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How much does it cost to make an app? Likely, this is one of the first questions that app brands and developers need to know an
answer for, when they launch an app development project. An app development cost estimate is the most basic and yet crucial
component of a budget for any mobile app development project. Quite often a company owner finds herself trying to answer these
two questions – how much does it cost to creat an app for my business via hiring an app development company versus how much
does it cost to develop an app internally.
Both approaches have their pros and cons. To shed some light on how each impacts an app development cost, let’s review both.
After operating a number of years on a market, app development companies can build the right set of skills to tackle multi-
platform mobile app development projects efficiently, often app projects can be quite complicated, they may involve advanced
mobile tech, including Machine Learning to power sophisticated computation, augmented reality as well as Blockchain, IoT and
more.
Leading app developer companies beat competition quickly learning from their mistakes and so working with such experienced
team would protect you from repeating the same mistakes. App development is a multi-step process that involves careful
planning with a proper timeline – again, based on a previous experience.
If you choose the path of creating a mobile app in-house, you can certainly decrease an app development cost, at least initially,
because over time, going through fixing bugs caused by lack of experience, you can actually catch up with a price tag you would
get from an app development company, should you decide to hire one.
As much as we would like to put a finger on the app development cost, we can only come up with an estimate, simply because
each app development process involves many factors that collectively influence a final cost figure. Luckily there are several app
development budget forming factors that will help you to come up with an app development cost ballpark.
Hosting
The decisive factor in a mobile app backend data hosting cost calculation is what kind of data the app deals with – text or media,
such as photo, video, or audio. A media-rich app would require a higher CPU web-server with more RAM and disk space. Based
on these factors, an app hosting web server may cost between $70 to $320 a month. The leading web hosting solutions to
choose from would be Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.
Monitoring
Mobile app monitoring is really essential for its success. To monitor an app’s performance you can sign up for mobile analytics
platforms we’ve listed in this guide. Because each app has its unique audience and a vastly variable number of users, it’s not
feasible to come up even with an estimate for a mobile app monitoring cost but once you get in touch with those companies on
the list, make sure you’ll get a ballpark range for your expenses this app maintenance cost constituents.
A mobile app marketing cost, which includes activities to engage a mobile app user base, consists of multiple components. Any
mobile app engagement begins with an app install, a price an app marketer pays for the app’s install depends on the country,
platform (iOS/Android), and specific ad unit. In 2021 the iOS CPI (stands for Cost-Per-Install) was $3.6 / app install and on the
Android side was just $1.22 / app install. As we go more granular, from a generic app install instance to a desirable action the app
user is expected to take, we can talk about an average mobile app user acquisition cost. In 2020, the average app UA costs
worldwide were the following:
• purchase made via a mobile app – up to $75
• subscription – up to $70.
App Updates
Every single mobile app ever released on an app store, either iOS, Android, Windows Phone, or other platforms needs to have
subsequent updates to be released after its launch. On one hand, it’s simply not feasible to develop a perfect app with version
1.o, from the other – subsequent updates are a great tool for a continuous app user base engagement. An actual update release
on an app store may take around one hour but the time that it takes to develop an update is significantly varied and depends on
an app’s complexity.
Licenses
If a mobile app design incorporates one or more technologies that the developer should pay a license, it may significantly
increase an overall app development cost. A license fee to pay depends on annual fees to pay, a number of devices, and, for
instance, may reach $120k / year for 50 devices.
Final Thoughts
When businesses estimate a development cost of their future app, first of all, they need to factor in a development team location
and an app complexity – both factors have a great impact on an overall development cost. Given that both iOS and Android
platforms have a high adoption rate, it is a smart strategy for businesses that go mobile to develop an app for both platforms
simultaneously. Because infrastructure is the biggest contributor to an app development cost, it’s quite logical for companies to do
their best to save on things like data storage and scalability, third-party API integration, if there are several options available to
choose from.
On top of that, the COVID-19 pandemic, because it’s triggered app developers relocation and forced them to work remotely, has a
significant impact on how much it costs to develop a mobile app.