How Much Does an App Cost

This might come out as a TLDR moment, but in reality, there’s no fixed price in developing a mobile app, it can range from being free to costing up to thousands or even millions of dollars. But the question: “How much does it cost to build an app? has been one of the most common question app developers always get on a daily basis. This comes as no surprise really as this is almost always the first question anyone looking to build an app would have in their mind.

According to a survey from Clutch, the median price to create an app by app development agencies is at $171,450, it’s a bit expensive but according to the same survey, small apps with minimal features can range between $5,000 to around $10,000.

The cost of developing an app will obviously on a lot of factors, it will depend on the features the app will have, the type of app, level of security etc.

Here are some of the common factors that can affect the cost of app development:

• Type of app (Social Networking, Newspaper/Magazine, Game, Business etc.)
• Platforms (iOS, Android, Windows Phone)
• Design (Basic, Custom, etc.)
• Security Features (Face recognition, biometrics, etc.)
• Additional features (Push notifications, Ratings & Reviews, etc.)
• Payment options
• Native or Hybrid

It’s these types of features that will dictate how much developing an app will cost at the end, a simple News app that will simply scrape news sites via their RSS feeds will probably cost you nothing, but a subscription based News app with added security features with a custom design, secure payment options and a back-end server will cost you in the thousands.

Aside from the features, it’s where or how you develop your app that will also play a big factor in the total cost of building your app, there's a significant difference in development costs between a freelancer, offshore development team, or a professional app development firm. Or if you’re tech savvy, you can even create one yourself, there are a lot of useful guides on how to make an app out there and if you will be creating the app yourself this will surely bring down the cost a lot.

There are also a lot of online app cost calculators out there that can give you an idea of how much developing an app will cost depending of the list of features you’ll want to include, but these app calculators often have a limited set of custom features that you can include in the calculation. So in the end you’ll end up with only a wide and vague price range which is practically useless so you still will end up consulting app developers directly.

So basically, you won’t get a definitive answer to the question “How Much Does an App Cost”, the correct question should be, “How much will my app cost”.

By: Kenneth Titong