Developing an app can cost you a lot if you don’t find yourself a reliable mobile app development company in the USA. When developing an app, you need to consider a lot of other elements. As the demand for creative apps is gradually increasing day by day, the value of developers is also increasing. When hiring an app development agency, everyone wants low prices and high quality, regardless of whether the agency is located in the USA, UK, India, or Ukraine.
Mobile development is a long and complex process that you want to do right the first time. Each step from requirements gathering, definition, investigation and wireframe to the final touch of UI/UX, Q&A testing, launch and troubleshooting. Every step is important in the product development and development process.
So, you want the best app development company your budget can afford. Mobile apps are the essential digital solutions that modern consumers expect. But, you have to be sure that your budget can get the job done. So, if you are in the US, this article will help you see how much app development will cost you and the best way to go about it.
- How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App in USA?
- How Much Does it Cost to Have an iPhone App Built?
- How Much Does it Cost to Build an Android App?
- How Much Money do You Need to Start an App?
- How Much Money do Apps Make Per Download?
- How do Free Apps Make Money?
- Is it Difficult to Create an App?
- How Much Does it Cost to Publish an iOS App?
- How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Mobile App Developer in 2022?
- Can an App Make You Rich?
- Why do Most Apps Fail?
How Much Does it Cost to Develop an App in USA?
According to Salary.com app development hourly rates, which currently hovers around $50 / hour, the US app development price cost for a app with a basic user interface and a set of basic features ranges from $16,000 to $32,000, Medium complexity app development project costs between $32,000 and $48,000 and, finally, a Complex app project would require at least $72,000 investment, if not more.
Read Also: How to do a Cost Estimate For iPhone App Development?
Having a ballpark for how much different stages of app development may cost is what allows companies to allocate properly the venture capital they manage to raise along the whole cycle of the mobile app development.
Back in 2017, research conducted by Clutch – B2B analytics company outlined the data collected from more than 100 app development companies. It provided a percentage for how much companies spend on one of the following app development stages – Discovery, Design, Development, and Testing & Deployment.
So when it comes to conducting a pre-research stage 51% of companies representative said that it costs up to $5,000 to come with an initial concept and do research. 22% went above the $5k threshold and spent $10k and 14% spent anywhere between $10 and $25k. Clearly, compared with other app development stages, Discovery is the cheapest one.
Discovery/Pre-Research stage
When app development teams proceed to the Design stage, 32% spend less than $5,000, but only 9% venture to spend over $50,000 on an app design. The majority (60%) says within $5 – $50k.
UI / Design stage
Development is the major part of the whole mobile app development process, it’s about the actual coding of every feature that an app is supposed to have. For only 9% of respondents the sum they spend on developing an app’s code was below $5,000, for 33% the money they spend on this stage was within $5k-10$k.
Development stage
It’s impossible to conceive any app development project without testing and deployment stages. For 32% of respondents, it took less than $5,000 of their budget to do app testing and actually deploy it on the market. Another 31% stayed within the $5-$10k range and the rest went above $10k of their budget to complete the Testing and Deployment stage.
Testing and Deployment stage
Obviously, the core factor that defines the app development cost is an app’s complexity. For example, whether there is a backend server that provides information for the app or not, whether an app has a built-in user analytics, a backend CMS support or not, if it has a built-in shopping cart or social media sharing features, and so on.
The hourly rate for mobile app development varies in different parts of the world, it reflects a level of economy development in a particular country. On the graph below, we can see that among six regions India has the lowest average rate – $7 / hour and the US is on the highest end with $47 / hour, which is not a surprise at all.
How Much Does it Cost to Have an iPhone App Built?
When you create an iOS app you typically build the application within Apple’s XCode developing environment. If you intend to use a map in your app, you can use the Map Kit feature built into XCode for no additional cost.
Additionally, XCode has a simulator so you can test the app you have built. If, however, you want to publish your application on the App Store, you will need to pay the Apple Developer fee of $99 a year.
To calculate the exact iOS app development cost is not possible, as this cost is dependent on various factors. Your app development cost can vary based on the type of application, features, location of development and many more such factors.
However, knowing about what factors and how these factors affect the cost, can give you an estimated value of your iOS app development. Generally, the basic mobile app development can cost around $2000-$30,000, and the one with more complex features can go up to $1+ million.
App complexity is the major determinant. The more the features, the more will be the development cost. Designing and developing an app with predefined templates and designing components takes less time as compared to the one having custom templates and having interactive UI/UX components.
Also, as we all know, the hourly rate of a developer also affects the cost of app development. This cost varies across the globe. For example, if you hire an iOS developer from the USA, the average hourly rate would be $60-350 as compared to Asian countries where the hourly rates range from $15-100.
The type of application, whether you are looking to get a cross-platform app, which runs on multiple platforms, or you are looking for a native app development, which is OS-specific. Getting a cross-platform app act as an added advantage as the code once written, can be re-used and it saves the time and effort of the developer. However, Native app development takes time as the code has to be written from the scratch for both the OS.
How Much Does it Cost to Build an Android App?
The mobile development growth in the world determines the popularity of apps and the cost of app development. The total number of apps available for download in app stores is over 7 million.
Mobile app development has researched statistics showing exciting facts about the app development industry and costs in 2022.
Here, you can find some figures to study, based on the different sources and methodologies:
- On average, over 100,000 new apps are released on Google Play every month, and over 30,000 on the Apple App Store (Statista)
- Free apps dominate the app development market. The most effective pricing strategies for most are free and freemium. For example, free utilities n the Apple App Store account for approximately 92% of the total (Statista)
- The mobile app industry revenue reached $581.9 Billion in 2020. If this trend doesn’t change, the industry’s revenue will reach almost $ 1 trillion in 2023 (Statista)
- The mobile app development market is expected to grow more than 18.4% by 2026 and is predicted to reach an industry of $ 407.31 billion by 2026 (Market Research)
- Almost 90% of the time people spend on apps. Soon, people will use a mobile device for 4 hours a day, and 88% of this time will be for the activity in applications (eMarketer)
- 66% of smartphone users download games. At the same time, over 95% of all users download messaging, communication applications, and web browsers, etc. (Statista)
The cost of app development dramatically depends on the type of application. Now when we are sure that you are aware that the market is growing very actively and rapidly, let’s look at what the app prices depend on.
The type of application is another important factor that needs to be taken into consideration. Below is a list of the most popular types of apps and the average development cost involved:
| App Type | Estimate Cost | Time |
| Mobile App | $30,000-$300,000 | 1,200h |
| iPhone App | $55,000-$300,000 | 1,200h |
| Android App | $50,000-$300,000 | 1,200h |
| Web App | $60,000-$300,000 | 1,200h |
| Startup App | $40,000-$400,000 | 1,600h |
| Taxi App (Uber) | $50,000-$400,000 | 1,600h |
| Game App | $60,000-$250,000 | 1,600h |
| Retail App | $50,000-$150,000 | 1,200h |
| Augmented Reality App (AR) | $100,000-$250,000 | 1,600h |
| eCommerce App | $60,000-$250,000 | 1,600h |
| Social Media App (Instagram) | $50,000-$300,000 | 1,200h |
| Business App | $50,000-$200,000 | 1,200h |
| Learning App (DuoLingo) | $60,000-$225,000 | 900h |
| Video Streaming App | $80,000-$300,000 | 1,600h |
| Restaurant App | $40,000-$150,000 | 900h |
| Community App | $18,000-$150,000 | 900h |
| Shopify App | $30,000-$180,000 | 900h |
| Dating App | $50,000-$350,000 | 1,400h, |
| Food Delivery App | $40,000-$150,000 | 900h, |
| Hybrid App | $40,000-$200,000 | 1,200h |
| Healthcare App | $55,000-$300,000 | 1,200h |
| Typical App | $40,000-$300,000 | 1,200h |
How Much Money do You Need to Start an App?
How much does it cost to make an app like Uber, Instagram, or Whatsapp? The price of developing similar apps will vary depending on which features you consider to be crucial to you and the development team you choose to use.
It will help you to know how much it costs to produce an app, by counting each features’ development price.
| Feature | Approximate cost | Average time |
|---|---|---|
| Login/Registration | $1100 – $1700 | 20 hours+ |
| Payment options and integrations | $2500 – $5000 | 50 hours+ |
| Navigation | $250 – $500 | 10 hours+ |
| Offline mode | $1000 – $2000 | 40 hours + |
| Media content | From $1000 | 20 hours+ |
| Customization | $1500 | 20 hours+ |
| Chat messaging | $2000 – $4000 | 80 hours + |
| Data encryption | $650+ | 16 hours+ |
| Audio or video streaming | $2300+ | 56 hours + |
| Multi-language support | $350 – $750 | 15 hours |
1. Project type
All apps are not created equally, and the project type varies depending on the software you choose to use. This is one of the many reasons why the average cost to create an app differs. For example, a medical facility can incorporate EHR (Electronic Health Record) into the app if its goal is to make data management of the patients’ medical records easier.
A financial app, on the other hand, will require software that monitors all of the payment gateways and another that connects to integrated third-party applications.
2. Features and functionality
Different features make up an app. For example, some apps require login and password restoration features, file uploading and downloading, messaging functions, profile editing, etc. Additionally, some apps will need simple solutions, whereas others will need more complex solutions.
3. Customization of visual design
How you design your User Interface contributes significantly to the app’s chances of success, as well as the custom app development cost. You can decide if you want to create a custom UX/UI for each platform you develop (Android: Material Design elements, iOS: Cupertino design elements), or you can create one design template, common for different platforms. As a result, it simplifies the development and customization process, as well as decreases the app development cost.
4. Platforms
How much does it cost to build an app for Android and iOS? We will not get into the great iPhone vs. Android debate. At least not right now. I am sure you are wondering how the price to create an app in iOS costs compared to developing one in Android. Here is the answer – they’re almost equal in cost for each platform. However, the question should be whether to go for native mobile or cross-platform app development.
Native mobile development apps are more responsive. Cross-platform apps have one code for both Android and iOS, which will help decrease the price by about 30%. We’ll discuss it in detail below. Read on!
5. Backend infrastructure and app administration
The backend infrastructure is responsible for the data exchange between the app and the database, content and user management, reporting, and custom marketing activities. You may use different types of backend environments and infrastructure (AWS, Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, etc), and what is more – the various services they provide.
It all goes a long way in determining the costs of creating an app.
6. App maintenance costs and additional services
OSs are constantly growing and evolving, security systems are constantly improving, and users encounter bugs in the app or run into problems when they are using the app.
Your development team may need to perform updates to the applications regularly. This means that you need to add an extra amount of budget for support.
7. In-house or outsourced development team
To develop an app, you may need to decide whether you want to use an in-house team or if you would like to outsource the task to an external development team. There are many factors to consider before making this decision.
For example, the cost of developing a mobile app using an in-house team will be higher than with an outsourced team. Especially if you decide to outsource to Eastern Europe, where you can find not only cheaper software development, but also a wide pool of talented developers.
8. Developer’s rates
The iOS app development costs will surely differ from the application development cost for Android, as well as native will differ from cross-platform mobile app development. For instance, on a site like Upwork or Toptal, mobile app development rates range from $18 to $150 per hour, depending on the skill set needed and the project requirements.
Prices in different countries are also varied. For example, average hourly rates for mobile app development in different countries are the following:
| Cost per hour | |
|---|---|
| North America | $80- $150 |
| UK | $70+ |
| Australia | $70 – $150 |
| Eastern Europe | $40-$65 |
| South America | $45 – $55 |
| India | $30-$45 |
| Eastern Europe | $40 -$70 |
How Much Money do Apps Make Per Download?
The app market is vast, with millions of apps available on Apple and Android marketplaces.
In the first quarter of 2020, these combined marketplaces saw a combined download of 33.6 billion apps. What is more attractive to businesses is the potential for an app to deliver a return on investment several times over.
Everywhere you turn these days, every brand, business or organisation seems to have an app. These small but sophisticated programs are downloaded by users across the globe, delivering everything from daily updates to their phones to providing a smooth buying channel.
When an app works, and works well for users with few bugs, and is also useful and practical, the potential to make money every day is presented to a business.
Take a look at the apps of 2019 with the highest returns and you’ll be encouraged by the numbers.
Ebate, an American-based app that offers discounts to users by connecting them with their favourite retailers, returned over a billion dollars in savings to users and for the owners, this brings in big bucks too.
The apps in the top 200 on app stores grossed $82,500 a day and those in the top 800 brought in $3,5000 a day, not a bad return by any measure.
Consumers and followers have fallen in love with apps with some suggestion that the majority of time people spend on their mobiles is spent on apps. In-app purchases, as well as paid-for apps, present an enticing prospect for brands and companies.
The apps in the top 200 apps on the App Store, to earn around $82,500 each day. But this drops off quite sharply and in the top 800 apps, the average income falls to around $3,500.
The average revenue per app download varies significantly but the average is $0.60 to $1.20.
Dating apps
As you might expect, Tinder makes the most, with an eye-watering $1,469 per minute, or $88,143 per hour. The female-friendly Bumble comes in 2nd place, raking in $172 per minute.
Despite Android having the largest market share in the mobile industry with 75.82%, compared to just 22.9% iOS, it’ actually iOS apps which make around two thirds of app revenue. Even so, Android apps are expected to make $45 billion in 2021.
How do Free Apps Make Money?
Neither the Google Play nor Apple App Store pays for app downloads, even there are millions of users who completed this action. Instead, stores take some share from an app’s earnings (30% from in-app purchases).
Thus, in order to receive money from a free app it is necessary to set up revenue streams. Based on the statistical data, the most effective monetization method in 2019 was the use of rewarded video ads. This is a win-win strategy for both the app provider and customer, as once the user watches an add, they receive points and app bonuses.
Now, let’s take a closer look at how to make money from mobile apps:
1. Advertising
These days, mobile ads are the easiest and most common way to receive money from a free app. Currently, 7 out of 10 apps has embedded commercials that generate payments per its display (per impression), per click, or per install.
- Banner Ad
These ads are placed at the top or bottom of the mobile device screen. In general, these are less intrusive, as users are still able to use the mobile app normally. On the other hand, banners have lower engagement rates (CTR- click-through rate) and these ads are dependant on brand recognition.
Example: Even with some of the downsides of banners, Flappy Bird was successful with this tactic and received on average of $50k per day while being in the top app charts.
- Video Ad
A video ad, lasting 10-30 seconds, is placed within the app where it plays automatically when there are natural pauses. A subset of video add category is a rewarded video ad, where consumers receive some perks (app currency, extra points, etc.) after watching the video ad until the end.
Example: A great example of a video ad is a VSCO photo-editing app advertisement. It was presented on Instagram as a 15-second video using bright colors to grab attention from the very start.
- Native Ad
These ads are intended to be naturally integrated into an app. These added elements can be sponsored content or videos used to promote a particular brand or product. As a result of their integration, these apps are acknowledged as irritating and tiresome the least, so it gets more popularized as a monetization model among app providers.
Example: In association with the New York Times’ T Brand Studio, Airbnb created a campaign for Ellis Island. It played a great role in history and was a way for immigrants to enter a happier life in America. This completely coincides with Airbnb’s value of giving their customers a great welcome anywhere they travel.
- Interstitial Ad
These ads are full-screen pop-ups shown in a specific moment within an app. These are typically displayed when the app is opened or closed. The user has 2 taps to choose – either close the ad or check out the promoted content.
Example: Emirates Airlines effectively incorporated an interstitial ad resulting in over 5,000 clicks to the website and 170,000 complete video views. Emirates promoted their new destination, New York – Dubai, by showcasing their full-screen ad to travellers in the NY airport once connected to WiFi.
- Incentivized Ad
Everyone likes rewards and hates advertisement. With the help of a tool set, it is possible to provide users with rewards for a specific in-app action or engagement like: fill out a poll, content sharing, etc. These app bonuses can increase app loyalty and user engagement. The profit from this tactic is gained via in-app currencies and sponsorships.
What is important is that these rewards should be positioned wisely, as a part of the app’s involvement.
Example: The RunKeeper app, used for personal activity tracking, was among first to use incentivized ads. It offers the unlocking of additional app functionality and receipt of rewards without disturbing use of the app.
Disadvantage of the advertising model
App advertisement is the most popular app revenue stream. However, it is no wonder that this has begun to annoy and irritate customers. This prolific use of ads has become ineffective, as less than 20% of users click on them. As well, this monetization strategy can be effective only with apps that have a large pull of users, not for a startup project.
2. Referral Marketing
Referral marketing is closely connected with the previous model of in-app advertisement to monetize your app. There is even a separate direction in marketing – affiliate marketing. Informational content about an affiliate company is placed in the app and, based on clicks and installs, you receive rewards. These rewards are based on a cost-per-action (CPA) model or revenue share.
The referral marketing model can be used in the following ways:
- promote another application
- in-app advertisement
- advertise products or services via in-app-store
There are also many affiliate network companies (AdMob, Flurry) that specialize in finding a suitable affiliate for your application. There are different software programs and tools that can help to integrate this model.
The same as with the advertising model, campaigns used in affiliate marketing include:
- CPM (cost-per-mille, cost-per-impression)- you receive payments based on the number of impressions, the advertiser is usually charged every 1,000th time (mille, in Latin, is one thousand)
- CPC (cost-per-click)- you receive payment based on the number of clicks on a displayed app
- CPV (cost-per-view)- you receive payment based on the number of video views or other ad interaction
- CPI (cost-per-install)- you receive payment each time the promoted app is installed via its ad in your product
Example: Amazon is a great example to show how affiliate marketing works. Select a product you would like to advertise in your app and receive advertising fees based on each redirected purchase.
Free apps are also making money without ads. Check out 6 more monetization tactics, namely:
- In-app purchase & freemium model
- Sponsorship model
- Subscription model
- Crowdfunding model
- Email marketing
- App merchandise & e-commerce
3. In-App Purchase & Freemium Model
In-app purchasing is a very popular strategy used in the freemium app model. It is possible to sell virtual or physical items, offer premium functionality or bonuses, block ads, or open new app content. All these transactions are managed by the app store and the owner gets a commission from every trade.
In-app purchase strategy has three categories:
- Consumable: these items are used once, mostly in mobile games. Example: digital currencies, health points
- Non-consumable: these are features used permanently. Example: ad blocking, extension in-app functionality
- Subscription (described in more detail below)- this allows one to unlock additional content and features for a particular amount of time. Example: monthly or annual service subscription
Example: Some apps have received huge amounts of revenue by implementing this model. The Clash of Clans game earned $1m per day on purchases, and Pokemon Go users bought in-app purchases for $1.5m daily. Within 2017, Pokemon Go’s revenue crossed over $1 billion making it the top grossing game in history.
Another example of a freemium app model is MX Player, a well-known video player on Google Play with ads for the free version. MX Player Pro is offered as the ad-free version for a small charge.
Disadvantage of the in-app purchase model
The model is only plausible and lucrative for top apps in the segment that have many users. This system is harder to implement due to the complex payment system development and integrations. As well, a downside to this model is the high commission fee (30%) taken by app stores. In a freemium app model there are two app variants – light and full, and a user may only use the free version.
4. Subscription Model
As mentioned, the subscription model sets up revenue streams from the weekly, monthly, or annual fees for a specific service provided by the free app. This model is mostly used in cloud services, audio and video content providers (Spotify, Google Music), and digital news portals. Consumers receive access to the content according to their chosen subscription plan.
Example: The most dominant newspaper apps, Wall Street Journal and New York Times, gained 1 million customers with a subscription model.
Disadvantage of the subscription model
It is necessary to have resources and detailed content strategies to provide fresh, up-to-date materials to keep up with competitors and guarantee a high level of subscriber services.
5. Sponsorship Model
Getting a sponsorship is a profitable model to follow to make money from a free app. This model is usually available for developed apps that already have regular users. The most benefits can be gained by applications with a specific market niche. Thus, you may contact sponsors in the same industry to match their brand with ads, information in the app, or adapt the app design to the brand.
Two primary sponsorship deals:
- Equally divide revenue from the app
- Set a monthly sponsorship fee
Example: A good sponsorship monetization example is seen through the Weather Channel app. The app placed an animated background for Home Depot, a retailer in the field of construction and household goods.
Disadvantage of the sponsorship model
This model works well in case you have a specific niche and unique app idea. And, even with the right app and niche, it is still challenging to find a proper sponsor.
6. Crowdfunding Model
This one is fairly a new way to monetize an app for free. Custom software developers may use the following platforms to raise funds for app development and marketing needs: Kickstarter, Indiegogo, CrowdFunder, and AppsFunder.
Example: In general, apps of another category than games receive funding. In 2017, In any scenario, in order to receive profit from your free app,138 app ideas were crowdfunded and raised $10k-$100k on Kickstarter. As an exception, the Hello Earth game with a popular cat character, generated $148k.
Disadvantage of the crowdfunding model
These are thousands of applicants and can become very difficult to be crowdfunded. It is necessary to show the value of the product and that idea that is worth taking a risk and investing.
7. Email Marketing
Email marketing has always been a profitable strategy in any industry, which is a good practice for restaurant app development.
This is an old technique of collecting user data, mostly emails, and sending corresponding marketing materials to heat up the subscribers’ interest in a product or a service. It is helpful when your user retention indices drop or when used to notify about new features, rewards, app news, etc.
It is possible to collect email addresses in several ways:
- ask for the email with a pop-up message by offering something in return (app coins, bonus)
- via Facebook SDK for a user to sign up where it collects emails
- through third-party tools for easy email collection
In any situation, do not forget to inform, ask permission, and state the purpose of using personal user data. This is a concern especially if your target audience is in Europe, according to the GDPR (General Data Protection Policy).
Example: The New York Times, The New Yorker, ad The Washington Post generate web traffic and hook their subscribers with pieces of tasteful content in their email distribution. The rest of the information is received once paid.
Disadvantage of the email marketing model
Email marketing, due to its wide usage, has become less effective today. The biggest advantage is for the top branded apps, while for a startup it is less powerful.
8. App Merchandise & E-commerce
The e-commerce industry is blooming and more and more consumers are joining the online buying community. Most physical items are sold with the help of free mobile apps.
Amazon offers the opportunity to earn a profit from this app model with the help of its Merch tool, an easy program allowing app owners to create and sell their branded items within their apps. All the logistics are managed by Amazon: production, selling, payment, and delivery, while you get a share of the profit.
Example: Among the first successful free app merchants was the Angry Birds game. The game earned a revenue of $1m each month from plush bird toys alone, not counting the T-shirts, stickers, and backpacks.
Disadvantage of the app merchandise model
This option is only available for the top apps with a large audience. Another alternative would be to develop a free app for your regular business and sell any other items with its help.
Is it Difficult to Create an App?
It’s not just the complexity of your app that determines the difficulty — it’s also the end product you have in mind. Putting together a usable mobile app prototype is one thing. Creating a finished, multi-platform, consumer-ready app is another. It’s not just that there are extra steps — it’s also that the hardest steps are in the second half of the development process.
Technology development company, Queppelin breaks app development into 8 stages. The first four are:
1. Research and Pre-planning: In this stage, you define big picture concepts like the purpose of the app, your target market, platform, and revenue model. You also need to do background research on competitors’ offerings and other relevant topics.
2. Mental Prototyping or Sketching: This is where you start to make a concrete plan of how your app will actually work. This involves whiteboarding or wireframing the app, figuring out major design elements and user flow.
3. Assessment of Technical Feasibility: Apps have complex technical requirements. Before you can build an app, you need to look into the back-end system supporting your app, and research APIs and other needed systems to make sure they can feasibly support the functionality you’re trying to provide.
4. Prototyping: During prototyping, you build a proof of concept model to test and refine your concept. This phase can vary a lot depending on how you’re going about prototyping your app.
Some prototyping tools are closer to visual models than actual working prototypes. They show how the app is laid out and may contain decent animations, but you can’t interact with them like an actual app user.
After prototyping, things get more complicated. There’s design and development work, coding, testing, refining, and finally, launch. On average, the whole process takes 12 to 18 weeks, and can require a sizable team, depending on what you’re building. It’s also the part of the project that requires the most specialized knowledge, in areas like UI design and coding.
Because of this, there are many cases where sticking with a mobile app prototype is the most practical approach. For example, let’s say you’re an entrepreneur with a great idea for an app, but no coding skills or team.
What makes more sense to you — hiring a team of designers, developers, and marketers to build your idea and take it to market, or spending a month or so building and tweaking a working prototype and pitching it to investors?
If your goal is to make money on your idea, the answer is obvious. Unless you’ve already got a team, an established software company, and plenty of capital, building a prototype is almost always the more lucrative approach.
This method requires a few changes in the traditional app workflow — for example, you’ll want to do some testing in the prototyping phase to make sure your app is ready to make the right impression.
On the other hand, it lets you save the hard part until you have the capital to invest in it. All you need is a model that demonstrates a great idea — let your funders pay for the technical planning.
How Much Does it Cost to Publish an iOS App?
App Store is the Apple’s store for iOS based apps. The process of submitting an app to the App Store is slightly complex and requires throughout preparation.
The App Store hosts more than 2 millions apps and has changed the way we used smartphones, making apps part of our daily transactions. Apple has set high standards and strict guiding principles in order to maintain this ecosystem safe for its users and always offer high quality apps.
- Apple Developer account
In order to create an iOS app and publish it on the App Store, you are required to register as an Apple Developer . This account cost $99 and must be renewed yearly. Joining this developer program also gives you the ability to build an iOS app and test it on the devices themselves, a crucial step in the app development process.
- Submit the app to App Store
It is highly recommended to read the Apple Store Review guidelines before starting the submission process. Indeed, Apple Review Team reviews each app before approving them for release. The majority of Apple rejections are due to the non-compliance with the main guidelines.
Before you submit your app for review, you will need to provide a collection of information
(Icon, app preview/ screenshots) and metadata (the name of your app, its category, a detailed description and additional keywords for ASO).
Don’t underestimate the importance of the description : the first sentence (the first 3 lines)are the most important, because this is the part which the users can see without having to tap to read more. Be accurate, clear and concise, transmit the core value of your app to the users.
The name on the developer account must be the same that the app final owner. It is the name that appears under your app on the Store. The review process takes a few days and Apple will inform you when your app is publicly available on the Store.
How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Mobile App Developer in 2022?
An app development business gains considerable experience in mobile app development for numerous platforms after a number of years on the market, when app projects can be fairly sophisticated, incorporating AI, ML, IoT, and another advanced mobile tech.
Working with such a team will help you grow faster because they are smart and learn from their experiences on other projects. App development is a process that requires meticulous preparation and sticking to a strict deadline.
Suppose you decide to build a mobile app in-house. In that case, you can certainly reduce the cost of hiring an app developer, at least at first, because over time, going through bug fixes due to a lack of experience, you can actually catch up with the price tag you would get from an app development company if you decide to hire one.
As much as we’d like to put a dollar value on the cost of hiring an app developer, we can only provide an estimate. Because each app development process involves several variables that influence the ultimate cost of hiring an app developer.
When a business decides to hire a developer, how much will be the cost of hiring an app developer arises. According to Indeed.com, corporations must pay $89,000 per year to hire a US-based mobile app developer. After translating from a native currency to USD, Australia and Germany come in second and third, respectively, with $76,000 and $66,000.
It is actually far cheaper to engage an app development specialist in nations like India – only $4,000 per year, which we may attribute to the economic differences between North America, Europe, Australia, and India.
However, the cost of services should not be the sole determining factor in a company’s decision to hire an android app developer cost; other factors such as previous client feedback and expertise in specific technical areas should be considered as well.
Can an App Make You Rich?
In the internet-powered age, mobile apps have become the synonym of growth, where businesses without mobile apps are worthless. Apps are the modern technological innovation that has transformed business strategies. Even many successful entrepreneurs became millionaires with app ideas.
The Android and iOS markets are getting bigger by the minute. According to TechCrunch, the mobile app economy was worth $53 billion in 20212 and it will be worth $6.3 trillion in 2021. Statista forecasted that the number of downloading apps will quickly raise up the revenue of $462bn in 2019 to $935bn in 2023.
The most amazing thing is that many successful entrepreneurs got filthy rich through millionaire & billionaire trending app ideas.
Here is a list of ten successful entrepreneurs who made their net worth more than 1000 Million with trending app ideas for businesses.
Entrepreneur’s list with a millionaire app idea:
#1 Kevin Systrom – Social Media App Idea – Instagram
#2 Travis Kalanick – Transport Ride-Sharing App Idea – Uber
#3 Whitney Wolfe Herd – Dating app idea – Bumble
#4 Tobi Lütke – Ecommerce app idea – Shopify
#5 Matt Maloney – Grocery/Food delivery app idea – GrubHub
#6 Changpeng Zhao – Cryptocurrency App Ideas – Binance
#7 – Daniel Ek – Music Streaming App Idea – Spotify
#8 – Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph – Video Streaming App Ideas – Netflix
#9 – Lars and Jens Eilstrup Rasmussen – Navigation app idea – Google Map
#10 – Alex Tew, Michael Acton Smith – Meditation app idea – Calm
Why do Most Apps Fail?
Not all apps can be successful. In fact, there is a very high chance that yours will fail to generate purchases or even the downloads needed to thrive. After all, while there are millions of apps available, the average person only uses a tiny fraction of them.
If you’re not careful, even the most well-designed offering will slip through the cracks and go unnoticed, especially if your app falls into the following four fatal categories.
1. It doesn’t solve an actual problem.
Without a doubt, the biggest reason any app will fail to make an impression after launch is if it fails to solve an actual problem. Even gaming apps solve a problem for their users by providing desirable entertainment.
As app developer John Sela writes in The Next Web, “To determine if your mobile app concept will satisfy a real market need of users, be sure to ask yourself and your team the following questions … Does this audience need a mobile app? Will this group of people be able to take away more value from our app than they can currently get anywhere else? Can we influence customers to download this app?”
Ultimately, you have to take a deep dive into the problems your target audience is facing. Consider how you can digitize real-world solutions or improve on other apps. Use social media, focus groups and other resources to identify the top pain points in your niche so you can better understand what your target audience is actually looking for.
2. You’re limiting your potential audience.
While proper targeting is crucial to app success, this doesn’t mean you should limit yourself to a domestic audience. The latest iteration of AppsFlyer’s Performance Index report, covering the 20 billion app installs that the attribution company tracked during the second half of 2018, notes that “the Africa/Middle East region showed substantial growth, reflecting the region’s continued economic development.
As the number of smartphone owners increases in the area at breakneck speed, the region represents fertile ground for marketers vying to attract and retain new customers.”
As further proof of this, a report by Newzoo ranks countries like Nigeria, Iran and South Africa among the top 30 in the world for the number of smartphone users. It wouldn’t hurt to consider your app’s market potential across the globe. Just be mindful that the problems experienced by your domestic consumers could be as applicable overseas.
In some cases, with just a little bit of tweaking, your concept could have even greater appeal in a market with less competition. For instance, Chinese app developer Cheetah Mobile has achieved more than 450 million downloads by focusing on less saturated markets outside its home country.
3. You haven’t invested in marketing.
Your new app will face a lot of competition, and you can’t expect an overnight success. You must retain some of your budget for advertising so that a marketing strategy can be executed during the buildup to the app’s launch and create some level of hype.
Use that strategy to communicate the value and unique features of your app. As part of your beta testing, utilize positive feedback for your marketing materials. You could also provide special offers or access to premium content to early adopters to help build an initial user base.
Social-media campaigns, outreach to tech blogs and paid advertising will all be necessary to ensure a successful launch. By investing in marketing early on, you will be more likely to rank as a top-downloaded app on launch day and subsequently spur organic downloads from interested users who didn’t even see your ads.
4. You don’t have a monetization plan in place.
At the end of the day, your app needs to make money. Without some source of income, you won’t have the resources you need to make updates that keep your users coming back for more. Fortunately, there are many possibilities for monetizing your app beyond annoying pop-up ads or selling your own products or services.
“Freemium” apps like Dropbox are especially successful. Users can download the basic app for free, but select features can only be accessed after a payment. This gives users a chance to try out the app’s basic features and decide for themselves if the extra content is worth the investment.
Read Also: 7 Legal Requirements When You Start A Business
In-app purchases have also proven to be an effective option for gaming apps. As Sensor Tower reports, Nintendo’s smartphone game Fire Emblem Heroes has grossed more than $500 million worldwide.
The app itself is free to play, but optional in-game purchases unlock additional characters and items, spurring recurring spending. In comparison, the company’s Super Mario Run (which was a paid download with no in-game purchases) has only grossed $68 million.
While eliminating bugs and providing continual updates to keep app users engaged will go a long way in building a loyal audience, you won’t get far without the basic building blocks in place. By addressing these common pitfalls before you launch your new app, you will be better equipped to make an actual impact on the market.
