You want to build an app but wondering how much will it cost you? This article will help you in planning an app by creating a budget with steps to consider and other useful facts.
At Deforay, we have been developing mobile apps for Android and iOS platforms for over 10 years. From the first project, our goal was to build robust, functional, and feature-rich apps for our clients within an affordable budget.
In 2020, developing an app for both Android and iOS or a cross-platform has become easy and budget-friendly without compromising the quality. It has become less expensive since we are using apps for many purposes including communications, games, lifestyle, business, e-commerce, food, and health calculators.
It takes a lot of steps to develop a custom mobile app. Let’s understand the different stages it goes through to become a user-friendly app.
Mobile App Development Stages
There are five stages involved in developing a mobile app. An app developing company requires 3-6 months to develop a functional app. They follow these steps,
1. Analytics
The first step in building an app is to analyze its requirements, purpose, and objectives. This stage takes 5 days to complete the functions, technical aspects, and conceptual components of the app.
2. Design
The design stage of app development is intensive and crucial. Most clients experience frustration and confusion in agreeing to the design of the app. They need to communicate back and forth with the development team to ensure the design is user friendly and pleasing to the audience. This stage requires 15 days. We can make a lot of changes at this stage to save time and money because once the app enters the development stage it might be difficult to make the changes.
3. Front-End
This is the foremost stage of the app development process. We will work on the front-end development processes after the design approval. The front-end process takes about 40 days. Project managers and developers will monitor the coding and technical aspects of the app to deliver the app on time to the customer.
4. Back-End
The back-end development process of the app will start after a few weeks of the front-end process. It requires 40 days. The back-end developers will develop the app based on the server to interface the database.
5. Quality Check
Once the app development reaches the completion stage, we start quality assurance to check its functionalities. A bug-free app needs accurate quality assurance. QA takes about 20 days. It helps detect the defects and rectify them before launching the app.
Every mobile app development company follows these steps based on the app requirements of the clients. If you are planning to build an app for your business, then you must know this checklist first.
Things to Consider in a Budget for a Mobile App
Before building an app for your business, have a detailed knowledge of the app you need along with its features. There are several factors you need to consider such as,
• Type: What type of app you need for your business? Do you need a gaming business, e-commerce, social networking, health, or lifestyle app? Decide the app you want to build for your business first.
• Platforms: Mobile app for Android, iOS, or Windows platform? Or you need a cross-platform app?
• Design: Simple, moderate, or complex design? Simple has no API and back-end components, moderate has custom UI, API integration, and back-end server while the complex has multi-language support, real-time features, and complex back-end support.
• Device: Smartphones, tablets, Tv’s, and smartwatches. Do you want your app to be compatible with all these devices or a specific one?
• Pages: The more the pages, the complex the app.
• Type and Versions: Native or hybrid app? We develop native apps for a specific operating system while hybrid apps can work on different platforms.
• Database: Popular app databases are mongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc.
• Mobile API: Application Program Interface (API) for apps includes JavaScript, HTML5, and XML-RPC.
• CRM and ERP Integrations: Do you want to integrate Customer Relations management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools with your app?
• Analytics: You can install Google Analytics in your app to check the performance of your app.
• Payments: E-commerce apps must integrate payment platforms such as PayPal, Stripe, Bitcoin, and others.
• E-commerce Integration: Grocery and shopping apps need e-commerce integration based on their services. It can be a basic, advanced, or enterprise model.
• Users: We create apps for users which makes it important to have features such as User login, Email Login, Social Login, Accounts, and Privacy settings.
• Additional Features: Some apps may require additional features such as camera, 3rd party API, Chatbot, social sharing, geolocation, multilingual support, and backup.
After a thorough analysis and conceptualization of the app, you can know the exact budget for building your app. You can hire freelancers or an app agency to build the app for you. But the budget will vary because of their work ethics and pricing. When you compare the hourly pricing of freelancers, you can go with a mobile app development company to get the entire budget package. Here are the advantages,
Advantages of Hiring a Mobile App Development Company
• All-in-One Place: A mobile app agency has a full staff to complete the app development process. You don’t have to look for analysts, testers, and developers.
• Know What You Pay for: The company will give you a transparent invoice at every stage of the app development process. It will get the client’s inputs and feedback before adding additional features and integrations. This will help estimate your budget easily.
• On-Time Delivery: When you work with freelancers, your app might get delayed at different stages. But a company will assure delivering high-quality apps within the given time frame.
• Consistent Support: Apps require post-development maintenance support for updates and bug fixes. The company staff will provide these services.
The cost of developing an app depends on various factors and if you spend $1000 on building the app, then 20% goes into app maintenance per year.
We hope this detailed analysis of creating a budget will help estimate your app idea. If not, our team of experts is available any time to help plan your mobile app budget.