Cost Breakdown for Developing an Average Mobile App in 2023
11 days ago
5 min read

Cost Breakdown for Developing an Average Mobile App in 2023

As a custom Mobile App Development Company In Dubai, the question "How much does it cost to develop a mobile app?" is one that we get asked quite frequently these days. The current pandemic situation, of course, forced many businesses to move online, which increased the need for an app and made the question more popular.

The number of apps in the App Store and Google Play Store, which both recently celebrated their tenth anniversaries, is still increasing by 300 apps per day on average. With the ability to stay in touch with friends and family and conduct business, these apps have become an integral part of our daily lives and have contributed to social exclusion.

Although there are currently over 7 million apps available in app stores, there is still room for more, so it's understandable why more and more people are turning to apps and asking how much it costs to develop a mobile app. By the end of this article, I hope you'll have a better understanding of how much it costs to turn your app idea into a reality. We'll look more closely at the breakdown of mobile app development costs.

Cost breakdown for developing mobile apps

The truth is that when clients come in for a consultation regarding an app idea, they frequently have no idea how to create a mobile app or how much it will cost. They will probably ask for a price and have a general idea of the app's functionality. Okay, fair enough. Sadly, a general description of the functionality is insufficient for a reasonable price estimation, and to be completely honest, it's nearly impossible to provide a concrete response to the question of how much it costs to develop an app without a very thorough comprehension of its functionality and extensive research.

A breakdown of an app's development costs is as follows:

What features do you want your mobile app to have?

Supported platforms and devices: Android and iOS, or just one of the platforms, depending on whether the app is cross-platform. Does it support any particular devices, such as the iPhone 12 or the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus?

Integration with third-party apps: Will the app be connected to a third-party app?

The number and complexity of the app's visual components, including their number,

The complexity of features - the features' complexity will determine how complex the app is in general.

After an app development project is finished, it will undoubtedly need technical support from the developer.

Phase cost of a mobile app strategy

The mobile app strategy stage is frequently referred to by different names, including strategy, discovery, planning, and so forth. No matter what it's called, it stands for thorough market and user research, objective definition, and MVP concepting for your mobile application. For the mobile app discovery stage, some mobile app development companies, like Mobiversal, provide unique services.

A thorough mobile app business plan, market research, and documentation are required for your brilliant app idea. At this point, almost any skilled custom app development company will question you a lot. In fact, I'd venture to say that if they avoid doing so, you should have your doubts about their ability to produce the desired result.

Around 10% of the mobile app's total cost should be allocated to this phase. According to Clutch, the time required can range from 20 hours to 200 hours. You ought to receive a document containing the following information once this phase is complete:

  • Objective definition 

  • Market & User Research

  • Competitive Analysis

  • A clear positioning of the product

  • MVP Concept

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Cost of creating a mobile application

The design of the app is the next step in the development of mobile applications. However, this is not a very simple process in and of itself. The designers must be aware of and have a written understanding of the functional requirements for the app before beginning to develop the wireframes for it. The detailed functionality of the application will be explained in this document to both the designers and the developers. Therefore, this document usually serves as the starting point for the design phase of mobile applications.

Wireframing and prototyping the application, as well as user experience and visual (UI) design, are all aspects of the mobile application design stage. The design of the app is extremely important to be an experience that appeals to the users and hooks them because the first impression is crucial. Don't skimp on the design budget; flawless UI and UX are essential in today's apps. It's crucial that you and your designer have a common language, so we suggest watching some web design tutorials to help you communicate your needs effectively.

Although it's challenging to estimate how long this phase will take, you should be aware that more complex screens, custom design elements, and user interfaces require more hours. Some surveys indicate that $5 to $50K, or 10% to 15% of the total cost of developing the app, is typically spent on the design stage. Additionally, due to their visual complexity, social media and gaming app design is frequently more expensive.

Cost of developing mobile apps

You should be prepared for this stage of your mobile app development to be the most expensive by this point. The production stage follows the design phase, and it's during this time that clients first "touch" their apps. The developers can estimate the cost of development and provide a projected delivery date based on the design that has been provided.

The complexity of the app itself will be determined by the number and complexity of features it requires, which will have a significant impact on the cost of the app's development. Your mobile application's complexity must be taken into account because user retention is frequently correlated with it. However, the majority of applications use the following fundamental features:

  • Native device features 

  • User engagement: SMS, Email, Push, Social

  • User login and registration

  • Use of location data search

  • Payments

  • Sync across devices 

In addition to the features, this stage of the development of the application also involves the architecture and infrastructure of the app. The application's infrastructure implies fundamental control, data storage, integration with third-party APIs, access to enterprise data, data encryption, and scalability—the ability to handle a large number of users.

Selecting the platform for your application is a further factor in calculating the cost of application development. The audience you want to reach should be considered when choosing between the Android and iOS platforms, and you should keep in mind that these platforms have different programming languages, SDKs, and development tools. The cost of making Android and iOS apps, however, is not significantly different unless you want the app for both platforms.

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Bring your app idea to life

To summarize, the cost of developing an app ranges from $10,000 to $500,000, according to recent industry studies, and yes, this makes it difficult to predict the cost in advance.

The same research indicates that the development process can take anywhere between one month and nine months or more (for ongoing projects). Although expensive, the strategy and discovery phase of the process is worth every penny because it determines whether a project will be successful or not.

You can begin planning your budget and project now that you have a general idea of the variables that affect the price of your mobile app development. However, if you want to work with a third-party agency, we might be a good fit for you because we are committed to offering high-quality services at competitive prices.

We have been in the mobile app development business for over 11 years, and one thing we can say with certainty is that creating a successful app requires specialized knowledge and experience. Our experience and expertise in creating successful apps have been enhanced by both the apps that succeeded right away and the apps that failed miserably.