By the end of 2021, mobile apps are expected to generate more than $693 billion of revenue through app stores, in-app purchases, and advertising. While the good news is that the whole of enterprise mobility is likely to be worth $510.40 billion by the next year. According to recent studies, more than 42% of small and medium-sized organizations had a mobile app and many of them are planning to launch one. But the big question many people have is around app development cost & app creation costs.

Throughout the whole of my apps project’s experience, I’ve noticed a consistent fact about apps development for beginners. Apart from the lowered app development cost and higher RoI, developing mobile apps is like a black box for people who do not know how to code. But wait! There are ways to convert your amazing business app idea into reality even if you do not have any prior experience in launching a mobile app.

Working On The Basics: App Development Costs

If you’re a complete beginner with an amazing idea for generating revenue and want to build a mobile app, you need to know exactly what it takes to execute. Let’s start from the ground up with a compelling story (Facts & Figures) from mobile use statistics:

• The average mobile users have about 30–35 apps installed on their devices
• They spend more than 35 hours a month using apps on their devices
• More than 85% of consumers are interested in using native mobile apps on mobile website
• Smartphone users are spending half of their time using digital media
• Mobile apps have increased smartphones sales by 42% for manufacturers

The trend of launching mobile apps for small and medium-sized businesses is growing day by day. Apart from the fact that businesses are trying to take full advantage of this trend, many do not know even the basics of creating apps successfully. The cost of app development is the most significant reason among others, thus making both startups as well as beginners to giving up on their ideas.

If you are an absolute beginner with limited knowledge of the competitive landscape of mobile apps technology, your dreams can become reality if you’ll support your interest with a precisely cultivated process. Still, if you’re curious about the process but not sure where to start, I can make things easier for you with this step-by-step guide which will support you from idea to execution.

Lowered Cost App Development – Steps Guide From Start to Finish For Beginners

Regardless of the size, scope, revenue, and target audience of your project, you should follow and plan a well–structured process to make your app launching initiative a success. The first thing you should look for is the options for launching and executing your idea.

Once you have decided the process, goals, and audience base for your app, you may consider outsourcing the development and launching of your mobile app. This is going to be the most profitable option for beginners because going for an in—house development team can results in future surprises in terms of non–skilled workforce, increased project costs, and a thoroughgoing development process.

While outsourcing your app development to an experienced team, you can easily shorten the time to market your app without any compromise on the quality and efficiency of your product. Let’s check our handy guide on choosing an outsourcing partner for your project.

Why Outsource The Development Of Your Mobile App?

Outsourcing can bring wide-ranging skills and a wealth of expertise to the table. Of course, their work always revolves around planning and developing top-notch mobile apps and your team of developers can be specialists with a range of skills that you can’t afford in your proximity. Apart from being the cheaper option for your project as compared to an in–house team, outsourcing can offer a range of benefits for beginners including but not limited to:

Stack Of Different Technologies

Software development companies usually employ specialists with sound knowledge of different programming languages, development frameworks, and technologies. Outsourced software companies have developers for Android, iOS, and hybrid apps development. You can get great results in collaboration with them.

Cost And Time Effective

Outsourced software companies establish their team of developers in areas where the cost of living is lower. This is a great advantage for business owners to get lowered app creation costs for their businesses. And because time efficiency is directly connected to the skills and specialty of the workforce, you can expect faster progress in your project.

Skilled And Experienced Team Players

Depending on the complexity and design of your mobile app, an in-house team can take a lot of resources as compared to an outsourced team. As compared to in-house teams, outsourcing can serve you with flexible team players including trained specialists, skilled developers, and experienced designers. They can also expand the team further if there is a need to increase the number of resources.

The Basics Of Hiring Outsourced App Development Team

Beginners with limited knowledge of apps technology can still find the perfect outsource team of specialists for launching their products. One must make sure that the cost of app development can be varying depending on the skill set of team players. And here are the steps to follow for hiring the most affordable yet skilled outsourced team of developers.

Know Your Requirements With Full Understanding

You should have a better understanding of how your final product will look like. A detailed definition of what you want to develop depending on your business and user’s needs is helpful for better communicating your app idea to your target team of developers.

Find Skilled Software Development Outsourcing

There are different types of software development outsourcing services around the globe. They are Onshore, Nearshore and Offshore. You should look for the best option while choosing your target outsourcing service depending on your locality and time zone.

Don’t Forget To Investigate Their Proficiency (app creation costs)

A better approach for investigating the efficiency and professionalism of your target outsourced service is to go through their portfolio and reviews section on their websites. You may also communicate with their previous customers for getting full insights into their work. This will help you in the long run by getting an understanding of how better they can approach your project.

Select A Service Model That Meets Your Needs

The mobile apps development process is backed by three different service models each with a varying set of features as compared to the rest of the two. You can choose among Project-Based, Dedicated Team or Out-staff, or Extended Team working models. Before choosing your service model, make sure that you and the provider are on the same page to ensure on-time delivery and the outcome fully meets your needs.

Choose A Payment Model in relation to app creation costs

Depending on the service model you choose, you will have to agree with the payment model suggested by the service provider you choose. For a project-based working model, you better need to go with a fixed budget. However, you may either choose a salary-based or material-paying model for dedicated or out-staff working models.

The Process Of Mobile App Development Outsourcing:

Business apps are getting the attention of owners and prospect consumers. Mobile apps are adding more value to business productivity in many ways. When it comes to developing your business app by employing an outsourced software company or group of developers, you as a product owner must focus on a few critical steps before hiring the resource. Let’s take a look at those steps for hiring outsourcing team players for your application.

To Find The Right Agency

Working with and finding a perfect outsourced firm needs the best of your attention to many aspects. As a role of thumb, you must look for the best on-demand service. You must look for different options and comparing the few best in terms of cost of app development, management, workforce experience, and delivery timeframe, and payment methods. Stick to the most satisfying option and move ahead to the next step.

To Set Goals & Opportunities

You should approach your app development process from idea to execution into a final project in a planned manner. Determine the whole set of requirements that need to be fulfilled before and during the application development process. In this step, you must define your app-specific goals including the type of app you want to launch, your target platform and audience base, etc. You may also need to consider the target market demand and competitor’s research for your marketing campaigns.

Consider the set of features and characteristics you are looking for before defining the maximum development time. Because it depends on the feature’s set of your product, you must outline every single feature of your application including but not limited to the complexity level your application need before finalizing your expected delivery time.

To Start Building The App

Until now, you have got your favorite outsourced agency for building the app and have communicated your product plan to them; the actual development process can begin now. You can now discuss with your project manager to divide the overall development into smaller units including frontend, backend, user interface designing, and quality assurance. This is helpful for approaching every step of the app’s development process in a bug–free manner.

To Implement Your App

Once the building process is completed and your final product is tested in terms of performance, security, speed, and reliability, it’s time to implement it. The app is uploaded on Google Play Store or Apple Store (Depending on the current platform) and is launched for users.

To Maintain & Upkeep Your App

Mobile apps need constant upkeep and support practices so they can stay alive on the apps store. You’ll always need something to fix even after completing your final testing phase. Apart from bugs fixing, every mobile app needs further growth to meet apps stores policies and other aspects. Outsourcing firms usually offer post-project support for maintenance and upkeep.

How Much Does It Cost To Make An App Via Outsourced Services?

App creation costs estimation is probably the most unavoidable and frightening question to answer. This is nearly impossible to calculate the total cost estimation without having a solid estimation of the data you want to keep. Unless specific data is collected about an app, one can only talk about averages and this is exactly what I am going to suggest if you are new to the world of mobile apps.

What Factors Into Outsourcing App Development Cost & app creation costs?

The best way for getting a rough estimation of the total cost required for developing an app for your business is to review the basic building blocks of mobile apps development. After analyzing them, one will also get an idea that apps development is not an easy job. Here are some of the building blocks which are considered to be the factors that can influence the final cost.

Operating System — Android or iOS & app creation costs

The two popular operating systems (OS’s) also known as platforms for mobile devices are Android and iOS. They are both the only OSs which has dominated the mobile world. You will need to research and decide which platform is the best option for your app before moving on to discussing your budget.

You must also research and analyze what type of mobile device is mostly used by your target users. This will narrow down the process to choose which platform is mostly used by the target audience so you can decide to build an app for the same one.

If your audience is using both the iOS and Android OS, it’s better to build two apps right away for both platforms. However, developing both iOS and Android versions of your app will be more costly. As an alternative solution may also choose to build a cross-platform or hybrid mobile app so you can reach a wide user’s base regardless of the type of platform they use at lower rates.

App Type — Native, Cross-Platform, or hybrid & app creation costs

App type is another factor that makes it difficult to estimate the cost of app development. If you decide to develop a native app for your business, you will have to consider creating both iOS and Android versions of your application. Because Android users won’t be able to run the APK file (Application Programming Kit) of iOS and vice versa.

This is because the programming languages and frameworks used by Android and iOS platforms are different. Android APK is developed using Java or Kotlin languages which are supported only by Android OS. While iOS APK’s are developed using Swift and Objective-C languages and can only be executed by iOS OS.

Developing both Android and iOS versions of your app will increase the estimated budget for you. The best alternative for targeting both platforms is to go for a hybrid or cross-platform application. Because cross-platform and hybrid apps are developed using C# language + Xamarin framework and AngularJS +Ionic framework respectively, they are faster and cheaper to build as compared to native apps.

App Design Cost

Appealing visuals are the foundation of a good mobile app which should never be overlooked while considering the estimated cost of developing your product. Designing the look and feel of mobile applications is time-consuming and this is added to the overall cost of deliverables.

The design part of mobile applications consists of custom icons and design elements like screens, buttons, and logos. Every single screen on an app needs to be drawn independently of the other. Together with custom animations, a stunning design always remains the winning feature for an application.

Simplicity is the best alternative for reducing the overall cost while using complex designs and routine animations. Depending on the type and purpose of your app, you can stick to standard elements provided by the OS. They require fewer efforts to create and directly lowers downs the cost without compromising the quality of user experience and performance.

Backend app creation cost

Backend or server-side is the invisible portion of your mobile app that supports further advanced features for adding more value to the user experience. Some of the common features supported by the backend are syncing between different devices and usage of push notifications.

Modern applications do not need backend functionality for push notifications are the same features are handled by cloud integration. The server-side is responsible for running databases or additional APIs from third-party vendors. Server-side functionality is not mandatory for your business mobile app and if you will need one, it will add to the cost of your application.

Mobile App Characteristics app creation cost

The number of features you include in designing and developing your mobile app can also affect the overall development cost. In other words, the complexity of features you include in designing your app can influence the overall budget more than you expect. Because every single feature you include in making your application needs a different set of standard tools.

Modern mobile apps not only use standard APIs, but they also need third—party API’s to be integrated using custom algorithms. This is why, as per industry standards, mobile apps are divided into three categories depending on the level of complexity they need.

App Development Costs

App Development Cost: Simple Apps

Simple apps offer minimum features. Features included in simple mobile apps are easy to build and are fairly standard. Similar apps can easily be developed via outsourced service providers in less than a month or two. The estimated cost of these apps lies between $10k and $20k.

App Development Cost: Medium Complex Apps

These apps offer more complex features and have more screens as compared to simple apps. In other words, if a simple app provides some basic authentication and authorization feature for logging in users, a medium complex application will have advanced authentication and authorization features like logging in users via social logins. These applications cost between $25k and $50k and can require a minimum of eight to 10 months of development time.

App Development Cost: Complex Apps

Complex apps provide a more sophisticated set of features as compared to simple and medium complex applications. They offer features like payment integration, NFC, media streaming, augmented reality together with virtual reality taste, and much more. They normally take more than ten months to complete. The minimum cost for developing complex mobile apps begins at $50k and can go up to more than $500k.

How To Find The Best-Outsourced Service Provider?

You must consider several things while looking for the perfect outsourcing company. You should check if the organization is providing a project manager for a streamlined application development process. Also, check if the outsource app development cost is affordable and if they can provide maintenance of your app as well.

You can find an outsourced software development company through different means. Check out these popular options to find the best service provider for your business product.

B2B Directories

Business To Business (B2B) directory is the easiest way for finding your favorite outsourced company. These directories group outsourced mobile app development companies by customer’s feedback, experience in developing mobile apps, and location. Do not overlook the customer’s review and feedback section while looking for software companies.

Freelancing Platforms

If you are looking for a single resource with a specific skill set, freelancing websites might come in handy for you to hire an outsourced app development partner for your business. You can hire an individual or a team of outsourced resources for fixed-price or hourly rates to work with you. However, a detailed interview is required to fully validate the experience and reliability of your favorite resource.

Technology And Dev Blogs

Experienced developers are running their blogs related to trendy technologies for mobile/web applications development. They regularly share their development experience with tips for helping beginners code. Check out their portfolio and validate their expertise in combination with your app idea. If they can meet your requirements, you may confidently communicate with them.

Evaluating The Expertise Of Outsourced Resource

For now, let’s say you have prepared a list of developers to employ and have chosen the type of outsourcing service, what you are going to do next?

Assess the expertise level and professionalism of the outsourced service provider. This is the crucial part of employing a developer’s team for your business application. This is where you will be analyzing if the team can meet your requirements within time and budget or not. A better approach for testing your outsourced team’s expertise level is to go through their portfolios and focus on satisfying the following aspects.

• Is there any attractive project in their portfolio?
• Does their expertise level meet your project requirements?
• Is there any technology they have worked on which is related to your project?
• Do they have developed any projects for a similar industry like yours?
• Is there any review or testimonials available on their portfolio? What other clients are saying about their skillset?

If the answers you found satisfies these aspects, you can move forward by narrowing down the list of developers. Now you can get in touch with 3 to 5 of the most appropriate team players and schedule your interview with them by discussing some potential topics with them including but not limited to:

• Field experience in similar apps development for the same niche
• Prototype obtainability before the actual project starts
• Methodologies they use for routine projects
• Communication cycle with clients and tools and medium for communication
• Details about current technology stack they use
• Details about their work culture
• Details about the most common principles you’re interested in to know more about them

Get the App Starter Kit. 
Enroll in our app development course. 

Hire an app consultant to get your app designed & created. 

Learn how to make great app screenshots.