Wonder how much does it cost to make an app? That is the question everyone thinks about when looking for ways to create an app – a mobile, web, or standalone product. The app development cost varies based on many factors.
The app development cost ranges from $40,000 to $300,000 and more.
It depends on the app types, technologies, development team, and many other aspects.
In this article, we will provide you with comprehensive information on what goes into the app development cost, how we usually estimate the solution cost, and the rough estimation of a popular app. Want to know how much does it cost to develop an app like TikTok? Make sure to reach the end of the article to get the details!
How Much Does It Cost to Make an App Worldwide?
According to industry research by Clutch and Good Firms, the app development cost depends on its complexity:
- A simple app costs around $40,000 to $120,000;
- A medium app price ranges between $120,000 and $200,000;
- A complex app cost can take from $200,000 to $300,000.
So, to answer the question of what the cost of developing an app is, let’s count the average price. You will need approximately 80,000$ to create a simple app, 160,000$ for a medium app, and 250,000$ for a complex app. But as you understand, it depends on many factors so let’s see what goes into a more clear solution development estimation.
Factors That Determine App Development Cost
An application is a complicated entity that consists of many logical connections and rules. The end-user has a set of business tasks that must be implemented in the app. Such a task forms a variable amount of logical connections. The more tasks, the more connections.
At some point, there are too many connections and dependencies, so without a comprehensive software architecture design, further application development is impossible. And every such iteration increases complexity and requires special expertise.
Both factors are directly related to the application development cost. Below, we want to discuss such factors in detail.
There are many logical types of applications. Some have 3D graphics, others include advanced AI, and so on. But like anything else, there are various classifications, and some of them are united under common names. It is always good to refer to global market providers like Apple or Google.
For example, Apple offers a great app classification based on:
- App goals;
- App target audience;
- The scope of application development.
It applies to both mobile and desktop platforms.
Read also: How to Make an Educational App Like Duolingo?
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App Type
Let’s discuss platforms later, but now concentrate on app types and how much an app costs depending on its type. Each category represents some sort of content and directly affects the app development cost. We all understand that calculators are probably less development and time-consuming compared to social networks. Unless you’re building an alternative to a complex computation environment like Mathematica.
Now as we see app categories we can try to come back to the types of apps. In general, app types are a cross-category set of features within a selected application.
Classic Mobile Apps
Classic mobile apps are applications that utilize default market interface guidelines. They are lightweight, easy to use, and mostly rely on some sort of backend to fetch required data.
The Paprika Recipe Manager 3 app is a great example of a classical mobile app. There are no complicated mechanics, only listings, organizers, photos, reminders, and similar content. Usually, it is easy to develop apps of such a nature. The biggest time-consuming part is a backend (if needed) and third-party integrations, like social sharing, payments, leaderboard, and other services.
If you ask what a mobile app development cost is, the answer would be from $40,000 to $100,000.
Interactive Apps
Interactive apps are a recently popular approach to creating an application and attracting more attention from the target audience. It is quite similar to classic mobile apps. But instead of text and photos, developers use more animations, artistic UIs, 3D objects, and some sort of close-to-real interactions, when you need to place some parts using gestures. The idea behind it is to make an application immersive for the end-user and present content as it is in real life.
A good example is the 3D Engineering Animation app where developers decide to explain some engineering processes by using realistic 3D models and animations. This way users instantly understand how things work and there is no need to read blueprints and texts.
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Another example is the well-known Uber app with fewer default interfaces and more interactive parts. The main element is the map where the end-user sees locations, cars, and ETAs which instantly gives a good understanding of the situation.
In terms of app development costs, this type is more complicated. But only due to content and interaction mechanics. UIs are usually more complex and need bigger design and development efforts to be successfully implemented. The selected types also often use backend and third-party integrations.
So, what is an interactive app development average costs? The bottom line is $15,000 going further to $50,000 and more.
Web Applications
Web applications are a fast-growing trend that involves presenting the whole application on the web. These days web applications are almost identical to applications for computers or mobile devices.
A good example will be the Google Docs web application, an online competitor and, in many senses, the successor of any computer or mobile-based word processor application.
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Generally speaking, web applications tend to copy the user experience of installed predecessors. Like any other application, in most cases, it requires a back-end part to function properly. Compared to installed applications, usually web apps are cross-platform and widely accessible from the most popular web browsers and platforms. This gives more flexibility to users.
How much does it cost to create a web application? Different proposals offer a range from $40,000 to $300,000 starting from a simple website to a comprehensive web platform.
CAD & Design Tools Apps
CAD and design tools apps are another type that from the beginning may look like a sub-type of an interactive application. But you better separate those, as CAD apps are usually way more complicated and require more skills from the end-user.
This type is not only about Photoshop and Autodesk 3ds Max. There are also many other things like Home Design 3D Outdoor/Garden app where less prepared users can do their home design in 3D. Also, there are many examples of image editing free online software like the Snapseed app.
As you can see, those are a bit more complicated than regular interactive apps. Most of such apps require at least simple training to operate.
If you ask “how much does it cost to build an app” meaning CAD applications, they are way more expensive than the previous ones. This is because they consist of many more interfaces and a lot of logic in core features, like creating 3D models, and editing photos and similar. The price tag for such an app is usually high and significantly depends on the core features’ complexity.
So, how much does it cost to create a CAD design tool? The app development price range varies from $55,000 to $380,000.
Virtual Reality Apps
Virtual reality apps are the most promising type, but still undeveloped from a hardware point of view. We all know about VR. The hype started when Google released Cardboard and turned every mobile phone into a simple headset at a price of less than $10. After that, the industry started to grow fast, especially in games, training, and simulations.
The biggest difference from other apps, except games, is that VR requires building a 3D environment. Otherwise, the experience will be limited and thus not immersive.
Another thing is that VR applications require different controls. In VR you cannot use traditional navigation, because you’re literally inside the app. So you need to use your hands to navigate through the environment. Those two factors affect the app development price the most. Apart from that, there is nothing complicated and the rest depends on the amount of content and app complexity as in any other application.
What’s the cost of a virtual reality app development? The price can range from $40,000 to $150,000.
Augmented Reality Apps
Augmented reality apps, like VR apps, are pretty new but already widespread. If you have an iPhone 14 or a newer Apple smartphone version, you have all the required tools to try the AR experience. A bit worse situation with Android devices, but the list is also growing – take a look here.
Besides mobiles, there are standalone AR-ready devices like Microsoft Hololens or Magic Leap. Mobile AR solutions are usually way easier to develop compared to standalone as the last ones require the use of special hardware. At the same time, mobile audiences are mostly regular consumers, not enterprises, which gives you the ability to cover more users.
Often in mobile, AR is used as an advanced feature for an existing application. For example, you can shop online as usual, but be able to see desired goods on a real scale at your home like an IKEA Place app offers. There are many other applications of augmented reality apps. For instance, the Modiface app helps users to apply cosmetics with AR in real-time and instantly see the result.
As you can see, there are many AR applications. In general, it is pretty simple to develop an AR app as there is no big difference between an interactive app and an augmented reality app. But the devil hides in details – everything depends on the purpose of your app and the amount of content there.
So, what is the augmented reality app development cost? The augmented reality app cost shows a big range starting from simple implementations to complex feature-reach, custom-built apps – from $40,000 to $300,000.
Video Games App
Video games are also applications that don’t have any common design patterns compared to classical apps. Interactive apps are closer to games in many aspects. They utilize 2D and 3D graphics with optional gamified mechanics. There are many classified subcategories for games like action games, adventure games, hyper-casual games, and many more.
Games development cost depends on a category. Another crucial element is game mechanics which affect everything in the game – from graphics to sound and narrative elements. Each game is unique and its belonging to a particular category is a close guess. Games are harder to estimate as each one has something different.
There are many common mechanics and concepts across all games. For example, according to Wikipedia, there are different camera approaches. Each one has a defined set of properties and functions. Quite often other modules have something in common as well. Separating ordinary and special mechanics in games helps with the estimation process.
How much does it cost to create a game app? This is probably the hardest question and there is no clear answer as simple games can cost just $40,000, while action-adventure video games cost up to $300,000,000.
AI Applications
Artificial intelligence is not just a technology, the increasing amount of applications are built around AI in whole or in part. AI elements are used in almost all spheres of our life. As an example, Bank of America develops a chatbot application that helps its customers.
Often AI is a part of another application, where the main functionality is not connected to artificial intelligence but utilizes its capabilities for assisting in some other processes. For instance, the Youper app monitors the user’s health and AI provides some suggestions. Here artificial intelligence is a value proposition, so the application is partially built around the AI idea.
The cost of AI applications depends on two factors. The main factor is the complexity of a task. Another one is accuracy – if it is okay to make 30% of errors, it is easier to develop such a solution compared to one with less than 3% of accuracy. So, the more complexity and accuracy you need in your business task, the more time is necessary for developers to teach the system to operate correctly.
Some parts of AI are simple to develop, so the AI app development cost is more than adequate. There are many tools and libraries already implemented with many required techniques, so developers can concentrate on business logic, not infrastructure. For example, Core ML is a good base for primary and simple AI models.
So, how much does it costs to create an AI app? From an integrated artificial intelligence solution to an AI-rich application the app development cost range varies from $40,000 to $300,000.
Backend
Backend is also an application, but it is invisible to an end-user. At the same time, it is the brain of almost any app. Without a backend, it is impossible to maintain a consistent database or perform complex calculations in a matter of seconds.
Another valuable feature is verification. If you need to process payments in your application, it is a really bad choice to do all the logic on a client-side application. Any application accessible by a user can be easily compromised and data affected. The only way to do it securely is to build a backend application that will perform the whole logic and only receive information from the client.
From the standpoint of the app development cost, the backend or the server is the most complicated and valuable part of most applications. But it all depends on the amount of logic you anticipate to process. If it requires executing only a few operations you can easily use something simple like Microsoft Azure where you can make only one call to your server and use it to restore purchases, for instance.
Another great example is Google Firebase. You can build the whole ecosystem for your application or a game with just a small amount of effort. In case you need something even bigger, like a social network or hard-loaded element of your application it is better to make a custom-built system, based on SDKs and platforms like Microsoft or Amazon.
So, how much does it cost to build a backend? Any app brains cost more compared to frontend or other app parts, so the backend development cost varies from $40,000 to $100,000 for some complex solutions. Please take into account that besides the backend part to make a successful application you should create the app design, frontend part, and implement any other integrations.
Platforms
There are so many computing devices in the world and each of them requires some sort of operating system (OS). Let’s try to understand which are the most popular and where your business should put more attention to reach most of the future customer base.
At the first glance, we can divide all platforms into mobile and standalone ones. There are way more platforms and OS but let’s concentrate on the typical software consumer market that mostly requires the use of these two types.
Mobile Platforms
Per the GlobalStats research, there are two most popular mobile platforms:
- iOS, market share 28,8%.
- Android, a market share of 70,48%.
There are other players, like Samsung, and Microsoft, but their roles are insignificant and their share is below 1%.
Market share is a great indicator, but it is not effective to measure only those values. There are more Android users, but iOS developers earn more money, despite this fact.
Modern approaches help developers to build cross-platform code without a huge impact on the app development cost and performance, receiving native-like applications as a result. But in case you decide to release to a specific platform, don’t forget that each country has its cultural preferences. For example in the US, iOS has a major share of around 61%, and Android only nearly 38%. But it may be different for other countries.
Another thing is store fees for each OS. Most of the mobile applications are shared through the official mobile application store, for iOS – App Store and Android – Google Play. Each one has its fees that are also different for each country due to different tax and monetization policies.
Web & Standalone Platforms
Now we know mobiles, but any ecosystem requires web and standalone platforms to operate properly.
Web usually runs on mobiles or standalone OS, but each web browser is a system in the system.
According to another research, there are 5 major web browsers on a market:
- Chrome with a share of 69%
- Safari – 15,2%
- Edge – 4,1%
- Firefox – 2,7%
- Opera – 1,2%
The biggest problem when you develop a web platform is that you usually need to support all major browsers or at least the most popular ones. Another thing that you need to make sure of is whether your application is operational on all popular screen resolutions. And here is the issue: there is no dominant one, so you need to support as much as you can to present the most user-friendly digital solution.
| Screen Resolution | Percentage | |
| 1 | 1366×768 | 9.80% |
| 2 | 640×360 | 9.74% |
| 3 | 1920×1080 | 7.16% |
| 4 | 667×375 | 4.89% |
| 5 | 896×414 | 4.24% |
| 6 | 1024×768 | 4.03% |
| 7 | 812×375 | 3.32% |
| 8 | 780×360 | 3.15% |
| 9 | 760×360 | 2.86% |
| 10 | 1440×900 | 2.76% |
Also, you shouldn’t forget about the platform, as Chrome on Windows and Chrome on Mac OS are a bit different species.
Web applications are usually more complicated in development as opposed to mobiles as they require more effort to support a wider range of hardware and software.
Last but not least platform is a standalone one. There are 3 major market players:
- Windows with an 76% share. A huge dominance but at the same time an insane variety of hardware and software.
- Mac OS with a 16% share which is insignificant compared to Windows, but has a predictable amount of hardware.
- Linux with a 5% share is mostly used among technical experts. Sometimes organizations use it as a secure, stable, and free substitution for Windows.
Occasionally, it is better to build an application solely for standalone platforms. Usually, it is way easier to reach better performance within reasonable development time as developers have straightforward access to the hardware. Heavy and professional applications like Photoshop require a tremendous amount of hardware power and optimizations. There are mobile versions or browser substitutions, but still, standalone platforms are the best for such kinds of apps.
Technologies
There are so many technologies on the market that help businesses to operate properly.
We will try to outline only a few major ones for each platform. You can dive deeper into this topic in another article about the frontend tech stack. Additionally, you can see how some backend technologies help to reduce web app development costs in our article.
Cross-Platform Technologies
When it comes to a release it is better to capture as much audience as possible, but there are so many platforms. The software development market has a solution – cross-platform development kits. The main task of those kits is to help businesses reduce development costs by helping their development team code once and publish everywhere.
There are some downgrades to such solutions. Usually, the binary size is larger, and sometimes UI looks not so “native”, but on the bright side you can deploy on all supported platforms.
Let’s have a look at a few SDKs:
- Unity3D is a great cross-platform development platform. With this technology, your development team can code once and deploy to all supported platforms with only minor adjustments for platform-specific features. Unity3D can deliver highly interactive applications and games because it was created as a game development engine. Over time, it has transformed into a custom software development platform. Unity3D has a flexible license model with an affordable price tag.
- React Native is another great example of a cross-platform development solution. The huge advantage of this technology is that it uses Javascript as the main language, which is extremely good for web developers. Another advantage is the binary size and operational speed that is close to native ones. At its core React Native uses a direct call to native libraries, so the user interface will look the same as in a pure native application. Also, it is possible to use all native functionality. It is a Facebook-supported open source project, so there is no feed for licenses.
Mobile Native Technologies
Any native solution is the fastest one and the best supported. The only downside is that it is not a cross-platform solution. So your team needs to build a separate solution for each platform which can cause various issues on different platforms. Maintenance and support are more expensive compared to cross-platform solutions. But if you need high-performance applications, it is the best choice.
There are two big players: iOS and Android. Each one has great development tools, documentation, and support.
Web Native Technologies
Web-native technologies share the same pros and cons as mobile-native ones. The web is capable of covering everything, supported by browsers, and platforms. There are a few major players on the market:
- React
- Vue
- Angular
- Bootstrap
Desktop Native Technologies
Desktop platforms are the oldest ones. Those are Linux, Windows, or Mac OS. They have appeared far before mobile and web ones. That is why there are so many solutions – cross-platform and native, low-level, and high-level. With desktop platforms, developers have access directly to the hardware, which is why it is possible to do whatever you want. The downside of that is security, which can be compromised, because of such an amount of freedom.
Read also: Security Testing or Top 10 Software Vulnerabilities
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Each operating system has its native tools, usually well-supported and documented.
If we are talking about cross-platform desktop technologies, the top list will be:
- Xamarin
- Electron
- JavaFX
Features and Functionality of App
Every application is a unique set of features. But there is a lot in common among all applications.
Let’s try to outline common features and elements:
- Authentication – users must be able to use the application and store user-specific data. The only way to do so is to register and log in afterward. But they should also be able to retrieve the forgotten password. In some cases, it is more convenient to use Facebook, Google, and Apple ID as single sign-on authentication methods.
- Payments & Subscriptions – most of the applications rely on some sort of payment. Taxi, pizza ordering, reservation, movie tickets, newsletters, and many others. All of them require the implementation of some sort of payment system. Usually, mobiles provide special in-app purchases, that are available through the market APIs. In some cases, it is PayPal or just a credit card.
- User profile – any user wants to see their profile and be able to review personal information, like orders, favorite videos, or any user-generated content.
- Notifications – it is hard to imagine the modern world without some notifications and sometimes it is extremely crucial to review them. Imagine that your taxi has arrived and the only way to know it will be by checking the app every 10 seconds. Insanity, right? It is way easier to receive a reminder that will inform you when to meet a driver.
- Social integrations – any human being is a social creature so it is always great to share your order with your friends or just notify the closest ones about your taxi route.
There are many more common features, but those are the most popular ones.
Besides common things, there is always core functionality. Any application has its own, unique core idea and implementation. For TikTok, it is the ability to view videos. For Uber – taxi ordering.
Each app development process is separated into some sort of stages. It is the best approach to performing software development. Otherwise, there is a huge risk to receive an incomplete digital product and users won’t benefit from using that particular solution.
Let’s try to define those app development stages:
- Concept. It is extremely important to outline your idea on a paper and think through the whole solution before coding. You need to know every aspect of the future app before the actual app development gets started. Create mock-ups and wireframes. Do not worry, usually, the concept gets changed many times during future app development. It should evolve, but without it, you risk losing your budget and not receiving the expected result.
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Once you have a concept, there is no need to rush into full-scale app development. Create an MVP to test your idea with a small budget. Show something that can present your core functionality, but without implementing the whole infrastructure. For example, if you’re doing something similar to TikTok application, there is no need to implement a whole client-server infrastructure at the beginning, which is capable of hosting millions of users. You need to impress your investors and usually it is a small group of people. Drop server side if possible, re-upload the content, and show only the selected piece of functionality. The smaller, the better. But make sure it is partially operational.
- UX/UI Design. If you and your investors are happy with the functionality and idea, go ahead and outline the user experience and interface design. At this stage, you will have a way better idea about what you’re doing and how your users use the app. Do not forget, that you already have a small representation of your product.
- Development. At this point, you have everything to start the actual app development process. Be careful as well, perform in small iterations of 2-4 weeks. Each iteration must lead to a testable result. In this way, you will be able to adjust and tune small features to deliver more finished functionality to your end users.
- Beta Testing. Once you have the solution on your hands, don’t rush to release it. Test it, using beta groups. Adjust the solution and do the final tuning. Like any dish in any Michelin restaurant, your application requires a final touch.
- Release. You’re ready, it’s time! But again, release in a selected region first, get usage data, adjust, and only after that release the app worldwide.
- Analysis. Once your app is available on all required markets, get user data, analyze it precisely, make major conclusions, and get valuable insights.
- Upgrade. Further app development and adjustments are a never-ending process. Once you get insights, you may want to polish your application. But if you’ve reached this step, you’re definitely on a road to success!
Any application looks like a house built of so many materials and features. Make sure you have a good foundation. Make sure it is beautiful, cozy, and warm. Do not forget to support it and it will shine for you!
Backend Infrastructure
The backend is the core element of any ecosystem. All business logic goes through it. Typical backends hold the most crucial information that will be used in business logic afterward. Data like user accounts, subscriptions, payments, and other sensitive information can’t be processed on the front-end side.
The backend or Server is not a single entity when we are talking about software development. Usually, it is the whole ecosystem of solutions that works in perfect harmony with each other.
The smallest backend solution may consist of a business logic application (the server) and a database. The database can hold the required amount of data for a long period. The business logic application will process the data and come up with results that will be displayed to a customer via any front-end solution. This minimal setup can guarantee any functionality.
Hosting
But in real life setup is way more complicated. First of all, even with a minimal solution, you need to host it somewhere. It may be a local machine or a dedicated server.
In recent years, cloud solutions are way more popular as they are flexible and capable to host as many instances as you need at the moment. There are many cloud hosting and computing providers. The biggest and the most widespread are Microsoft Azure and Amazon’s AWS. Each one has a set of tools and protocols created specifically for hosting and processing any amount of data required by an application.
Read also: How to Optimize IT Infrastructure and Unlock the Full Cloud Potential
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Scaling
When it comes to any business, the ability to rapidly adjust a whole system is crucial. Most of the backend solutions are designed to sustain a definite amount of users/operations. Some of them are extremely flexible and can grow and shrink in a matter of seconds based on actual demand.
Processor time and amount of storage define the price that the owner will pay to a hosting provider or invest in their hosting solutions. It is extremely important to allocate the exact amount of resources you need at the moment so that your business activities could generate more money than they consume.
Operational Speed
As hosting price depends on processor and storage usage it is smart to optimize your backend to be effective and thus reduce the hosting costs and maximize your profits. This is the part where architecture matters a lot. Clean and business-oriented software architecture defines the number of pitfalls of your solution.
With bad architecture, developers ineffectively use the processor. End-users receive the worth of experience as delays and the amount of error will be bigger. That way creates a real threat in the digital world we have now. It can cost you the whole business. Bur, the well-implemented architecture will reduce waiting times to the smallest possible rate. The processor will be used effectively, so you can increase system efficiency and generate extra revenue.
Protection
Any system requires protection from fraud and direct attacks. A backend is a sensitive part of any ecosystem as it is responsible for overall data storing and processing. It is the headquarters of any business.
Organized criminals and amateurs will try to find a tiny breach in the system and use it to steal the required data. They can use them against your business in the future or against your users.
Backends usually are the most protected places. It is achieved by a set of tools and concepts, starting from the system architecture, and ending with splitting the server into many servers to make it harder to compromise the whole system at the same time as many other approaches.
When you think about any application or software solution, there is a backend behind it. It is the brain of the entire ecosystem body and thus must be treated seriously by high-level experts only.
App Development Team
It is possible to create the whole application alone, but as everywhere it will be quite hard. Our brain is a powerful tool but united we can do amazing things faster, more stable, and better in general.
Let’s describe the minimal team that can guarantee the highest possible quality within a reasonable amount of development time.
The core element in every team is communication. Without proper communication, it is impossible to achieve something.
The person who handles it is called the Project Manager (PM). This role helps to organize the whole project workflow – what tasks will be implemented in which order and when. This position requires responsibility for the final result. Usually, those are precise people who can explain, listen, and motivate the entire development team.
Another position called Business Analyst plays an important role as well. It is a supportive position for a PM. This person knows the project entirely, each aspect, and every small mechanic, and helps others by forming detailed project documentation and tasks.
At this stage, we have a person who can glue everyone and set up internal and external communications. A person who can explain exactly what to do. It is time to add someone who will develop a solution – a developer. In our minimal setup, we strongly recommend allocating at least one developer per solution module or technology.
For example, a pizza delivery application consists of 4 parts – Backend, Web frontend, iOS, and Android apps. So the best development setup will be:
- Backend developer (Node.js, .Net Core, Django)
- Web frontend developer (React, Vue, Angular).
- Mobile cross-platform developer (React-Native, Unity3d).
In some cases, it is better to allocate full-stack developers, who are capable of doing everything at once. It is a viable option and at times you get even better quality, but speed will be affected.
Once you have roles that can develop a solution, you still need someone technically educated who can lead developers, this is a Technical Leader. This person will be able to coordinate with all other developers, help with some tough moments, and most crucial – develop and maintain the whole technical architecture.
Without it, there is a big chance that developers will be ineffective and can create a spaghetti code. That term means that code will be so chaotic, complicated, and not synchronized with other parts that at some point it will be impossible to maintain it and there will be only one way – rewrite everything from the scratch.
Hopefully, you can get at least one technical leader on board. Once overall development is in progress, and you as a client start seeing some first releases, there will be not so many features, but a solution will start shaping.
At this stage, you will feel a lack of supervision in terms of potential issues and bugs. The role that can help you is called Quality Assurance Engineer. Those people are extremely precise with small details. Manually or with help of coding they can find many potential issues before the release and in this way improve the overall quality and end-user experience.
This team is minimally viable for any kind of project, it is possible to use only developers or exclude some roles, but in that case, no one will be able to guarantee the required level of quality.
Read also: Behind the Scenes of Development Process: The Visartech Workflow
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How Do We Estimate the Cost of App Development?
Any relationship starts somehow. When it comes to B2B, sometimes it is even more intricate compared to other areas of our lives including personal.
How Businesses Can Find The Tech Partner
Imagine you have a budget of a couple of thousand dollars and you need to find someone who is capable of developing an app you need. Sounds like a complicated quest, especially when it is your funds.
One of the best things about working in the service field is that you meet a huge amount of people and new ideas almost every day. Each such meeting has a full story behind it, not talking about new ideas you see.
There are several stages in B2B relationships. Let’s try to outline those and add some best practices for businesses looking for technology services providers:
- Discovery
Client and Contractor must find each other somehow. There are several ways to do it.
- Google search. Use Google and find relevant information there. Make sure to explore the content written on a site, and ensure the information listed in the blog is up-to-date and relevant. Try to google it as well, see if it is not stolen. Check portfolio examples, not everything is listed in a public portfolio due to confidential agreements, but there must be some cases and something relevant to your needs.
- B2B Reviews and Rating platforms. Clutch or Goodfirms are trendy, and there you will find many businesses with actual reviews and ratings. Reputation is everything, so try to work with those who care about it.
- Freelance websites. One of the most popular websites is Upwork. It is harder to find big companies there, but it is really easy to find a small team that can develop your idea for a reasonable price.
- First Contact
Once you have found and formed a list of desired companies, it is time to reach them. Try to outline your needs clearly, and show some relevant examples. After you have written an inquiry, check the response time. If the company is well organized and interested in new opportunities it will answer within 24 business hours.
After you get the answer, the best is to set up a live meeting with representatives and discuss your idea. Remember, any responsible company will propose to sign an NDA, so you can freely share any crucial information that will help to understand your idea better and deliver better communication back to you.
- Task Qualification
So you had a meeting with the potential contractor and explained the entire idea. Any business owner often has only 2 questions – how much does it cost to develop an app and how long will it take to implement everything. Any reasonable contractor must provide you with a rough estimate that will outline the preliminary scope of work and present you with some budget expectations.
At this stage make sure the other side understands your needs, make a few meetings, evaluate them as much as you can, and put your attention on their working process. If the team is precise even at this stage, you have good chances that your application will be implemented successfully.
- Proposal
Before you can move forward with a selected app development team, you need to get a formal proposal. The proposal must explain to you every aspect of future collaboration: how much will it cost, how long will it take, which resources will be allocated, what development stages you should expect, and the more the better here.
- Legal Negotiation
Now is the time to sign a legal document that will lay your app development agreement on paper. It is strongly recommended to have such a document. Without it, you’re not protected at all and in case your contractor is not trustworthy you will have no arguments.
Another point is your IP protection. Any service company must be responsible for protecting your IP. It must be clearly outlined in the agreement. Don’t forget, you pay for the service, everything accomplished for your money is your property. Make sure ownership transfer is also mentioned in the agreement.
At the same time, you cannot put everything in the agreement, no need to spend thousands of dollars to move the agreement back and forth too much. Make sure basic things are protected after it is all about trust, as in personal life.
- Kick-Off Meeting
A partnership is in the act. All app development agreements are signed, prepayments are made, time to start a project. At this stage make sure you know who to write to. There must be one contact person who will help you in case you get lost. Usually, it is the same person who has been the main contact point during the sales process.
Meet the team. Maybe there is no need to meet everyone, but you must know responsible people and leading managers/developers. Again, put your attention on process organization. If it is well performed and you feel that you’re properly notified, it is a good sign that again shows – you’re on the right track.
- Support
A well-organized communication process with the app development team is a good sign. The finely-tuned teams usually have everyday meetings. You can attend those, but we wouldn’t recommend that as a client must be responsible for the strategy, not tactics. So better attend a weekly meeting, where strategy takes place.
Even after a release, you will need technical support. Make sure you have a contact person who can help you at any moment, or even sign an additional agreement for it.
The main goal of any relationship is to build trust between parties. If there is no such emotion at any stage it is trouble. Try to resolve it as early as possible. If impossible, you can always exit the relationship. Don’t wait until they become toxic, it is more expensive to fix problems.
App Development Costs Breakdown
Let’s concentrate your attention on the process of app development costs estimation. An estimate is a complicated process that requires deep expertise in a field on one side and a great understanding of the project on the other side.
Communication in the estimate is everything. Every business provides an estimation of effort for its customers. When you buy a subscription for your music, you see the estimation that allows you to understand how much exactly you will need to pay.
When we’re talking about B2B software development estimates, it is not so easy to calculate the exact app development cost. Any project has myriads of features and variables, not talking about third-party libraries and services.
To receive a good app development costs estimate, a person who calculates it must be aware of all those things. Usually, such a task requires an estimation team. The best practice is when a team that is going to perform development estimates the effort. The business analyst gathers all required information from the client, writes documentation, and sends it to the app development team after the approval of the client. The technical team estimates every feature.
Good manners here is to receive a range. In software development, it is hard to say something for sure as many variables are on the table. The experienced team will give you two numbers for each feature – Optimistic and Pessimistic. It’s not possible to predict everything. The optimistic figures are formed based on experience, and the pessimistic ones – on assumptions.
In this way, the company can give you as a client a good understanding of the future budget and their vision of the project development.
App Development Budget Template: TikTok Example
The ratings of the TikTok app are impressive. So we couldn’t miss the opportunity to estimate this extremely popular app. Let’s see what goes into the app development cost of an application like TikTok.
The rough estimation of an app can be represented in the hours or days of app development. The TikTok app includes the backend, frontend, design, and content for web and mobile apps.
We have conducted research among popular software providers platforms like GoodFirms and Clutch. As a result, the software product development hourly rates on average start from $50 and go up to $120 worldwide.
This way, the usual working day may cost from $400 to $960. Surely, the hourly rate of some US, UK, or Australian developers may be around $150 so the working day may cost close to $1200.
For now, let’s assume that the calculated working day cost is $400 and use it as a foundation for all estimations.
Backend Development Estimation of the TikTok App
Let us share our rough estimation of the backend development part first. Below you can see the main features of this stage and approximate development time which is represented in the working days for your convenience.
| Tasks/Features | Optimistic, Days | Pessimistic, Days |
| Infrastructure setup (for the high-load social network) | 10 | 15 |
| Performance monitoring setup | 10 | 15 |
| Database setup | 8 | 10 |
| Authentication | 5 | 8 |
| Users accounts | 10 | 15 |
| Social graph (connections between users) | 15 | 20 |
| Content suggestions | 5 | 8 |
| Content storing (CDN) logic | 10 | 15 |
| Messages | 5 | 8 |
| Voice/Video chat | 15 | 20 |
| Content administration (reports) | 5 | 8 |
| Analytics | 10 | 12 |
| Total | 108 | 154 |
As you can see, the backend part of such a video streaming app may take from 108 to 154 working days to develop. So the cost of backend development may vary from $43,200 to $61,600.
Frontend Development Estimation of TikTok App
The frontend part of an app is what users see and how they feel about your digital solution. Let’s see what usually goes into this part and how many working days may take for the frontend development of web and mobile TikTok apps.
| Tasks/Features | Optimistic, Days | Pessimistic, Days |
| Login/Registration | 5 | 7 |
| New feed (recommendations) | 10 | 15 |
| Video playback | 10 | 12 |
| Audio playback | 5 | 6 |
| Social features (friends, likes, etc.) | 15 | 20 |
| Text chat | 3 | 5 |
| Voice chat | 10 | 12 |
| Video chat | 15 | 20 |
| Content posting | 5 | 6 |
| Notifications | 3 | 5 |
| Share content outside the app | 5 | 6 |
| Reporting | 2 | 3 |
| Total | 88 | 117 |
In general, the frontend part of such an application can take from 88 to 117 development days which reflects in the cost range from $35,200 to $46,800.
Design & Content Estimation of TikTok App
Design is what captures the user’s attention and makes them stick to your software product. Check out how much time the design and content part may take in the whole development process.
| Tasks/Features | Optimistic, Days | Pessimistic, Days |
| Overall design | 5 | 7 |
| Content for the Content editor | 15 | 20 |
| Project documentation | 20 | 30 |
| Total | 70 | 90 |
So you see the figures for the design app development stage that hit the cost range from $28,000 to $36,000.
So how much does it cost to build an app like TikTok?
The total cost varies from $106,400 to $144,400 with the app development rate of $50 per hour.
How long does it take to create an education app like TikTok?
If you count the estimated working days, the total TikTok-like app development time will take from 266 to 361 working days which is a little bit more than a year. So if you wish to create a video streaming app like TikTok, consider starting right away when there is such a big hype around.
Team Structure
The best development team structure for a TikTok-like app is the following:
- Project Manager
- .NET Lead
- .NET Developer
- DevOps
- QA Engineer
If you wish to see a more detailed estimation of such an application or get the one for your unique application, just send us a message.
Development Cost Estimations of Other Popular Apps
Look through the rough estimations of top-rated apps and what goes into their functionality:
- Metaverse – the cost of building virtual space for collaboration
- eLearning app – a guide on Duolingo-like app development with a rough estimate
- Social media platform – the prices for creating the Clubhouse app
- eSignature software – the development costs of market-leading eSignature software
- Investment application – a detailed overview on making a trading platform like Robinhood
If you are interested in finding out more information about the development steps of any other app, check the How-To category in our corporate blog.
Сonclusions
Creating an application may be a complex task. Just like calculating how much does it cost to make an app varies based on many factors. Understanding the influencing aspects can make it more real and desirable to create an application that matches your business goals.
Of course, there are many choices to be made while you are in the process of your software solution development, but with a professional development team that has vast experience in the sphere and can back you up at every stage, you can be sure to focus on the strategy part of the deal.
Wanna get a more accurate app development calculation? Connect with our experts now!
