How much does it cost to develop an app? The first thing we always say to people is that you can pay whatever you like - you could pay £1 or you could pay £100,000 and anything in between. There will always be someone willing to do it for a given price.
The first thing we always say to people is that you can pay whatever you like - you could pay £1 or you could pay £100,000 and anything in between. There will always be someone willing to do it for a given price.
In the current market there are plenty of options to consider when building an app, such as DIY app builder apps, freelance developers and agency app developers.
What we recommend...
A good recommendation is to thoroughly work out what you need in the app. It will be very difficult to get an accurate price without at least sketches of all of the screens you think the app could possibly contain.
Another guide is whether more complex software functionality is required. For example, does the app require any of the following:
Who is your audience?
Also, do you wish to cover the iOS (iPhone) audience, the Android audience, or both?
The market share in the UK is approximately 50:50 between the two main platforms. Generally speaking, the majority of the code on both platforms will often be the same. However, a lot of the cost goes into tweaking and testing to ensure that the app works on a wide range of devices for each platform.
Whilst Android development is cheaper because it’s less restricted, there are far more device scenarios to accommodate. There are fewer iOS devices that you need to accommodate but iOS has more complexity in its restrictions. Therefore, both platforms cost almost the same again to develop, in some senses. It's certainly not two for the price of one!
Partnering with a developer or a software development company
If you are looking to use a freelance developer or a software development company/agency it is important to research and find out more information about them, some of the facts include:
Apps do not just 'work forever' - they require regular updates as technology and design trends continually change. When partnering with a developer or a software development company, an important component to consider is the maintenance costs. Are you looking for a one-off build or looking to include the annual maintenance fee (and possible future development) included for a number of years?
Promoting and making money from your app
Marketing budget is another important factor if it’s a startup or new product to market. To market to the audience size that’s desired will, in most cases, cost many times more than the software development cost.
It would be easy to overlook the fact that a reliable business plan needs to be modeled to show how development and marketing costs would be recouped or turned to profit.
Just tell me how much!
Without any specifics, we can't give an exact price but prototypes start in the thousands of pounds and delivered apps are in the tens of thousands of pounds to hundreds of thousands of pounds, depending on the needs.
If you would like to discuss your app project more, please call 01442 211999 for a free consultation.