There is no hiding the fact that building applications today is super expensive but important at the same time. Brands know the value of having a strong digital presence, and mobile app development makes it easier to reach new audiences and grow your business.
Also, the high demand for app design services is enough proof that businesses are increasingly wanting to create their own apps. Allied Market Research has estimated that the mobile app market size worldwide will reach an astonishing $407.31 billion by 2026.
Although more than 36 billion apps have been downloaded till now from Google Play and Apple Play Store, there is still space for more. This has encouraged companies to get more competitive and build apps that take connection, communication, and convenience to the next level. With all of this comes one pressing question for every business owner – how much does mobile app development cost?
To help you understand the factors that contribute to the cost of app development, here is a detailed guide. You will be able to see what goes into making a mobile app development service cost and how each stage differs in terms of money and technology.
What are the Factors That Contribute to the Cost of an App?
No mobile application is the same, and thus, no mobile app development company in the USA will charge you the same. The mobile app development cost depends on a lot of factors and functions. If you need a healthcare mobile app with advanced technology, it will require a very different approach and will cost much more than if you want an ecommerce application for your clothing store. However, some major things make up the entire cost.
Let’s take a closer look at those factors.
Type of Application
The number one factor that greatly influences the mobile app development cost is the choice of application type. For instance, applications by multinational businesses need to work on all operating systems and devices; this makes your app more complex and adds to extra cost. Some primary types of applications that your mobile app development agency will ask you to choose from are.
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Native App Development
Native applications are custom mobile apps developed to work seamlessly on specifically one platform. This can be iOS or Android using platform-specific language like Swift for iOS and Kotlin for Android. This means double the time, effort, and cost to code, develop, and test apps for each specific platform. Building a native app typically costs between $10,000 and $250,000, depending on the mobile app developer, complexity, and features of your app.
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Cross-Platform App Development
Cross-platform apps are more popular for startups and small to medium-sized businesses as they are cost-effective and take less time to build. These mobile applications use frameworks like Flutter or React Native to create smooth apps that can run across different platforms and devices without any issues using a single codebase.
Cross-platform mobile app development costs typically range from $20,000 to $150,000. This is relatively lower in cost than a native custom app, as you don’t have to build different apps for different operating systems and devices.
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Web App Development
Web app development is all about creating applications that can work on web browsers across all kinds of mobile devices. The cost of these kinds of apps lies somewhere between $10,000 to $100,000 based on the hosting and maintenance costs. There are also Progressive Web Apps or PWAs that provide a native-like experience but on web browsers. These kinds of applications can cost around $15,000 to $200,000 with extra features like offline functionality and app-like experiences.
Type Of Operating System
The next factor to consider when evaluating mobile app development service cost is the type of operating system you want your application to be built for. The platform/OS that you choose can greatly affect the price as well as the technical aspects of your application. It will also help you choose the right mobile app development experts for your project. Let’s take a closer look at this factor.
| PLATFORM CHOICE | AVERAGE PRICE |
| iOS App Development | $55,000 – $300,000 |
| Android App Development | $50,000 – $300,000 |
| Windows App Development | $30,000 – $200,000 |
| Cross-Platform App Development | $40,000 – $150,000 |
Category/Usage of App
We are all aware that there are tons of types of applications available on the internet. Whether we talk about ecommerce apps, healthcare apps, gaming apps, or social media apps, they all have different requirements, usage, and cost structures. Let’s dive deeper and look at some major categories of apps and their average costs.
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Social Networking Apps
Creating a social networking app can range anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000. These custom mobile app development costs account for features like user profiles, social interactions, messaging features, and media-sharing. Social media apps also require intensive work on features like real-time updates, push notifications, and scalability. Social networking sites like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook are a big part of our everyday lives, and we know how they work, so it is possible to imagine how much hard work goes on behind the scenes.
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Data-Driven Apps
Creating a data-driven app can cost you around $25,000 to $80,000 as they are heavily dependent on data processing, evaluation, and analysis. These kinds of applications extract loads of data, analyze it, and present it to people. Major examples of these applications include calendars, weather forecast applications, and maps. Mobile app development service costs for these apps can increase with the complexity of data management and integration.
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Ecommerce Apps
Ecommerce apps require a lot of time and skills to develop. These apps can cost around $80,000 to $150,000. However, these costs can go up if you add more advanced technologies and features like AR/VR experiences, inventory management, secure payment options, and multi-platform compatibility. Apps like Alibaba, eBay, Temu, and Amazon are big examples of ecommerce mobile app developments.
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Gaming Apps
Every app development company in the USA will give you different quotations for gaming mobile apps as they are highly technical and complex apps. On average, these apps can start from $50,000 to $300,000, given the design and UI/UX requirements, from simple 2D games to intricate 3D experiences with multiplayer options. Gaming applications require complex coding, animations, and back-end work. These apps also need high processing power and complex UI, which leads to high mobile app development service costs.
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Enterprise Apps
Enterprise apps are applications used by companies and brands for their in-house purposes, such as sales or marketing CRM, HRM, and ERPs. The cost of building an effective enterprise-level application can cost up to $250,000. This depends on the function and complexity of the business operations and integration requirements.
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Healthcare Apps
Healthcare mobile app development costs generally fall between $50,000 to $250,000. They can also cost more or less based on their requirements. Keep in mind that healthcare apps require big investments if they need to comply with medical standards, connect with medical devices, and handle large amounts of patient data.
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E-Learning Apps
The planning, development, testing, and launching of e-learning platforms can be quite costly and range between $60,000 to $300,000. E-learning apps enable people to access online learning and educational resources such as virtual classes, coursebooks, training, and assessments. The cost for these applications can go up if you want to add features like multimedia content, progress trackers, timeclocks, and user engagement tools.
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Video Streaming Apps
Video streaming applications are quite the trend right now. People are increasingly searching for applications to watch sports, games, live shows, news, and whatnot. After all, these applications are an easy way to enjoy real-time content without any downloads. These kinds of applications can require an investment of $50,000 to $400,000, depending on the bandwidth requirements and server infrastructure.
App Features and Functions
App features and functions are the most important part of the development stage. These are the core elements of your application. These will depend on the category of your app, the industry of your business, and the goal behind your mobile app. The features hugely determine the app’s success as they have a direct impact on customer experience. Here is a breakdown of this stage.
| Design Complexity | Average Cost | Average Time |
| Basic UI/UX | $10,000 – $40,000 | Less Than 3 Months |
| Mid to Complex UI/UX | $120,000 – $250,000 | 6 To 9 Months |
| Custom UI/UX | $150,000 – $300,000 | Upto 12+ Months |
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Basic UI/UX
Basic apps have simple features like registration, signup, or simple navigation that are easy to code and cost less. These kinds of apps have limited features with basic elements to server core functions. For example, a weather app or a calculator app that has basic features, resulting in lower development costs.
This category can also include building an MVP. MVP is like a black-and-white sketch of your final app. It is clear, minimal, and user-focused without any extra or fancy elements. These apps are built to focus on essential features that are required for app launches and to get user feedback. An MVP can cost somewhere between $6,000 to $15,000.
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Mid to Complex UI/UX
Mid to complex mobile apps developed by reputable agencies often include advanced features like interactive elements, complex infrastructure, multiple integrations, and third-party plugins. Common examples include eCommerce platforms, healthcare apps with fitness trackers and vital monitoring, and online learning tools. These types of applications take longer to build than basic ones, often requiring 6 to 9 months—or sometimes even more—depending on the scope.
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Custom UI/UX
Custom applications require higher mobile app development costs due to all the custom interactions with external systems or APIs. These integrations can include plugins, connections with existing enterprise systems, custom databases, or software that needs to be synced with the app. These applications also have custom animations and branding elements and can take up to 12 months to be fully functional.
Developer Charges
The estimated cost of hiring one of the mobile app development experts can range from as low as $25 to $120 or more per hour, based on their skills, expertise, and region. If you are hiring a mobile app development agency for a fixed-price project, then expect to spend a few thousand dollars for simpler applications and go up for more complex, feature-rich applications.
You should start by researching thoroughly, reading reviews, checking testimonials, and collecting quotes from multiple mobile app developers to understand the specific costs tied to your project. Avoid hiring a single developer to handle everything. Mobile app development involves several specialists, each contributing based on their role, expertise, and skill level. Their individual rates reflect the value they bring to the team and the overall project quality.
Here is a chart to give you a rough idea of what you will be paying people to build a mobile application.
| Mobile App Specialists | Average Hourly Rate |
| Architecture | $45 – $80 |
| Project Manager | $30 – $55 |
| Business Analyst | $30 – $50 |
| Lead Developer | $50 – $80 |
| Junior Developer | $25 – $60 |
| DevOps | $30 – $60 |
| Senior QA | $30 – $50 |
| Junior QA | $20 – $40 |
| Graphic Designer | $30 – $55 |
Maintenance Cost
Launching your mobile app on the server is not the last step of the entire process since you must monitor and maintain the mobile app to make sure that it runs smoothly, is secure, and continues to provide an amazing experience to your user.
Basic maintenance involves bug fixing, security patches, and minor changes that keep the software running smoothly. This kind of maintenance takes 15% – 20% of the initial development cost. Most of the time, there is a yearly fee that covers basic maintenance aspects, making the mobile application functional and secure.
There is also comprehensive maintenance, which is all about maintaining everything that has been built at the foundational level. This kind of maintenance includes self-contained updates, optimizations, adding or removing a feature, changing animations that are glitching, or rewriting parts of code. This kind of maintenance is required when users’ demands or expectations have changed from the time the app was first built. This preventive method of maintaining a mobile app can account for 20% to 35% of the initial cost per annum.
Bottom Line
Every business entering the mobile app development industry must plan carefully. Several factors can affect the overall development cost, and businesses should evaluate them before moving forward. While building an app can be expensive, the return on investment often makes it worthwhile. Strong user engagement, improved brand loyalty, and increased sales revenue are just a few of the long-term benefits.
However, it is super important that you partner with a reliable and reputable mobile app development agency like Appnality to get connected with the right kind of mobile app experts. Our experts will help you create a mobile application that has fewer problems during development and brings out an amazing app that caters to your users’ and business needs. Contact us and discuss your vision for your ideal business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What factors affect mobile app development costs?
Many factors affect the overall cost of the entire process. These factors include the type of operating system, the technology used, the type of application, usage, and features of the application, as well as developer and maintenance charges. However, to give you a rough idea, a simple mobile application with basic features can begin from around $6000 and go up to $400,000 for a feature-rich custom mobile application with all the integration and advanced features you can think of.
How long should it take the best mobile app developers to build an application?
It is important to remember that creating a mobile application requires a whole team of experts with different skill sets. It can take the entire team 3 months to build a basic application with essential features and can take more than 12-16 months for a high-level and feature-rich application full of custom integrations.
How does geographical location affect mobile app development costs?
Geographical location can affect custom mobile app development costs due to differences in labor expenses and living rates. Developing areas or places with higher living costs, like North America or Western Europe, typically have experts asking for higher fees, while regions with lower living expenses ask for lesser overall costs.
