App Development Cost Estimator

How to Use App Cost Calculator Tool:

If you plan to develop an app, one of the first questions you'll likely have is: "How much will it cost?" Estimating the cost of app development can be complex, with numerous factors influencing the final price. Simpalm offers a user-friendly App Cost Calculator to make this process easier. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use out app cost calculator effectively:

1. Select the Platform

The first step is to decide which platform you want to develop your app for. You can select iOS, Android, or both. Also, if you want to know the cost of web app development, then you can select the option in the web app section. Remember, building for multiple platforms can increase your costs.

2. Choose the Design Type

Next, select the design type of app you want to develop. Whether it needs a basic design, a mid-level design, or a gamified design, this selection will affect the cost slightly based upon the features of the app.

3. Define the Features

You'll be prompted to select the features you want to include in your app. We have added several possible features that are needed in many different apps. Please select the feature carefully, if you dont find the exact feature you are looking for, please select a feature which is closer to your desired feature. The more features you add, the higher the development cost.

4. Backend Infrastructure

Decide if you need a backend for your app. A backend is essential for apps that require user accounts, databases, and server-side processing. Depending on your app's requirements, this can add to the cost.

5. Post Production Support

You can select additional services like app maintenance or enhancement. These services, while optional, can enhance your app's functionality and user experience.

6. Review and Submit

Once you've entered all the details, you can now submit the form for a free consultation with Simpalm’s experts, we will email you the cost estimation with all the details.

Using Simpalm’s App Cost Calculator tool is a straightforward way to get a quick estimate of how much it will cost to bring your app idea to life. It allows you to explore various possibilities, ensuring that your project aligns with your budget before you commit to full development. If you have any questions or need a detailed discussion about your project, Simpalm's team is always ready to assist you.

Factor that influences the cost of app development:

1. Mobile App Design

Many factors of app design, including a number of app screens, UI/UX elements, and the complexity of app design, directly affect the overall cost of app development. A more involved design not only drives up the design cost, but the coding of an app also becomes more expensive.

For example, if you want a total custom design for your app with a unique layout, icon, illustration, brand-specific design, animation, and other specialized visual elements, it can increase app development costs significantly, as each requires more time, resources, and effort to develop and design. Achieving complex mobile app design requires highly skilled designers, who always cost more and also spend more time designing the app interface.

2. Third-Party Integration

Popular third-party integrations for mobile apps are integration with social media, payment gateways, and any other third party for sharing the data. This is done to enhance the app’s functionality and features. Integrating with third parties can impact your overall app development cost. Also, many third-party integrations charge usage fees to use their services; you should also account for that. In some third-party integrations, developers have to make several changes in the backend infrastructure of the app, such as server setup and database changes, which can also increase the time and cost.

3. Security Level in Mobile App

App security is one of the things that you can’t afford to neglect. As your app stores very crucial information about the user, such as user personal details, credentials, and transaction history. So it’s very important to ensure that your app has top security.

App security is one of the factors that increase the app development cost significantly. Implementing complex security features in mobile apps requires more planning, coding, and testing. In some cases, to implement security features in mobile apps, you have to hire an app security architect, which further increases the development cost.

You will have to do penetration testing and security audits to identify vulnerabilities and also resolve them in your mobile application. All these require additional tools, efforts that add to the overall app development cost.

4. Number of App Screens

The number of app screens directly impacts the cost of app development, as a greater number of screens means more time and effort required from developers. More screens mean more time for the developer in coding the user interface of the app. Also, it means making more API calls and data parsing for the app. More screens also require more time in testing and debugging than apps with fewer screens.

5. Feature and Functionality

One of the most important factors that influences the mobile app development cost significantly is the features and functionality. Let's understand this with an example: developing an application with very basic features, such as a simple user-friendly interface, push notification, and in-app purchase, and social media integration will cost much less than developing an application with premium features like real-time chatbot, ai/ml features integration, augmented reality features, and heavy backend infrastructure. As the number of features goes higher with higher complexity, it will take more time to design, code, and test, which ultimately increases app development cost.

6. Backend Infrastructure

Backend infrastructure is the backbone of mobile applications as it plays a vital role in keeping app functions running properly by handling user requests and managing user data. To develop a robust backend infrastructure requires investment in a server, database, API, and middleware.

A backend system that handles large datasets and complex logic and is integrated with multiple external services often requires more cost for development and maintenance. As the complexity of backend infrastructure scales up, the cost of backend infrastructure development goes up.

There are a couple of things, such as the complexity of the app, user base, data storage type, and app features can help you in deciding the type of backend infrastructure your app requires.

7. Team Composition & Location

Location of the app development team and the size of the team play a major role in the app development cost. So here, the very first thing that we will discuss is how team size affects app development costs.

A bigger team size means more money, sometimes you may have to hire multiple mobile app and backend developers, sometimes you just need one 1-2 developers for your project. The overall cost will be much higher as you hire developers for the project. If you can keep your team size small, you can have less cost.

There will be a difference in the labor rate of developers according to the experience they have. Developers with more experience may charge higher rates than junior developers, however, more experienced developers can speed up the app development process.

Also, the geographical location of your team affects the overall cost significantly. Hiring developers from America and the UK is quite expensive as their hourly rates are higher than those of developers from countries like India, Ukraine, and the Philippines.

8. Maintenance & Update

The cost of development doesn’t end at launching the app, the cost still continues in the form of post-production launch, including hosting costs, fixing bugs and security patches, adding new features to the application, and improving app performance.

App hosting is one of the post-app launch expenses that you should be prepared with. It can range from $100 a month to six figures, depending on the size and activities of the server. Keeping apps up-to-date by fixing bugs, adding new features, and upgrading existing features helps in retaining app users. However, each of these tasks adds development and testing time.