Explanation Behind The High Costs Of App and Website Development. How To Reduce These Costs
When a company or individual plans to start a project, they inevitably face the need to estimate the cost of software development. Questions like “How much?” and “How long?” are usually asked.
Traditional (or Custom) Software Development is a big case. According to app complexity, a price tag for a simple app with basic user interface ranges from $40 000 to $60 000. The cost for a well-coded and well-designed customized website starts with $5 000.
Of course, we can assume that the main thing is profitability: if the product makes real good money, then why not invest? However, the financial side for start-up entrepreneurs is decisive.
Let me explain, why the costs of app and website development are so high and how to lower them.
Why mobile and web development is so expensive
There are two main reasons for that: the cost of hiring developers and the amount of effort needed to go into the project.
The cost of hiring developers
Developer is one of the highest-paying jobs. Developing requires specific skills and knowledge. It takes years to become a pro in web, software development, AI, or whatever. The work of such specialists is, accordingly, expensive. The average salary for a Software Developer is $72 642.
In addition, one person is unlikely to be able to build qualitatively an entire soft, so developers work in teams. Typically, the team consists of several programmers, designers and a product manager.
The average salary for a Graphic Designer is $46 638 per year, for Product Managers is $115 968 (in the US). If it is a website development, then it is also advisable to have a SEO (the average salary is $52,631). Furthermore, there are lease costs, server maintenance, licenses, marketing and other expenses. Thus, the cost of a team is quite high.
The amount of effort
Effort is how many hours of work need to go into a project. The more complex the project is, the more effort it will take to develop it and the more it will cost.
In case with app development, it can take anywhere between 3 and 9 months to develop, depending on the complexity of the app and structure of your project:
- the amount of screens;
- UX/UI;
- database integration;
- methods of authorization;
- possibility of setting up a user-generated content;
- integration with payment systems;
- level of data security.
Development time also depends on the platforms on which you will launch the app. Nowadays, iOS and Android have 99% global smartphone market share. Android has 72.44%; iOS has 26.75%.
At the same time, Android development by an equally skilled developer generally takes around 20% longer. The main concern of each mobile app development company is a need to make a compatibility test for hundreds of devices. It is obvious that launching an app only on one platform means missing out on a significant market share.
There are three ways to develop an app: native app, cross-platform app, and web app
A native app is a standard software program that is developed for use on a particular platform/device. Deciding to launch a native app on different platforms is going to add a pretty hefty chunk to a development bill. Every mobile OS has its own development tools, that will require you to hire separate teams for each of them.
The second approach is cross-platform apps. It is about single application that runs on multiple mobile platforms instead of developing different app versions for each platform. Since you’re only working on one code base, you don’t need to hire multiple teams and can, therefore, cut development costs. Time-to-market for each platform is shorter than if you had to create each app from scratch.
No-Code as an alternative to traditional development
The digital world has an alternative to traditional software — No-Code development.
No-Code tools allow non-programmers and programmers to create software using a graphical user interface, instead of writing code. It’s a way to create websites, apps, internal tools for IT-companies, almost anything. All this can be done without any prior programming knowledge. No-Code tools allow you to build native iOS and Android apps or Web apps literally like a Lego constructor.
There are many No-Code tools that can help you with most of the tasks: from interface design to data analytics and integration with other services. What used to take a month, now takes a week or two.
Even app development will get much cheaper and faster. In some cases, using these tools, costs can be reduced by up to 10 times.
Unfortunately, No-Code may not be applicable in all cases. Extremely complex or unique systems still need to be programmed in the traditional way. However, No-Code solutions can be applied in about 80% of cases.
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