Keeping up with mobile innovation is not for the light-pocketed. While leading a mobile app development project, budget is always one of the key considerations. Rolling out the best possible digital product for the least possible price is the best-case scenario for every mobile app development team.
But, meeting the ever-evolving expectations of consumers and changing market trends can create skill gaps. Filling them for a project by hiring onshore, in-house software developers can prove to be both expensive and inefficient. This is why partnering with a Techigator AE and working with their offshore teams to accelerate project initiatives is a highly viable option for enterprises and startups.
Understanding the Mobile App Development Cycle
Before jumping onto budgeting, you should understand how the mobile app development cycle works and what complexities you may encounter. The cycle involves various stages, each with its unique set of considerations and challenges. A basic mobile app development cycle begins with ideation or brainstorming. Once the teams and stakeholders have a comprehensive vision of the app they’re trying to build and the requirements they’re trying to meet, they move towards design.
Once designers create a well-structured and practical UX flow and wireframe, they collaborate with app developers to initiate the app development cycle. During production, QA engineers test various features, functions, security, and the overall performance of the app. After the completion of the development and testing cycle, it’s time to deploy an MVP to test the waters. Based on user or stakeholder feedback, the mobile app development team might add or remove some features before deploying the app to its respective platform.
Choosing the Right Mobile App Development Platform
When planning out an app development project, managers often opt for native app development. It enables them to add more features to their apps, scale them, and effectively leverage the platform it’s deployed on. However, developing native apps for both iOS and Android is both time-consuming and expensive.
Companies that want to target both Android and iOS users side with the third option – cross-platform app development. Even though Native apps developed on iOS and Android offer superior performance and user experience, cross-platform development brings better flexibility and versatility.
Usually, mobile app development teams use frameworks and languages like Flutter, Xamarin, and React Native to build cross-platform mobile apps from a single codebase that runs across multiple platforms. This makes cross-platform development relatively more affordable than native mobile app development. You do have to compromise a bit on performance and features, but if it’s a sacrifice you’re willing to make, cross-platform app development is the perfect option for you.
In-House Recruitment vs. Partnering with an App Development Company
Let’s say you’re developing an e-commerce app with plenty of AI features, like pretty much every other tech-forward company these days. If your in-house team doesn’t comprise AI engineers or developers, hiring such a resource who must also have a certain level of mobile app development expertise can be super costly. In such cases, companies not only have to offer a market-competitive salary but they are also required to provide certain benefits. Permanent, in-house recruitment doesn’t fit everyone’s requirements and budgets.
For such companies, partnering with a mobile app development company in Dubai can be an excellent alternative. Rapidly filling skill gaps efficiently, and cost-effectively is just one of the upsides of outsourcing your mobile app development workflows to a reliable partner with an extensive team of developers, designers, testers, and project managers. It also enables better, more sustainable growth and innovation.
Moreover, when you outsource your mobile app development project, you can determine a tentative budget and deadline, and a reliable partner will surely exceed expectations. However, you can’t put a certain dollar value on your project. There may be certain complexities that might add to the overall project expenditure. Therefore, it’s better to connect with a mobile app development consultant to get an estimate for your project. They might also suggest a better approach that can help you cut down on the overall app development cost and achieve better outcomes.
Factors to Consider While Budgeting a Mobile App Development Project
Even if you’re partnering with an iOS or Android app development firm, you should know how to intelligently budget your project so you don’t get ripped off. So, if you’re wondering how much does it costs to make an app in Dubai, well, here’s a detailed breakdown of factors you should consider:
Platform
The cost of developing an Android and iOS app differs significantly. The platform fees and other expenditures involved in building and launching an iOS app can be significantly higher compared to Android. Moreover, opting for any one of these platforms can also hinder your app’s reach. Building mobile apps natively for both these platforms is the way to go for companies without budget constraints.
But, light-pocketed startups and SMBs looking to target both Android and iOS users on a budget, can opt for cross-platform app development. The only downside is that cross-platform apps built using Flutter, Xamarin, or React Native don’t offer enough features and scalability.
Features
The equation to calculate how much it costs to build an app is pretty basic; the more features you add, the higher the overall app development cost. Features do improve the user experience of your app, but it also makes the development cycle more complex and time-consuming. It also leads to increased QA efforts. Therefore, based on the complexity level of your project, here are the app development cost estimates according to Turing:
- Developing a simple app can cost between 60,000 and 120,000 AED.
- Developing a moderately complex app can cost between 120,000 and 180,000 AED
- Developing a highly complex, enterprise-grade app can cost over 265,000 AED
Technologies
Adding advanced features requires enterprising technologies. For instance, AI is an extremely in-demand technology and companies are striving to add it to most of their offerings to realize intelligent automation. But, AI development can amplify the overall app development cost significantly. It’s good to be optimistic, but we recommend adding technologies and features that don’t hike your estimated mobile app development cost.
Cutting Down on the Overall App Development Cost – 4 KILLER Tips!
Navigating a mobile app development project can be financially draining. So, here are some useful tips that’ll not only help optimize your budget but also enable you to realize high-quality delivery:
Consider Cross-Platform Development
Frameworks and languages like React Native, Xamarin, and Flutter enable you to build mobile apps that work flawlessly on both Android and iOS. But, considering that such apps are built on a single codebase, they can’t offer the same level of functionality and design brilliance as compared to native iOS or Android apps. It’s also pretty difficult to scale such apps. If these downsides are potential dealbreakers for you, we recommend opting for native app development instead. It will hike up the overall app development cost, but will also provide great returns.
Outsource Intelligently
Indeed, outsourcing your app development projects to a reliable development company can help you spearhead your digital transformation initiatives on a budget. But, doing it strategically can safeguard your investments and digital assets. Check for reviews before opting for any company. Also, book a session with their consultants to discuss the scope, budget, deliverables, and timelines of your budget. Remember – ensuring transparency fosters a healthy relationship between you and your outsourcing partner. Plus, make sure you have control over the critical aspects of the development project.
Embrace Agility
Look for mobile app development partners that embrace true agility while navigating their workflows. Agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban, promote iterative development, continuous feedback, and adaptive planning. When you break down your app development cycle into practical, manageable sprints and prioritize deliverables based on value and urgency, you drive better optimization, resource allocation, and cost-effectiveness.
Foster Code-Reusability
You may know how to build an app from scratch, but doing that every single time will only make your workflows redundant. This will ultimately result in a hike in your overall app development cost – and this is completely avoidable. You must encourage your in-house team and outsourced resources to write reusable, scalable, and modular code that you can use for other projects as well with just a few tweaks. You can also harness open-source platforms like GitHub to extract pre-build components and features and seamlessly integrate them into your apps.
Bottom Line
Intelligent budgeting enables business leaders to optimize the overall app development cost without compromising on quality, time-to-market, or user experience. So, make sure you analyze all factors and consult a reliable app development agency to extract the best possible value from your investments.
