How much does it cost to develop an app? This question is among the initial ones that are being asked when any app development projects begins. App development cost estimate is what sits at the very bottom of any mobile app development budget. Quite often a company owner finds himself trying to answer these two questions – how much does it cost to make an app for my business by hiring a professional versus how much does it cost to make an app by myself.

As with any product, an app needs resources. But unlike material things, that resource is time and skills. ‘Time is money’ as the old saying goes and this is certainly true with App development.

A basic App starts at $15K, increasing to $20k – $50k for one of average size. For a more complex App, you are looking at north of $50k.

The estimated TIME of adding common features

The main cost of an App is based upon the time it takes to develop it. We need to consider the volume and complexity of an App. Features and functionalities such as screens, buttons, fields, plus amount of logic required will dictate development time. Complex solutions may require bespoke coding and/or third-party API’s. Standard features on the other hand, can be cut and pasted in, or adapted from common templates.

Surprised? No matter how hard Mobile App Development Companies make you believe developing an app is no child’s play. It takes extended hours, and you must make a lot of people work together. It needs exceptional display of people’s management. I did not even include testing time.

An everyday development team works 40 hours a week. That’s 21 weeks or 5 months for just development. I did not include pre-development and post-development procedures. I assume regular should take around 8-10 months to develop.

App development rates vary from anywhere between $20/hour to $250/hour, depending upon which country you have picked. For this article, I’ll take $50/hour.

Let’s take a look at the common-types apps in the market and how much it takes to develop them. For example, Uber-like apps are in great demands these days.

Cost of developing an app-based ride hailing service (e.g. Uber, Lyft, Careem, Lyft etc.)

In order to estimate the price of the Uber-like app, we should consider the key components of its development and the amount of time they require. What is more, the development hourly rates differ in the regions around the globe. For instance, building an app in North America will cost much more than in the Eastern European countries. Taking the average price of $40/hour for the software development in our region, which is Eastern Europe, let’s estimate how much it will cost to create an app like Uber considering the main parts of its development.

Cost to develop an on-demand delivery app (e.g. Postmates, DoorDash, GrubHub, etc.)

In order to build an on-demand application you may need a cost of $5,000 to $30,000 which is reasonable as compared to other service apps like dating apps, ecommerce, social networking etc. But the price may vary in case you want to customize the on-demand application as per your needs such as adding the rating and reviews option, referrals, promo codes, special offers, payments and mobile wallets.

This trend will soar high in the upcoming days and new advancements will be seen in the field of on-demand applications. Easy to access and use, on-demand applications are quite an interesting and profitable ventures to further work on

Cost to develop instant messaging app (e.g. WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, Signal, etc.)

The cost to develop messeging app will cost you around $50,000- $60,000. This is a ballpark figure and may vary based on the feature list you decide to be embedded in the app. While we are committed to delivering the app at the time and the cost as promised, there can be differences if you demand any scope change during the project development. For instance, if you opt for a chat app like WhatsApp was in its initial days, this quote will reduce to around $30k, but you keep upgrading the feature list, the cost may go beyond $60k.

The cost of development is calculated by the time spent on the various processes that are covered under an agile project management. For a chatting app, For a chatting app, it’ll be like:

UI/UX Design: up to 300 hours
Code development: Around 900 hours
Plus, 20% of Quality Testing and 10% of Project Management
Considering your business idea, we won’t suggest you develop a traditional version of WhatsApp but will definitely help you in building a modern app that’ll be uniquely identified by your users and grow the user base by leaps and bounds.

Cost of developing search-and-discovery app (e.g. Yelp, Foursquare, Yellow Pages, TripAdvisor, etc.)

It allows you to find quickly on the map all establishments you need. And it doesn’t matter what you are looking for – whether for the most luxurious city restaurant or for the gas station. Furthermore, you can read reviews and see the rating of every pizzeria, hotel, shop and any other place to choose the best one.

Yelp clone app should have 4 following main features: activity stream, geolocation-based search, user profile, and reviews and ratings. But if you want to build a really powerful and multipurpose app that should draw potential users, you must add some functions like:

– Social sign-in
– Reservation
– Pictures and video uploading
– Filters integration
– In-app purchases.

Development costs depend on many factors, but we can define an average market price – $50 per hour – for calculation of this hard-working and inspiring process. So, the final price may vary from USD 25,000 till USD 55,000 both for iOS and Android platforms depending on the number of features

 

Cost of developing a photo sharing app (e.g. Instagram)

We will tell you how much does an app like Instagram cost. Of course, two main factors to it would be the timeline and developer rate. App developers charge differently in various countries. With highs and lows, we take the average figure of $50 per hour rate for Instagram-like app cost estimate. Also consider that at QSS Technosoft we offer $30 hourly rate for mobile app development projects.

 

Cost of developing a photo editing app (e.g. Aviary, Photoshop, Fotor, etc.)

In India, the development of such mobile application will cost around $8,000 to $30,000. In the U.S., this amount can be twice higher. Taking into account that about 850 hours are needed to develop an app like Retrica, Aviary, or Photoshop, the whole work will cost minimum $42,000 if you hire specialists from the U.S or Western Europe.