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Costs and cost components of building an app
Mobile app development is a process and so there are various cost components you might need to understand if asking how much does it cost to build an app.
And that question is very essential when building an app for purposes of adequate planning. Most app development processes are weighed by hidden development costs that may not be clear at the start. Of course, having a clear overview of cost components helps to manage these costs because you would know when costs are going overboard.
For instance, failing to have a complete overview of the functional services (needed to execute functionality and features of the app), administrative services (those needed to make updates to the app, manage users etc.), infrastructure services (servers, CDN, etc.), and IT support services (updates to the app and fixing bugs etc.) before starting off, may lead to escalation of costs if they cannot be managed. Therefore, to avoid starting and then stalling the process, it might be necessary to ask that question as early into the process.
Of course, costs will vary depending on whether you are developing an enterprise or no-enterprise app and the features and capability of the app.
Therefore, here are some of the types of costs if asking how much does it cost to build an app.
App development costs: overall
Developing an enterprise app will cost between $100,000 and $500,000. Mobile apps development Melbourne to cost an average of $140,000 each according to a VDC survey of enterprise app developers.
Other surveys indicate differences in cost of developing an app: median price of $171,450 per app according to Clutch survey, and an average price to be $270,000 per app according to Kinvey survey of CIOs.
A feature-rich app might cost from $267,000 to $360,000 according to various cost calculators provided by different companies. Seventy five percent of enterprises budget over $250,000 for mobility solutions, with over 25% budgeting over $1.5 million according to EMM survey.
Functional services
Developers can provide certain functionality but in some cases, the owner will need to subscribe to some other service providing delivery mechanism. These services, for instance push notifications that increase mobile engagement and encourage desired actions such as purchases (e.g., with services such as UrbanAirship or PushWoosh), might come with added costs.
Social and chat services might also allow users to share content via social media and those provided by some companies cost money on subscription basis. Others include sms integration via services such as Twilio, email integration with services such as Mailgun or Sendgrid, administrative services, content management, dashboard emulators, functional services management, access controls, user profiles, and analytics, etc.
Infrastructure services
These include where the app is hosted, where data are stored and how it is delivered. Backup and security server redundancies and load balancers will obviously add in costs. You can host the app with Amazon, Google and Azure servers; and subscribe to content delivery network (CDN) (e.g., Akamai, CloudFront and Dyn services) to deliver content to users based on geographic locations of the user, images data subscription with companies like CloudImage.io, Google and ImageX in order to afford a place to download and process and deliver images, and paid development tools and libraries and support.
IT support services
This include ongoing support services such as updates for iOS and Android etc., maintenance costs, fixing bugs, and API maintenance.
And that question is very essential when building an app for purposes of adequate planning. Most app development processes are weighed by hidden development costs that may not be clear at the start. Of course, having a clear overview of cost components helps to manage these costs because you would know when costs are going overboard.
For instance, failing to have a complete overview of the functional services (needed to execute functionality and features of the app), administrative services (those needed to make updates to the app, manage users etc.), infrastructure services (servers, CDN, etc.), and IT support services (updates to the app and fixing bugs etc.) before starting off, may lead to escalation of costs if they cannot be managed. Therefore, to avoid starting and then stalling the process, it might be necessary to ask that question as early into the process.
Of course, costs will vary depending on whether you are developing an enterprise or no-enterprise app and the features and capability of the app.
Therefore, here are some of the types of costs if asking how much does it cost to build an app.
App development costs: overall
Developing an enterprise app will cost between $100,000 and $500,000. Mobile apps development Melbourne to cost an average of $140,000 each according to a VDC survey of enterprise app developers.
Other surveys indicate differences in cost of developing an app: median price of $171,450 per app according to Clutch survey, and an average price to be $270,000 per app according to Kinvey survey of CIOs.
A feature-rich app might cost from $267,000 to $360,000 according to various cost calculators provided by different companies. Seventy five percent of enterprises budget over $250,000 for mobility solutions, with over 25% budgeting over $1.5 million according to EMM survey.
Functional services
Developers can provide certain functionality but in some cases, the owner will need to subscribe to some other service providing delivery mechanism. These services, for instance push notifications that increase mobile engagement and encourage desired actions such as purchases (e.g., with services such as UrbanAirship or PushWoosh), might come with added costs.
Social and chat services might also allow users to share content via social media and those provided by some companies cost money on subscription basis. Others include sms integration via services such as Twilio, email integration with services such as Mailgun or Sendgrid, administrative services, content management, dashboard emulators, functional services management, access controls, user profiles, and analytics, etc.
Infrastructure services
These include where the app is hosted, where data are stored and how it is delivered. Backup and security server redundancies and load balancers will obviously add in costs. You can host the app with Amazon, Google and Azure servers; and subscribe to content delivery network (CDN) (e.g., Akamai, CloudFront and Dyn services) to deliver content to users based on geographic locations of the user, images data subscription with companies like CloudImage.io, Google and ImageX in order to afford a place to download and process and deliver images, and paid development tools and libraries and support.
IT support services
This include ongoing support services such as updates for iOS and Android etc., maintenance costs, fixing bugs, and API maintenance.