How much does it cost to develop a mobile application in 2019?

Mobile app development costs in 2019 - the ultimate insight to mobile app development prices

The ultimate answer to the question is, that it depends. In our blog we are aiming to give an overview of the available possibilities to startup founders, entrepreneurs and enterprise IT managers, who are working on finding their digital product team for their next mobile app development project. The simple answer is, that an app development can cost anywhere between 10 000$ and 100 000$ (or even more), the easiest way to find out how much your project will cost is to request a quote from a developer agency.

For those who donesn't like to read too much

• simple utility apllications - around 10 000$
• medium complexity application - 30 000$ - 75 000$
• complex / corporate digital transformation mobile app project -100 000$ or more

Short overview of how development pricing works

The basic formula for calculating the cost of developing a mobile app has two variables. Hours spent developing the app, and the hourly rate. Hours spent developing the app depends on the complexity of the project, and the expertise of the team you are hiring. The hourly rate is mostly determined by three factors: location, team size, and expertise level of the developers.

Cost = time spent x hourly rate

For example a project that needs 500 hours to get developed, with an hourly rate of 100$, so it would probably cost you 50 000$.

The general rule of thumb is, instead of finding the cheapest team, you should focus on finding an experienced agency matching your size and budget. You can probably have a mobile application built for 4 000$, but it won't be the same quality as if you are spending 40 000$ for your software project. There are also several factors that have effect on the price, such as developer team location, team size, and relevant experience. The easiest way to find out how much your project can cost, is to request a quote from a reliable mobile app developer agency.

Factors that affect application development costs

In order to determine these factors, we have researched developer hiring sites such as clutch.co and upwork.com There are several factors that are affecting development costs, one of the most important factor is the location.

1. Location

Our researches proved the fact that development prices are the highest in the USA, followed by the UK, EU, and the cheap software factories in Asia are at the other end of the list. According to our research you can encounter the following average net hourly rates at the different regions.

• USA - 150$ / h
• UK - 125$ / h
• Wester European Union - 100$ / h
• Easter European Union - 60$ /h
• Asia - 15$ /h

Average hourly rate for an experienced developer by region

The hourly rates can also vary in each region, state by state in the US, and country by country in the EU region. Development costs in the Silicon Valley and New York are significantly higher, than in the other regions of the US.

2. Team size

Team size is also an important factor, when it is coming to pricing. Smaller teams, or freelancers are usually cheaper, and prices are growing as a company is getting bigger. In usual, you can differentiate between 4 sizes. 

• freelancers
• small teams, usually 2-5 friends working together
• medium sized agencies, with 15+ people in the team
• the big ones, software factories with 100+ people in the team

The bottom line of the costs are usually found amongst freelancers, as you are hiring a single developer. There are some outstanding freelancers available on the market, the only problem with them, is that they can be hardly replaced, if anything goes wrong. If they are having a holiday, and  can't work, your project is going to go on hold. Also, in most of the cases they are working on several projects on a time. The same applies for small teams, that are usually overloaded with projects, so if the developer dedicated to your project goes absent, it is very hard to replace them. In these sizes, there are usually no managers either, so you have to manage all project related issues yourself. Starting with medium sized agencies, you are probably getting rid of these kind of problems. Bigger teams usually have a proper management, and if the person dedicated to your project goes absent, someone from the team will take over, and your project will not be on hold for 2 weeks or so. Of course, medium sized agencies and huge developer companies cost more to hire, but you are receiving more stability and reliability for your money.

Average hourly rate based on team size. Medium sized agencies and huge software development enterprises provide more reliability

3. Complexity of your app
The complexity of your application has a major effect on the price of the app development. Basically we can divide the application in three segments in terms of complexity.

• simple utility apllications

For example a simple utility application (eg. calculator) with no backend, and administration site can be built under 80 - 100 hours. Calculating with an 100$ hourly rate an app like that would cost around 10 000$.

• medium complexity application - most of our customer requests are falling in this segment.

A more complex application with registration, payment, and one major functionality takes around 300 - 500 hours to develop. In these cases you have to consider, that not only mobile app will be built, but a properly developed backend and an administration site is also needed most of the time to properly manage the data handled by the application. An application like that would cost around 30 000$ to 50 000$ for the client.

• complex / corporate digital transformation project

Managing the whole digital transformation of an enterprise, like moving a traditional service to the web, or building a new digital product can consume lots of developer hour. These kind of project can easily consume several developer hours. As an example, you can take a team of 2 developers working on a project for 5 months, full time. In general, hiring more developer would result in lower hourly rates, but if you do the calculation, the expesnes can easily reach even 200 000$.

Conclusion

As we've seen, there are several points, that should be considered in order to determine the price of a mobile application development project, and it can cost 10 000$, 100 000$, or even more. Our recommendation is, instead of trying to get hundreds of proposals, try to determine the price range that you are willing to spend, or which is dedicated to the project by the management, and try to find a partner accordingly.

• If you have (nearly) unlimited resources

If you have unlimited resources for a project, your company has probably received some serious investment, or already generating enough revenue to work with expensive partners who are offering reliable services for a high hourly rate. You can consider working with an international digital agency.

• If you are looking for the best price / quality ration

As most of the clients are looking for the best quality at a reasonable price, medium sized agencies in the EU region seems to be an optimal choice. They are able to provide the proper quality for a reasonable price, and what is also important, the EU has the proper legal background, to provide broad range of warranties and support to customers. Developers in the EU region are using English as a main communication language. At least, you should try, and request a quote, to see if your project is a match for Mindtech Apps, or mail us with your project outline.

• If you are on a tight budget

If you are willing to spend less than 15 000$, both EU and US agencies would probably be out of your scope. In this case you can either consider to hire a developer team from Asia, or find a proper freelancer on some of the freelancer hiring sites. 

Want to know more about or team? Read more about Mindtech Apps ->

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Tamas Kralik // CEO at Mindtech Apps // Info-Bionics Engineer