How to Reduce App Development Costs Without Compromising Quality?
There is a growing need to reduce your business costs, which calls for automated tasks, best-fit resource-work allocation, and technologies that can support your requirements. The remote collaboration combined with high-tech automation needs calls for best-in-class software solutions that can help the processes and enhance agility.
We live in a remote-first world that wants every little detail to be accessible, available, and scalable. If you need data, you should get it on the go. Businesses that wish to collaborate should be able to do so without worrying about geographies.
Software solutions can help boost the overall productivity of your workforce while lowering costs. It can help you reduce the burden on your resources and help them accomplish the work faster. It allows you to get an edge over your competition.
The software allows you to connect with your customers in real-time and ensure they are delighted with your services. It would help to leverage software solutions to enhance business capabilities with such advantages.
However, a decent custom software solution comes at a cost. If you strive to achieve a feature-driven solution, you might spend a lot of money. However, you don’t need to spend money at all times to get the desired results. You can always keep the costs low at the start and then scale your application to meet your requirements.
Before we jump to the section that discusses reducing costs, we must understand what impacts the price.
What Impacts Software Development Cost?
We are all aware that developing a software solution, testing it, and deploying it to the concerned platform can cost money. Imagine delivering a capable Android app solution for your business. You need to invest in the idea, plan, deployment, license, and maintenance of the mobile app. We will take you through how you can decide the total cost of a mobile app solution before we help you with ideas to reduce the same.
Software Complexity
If the software solution is highly complex, you will need to add more features and functionality. To make up for the advanced needs of your application, you may need to use the device components and functions that can help augment the software solution.
Every feature or component that you add increases the development cost. This means your developer will spend that amount of time coding, debugging the code, and deploying it to the cloud infrastructure.
In the case of simple software, the total number of hours, resources, and the overall development time go down. The cost of development is directly proportional to the complexity of the software.
UI/UX Design
Investing in UI/UX design can also increase the development cost and cause you to spend a little more on the software solution. It is not just about the interface or the placement of things; it is an entire strategy focusing on the customer’s usage and consumption patterns.
You might need a UI/UX designer, a strategist, and someone who can test the final product before production. Apart from the resource cost, you will need to add the big bucks you will be spending on customization to your overall cost.
Platform
Depending on the type of application you plan to develop, you will need to choose the platform. For example, if you plan on developing an application that all kinds of customers can use, you might want to develop it for multiple platforms.
An Uber clone cannot be developed for a single platform. Similarly, if you think the audience is specifically iPhone customers, you might want to develop for the specific platform.
Depending on the platform, you will need to choose aspects like database, middleware, and apps that can be integrated. This will add to the overall cost of developing a business app solution.
Experience
The app you plan to develop might require a highly experienced developer. Say you need advanced specifications in your application, then you might need a specialist. For database management with MongoDB, you may need someone with experience operating with the particular database.
If you require a senior or specialist engineer for your app development, the cost of the resource automatically goes up. It will increase the app development cost. If the app is basic and feature-driven, a regular developer can work and deliver it. Your fee for the resource will be nominal in this case.
Development Approach
Your app development cost also depends on whether you choose to go with multi-platform or native app development. The native app development approach can be expensive if you go for both platforms individually.
However, you can choose to release the app on both platforms using the cross-platform approach and save some money. When working on a tight budget with the need to release your app across multiple platforms, choose a cross-platform approach. However, if you want to ensure an iOS-first development or need to use the native components extensively, go with the native approach.
Timeline
If you have a short timeline to complete the app development and launch it to the markets, you might need more resources and better infrastructure. The number of hours that go into development may be higher, which results in a higher app cost.
However, if you can release an MVP and keep building on it, you can reduce the app cost. The timelines for app release impact the overall cost.
Maintenance and Support
It is not enough to build an app; you need to work on ensuring it is constantly working. Reducing downtime and enhancing the support system are essential aspects of your application. Maintenance and support can cost you a dime and add to the overall cost of the application.
An eCommerce mobile app, for example, requires complete management and maintenance. You need to be constantly involved with the application upgrade and development. You are adding new features, pushing out functionality, sending out alerts, and much more are part of the maintenance deal.
How to Reduce App Development Costs?
We have identified all the reasons that your cost can go up. Let's look at ways to reduce development costs so that your app falls well within the defined budget.
Efficient Planning
The first step to any app development project is planning. Right from choosing the number of resources to phases of development, you will need to make plans for everything.
The planning or preparation phase is when you divide the whole development into phases. You would release a basic app with a few features in a month. You would add the AI feature to make the app intelligent in the next stage. When you divide it into phases, you can reuse the developers, reduce the development time, take a quicker approach and lower the costs.
Efficient planning is key to reducing the cost of developing a mobile app for your business.
Choosing the Right Stack
When you choose the appropriate technology stack, you are already working on reducing the overall development time and cost. The stack comes with the front-end and back-end technologies and tools and frameworks needed for your business app.
With the right tech stack, you can minimize risks, optimize the development processes, enhance the tasks and automate the development aspects. It will help you work with standard development practices while keeping the resources at an optimal count.
MVP
Start with a minimum viable product before you scale it to the next level. Let's understand how this will help reduce the costs.
When you have developed the idea, you are not sure if it will work and for which platform. You may be working on both platforms, but only one platform user uses the application.
The MVP will test the waters for your idea, understand the most-suited platform for development and help release the solution.
As a result, you will save the expense you are likely to make when releasing the application for both platforms. Similarly, you will keep up with your business's engagement and revenue needs.
Test the App Properly
Rework and revision are more expensive than developing the app itself. You may have to spend a lot of time working on revising the application and enhancing the solution for your business. However, this time and cost can be saved if you spend some time testing the application.
You must test the application, run it for performance and load, remove the bugs and then release it to the app store.
This way, your app would be cleaner and leaner. It would match the requirements, and you won't spend much on support and revision costs. You would also protect your company's reputation eventually.
Choose the Approach – Outsource or In-house
This is an important consideration when planning your app development. It will also help reduce the cost if you plan and consider the approach right at the beginning.
If you have the team and infrastructure in-house, you can choose a hybrid. This way, you can speed up the development process as a part is being developed by the offshore development company while working on the other half.
Suppose you are planning a multi-platform native app development. In that case, you might want to outsource the part you have no command on. for example, if your in-house team is adept with iOS, outsource Android app development.
Standard Processes
Work using standard and defined processes can help accelerate development and minimize costs. You would have the practice of reusing the components or build-to-test model. As a result, your app is being checked during the building phase, reducing the chances of risk, minimizing the cost, and offering a healthy app solution.
Post-launch Plans
If you have released a part of the application and still need to work on the remaining aspects, you need to have post-launch plans ready for your application.
Answer the questions related to support, maintenance, upgrade, and addition of new features. All this would help you unleash the potential of the application in post-launch.
Conclusion
App development cost depends on the type of app, features you plan to include, and the platform for which you are developing the application. If you are sure of all these aspects, you can plan the budget accordingly. However, if your app development cost exceeds the permissible budget, you can start with a smaller version and scale it.
You can also opt for reusable components, step-wise development, MVP approach, and standard development processes to keep the budget in mind.
At Expert App Devs, we cater to all budget requirements. We connect with you, talk to you about your idea, and validate and see how to best fit your requirements in the budget you have. We have solutions for all needs and budget types. We deliver usable solutions that drive experiences and downloads without compromising on quality.
Connect with our team using the contact us form and tell us your requirements. Our team will get back to you within the stipulated time to help you with your business app solution.
Jignen Pandya
Vice President at Expert App Devs
Responsible for creating a sales funnel, attracting top-of-the-funnel customers, and converting the target market.
