Asking “What is the Cost of Developing an App?” is not the right question!
What’s the real cost of creating an app? We’ll break down the mystery of app development expenses. We’ll explain why figuring out the cost of digital products can be tricky and share tips on how to handle that uncertainty while keeping your eye on the final outcome.
Many people who want to improve their business using digital tools often ask us: “How much does it cost to make an app?” This question usually comes up early in our conversations, and it makes sense—you’re interested in a service, and you want to know the price to plan ahead. However, we have to tell you that with digital products, it’s not that straightforward.
Each product we create is unique, and its cost depends on various factors. In this article, we’ll discuss some of these factors and explain why determining the cost of app development isn’t so simple.
We’ll also show how the accuracy of our estimates is linked to the stage your project is in and provide reasons why you should understand and accept this idea.
Can’t put a price on application development
How expensive is it to make an app? Does it matter if it’s for a phone, a website, a smart device, works on different platforms, or is a special tool just for our own use? Nope, not really. That’s because no matter what kind of app it is, we create it from scratch.
Now, don’t get us wrong – ready-made solutions are a good option too. In fact, we often suggest to our clients that they look at what’s already available before deciding to go custom. There’s a huge market with many products that might suit all sorts of business requirements.
When you choose to work with a digital agency and start creating an app to match your goals, customers, and position in the market, know that we will be making it specifically for you.
A lot of times, when you come to us initially, we and, no offense, even you might not know exactly what that “something” is going to be. Here are a couple of reasons why it’s really hard to answer the straightforward question “How much does it cost to make an app” and determine a price for a unique digital product that we’re just starting to create.
Reason #1: We don’t know the shape and form of your future product
If you approach us with just an idea (your great idea, but still just an idea), there’s a whole process before we actually make the app. In that process, we turn your idea into a plan, and then we start developing the app. Knowing the average cost of an app in the market won’t really help at this stage.
We can only give you a more detailed estimate when we know exactly what we’re going to build. But even then, it’s not entirely reliable because there’s no fixed price for each feature or technology.
It’s important to realize that the answer to “How much does it cost to build an app” depends on the stage your project is in. The further along it is, the more accurate our estimate can be.
How much does it cost to make an app? It depends on when you approach us.
Despite the uniqueness of each product and project, we’ve simplified the design and development process into five stages:
1.Your Brilliant Idea:
- Your idea is just in your head or jotted down on a napkin.
- Cost estimation accuracy: very low. It’s hard to determine the cost at this early stage.
- We recommend a discovery workshop to figure out the next steps.
2. Product Brief:
- You’ve worked on your idea, possibly with an in-house team, and have a five-page document with features.
- Cost estimation accuracy: low. Despite the brief, a discovery workshop is likely needed for precise needs.
- Comparatively, it’s like knowing you’re building a house but unsure if it’s a treehouse or a 12-bedroom villa.
3. Technical Specification:
- You’ve been through the discovery stage with another partner, and you have a roadmap.
- Cost estimation accuracy: medium. We can provide a good estimate for design based on your specification, but development costs are still tricky.
4. Wireframes:
- Your idea has a defined shape, but the design isn’t final.
- Cost estimation accuracy: high. We can likely estimate development and design costs based on wireframes.
5. Final Screens:
- You’re at the point where you just need someone to build your product.
- Cost estimation accuracy: very high. At this stage, we can provide a highly accurate estimate for development.
Clients come to us in various phases, and their needs depend on how far along their product is. The graph below illustrates the correlation between client needs and the accuracy of cost estimation at each respective stage.
When you’re working on creating a custom product that fits your business needs perfectly, you go through this process. Each step depends on the one before it, and you only figure out what to do next while you’re already moving forward. It’s a bit like unlocking achievements in a game.
For a high-quality product, there’s no skipping this process. If you’re talking to a development partner who makes big promises early on and claims to give you the exact cost for the whole app development process, our strong advice is this: run away and don’t look back. Either the development cost will shoot up unexpectedly due to unforeseen issues, or you might end up with a half-finished solution that doesn’t fit the market and doesn’t meet your users’ needs. This would just be a waste of your app development budget.
Reason #2: You’re not paying for the product itself; you’re paying for competencies
Creating an app, or any digital product, isn’t a job for one person. It typically involves a big team with different skills. First, you might need strategists to make sure your product fits your business goals. Then, there are solutions architects to plan the technical stuff, designers, a specialized development team, and testers to make sure everything works well without bugs.
Depending on your app project, you might not need all of them, but you’ll likely need a few people with the right skills. When you pay for a product, you’re really paying for the expertise of this team and their years of working together on different projects.
When you work with us, our team becomes your team. There are different ways we can work together, but the one that gives you the most value is a dedicated team. This team has all the experts your project needs, and they focus on your project alone for as long as needed.
It’s like having an extra part of your team. We bring the skills you might not have, and we all work together towards one goal. This way of working gets the best results because the team is committed to the project for the long term. They work together in the same place, talk about the project, and go through all the ups and downs together.
We believe in being transparent. In this setup, you have full control over the team – you decide how big it is, how it’s set up, and you’re always aware of the budget. You can make changes whenever needed.
If you want to see what we can do with a dedicated team, you can check out one of our case studies, like the Philips MasterConnect app.
Reason #3: Because it’s about goals and business outcomes, not features
When you start making a digital product, you want it to serve a clear purpose. You want it to be valuable for your business and your customers. Creating a product like that is more than just putting some basic features together – it involves a process called discovery.
To understand your target audience, what your users want, your competition, and what’s happening in the market, we usually begin projects with discovery workshops. With the help of our product strategists, you figure out what your future product should look like before we actually start building it. This is the only way to ensure you don’t end up making something that nobody wants, which would just be a waste of money.
Reason #4: Because we’re agile
In our job, we use agile software development methods. Being agile means following a set of values, principles, and practices that focus on being flexible, working together, and developing things step by step. This helps our developers adjust to changes in requirements, reduce risks, and create top-notch products.
Choosing agile gives your product a better shot. The numbers say it all: only 9% of agile projects fail, while 29% of projects using a traditional waterfall method don’t do so well.
Once again, having average cost estimates won’t be very useful here. When we use agile, we can’t give you a fixed “app development price” (sometimes not even a cost range!) because your product should stay flexible. The whole idea is to be adaptable – if things change, you adjust your plans. It could be in response to user feedback, unexpected events (like the pandemic), or keeping up with what your competition is doing.
Asking “How much does it cost to make an app?” doesn’t really fit with the agile way of thinking. As we’ve mentioned before, when the project’s scope is tied to a budget, you’re limiting your ability to adapt to changes.
The bucket story or why you need to shift your perspective about costs
It might seem a bit strange, maybe even a little confident, but based on our experience working with clients starting their projects, we’d suggest shifting from asking “How much does it cost to make an app?” to focusing on what you can achieve with the budget you have.
Think of it like a bucket. Instead of asking how big the bucket should be to hold 10 gallons of water, let us fill it with as much water as it can take.
When clients are open about their app development budget, it’s much simpler for us to find a solution that gives them the most value. It might not be a complete product that takes months to develop and goes through all the steps we talked about earlier, but it could be a workable product with a few essential features you can build on in the future.
How much does it cost to make an app? Let’s find out together
We know that creating custom digital products can be expensive. And to make things more challenging, it’s tough to answer the common question “How much does it cost to make an app?” and give an exact price right from the start. Hopefully, the reasons we explained earlier help you understand this tricky concept and the whole development process, from idea to reality.
The tech world is changing fast. To keep up, you need to be adaptable and accept that old, rigid ways of working on projects don’t really fit. We might need to change our plans halfway through, and that’s okay. In fact, it’s the only way to make sure what we create brings real value to you and your business.
We’ve discussed how the cost estimate becomes clearer as the project goes on. Want to share what stage your project is at? That’s completely free. Schedule a call, and let’s figure out how we can make the most of your budget.