How much does it cost to develop a mobile app? This is one of the most pressing questions asked by new app entrepreneurs. Yet you never get a clear answer for it. The most repeated answer is ‘It actually depends’.

This is so frustrating! How am I supposed to build an app for my awesome idea, when I don’t even know how much would it cost?

The problem is there is no correct answer for the above.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a House?

To give you an analogy that might make it easier to understand, think of it as building a house. Let’s say you want to build a house with 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, and 2 bathrooms. You go to the builder and ask him how much would it cost?

What do you think will be his reply? Certainly, not an absolute number. I hope not!

He would ask for more information. How big is the land? What’s the room size? What kind of fittings do you want? What material is to be used – bricks, glass or wooden? And so on.

What Determines App Development Cost?

The same thing applies for app development cost. There are so many variables involved that the answer can vary from $300 for a re-skinned app to $200,000 or more for a full-fledged app with backend database, server configuration, social media integration and user management portal.

The cost of app development is basically equal to the number of hours put in by the app developer multiplied by the hourly rate.

App Development Cost = No. of Development Hours * Hourly Rate

Anything that impacts either of the above two variables i.e. development hours and hourly rate will have an impact on the cost of app development. These two variables depend on the following 3 factors:

Mode of app development Geography of the app developer Complexity of the app

Let’s look at them one by one.

Geography of the App Developer

Geography of the App Developer determines the Hourly Rate. If your app is developed by someone in developed countries like USA, Australia, UK, etc. your cost would be much higher as compared to a developer in developing countries like India, Eastern Europe, Philippines, etc.

The below chart from Statista gives you the median hourly rate across different regions.

The median hourly rate varies from as high as $150 per hour in North America to as low as $11 in Indonesia. However, the quality of the app development also varies in a similar manner.

Note that these are just the median costs. It’s not uncommon to find higher quality developers by paying more than the median cost.

Costs for Android app development also vary in a similar manner. Though costs for Android development in North America are a little higher than iOS, they are nearly equal to iOS in other regions.

Complexity of the App

While geography of the app developer impacts the hourly rate, the complexity of the app effects the number of development hours. The more the app’s complexity, the higher will be the number of development hours and thereby higher will be the development cost.

But if you are not a developer, how do you determine the complexity of the app? Can you identify one app is more complex than the other by just looking at it?

App Development Cost Estimate from Framework

Yes, you can. The following framework by Andreas Ley can help you make an educated guess about the complexity and consequently the cost of the app. You can also visit his website which has a calculator to allow you to get an estimate of your app’s cost.

Note that these costs are just estimates and the actual cost might vary from the above. But still, it helps you make an educated guess.

Your takeaway from the above framework can be that an average iOS or Android app with 10 screens consisting of basic features (In-App Payments, Push Notifications) costs around US$ 24,000.

Also, with an increase in the above features like multiple platforms, no. of screens, general functionality, maps, data, etc. the overall cost increases.

Oozou has another great calculator to estimate the cost of your app.

App Development Cost Estimate from Other Apps

Another way to understand the app cost would be to know the costs of the popular apps like Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Uber, and others. Then base your answer on this information.

However, none of these companies disclose the actual costs that went in building their app. Luckily, experienced app development teams around the world have analyzed these apps. They have estimated their cost based on the number of hours required to build these features.

Credit: Djangostar, TheAppSolutions, Indeedma, CleverRoad, SteelKiwi, CodeMentor for the above estimates.

From the above data, we can gather that while a simple-functionality app like Instagram would cost around $100,000, a medium-functionality app like Whatsapp would be near $200,000. Whereas, a high-functionality app like Facebook (consisting of both Facebook app and Messenger app) would be north of $400,000.

Also, to be kept in mind that a simple looking app like Uber can cost higher due to different apps for passenger and driver. While the individual apps cost less than 100K, the overall cost exceeds $150K.

One thing to be noted is that these costs are based on North American hourly rates of $150 per hour. For other geographies, the cost can be estimated based on the fraction of developer cost for that respective geography.

You will notice that the cost in the first estimate via framework ($25K) is quite lower than the second estimate ($100K). The difference in cost is due to multiple platforms (iOS and Android), higher quality, support for both mobile and tablet, support for more OS versions, higher security and backend server support.

Mode of App Development

Mode of app development is the method that is chosen to build your app. There are 4 main types of models that are used.

1. Outsource to an Agency

This is the most expensive option and is mostly used by large companies to get their apps developed.

The advantage is that your headache is minimum as you are handheld by an experienced team of designers, developers and project managers. The disadvantage is that you would end by shelling out $200 to $300 per hour.

HowMuchToMakeAnApp has a great agency cost calculator for your app in case you want to go this route.

2. Outsource to a Freelance Developer

This option is cheaper than the agency option. However, your costs can vary drastically ranging from $150 per hour in North America to $11 per hour in Indonesia.

There are various online freelance platforms available such as Upwork or Freelancer for hiring a developer. Note that if you want a good quality app, you should choose a developer in the range of $50 per hour.

These platforms have plenty of low-quality developers. So, you should be careful with your screening process. The best way to check would be to give a small sample of work (like adding Facebook SDK to a standard template) and test the output yourself.

Further, when you are sharing crucial information like your app idea, have a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) in place, for legal protection.

3. Develop It Yourself

Assume you want to create a very basic app that takes 40 hours of work. You hired a good developer from Upwork at $50 per hour (to contain your costs) still, it costs you $2000.

But what if you don’t have that kind of cash?

One option is to get your hands dirty and learn to code. This is by far the cheapest option. The only costs you have to incur would be the developer’s fee which is a one-time payment of $25 for Google Playstore or an annual payment of $100 for Apple iTunes.

However, it would take you minimum six months even to come up with a basic version of your app. Also, your app’s quality would be much lower as compared to an experienced developer or agency who have spent thousands of hours perfecting their trade.

In fact, whether to code or outsource your app is one of the major conflicts faced by beginner app entrepreneurs.

4. Use an Existing Template and Then Outsource

But what if you don’t want to learn to code or wait too long to launch your first app and neither have the money to outsource to a freelancer? Don’t worry! There is a fourth option available.

That option is to ‘flip’ an app using an existing template. This is also known as Reskinning.

You can get templates on mobile marketplaces like Code Canyon or ChupaMobile for as low as $20. Then hire a developer for $100-$200 to add your own secret sauce and use a free-tool like Canva to design your icon and graphics.

Using this strategy, you can get your app published for as low as $300, which is 10% of the original cost.

Conclusion

Whew! That was a lot of information to be given in one blog post. I am myself feeling a little light-headed.

Hope the above information helped you get some idea regarding the cost of app development. I don’t believe you will become an expert at pricing apps but surely after reading this, you won’t be taken for a ride by a dodgy developer.

I have mentioned the key takeaways from this post below:

The cost of making an app depends on 3 factors – the mode of app development, geography of app developer and complexity of the app. Among the 4 modes of app development, the cost increases from left to right in this order: developing it yourself, using an existing template to outsource, outsourcing to a freelancer and outsourcing to an agency. App development costs vary dramatically with the geography of the app developer ranging from $150 per hour in North America to as low as $11 per hour in Indonesia. The more the complexity of the app, the higher will the cost of building the app.

To get a ballpark idea of the cost of building different types of apps have a look at the chart below.