How Much Does It Cost to Make an App in 2023?

What are the costs of app development? You won't see a precise price tag for an application like the one you see in any shop for some shoes or any other goods. Still even there the price ranges depending on some features that every product has. The same with a mobile app or website. The cost of apps depends on your goals and the end vision of a product.

When trying to answer the questions like "How much does it cost to build an app?" or "What does the app development cost depend on?" you may find various calculators over the internet. But they show a pretty approximate estimate.

Surely, spending a fortune won't guarantee success. Likewise, you won't become a professional cook after spending tons of money on kitchen supplies. It all requires professional guidance and expertise. That's why you need to take into account your technology partners - a team that will develop an app.

Besides that, there are other factors to consider:

• Development team
• Targeted OS
• App features
• The complexity of implementation
• App design
• Selected technology stack
• Project management
• Quality assurance

Based on these and many other factors, the app development cost may range from $5,000 to $300,000 and beyond.

Let's see what really goes into the app cost and how it actually works!

How Much Does an App Cost to Develop Worldwide?

The location and type of your app development provider greatly influence the app development cost. You can hire:

• an independent freelancer
• an app development company
• a big corporation

Obviously, from each point to the other, you will see a significant difference in the prices of their services. Although an independent contractor may be the least expensive solution, there are some factors that will go against such a choice. So you should seriously consider the pros and cons of the choice between freelancer vs software development company. 

A big tech corporation may require the biggest expenses for software development. So the golden mean maybe an app development company that will back you up with all the necessary technology challenges you may have in your business.

Besides that, the contractor’s location means a lot. As usually app development rates differ greatly from country to country. 

Estimations for app development are counted mostly in per-hour rates. Usually, an app development firm calculates the number of hours necessary to create an app based on your business requirements. As a result, the total number of hours is multiplied by the app development rate and you get the total app development cost.

Let's see what you have on the table among the leading regions in the software development niche:

• India: $10-80 
• Ukraine: $25-100 
• UK: $50-170
• Australia: $50-150
• Canada: $50-250
• USA: $50-300

Indian developers are among the cheapest by the price though many customers claim to be not satisfied with the quality. The North-American, Australian, and Western European countries are more expensive, though provide quality services. And Ukraine tends to gain leading positions on the market due to the best balance of price and quality. Additionally, the mentality and time zone is more preferable for western clients.

There are many other reasons why most businesses prefer to hire Ukrainian app developers.

Outsourcing or Local App Development

Some western businesses prefer dealing with local app development companies though this approach is less popular after the crisis connected with pandemic and the overall global tendency to remote collaboration.

Before, customers were cautious about the level of communication and limited means of product development control. Currently, IT outsourcing services are deeply refined and a client has all the necessary tools to monitor each app development stage, pay after results review, and communicate with developers instantly.

Now every business has wider chances to choose the best possible proposition for software development including the highest expertise and reasonable costs. No need to limit yourself.

What Affects App Development Cost?

Once you've chosen your perfect software development company, you can not expect them to provide you with the exact app development estimation offhand. Initially, a discovery phase will be conducted to gather your app requirements and writing the product tech specification. 

Let's figure out what greatly influences the ultimate app development cost!

Features and Functionality

The app functionality is among the most crucial influencing factors on the app cost. The more features the product has, the more complex and expensive it is.

Let's see the approximate development time and cost required to create common functionality at each development stage.

We'll take the most widespread average development rate of $50 to calculate the cost of app development.

How much does it cost to create a backend of a web application? Let's start with the answer to this question. 

But backend doesn’t without a frontend. So let's see how much does it cost to develop a frontend part of a web app.

Finally, let's move on to the estimation of basic features for mobile applications in order to answer the question of "How much does it cost to create a mobile app?".

Remember, these tables display only core possibilities that you can utilize for your business. Among others are API integrations, geolocation tracking, social content sharing, database administration, CRM integration, payment gateway implementation, etc.

Actually, your opportunities are limitless!

Customization of Visual Design

Another crucial part of any application is the UX/UI design. Let's what goes into its cost!

As you can see, the basic app design cost of web or mobile apps varies from $3,300 to $5,000. It can evolve over time depending on your business objectives.

Platforms for Mobile Apps

Another point to be mentioned that the specified above rough estimation for a mobile app development includes only basic features common for each popular mobile OS - Android and iOS. Surely, if you need apps for both OSs, you may multiply that estimation by 2 and take into account that certain OS-specific features may be required for implementation if you wish to please your mobile user audience.

Read also: Native vs Cross-Platform Development: When Native App Wins

Backend Infrastructure and App Administration

The specified above rough estimation includes only basic features. If your application should be more complex and requires you to exchange data between an app and database, a solid backend infrastructure is crucial. 

The proper administration panel will help to manage the app content, users, statistics, and analyze important data for future business growth.

Structure of a Development Team

Surely, costs greatly depend on the location of developers, though the structure of the development team selected for your project means a lot. Let's see who can make an impact on your app success.

A business analyst is responsible for the initial stage of product development. Proper app development planning is the main focus here and requires gathering initial data, analyzing competitors, defining project value and potential issues, and writing detailed tech specifications.

UX/UI designers should analyze client preferences, create wireframes, and final app design.

Mobile app developers should create applications within described specifications for one or more platforms.

Web app developers are able to create the corresponding part of a web application depending on their skill set - be it a backend or frontend part.

QA engineers should make sure the app is of the highest possible quality and meets all specified requirements.

Read also: How to Build a Mobile App Startup that Actually Makes Money

Project managers monitor and coordinate all sides of the project development ensuring everything is delivered on time and within the agreed budget.

The interesting fact is that in the IT world you can not only hire a whole development team but hire a specific professional from a software development company that provides IT outstaffing services.

Cost of Maintaining an App

The digital world doesn't stand still, so after launch, every app requires continuous update and improvement upon new technologies released, app store changes, or further functionality upgrades. These costs make up to 15% for app maintenance every year from the initial overall project price.

Our Approach to the Cost Estimation

The above mentioned rough estimations for various app development stages demonstrate the hours we allocate for the basic feature set. 

So far Topdevs have delivered a wide range of websites and mobile apps, therefore the whole app development process is smoothly refined. It includes:

• Discovery phase where we discuss the client's idea, gather requirements, and suggest possible improvements from the edge of our tech expertise.
• Concept & design where we define the main concept of the product, create various app prototypes, and construct a solid architecture of the application.
• Estimation & planning where we make accurate development plans and present well-thought estimations with deadlines for each development stage.
• Product delivery is the biggest part where we actually develop an application, test, and polish according to the project specifications.
• Support & maintenance where we help our clients to update, improve, and scale the application according to the emerging business objectives and market challenges.

Read also: How to Describe a Project to a Web Development Company?

Most importantly, our development team is always ready to provide a proper consultation, give tech guidance, and discuss the project progress upon request.

How Much Did App Development Cost to Well-Known Startups?

As we have deep expertise in app development for certain industries, we have roughly estimated some top apps.

For instance, such leading dating app like Tinder requires the following functionality:

• real-time messaging
• in-app photo editor
• animations
• connections and databases



So how much does it cost to create a dating app like Tinder? It takes around 1,500 hours in general to develop such a dating app. This reflects in around $75,000 with an app development rate of $50.

Another great example is the video streaming service Netflix. The basic functionality of such an application should include is:

• video categories with search and filters
• basic video interaction options
• video streaming on smart TVs
• video sharing options

If you ask, how much does it cost to create a video streaming app like Netflix, the answer is it will take around 800 hours and will reflect in around $40,000 with an average development rate of $50.

And the last but not the least example is the Asos e-commerce app. The core functionality:

• user registration
• user account
• social sharing       
• payment gateway

So how much does it cost to create an e-commerce app like Asos? Its total development time will take around 1200 hours and with a rate of $50, the app development cost would be around $60,000.

Conclusions

So what does the total app development cost? As you see, it greatly depends on many factors. Precisely who develops the app, how complex its functionality, and which business objectives you wish to reach with it.

The total app development cost varies greatly from $5,000 to $300,000 and continuously if necessary to upgrade.

If you have a limited budget, it is easier to start small with an MVP development. Once it gets recognizable on the market and you get additional funding, the app development process can be continued.

Either way, a properly developed application can become very popular and bring great returns on investments.

Ready to create an application of your dream? Let's discuss your prospects!