can you reduce the costs of app development?

Fortunately, there are a few ways business owners can reduce the costs of developing mobile apps by following the below-mentioned industry practices and applying some real intelligent tricks. This section tried to compile the different methods that companies can use to minimize the cost of developing mobile apps.

Prioritize the features early on, right before beginning the development. By prioritizing the functionalities of your app earlier, you can start driving business value as quickly as possible. Also, this helps to build an accurate software project estimation. 

Since bugs and errors can accumulate as early as during the mobile app designing phase, you must address them sooner. Else, they might spread out through your entire project. By involving the QA professionals right from the beginning, you will be able to detect the serious issues before the development phase begins, which, in turn, will help save on redesign costs that might otherwise shoot up somewhere in the middle of your project.

Save the nice-to-have elements for the later developmental stages and, if possible, add them to your backlog. Commencing your project with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) ensures that you get to build a successful product without investing much into the project.

As the world of IT is constantly changing where investing in an extensive system with multiple functionalities doesn’t make sense, intelligent business owners always look to build digital products incrementally and keep a close check on the market trends.

Prepare for the future by remembering that the costs of building mobile apps extend beyond the development or release phases. A complete app can still generate expenses, and the app you developed today can look completely different shortly. For example, if you have released an MVP, post releases might inspire you to alter some features in your app depending on the customer feedback. Your target market might also evolve in a new direction, requiring you to shape your product according to recent requirements.

That’s why it’s wise to be mindful of the short-term and long-term goals while developing any software to save you money.

Why Outsourcing your mobile app development team is a smart move?

Outsourcing your mobile app development will bring you a lot of cost savings throughout the project. You don’t need to invest in the salaries and overhead costs of hiring app developers in-house. There’s no need to pay for perks, software, hardware, workspace, and many other factors. By outsourcing app development, you can easily employ teams worldwide and take advantage of their superior quality services that often come cost-effectively.

The popularity of outsourcing software development indicates that outsourcing providers are well prepared to handle such collaborations. Videoconferencing and instant-messaging tools these days make it so much easier to communicate even if you hire an overseas team. Furthermore, experienced providers ensure that the remote unit has all the required tools and tech stacks for a smooth development process. If you wish to hire a development team locally, your choice is minimal. But if you consider outsourcing, you can choose from any country in the world. The advantages of outsourcing development can be summarized as follows:

• access to a bigger talent pool,
• high level of expertise
• more excellent balance of cost,
• Flexibility and scalability.

But it would be best if you also had to realize the most severe drawbacks of outsourcing, including time zone challenges, communication and project management issues, and less personal control over the project.

Still not sure? Contact us to help you check for an outsourcing collaboration:

Parting Thoughts

We sincerely hope this article helps you to comprehend how much approximately it can cost to develop a mobile app and what are the factors that affect the total price of your app development. By implementing the tips above, you’ll be able to lower these costs and ensure that your digital product has developed aligned with global tech standards.

If you’re looking for the best mobile app development company in Bangalore, get in touch with us. To date, we have delivered thousands of projects for our esteemed clients worldwide, spanning different industries. We can provide you with advice on reducing software development costs at each level of your project. Our experts know how to make the most of the leading-edge technologies to speed up android app development in Bangalore and ensure fast time-to-market so that your investment starts generating good returns as quickly as possible.