That was the time, where money transfers through mobile phones were just like a nightmare of that imaginary world. No one could have imagined that ticket booking and telephone bill payment can be done through mobile phones only. All this has been possible due to the advent of smartphone applications. With the arrival of modern days, mobile applications are gaining modern touch every day.
Today we are living in an age where our thinking is not possible without the smartphone or electronic gadgets. You would be surprised by knowing the fact that the mobile app industry has shown one of the biggest growths in the last decade by developing apps for iPhone as well as for Android Phones. Thus, I can say, mobile apps have become an integral part of our lives and we rely on smartphone apps more than ourselves.
Due to the rapid growth of smartphone applications, small grocers are also concentrating on mobile apps for their enterprises. They are also thinking to make money through mobile apps. But still, the prime question of these small and medium-sized businessmen is the required money for developing mobile apps and what are the factors that affect the cost of the mobile app.
I have compiled a listing of the top 8 factors that affect the cost of mobile application development so that they can check before developing a mobile application for their enterprise. Let’s check one by one.
1.Custom add-ons:
Custom add-ons like social media integrations for sharing and broadcasting the content affect the cost of the mobile application. Social add-ons like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram have robust APIs for seamless integration. You have to pay some extra money to enable these add-ons into your application thus increases your overall mobile app cost.
 2. Quality Analysis:
Testing the app for any bug is a vital step in the whole mobile application process. This process includes some extra cost and increases your overall development cost. Along with these, after the successful submission of the application on play store, quality analysis, and user feedback also affect the cost of the mobile app.
3. Application Security:
Your app should be protected from hackers. Also, you have to make sure that your application is 100% secure against any malware attack. You have to invest in security tools that help to identify your app from vulnerabilities and ensure app security. Thus, these tools enhance your overall cost of the mobile application.
4. Distribution Channels:
Distribution channels like iTunes store and Google play store charge more than $100 as the licensing cost of your mobile app. But, before the submission of your application, there is a security check that your application fulfills all the standards or not. Thus, increases your overall development cost.
5. In-app purchases:
If you are looking for in-app purchases, you have to pay extra dollars to make your mobile application more engaging. Thus, in-app purchases affect the cost of application development. But, users can avail more content or advanced version of the mobile application through this type of purchasing.
6. Maintenance:
After the development of an application, the next big thing is the maintenance of your mobile application. Sometimes negative feedback comes from the user’s end. So the solution is that you should retain your Software development team for a period of time after development but it adds some extra cost to your budget.
7. Dynamic vs static data:
If the data of your application is coming from the external data source through API, then it will take some time and money to build. But a static app which has all the information on its own will be easy to make as it does not download any content from an external server or source. Thus, a dynamic application always affects the cost of your application development.
8. Localization:Â
Localization is the app feature in which your application will be usable to everyone. It does not depend on the location that the user lives in which country. The feature shows the different information in different countries according to the geographic conditions and adds some extra cost to your overall development.
Conclusion:Â
Thus, the above explanation tells that the cost of mobile application development depends on several factors like quality, localization, maintenance, security and so on. But along with these, you have to focus on your target audience, mobile platform, app complexity, the theme of the application as well. Along with these, don’t copy the design of your competitors. You should make your unique design so that you can get maximum benefits and high ROI.
