How to calculate approximate cost of a mobile app

The trend for the development of a personal website or mobile application is gaining momentum. It is no secret to many that these two marketing tools have each their own advantages, and together they give even more positive results.

Website development has moved forward much more than the development of mobile applications. Price for the development starts from $500 (design, content, domain name, hosting, hourly rate of the developer) and two days of development. At that moment, the cost of a mobile application starts from $5000 (developer account, backend, design, content, hosting, hourly rate of the one who will develop) and 7 days of the developer's work.

Why is there such a difference in price?

Regarding cost everything is quite natural and transparent. Mobile devices came to us much later than computers, namely smartphones (versions of mobile phones with a touch screen and operating systems, for which developers began developing applications) later still. Tools for creating applications began to be mastered later (early 2000). Despite the evolution of smartphones, they are still cut down versions of a full PC, and therefore resources should work more meticulously and carefully to understand the power of the CPU to optimize graphics, manage memory, to parallelize tasks and to do it all at once, otherwise the7app will simply quickly drain the battery, CPU usage, RAM and create an impression of incorrect operation of the device.

How to estimate the cost of developing a mobile app yourself

A lot of parameters affect the cost of development, including the region in which you order it. To begin with, we will determine what will be needed for the development to be done wisely. In advance, I warn you that we will not consider in this article services of freelancers and their principle of operation, because this is always an unpredictable result.

1. Manager

It all starts with communicating with a representative of the performer. Most often, this is a sales manager or, if it is a small company, a business owner. The company pays him a salary, and he in turn advises you at the stage of planning, approval and, in some cases, the development of the project.

Since the manager will be with you throughout the development, the company's monthly expense will be on average:

• $ 600 – $ 800 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 1 200 – $ 1 500 $ — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 3 500 – $ 4 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• 7 000 – 10 000 $ — United States

2. Terms of reference

Even at the stage of work planning, in addition to the manager, the developer works also with you. It evaluates the terms of reference or works on it based on the data received from you. Do not think that this work is completely taken over by the developer, but he is certainly present here and coordinates all the project details with the manager. Most often, this takes from 1 to 3 weeks of not 8-hour, but at least 4-hour work of each specialist.

In case of absence of technical specifications, the developer's work with the Manager increases with time, as the Manager need to understand your desires, group them, and then to explain to the developer, the developer will put text in more technical language, agree with the Manager, will establish the procedure of works, the number of resources required. During this process, the manager will return to you to clarify the details and agree on the prepared TOR. And so on until all parties come to a common understanding. Fortunately, this process is not infinite, because there is always a limit on the budget and goals of the application. And if you want everything at once, the manager will help you break the development into stages with separate technical specifications.

Developer services for creating / approving technical specifications:

• $ 400 – $ 600 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 1 000 – $ 2 000 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 2 500 – $ 4 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 6 000 – $ 12 000 — United States

3. Prototype

This stage is close to the Terms of Reference creation. Most often, it is developed in parallel with it, sometimes even instead of it. It contains very useful information for you and for the entire team that will develop your project. It is most often the responsibility of a technical specialist with the skills of a designer or the developers themselves. At the output, you get a visual representation of your project, which allows you to clearly see how your application will work, what information will be displayed, and most importantly, at this stage, you will be able to understand yourself what will be done or not done at the end of several months. This removes 40% of the risks and unexpected outcomes of completing the creation of your project.

In terms of time, the creation of a prototype takes from 1 to 3 weeks, depending on the volume and complexity of the project.

• $ 200 – $ 500 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 1 500 – $ 2 500 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 2 500 – $ 4 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 6 000 – $ 12 000 — United States

4. Design

This stage begins after the approval of the technical specification and the prototype. After that, the design is mostly often superimposed on the prototype itself, giving you the opportunity to take a more real look at your product, and the whole team to get an even clearer idea of what they will need to do.

We will assume that the manager has agreed with you on the first stage of work (1-3 months). In this case, the development of the design will take an average of 2 weeks, possibly with further improvements and improvements from the designer.

• $ 200 – $ 400 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 1 500 – $ 2 500 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 2 500 – $ 4 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 5 000 – $ 10 000 — United States

5. Development

The longest and most serious stage of creating a mobile app is development.

Most often, a mobile application is required for 2 platforms — iOS and Android, respectively, these are 2 different developers. In addition, you need to develop a backend that contains a database, an administrative panel through which you can manage this database, an API for exchanging information with a mobile application, complex logic, and much more. This is at least one more server developer.

As we said earlier, we believe that the manager has agreed with you on the first stage, this is (1-3 months). Therefore, we can assume that three developers will work hard on your project for at least 1 month.

Average monthly salary of an iOS / Andoid developer:

• $ 500 – $ 1 000 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 2 000 – $ 4 000 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 3 500 – $ 5 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 8 000 – $ 16 000 — United States

Average monthly salary of a Backend developer:

• $ 600 – $ 1 100 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 2 500 – $ 4 500 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 4 000 – $ 6 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 9 000 – $ 17 000 — United States

6. Testing and debugging

Testing and debugging are integral processes in development. This is done by QA testers and developers. Most often, this is 25% during development.

7. Risks and profits of the company

This item is not advertised when approving the transaction, but it is necessary to be taken into account when issuing a receipt to the client. Approximately 20% of the total amount is spent on this item of the company's expenses.

Let's assume your project (or its first stage) will take 3 months:

1 month-approval of the terms of reference, prototype, design.

• $ 1 400 – $ 2 300 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 5 000 – $ 8 500 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 11 000 – $ 16 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 24 000 – $ 44 000 — United States

2 months-development and testing.

• $ 5 500 – $ 10 000 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 20 000 – $ 35 000 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 36 000 – $ 50 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 80 000 – $ 150 000 — United States

Total:

• $ 9 000 – $ 15 000 — India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
• $ 30 000 – $ 52 000 — Russia, Ukraine, Belarus
• $ 56 000 – $ 80 000 — Western Europe, Asia
• $ 125 000 – $ 230 000 — United States

MVP (iOS/Android) mobile applications: