The future of mobile is the future of online. The mobile device has quickly become the easiest portal into the digital life. Every single query of either personal or professional can be solved through technology and mobile devices. Mobile app development plays a crucial role in making the lives of easier and efficient. Not a single person needs to live clueless now if he/she is a bit literate. Bigger the use, the bigger the cost. To make such an app that provides everything a customer needs costs more because mobile app development goes through lot many stages before it becomes a full-fledged app.
For an owner of the business, it is important to analyze that what are the uses of the application in the business and is it worth the buy. Therefore cost factor is also predominant in that case. Thus, it is important to go through the factors that affect the costing of mobile app development. The same are:
Application platforms
Costing depends on what kind of programming we are using. It is paramount to decide on the first place that does the business need native programming or hybrid. Native programming means the software or an application built, which will run on the particular platform only. Making different applications for different systems would surely take more amount of time. This is because the iPhone uses Objective C or Swift programming language, Android uses Java programming language and Windows uses C# programming language. The different programming languages with different devices would take more time and the cost would be doubled or tripled if native programming is chosen.
On the other hand, hybrid programming is chosen with means it combines the elements of native and web applications and therefore can be used in any device. If the developer builds an app by using PhoneGap once to prepare the app for all platforms then the cost would reduce substantially. Thus it is very important to know which programming is needed to use in an application according to the business use.
Standard vs Customization
The second factor that affects the cost of mobile app development depends on what kind of application the business needs. Does the business need an application that has a lot of customizations available or it can work with the standardized application? A standardized application usually includes navigation, animations, changing screens, and other app user interface elements. The more customizations that are made in the application, the more costly the app would be. Using the standard convention, the app development cost will be cost effective.
In-app purchases and security
If the application is used by any business, it would contain either the mode of payment or would ask for the private information that should stay confidential. The developer of a mobile application should be extra cautious with the calculations and security. In-app purchases and payment i.e. dealing with money add more time to development process because time is needed to make sure that calculations are accurate and the application is secure. Even after the completion of development, the developers should make sure it is tested thoroughly before kept in use.
Number of app screens and its complexity
The number of screens in the application is directly proportional to the cost it takes to develop an application. More screens the app has, more work will go into building the app and would cost more. The same way complexity in building the app screen is also directly proportional to the cost of developing an app. Cleaner screens developed that uses simple navigations in standard app conventions would have good customer experience and will also be cost effective. Busy screens with complex navigational elements will make the app development expensive and will also reduce customer experience.
Simple and complex animation
Animation factors that are used during the development of an app are also one of the components that should be considered during the costing of an app. Customized and complicated animations would take substantial time in development. Also, complicated animations would slow down the app and will frustrate the user. Therefore, it is advisable to stay away from complicated animations that do not serve any practical purpose and use simple animations.
Adding extra feature
Adding extra features like keep the application working when the device is not connected to any connectivity. In short building an offline support functionality or handoff feature which means sharing or transferring data and information between different devices. There are many other extra features that are not provided in the standard convention but are asked for. To add extra features the developer would need extra time which would add a substantial cost to the project.
The list of following factors is surely not exhaustive and it is in hands of the mobile app development company to set the costing of an app according to its features. Therefore it is very crucial for the business owners to look into every different aspect of app development.