Does it go around your head “How much does it cost to develop an app?” For those who seek an answer for transforming their ideas into reality, this article has discussed the details and provided the cost of developing an app. By following these few tips, you can decrease the development cost to some extent, which can help you take the launch step.
Factors that Impact the Cost to Develop an App
Making a budget sheet for app development can depend on numerous factors. Therefore, to understand these factors in detail, look at the given factors listed below.
1. Type of Business Model
The first thing that directly impacts the app development cost is the type of business for which you are developing the application. This is because sometimes, companies require complex mobile apps with multiple functions, due to which their cost of development gets high. Moreover, you can relate it like the more complex the application is, the more costly the development will be.
2. Customized UX/UI Design
Ensuring that your application has a smooth user interface is crucial to monitoring the success rate of the developed application. Therefore, to add a unique look to the application, you will have to use some good quality UX/UI designs. Besides this, remember that every design has a price tag, so the development cost will be affected by your decision regarding the UI/UX design selection.
3. Location of the Development Team
Labor cost is a major factor that can significantly impact the overall cost of developing an app. It is because the development cost depends on the location of your team, due to which the labor charges can take a huge amount of the app development budget.
In addition, you can also understand this by looking at a survey that states the average per-hour rate of a developer in the USA is USD 70, whereas in Ukraine, it is USD 30.
4. App Hosting and Security
Moreover, Android and iOS applications carry loads of data that need to be carefully exchanged between servers in real time to ensure that users get a fast response. However, to maintain the confidentiality of transactions, user search data, and other details, you will need to use a well-organized app hosting provider. At this point, choosing a good hosting provider will also impact your app development cost. ZEGOCLOUD SDK is a reliable software development toolkit that provides cloud services, helping developers run and host applications in the cloud. To save your cost for making an app, ZEGOCLOUD will be a good choice!

How Much Does It Cost to Make an App
We all know that digital products like mobile applications help a lot to grow any business to new heights. However, the cost to develop an app can vary on several key points, ranging from the development technology to app maintenance after launch. To understand how much does it cost to develop an app, you can check out the following table:
App Type | Estimated Time | Estimated Cost | Some Key Features |
---|---|---|---|
Simple Content Based App | 4 – 8 Weeks | $5,000 – $15,000 | Content Categories, Article Sharing, Push Notifications |
E-commerce Apps | 12 – 20 Weeks | $20,000 – $50,000 | Product Catalog, Shopping Cart, Wishlist, Order Tracking |
Social Networking Apps | 16 – 32 Weeks | $30,000 – $100,000 | Users Profiles, Messaging/Chat, Notifications |
Healthcare and Medical Apps | 12 – 36 Weeks | $20,000 – $500,000+ | Health Data Tracking, Data Encryption and Security, Integration with Wearables |
Enterprise Apps | 16 – 52 Weeks | $20,000 – $1,000,000+ | Task Management, Analytics and Reporting, Integration with Existing Systems [CRM, ERP] |
IoT Apps | 16 – 52 Weeks | $20,000 – $1,000,000+ | Data Analytics, Remote Access, Security Measures |
Travel and Tourism Apps | 16 – 32 Weeks | $20,000 – $100,000 | Itinerary Planning, Maps and Navigation, Destination Information |
Educational Apps | 12 – 24 Weeks | $20,000 – $100,000 | Lessons and Quizzes, Progress Tracking, Teacher and Student Interaction |
Food and Restaurants Apps | 16 – 36 Weeks | $30,000 – $150,000 | Delivery Tracking, Loyalty Programs, Payment Processing |
Moving forward, if you don’t have a considerable budget for developing an application, there is no need to stress it out. In such a scenario, you can get help from the ZEGOCLOUD APIs to reduce the app development cost efficiently. Furthermore, with the help of this SDK provider, developers can quickly develop complex mobile applications in multiple languages like Flutter, React Native, and more.

How to Reduce App Development Costs
Budgeting remains a common issue for many startups and small businesses in the beginning when they are trying to grow through different methods, including app development. Therefore, to manage such a scenario, you can check out the following tips to help reduce the app development cost.
- Create Cross-Platform Mobile Apps: App Development costs can be minimized by creating cross-platform apps, which are mainly known as web apps. In addition, these apps can be used on both platforms, due to which their cost of development is less than single platform-based apps.
- MVP (Minimum Viable Product): Sometimes, creating a complex app with multiple features consumes many resources and time. To avoid this, you can start with the MVP, which focuses on the few prominent features of your products.
- Avoid Feature Bloat: Most of the time, it happens that people can’t resist the temptation to add too many features to the software. That is why overloading the app with many features in the start can impact the cost of developing an app, which you can reduce by controlling the temptation.
- ZEGOCLOUD: Similarly, another best tip you can follow to reduce the cost of developing an app is to use an API/SDK to develop your mobile application. For this, you can use the ZEGOCLOUD APIs or SDKs to build in-app chat, voice calls, video calls, and different features at a low cost.
Conclusion
It is necessary for startups and small businesses to start with a minimal approach in the initial steps of developing an app. Besides this, they also need to consider app development costs because spending too much on development in the initial stages can be risky. Moreover, you never know whether your product will be successful or not.
Therefore, going with a minimal approach can be an excellent option to minimize your risk factor and development cost. Moreover, with the help of different third-party API/SDK providers like ZEGOCLOUD, you can reduce the development cost in the initial stages. Furthermore, this can help you launch the product with less investment and time, so you can do your testing to evaluate its growth and value.
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