Figuring the Costs of Custom Mobile Business App Development

Figuring the costs of custom mobile business app development

Posted on: 06-17-2016 by: Formotus (Last updated June 17, 2016. Originally posted July 7, 2012.) App Development Costs

How much are mobile business apps going to cost you? Here’s a compendium of analyses, surveys and calculators to help set reasonable expectations for what building a custom mobile business app will cost.

Brought to you by Formotus, offering the best no-code alternative for business app development . Estimates by app development companies

Here is how three agencies characterize their typical price range for developing a business app:

 “somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000” —Applico  “anywhere between $150,000 to $450,000” ––Savvy Apps  “as little as $150,000 … as much as $500,000” —Fueled More estimates and analyses App development cost surveys

2016 enterprise survey: $250,000 – $500,000 mobility budget most common

New! The Enterprise Mobility Exchange surveyed 300 senior mobile practitioners around the world and published ‘The Global State of Enterprise Mobility: 2016’. One finding of the survey was that the most common budget size for the next 12-18 months was $250,000–$500,000 chosen by 29.1 per cent of respondents — followed by 25.3% who answered over $1.5 million. Source: Enterprise Mobility Exchange Kinvey CIO survey: $270,000 average cost per app

A Kinvey report based on a survey of CIOs and Mobile Leaders found that mobile application development is “costly, slow and frustrating.” According to this November 2014 survey:

56 percent of mobile leaders surveyed say it takes from 7 months to more than one year to build one app. 18 percent say they spend from $500,000 to over $1,000,000 per app, with an average of $270,000 per app.

Source: Kinvey Survey Clutch agency survey: $171,450 median cost per app

A survey of 12 “leading mobile application development companies” by Clutch asked about the number of hours required for mobile app development activities, and calculated that the “median high” cost as $171,450, with a very wide range from under $30K to over $700K. The report, released in January 2015, includes detailed breakdowns of cost drivers:

Source: Clutch survey, 2015 It’s interesting to note that the largest cost driver according to the Clutch survey is not the features of the app but the infrastructure, which includes:

 Basic controls  Data storage  3rd party integration  Access to enterprise data  Data encryption  Scalability More from app development companies

Savvy Apps:

 Apps built by the largest app companies, the “big boys”, likely cost anywhere between $500,000 to $1,000,000.  Apps built by agencies like savvy apps cost anywhere between $150,000 to $450,000.  Apps built by smaller shops, possibly with only 2-3 people, likely cost anywhere between $50,000 to $100,000. Applico:

Because there’s so many different variables, the price for a mobile app could range anywhere from $5,000 to $500,000; however, the price range will typically be somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000, with the entire development process taking 12-20 weeks. …here are the five key factors to consider when determining the appropriate mobile app development budget…

StarMobile:

Based upon complexity, the initial costs to develop a native enterprise application for one mobile device platform can range from $50,000 to $250,000. Those costs grow exponentially if you need that app to support multiple mobile device platforms.

Microsoft PowerApps blog:

Not enough skilled mobile developers. Gartner predicts, “through 2017, the market demand for mobile app development services will grow at least five times faster than internal IT organization capacity to deliver them.*” There simply aren’t enough skilled developers to keep up with demand for business app scenarios.

Average Cost of Developing a Mobile App Now over $200,000 (DMI, 2016) Lays out 7 stages of app development and analyzes level of effort ranges for each phase.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Mobile App? (Buildfire) Cites several of the same data sources as we present here, and provides analysis with a focus on B2C apps. iPad App Development Cost – A Breakdown (Propelics) Dated but still useful analysis of consumer vs. business apps and what features make an enterprise app expensive ($150,000 and up). Continuing costs after development

It would be a mistake to think of app design and development as a one-time cost. Creating the app may just be the tip of the iceberg, or better yet, the first step of a long journey.

MULTIPLY DEVELOPMENT COST BY 3

A Forrester Survey once found that the average amount spent on a typical mobile app ($50,000 to $150,000) turns out to be just 35% of the true two-year cost.

BUDGET THOUSANDS PER MONTH

Commentum in 2015 estimated the maintenance cost for a medium-sized enterprise application project to be in the range of $5,000 to $11,000 per month. Even the lowest estimate for a small project is not insubstantial at $3,000 per month — and a larger project ranges as high as $25,000 per month.

PLAN FOR SEVERAL UPDATES PER YEAR

According to an AnyPresence survey of enterprise mobile application development professionals, found that over 80% reported updating their apps at least twice a year and nearly a third were updating at least once a month. Frequent updating can be a major ongoing cost driver

Source: AnyPresence survey