Tricks to reduce app development cost for Startups

The competition in the app market is too high for you to compromise with the quality of your application. But with high quality comes high costs and when we say high costs, we mean it. This may be a reason why most people avoid app development altogether – which, in turn, does more harm than benefit.

The world is going mobile rapidly so it becomes important to make your place in the same world. Businesses have doubled their revenues and sales with the help of their mobile app. So, when you see the long term benefits, these initial investments seem quite worth it.

However, mobile app development costs can still be high for startups since the capital is limited and there is not much to offer. But that shouldn’t stop any startup from reaping the benefits of having an app. For the same, we have figured out some great strategies and mistakes to avoid to help reduce app development costs for startups.

But, before diving into the various aspects of reducing the costs of creating an app, let us first understand a bit about the high app development costs in general.

Understanding Mobile App Development Costs

To offer you a rough idea, the overall budget for creating a mobile app can vary between $35,000 to $250,000, or even more. There are several factors that affect the cost of development such as the location of the app development agency, the UI/UX design process, the underlying platform used, etc. All in all, the more complex your app development project is based on these underlying factors, the more will be the cost.

Let us try and offer you a rough cost estimate and time frame based on the varied complexity levels.

Now, in order to make better monetary decisions, it is important to understand why app development costs are quite high. Well, the answer to the conundrum is that the specific benchmarks to complete a custom mobile app development vary widely. In addition to the scarcity of expert developers that can adhere to your specific needs, integrating modern tools and technologies to be used for app development comes at an increased cost.

The app development rates are further racked up as per increasing app complexity as well as required robustness. The pressure to add high end features, increased measures for backend security, charges associated with adequate app maintenance are a few additional reasons that can justify the high app development costs.

Now, our intuitive guide on mobile app development costs can help you understand the various aspects of costs better and allow you to make finer financial decisions.

Now it is practical to understand that an outsourced tech savvy team that has the required core competency and expertise to build a robust mobile app can offer you both- the adept proficiency and optimized costs, without trading on the quality of products.

[Also Read: How much does it cost to build a mobile app in the UAE]

As a dedicated mobile app development organization that has offered successful mobile apps to thousands of clients, let us now offer you a few strategies to reduce your app development costs.

Strategies to reduce app development cost for startups

Almost all the startups planning to go mobile have been asking ‘How to reduce app development cost?’ Even though the cost of app development cannot be slashed 50% yet there are some ways we can reduce it enough to make it affordable.  Here we will see some incredible ways to reduce the cost of app development for startups.

Build an MVP

Minimum Viable Product or MVP is built with fewer features and at low cost than the original product. You can get an MVP built and release it publicly. You can avoid wasting time and money on building the original app in the first attempt and use the MVP to raise money for your app. Once you do that you will gain profits and feedback to work with for the original product.

Maintain UI/UX simplicity

One of the strategies to reduce app development costs is to go for simple yet elegant designs. A simple UI design is very important especially for new users since adaptation becomes easy. Most apps and websites are opting for a minimalistic design which is extremely cheap to design. Complex designs and too many features will not only confuse the users but also will add unnecessary costs to the project.

Hire skilled testers

If you want to save cost and time then hiring an expert team of testers is the best investment. At Appinventiv, we practice an agile testing process so that there is less cost and time spent on the testing process. This is one area you should invest in properly since it will only enhance the over app experience for the users.

Don’t hurry the process

Most of the time developers hurry the client in order to finish the project early but that may not be the right way. Unless and until you are working with a team of experts, you can’t hurry the development process. The reason is that in case of any mistakes, there will be an extra cost incurred. It will be a wise choice to go slow and deal with each part of the development patiently.

Outsource app development

One of the biggest reasons why businesses outsource is to lower the mobile app development cost. You see, when you get an app developed in eastern nations like the US or Australia, the average hours of development is in the range of $100 – $120, while in the case of eastern nations it is $60 – $80 per hour. The difference is very massive.

Regular troubleshooting

Even after the launch of the app, it will require constant improvements and fixes. Hiring an expert for that would be a good idea since they can provide tips to decrease mobile app development costs throughout the process. Keep in mind that if you hire cheap freelance developers from far away places then you might have to spend a whole lot of money redoing the app in case things go downhill.

Access mobile-specific features

Every device has some built-in features such as the camera, GPS, call options, etc. Employing them into the app may seem a good idea but there are two issues to face. First, not every device has the same features which mean the app may not function for some users. Secondly, adding these features incurs a cost which can be simply avoided if there is no need for those features. For instance, a news app does not need to access the GPS so it can be skipped.

Maintain regular communication flow

We cannot stress enough on the fact that regular and continuous flow of communication between you and the developers is essential. This regular communication will make things more clear for both you and the developers. It also helps in keeping a track record of how the process is going and what costs are being involved.

Use readymade templates

How to reduce app development cost? Go for readymade templates. As good as building things from scratch is, it’s not very cost effective. There are many templates that are present online for use and would fit perfectly with any app. Using these readymade templates will reduce the time and app costs.

Even though readymade templates can help you reduce the overall development cost, it is usually recommended to choose custom app development as per your business requirements. The latter offers you the opportunity of scaling your app as per the changing market requirements that is not possible with apps created from readymade templates. This limitation of scalability increases the probability of complete rebuilds in the future thereby increasing your budget in the long run.

Now that you have looked into various tips to reduce the costs of creating an app, let us move ahead and discuss various mistakes to avoid in order to reduce the mobile apps development costs.

Mistakes to avoid to reduce app development cost for startups

According to many researchers, the cost of actual app development almost always exceeds the budget allocation for the project. There are some hidden costs in the entire app development process that need to be identified and removed in order to reduce the mobile apps development costs.

We tried to find some mistakes that can cause the cost of app development to rise. Let’s take a look at them in detail below.

Mistake 1. Wrong UI/UX and QA testing cost estimates

This would probably be the first mistake that you can make. The cost of UI/UX depends largely on how many devices, OS and features are involved in your app. It also involves the type of designing an app will have. Simple designs and features are less costly than complex designs and too many features.

Another place where the costs increase is the testing stage. For every device and every OS, independent testing is done. For this, it is advised that a conservative number of testing should be done before launching the app. Once the app is launched, the feedback can be used to decide whether further testing is required or not.

Mistake 2. Not taking into account the cost of updates

There is a common misconception that you only need to launch updates when something needs to be changed. In reality, the mobile app needs updates for improving the interface and fixes any bugs. There are also UI tests that need to be run so that the user experience is enhanced.

As per the AnyPresence survey conducted for enterprise apps, it was revealed that 80% of the apps were updated twice a year and some of them were updated twice a month. These apps show great performance and have a high rate of active users.

The mistake made here is that most app startups don’t consider the costs that incur post app launch. So planning for these big and small updates are some ways to reduce app development costs for enterprises.

Mistake 3. Not deciding between native and hybrid app

As a startup, you may not be aware of the difference between a native app and a hybrid app. And when going for app development, knowing the difference between these two types of apps is important. Once you know the difference you will be able to decide which is better for you, hybrid vs native apps. Also, the cost of app development is different for both types of apps.

Well, a native app is built from scratch and is developed for a particular platform. This means that the cost of development will be charged twice, one for Android and one for iOS. But the native apps have high performance and provide a better user experience.

Whereas a hybrid app is built for multiple platforms and gives more of a web app feel. The quality of apps differ from native apps since they’re built for multi-device and developed at the same time. The one-time development method reduces app development cost for hybrid apps.

In this situation, you must be aware of what’s going on with your app. You should be aware of the type of app that you are getting and the costs involved in the development process.

Mistake 4. Ignoring the cost of adding latest features

Sometimes there may come a need to add some latest features to your mobile app and then you will be the inventor of the feature. You can resell it to many companies after licensing it and earn huge profits. But that may also be costly. Of course, the benefits are going to be there but there again comes a factor of cost.

If you ask your developers to build something that hasn’t ever been built in the market before, you are putting yourself in a position of cost overrun possibility. Here comes another issue that the developers can cause. Most developers would not warn you if you are unknowingly adding cost to your app development project.

This is why working with a genuine mobile app development company like Appinventiv is important. Such companies help in finding ways to reduce app development for businesses. These are the companies that any startup should hire for their app development.

Mistake 5. Not considering implementation costs

Even after identifying all other costs, you may forget that the cost of implementation of everything can sneak up and increase your overall budget. For a successful mobile app, we need to add next-gen features and this depends on the type of app. For instance, an eCommerce mobile app will include features like payment gateway, product category, wishlist and a lot more. All of these features will have to be implemented, maintained and improved.

It will be a serious issue to ignore implementation costs since it comes under the hidden costs of app development. To optimize your app development budget, keep in mind that these factors also contribute to the overall cost of app development.

Mistake 6. Changing the product concept

One of the major mistakes that can increase your overall development budget is constantly changing the concept of the product to be designed. After the initial discussion is completed and the project goes into the development stage, changing the product concept altogether is the major reason for an increased development time and cost thereby altering the project deadline entirely.

Summing Up

We hope you have now understood the various tips to reduce app development cost for startup and have looked at multiple ways to avoid increasing your app development budget. It is important to understand that the aforementioned suggestions will only help to optimize your app development costs and you will still have to invest major time, money and efforts in order to create a robust mobile app that can offer you traction in this otherwise competitive world.

The expert team of developers at Appinventiv can help you implement these strategies and mitigate the risk of failures. Staying cautious of these tips, we can create a mobile app custom to your business requirements that will guarantee a maximum ROI.

Our expert developers specializes in launching innovative mobile apps integrated with next-gen technologies and features. Our portfolio for mobile app development includes major global brands and Fortune 500s that have further witnessed immense success in the mobile app ecosystem.

Our intuitive approach helped one of the largest eCommerce brands Adidas to expand its global mobile presence. We created a robust mobile app for the brand that helped them reach a massive user base and witness more than 2M+ downloads and acquire 500k+ new users.

We also helped the global brand KFC to increase its digital presence with the help of a mobile app. The switch to the world of digitization helped the brand with a 28% increase in the conversion rate while witnessing more than 2 million downloads.

Want to get an app developed by the tech experts at Appinventiv? Contact our team of developers now!

THE AUTHOR

Sudeep Srivastava

Co-Founder and Director