Let’s convert your idea from scratch to a new fully-tested application

Let me guess. As an average user of a smartphone, you have probably dozens of apps. Every day, you spent a generous amount of time on different apps, either going on social media platforms, checking the latest news from all around the world or just making a quick bank transfer through your bank app. At the moment the mobile app market is huge, nonetheless, it is still expanding because people want to make their lives easier...or we just simply enjoy being pampered by an increasing number of eye-catching mobile apps.

With the expansion of the digital world, mobile apps became vital for everyday users of smartphones and firms that relay their business on it. We can notice how the mobile app market has been changing in recent years. The statistics of the number of available apps in the Apple App Store from July 2008 to January 2017 confirm that.

Source: Statista

As it is evident from the above graph the number of available apps has increased significantly. For instance, from 2013 to 2017 the number of available apps amplified by more than 1 million. It is important to understand the significance of the mobile app market for users and firms. More businesses decide to develop their own app to meet the needs of their customer and enhance their engagement and loyalty with them. The number of new smartphones in the world correlates with the tremendous number of apps available on several market apps. In fact, almost every user activity has shifted to mobile. However, it is vital to point out that the graph only shows the data from Apple App Store. Google Play Store where users have a broader range of choices of apps also needs to be taken into consideration.

ROI and mobile apps

Almost every firm that is operating online at some point should consider the advantages of having an app and how ROI indicator can be rapid and effective.

Source: Statista

In 2020 mobile apps are expected to make 188 billion U.S. dollars in revenues. It shows us how the market is constantly-growing and how the fact of having an app might be beneficial for a business. We can observe some changes in the mobile environment and in the Global App Economy - consumers are willing to spend more money on mobile apps. In 2016, the amount that was spent on mobile apps was $1.3 trillion and it is forecasted that in the following 6 years it might increase to $6.35 trillion. It seems mobile apps are tremendously important for people and its features have great implications for satisfying specific market needs. You should encourage and accelerate the growth of your business, otherwise, you will be lagging behind your competitors. Remember, the fact of having an app does not mean your business holds a competitive advantage or suddenly client's productivity or client's engagement increases. The quality of the app must be flawless, crafted by highly-qualified specialists who will transfer your business needs to the app.     

Apps features and costs

Generally, the cost of building an app might be different according to app’s features, complexity, the type of platform and human resources (in-house team, outsourcing of software house or freelancer). It is important to have a good plan and enough budget for an app. Even the slightest change of the app's detail can lead to a huge rise in the production cost. If you are considering to build an app, careful planning and a thorough research need to be carried out beforehand.

Let’s say the cost of MVP - the simplest and ready to launch version of an app – is about $5,000-$15,000, but the addition of extra features can boost the cost up to $250,000 or even more. This amount seems to be an average for all mobile development processes. Of course, we should take each case individually because the cost of some features may differ according to the purpose of the app. Remember, MVP is the most basic and simplest version of an app, which later should be developed constantly. Your MVP might be acquired by potential investors or you can find possible co-founders to improve and develop your app into a more complex and advanced one.

As we mentioned earlier, the final cost of an app development process might completely differ depending on the kind of the feature. Furthermore, we can distinguish the following shared and popular features of the mobile applications:

Source: clutch.co

Push Notifications - it is a message that pops up on a mobile device (smartphone, tablet, etc). We can get the notification from the appat any time. We are receiving them without ever being an active user of an app or using its devices.

Rating Reviews - every customer should have a possibility to share his own thoughts and comments about an app. Actually, that is entirely helpful for the app provider in order to become aware of drawbacks and improvements which must be considered and implicated. Let your customers be an important part of your app development process!

Push notification and rating reviews are simple features, which tend to be cheaper. When it comes to more complex and advanced features we should talk about these examples:

Native Integration - when the application program has been developed for use on a specific platform or device then we can call it “native app integration". Building an app dedicated to a particular platform is more complex, takes more time, but the final effect of an app development process will be satisfying.

Web Portal - building a web portal is an expensive feature. Of course, it helps with the management and promotion of an app, but it requires complex coding and back-end integration.

Performance Management (application performance) - It is all about user's perception and how they rate an app performance. The app performance is measured by the speed of starts up, how responsive the app is or how it uses the device power.

Who’s going to build your app?

Let’s imagine that you have an idea for a great new app and you have the necessary budget to make it...so now you must choose who is going to develop it. Choose wisely!

The first option - Freelancer – is the cheapest one for sure. If your projects must be cheap and not complicated, you hire a freelancer. Be aware that the more complex projects might face some problems and difficulties if you are up with freelancer. Be conscious of possible mistakes and delays, because there is no support from project management team. Don't even think about additional resources or background. Often freelancers might not fully engage in the project because of the time limit, as he might be working on other projects at the same time.

A software house seems to be a better option when you deal with more complex and advanced projects. Resources, professional IT specialists, and time management are big advantages. If the software house works in a friendly environment like Agile, it's very easy to plan everything from the beginning to the final version of the app. Having an organized and experienced team with you is much safer, cheaper and more efficient. In addition, you can build a long-lasting partnership-base which will benefit your company for sure. The cooperation with software house might be valuable for many aspects. Firstly, the quality - if you are working with a trusted company, you can be sure about quality they will provide. Secondly, cost-effective strategy - you will save money during the training and hiring of internal developers. Furthermore, remember that companies are competing with each other, keeping an eye out for new updates, constantly learning and staying on top of latest trends while developing their apps, so be sure your team is made up of skilled professionals and that they are using the latest technology. And the frosting on the cake – software house will deliver on time and provide a friendly environment. The will come up with a sufficient planning progress and suitable plan.

The last option is your own development team at the company. The in-house team would be the most lucrative, but it might only be available to large corporations with "unlimited" access to all resources. To run your own team of developers you must include all related costs to infrastructure and project management as well. The image and prestige of the company are vital because it attracts talented developers to work with your team.

General cost of an app

The best way to find out what might be the cost of an app is by checking some examples of common and popular apps through App Market and analyzing them. Investigation of these samples might appear to be quite hard because there is no detailed data provided by those developers or companies. However, usually, we can guess how much it will cost by preparing some calculations. A common and simple way to estimate the cost is:

Features of an app matter and can differ significantly. The hourly rate, in this case, is essential. Shortly, the charges of the developers can be anywhere between $30 to even $250/hr. There are few reasons why the charge may differ, but the location is the key cause. Honestly, in some countries, cost of a professional developer is only about $50/hr, which is unthinkable in countries with a very high standard of living.

Some approximate calculations:

The easiest and simple app - $15,000

More complex apps but with small team of developers - $50,000

Professional software house and complex apps - $250,000

Huge corporations with their own development teams - over $1 million

The app development process - step by step

Let’s imagine you will hire a trusted software house and you are planning to launch your own app, let’s look at some steps below:

The stages of the app development process:

• Discovery/Pre-Research Stage
• Design Stage
• Development Stage
• Testing and Deployment Stage
• Marketing Stage

Discovery/Pre-Research Stage

The first step of the app’s development process is the research or so-called “discovery” stage. It costs about 5000$. The software house (a good one) will investigate your general idea for an app. The main goal of this process is finding and discovering your business needs, ideas, and goals.

Crucial points during this stage include:

?   Conducting a market research

?   Creating prototype and visual app

?   Investigating your needs and features

?   Analysing project management, timing, and planning

Generally, the price can be divided into two options:

• A bid which might be fixed
• Price based on time and materials used or price range

Design stage - UX/UI

User experience (UX) design is the process of creating products that provide meaningful experiences, in other words - how a user feels when he or she is interacting with the system. UX is based on several key factors such as usability, utility, attractiveness, desirability, the speed of work etc. At this stage, it is essential to consider the Interface Guidelines for the various platforms that the app will target. Positive user experience is one of the strongest factors in retaining them.

In general terms, the UX research and wireframing stage are about how the website or application works while UI is how it looks. User Interface is a finalized interactive field in which the user interacts with the product. Here the product gets its real color scheme, forms and features of the layout details, styles, animated elements etc. At this point, your app should be both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

Development stage

The strategy is complete, the stage is set, and you have your design, now it is time to build an app - finally the process of taking your idea and turning it into an application with some basic functionality. A prototype makes it quite easier to sell your idea to potential buyers who can now personally see the benefits instead of just visualizing or reading the product description. Your development team will start implementing the styles and functionality of your app, it is crucial to fully understand the goals of the application. 

Testing and quality assurance

When the app is ready, all QA process and testing must be considered and implicated. Thanks to that, you will find out whether the app is ready to be launched. Just to be sure about your app's quality and flawless or its amazing features. Extra efforts and additional time spent on testing and quality assurance process will definitely be worthwhile.

Marketing your app

Marketing is crucial for the process of development of your app. Thanks to effective marketing campaign you can easily promote your app to customers. You should remember that spending money on marketing the finalized app is as equally important as the money spent on previous stages of the app development process. During the process, it might happen that the company was not properly prepared for the app development process, so they ended up spending almost all the money for earlier stages, completely forgetting about the necessary marketing campaign. Remember, without a good plan of an app promotion, your business might very likely face spectacular failure.

Hybrid App or Native App

If you are considering building an app, you can choose a native or hybrid app. It has a significant influence on your app's final cost. First, native apps are being developed by developers for a specific operating system - iOS, Android or even Windows Mobile. You can target one or both platforms at the same time. Comparing to a hybrid app, a native seems to have more advantages like stability and better quality. However, creating a hybrid is quicker thanks to using a unique framework, but when it comes to more complex and advanced apps you definitely should develop a native app.

In general:

• Hybrid - a mobile app which combines elements of both native and a web view.
• Native - mobile app that is written in a programming language dedicated to the specific platform they are being developed for.

Some problems the client might face…

The client should be aware of the huge costs included in the development of an app. Generally, expenses might change throughout the time of app development process. Communication plays the key role in this case. Finding a common ground between both sites will be for sure beneficial. Software house must be fully engaged in the projects and feel “the spirit" of your idea and understand the vision of your app.

Remember, the cost will differ according to features, complexity, type of platform and human resources (in-house, software house, and freelancer). Keep in mind that while cooperating with a freelancer or a software house you will face an hourly rate. Also, that depends on regions where companies or people operate. Central and East Europe is an attractive region because of reasonable price and good quality of apps. Especially, Poland where IT professionals every year get the highest ranks in international programming contests. If you are interested you can find out more by reading our article on Railwaymen blog website.

Popular apps

Source: Statista

The whole process of app development is definitely complicated and requires extra efforts and resources, but with good planning skills and support of the trusted software house, you will turn your ideas into incredible apps.

You are not the only one struggling or facing problems with the mobile app development process for sure. Numerous great companies went through the same path – working on a project from scratch, facing a high level of uncertainty but they developed fully-tested, extremely popular and useful applications. Applications that are appreciated by millions of people around the world for their functionality and utility. Creators came up with a great idea, faced problems related to resources and many dilemmas and challenges...just like you. Nevertheless, they have become tremendously successful.

Have you ever considered how much does it cost to develop an app like Uber or WhatsApp? Or how long does it take? Months...years?

We have decided to run a new blog series about popular mobile apps and our own cases of developing apps. We will keep an eye out for the most popular apps and their common features for a wide range of apps. If you are curious how does it work or you are planning to develop an app which will conquer the world...stay tuned.