How to Reduce Mobile App Development Costs?

The most direct way to lower app development costs is by planning every stage of the process according to business and market requirements. Such planning may not always be possible as most development projects require changes in direction during the process.

However, choosing a method like the Agile methodology could help better manage the costs and prevent unplanned expenses. Agile includes scrum in the software development process to increase productivity and lower development costs.

A report by CA Technologies found that teams that use scrums in their development process improve product quality by 250%. This product quality often comes with a lowered app development cost.

Besides agile, here are the different ways to lower app development costs.

Tips to Lower Mobile App Development Costs

Reducing the overall app development cost without affecting product quality can be possible with some easy-to-conduct steps.

Determine Business Requirements

Most app development projects require changes or improvements in design, features, and functionality during the process due to poor planning. It can further increase the development cost and delay the delivery date if the budget is tight. The best way to deal with this is by analyzing your business requirements with extensive market research, including competitor and target audience research with surveys and interviews.

For example, 71.62% of the global mobile operating system market share is made of Android, while only 27.73% is iOS. This data tells you how you may benefit from your app by starting with only an Android app and creating the iOS version after its success.

Such research will help you determine a promising direction for app development that you will not need to change mid-process, saving your project from unplanned development costs.

Prioritize App Features

Adding several unnecessary and complex features to your mobile app is another reason the cost may increase. For example, a video streaming service app does not need features like facial or fingerprint scanning for access. Analyze the necessity of all features you decide to add to the app to lower the app development costs while keeping the user interface simple for end users. This strategy will reduce development costs and improve the user experience.

Build a Prototype

A prototype is a simulation of your app features and UI elements that you can create to see how your app will function and look. Create a prototype before any stage of mobile app development to determine the feasibility of your app.

It will help you remove unnecessary, flawed, and financially risky elements from it. You can also use an app prototype as a pitch to get new investors for the app which would in turn increase your development budget.

Build an MVP

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a version of your app with only the core features that can be made available to end users. For example, an MVP version of a ride-hailing app would include Geolocation, Book a Ride, Track the Driver, and Make the Payments, while an advanced version of the same app would include Book for Others, Schedule Rides for Later, Call or Chat with Driver, and Cancel a Ride.

Such advanced features require complex coding and more development hours leading to increased final costs. Most mobile app startups find it financially feasible to build an MVP app.

Choose Cross-platform Development

Cross-platform development includes one reusable source code that developers can use to create apps for multiple platforms like iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows. It means you save money on development hours and tools. Cross-platform apps take less time to develop, look like native apps, and cost less to build (compared to native apps).

The cost to build a cross-platform app can be $35,000 to $55,000, and the same app in native would cost between $65,000 to $95,000. Choosing cross-platform development is one of the best ways to lower costs while ensuring your app has a better reach.

Outsource to Offshore Developers

Outsourcing to offshore developers is a widely chosen method by app owners and startups to build efficient mobile apps at affordable prices. Statistics presented by Capital Counselor report that around 300,000 jobs are outsourced by US businesses annually, with lower costs being the primary reason for it 70% of the time.

Hiring an in-house team takes time and money, along with company sources or workspace that you may be required to provide to the team members (Android developers, iOS developers, backend developers, UI/UX designers, QA engineers, and team leaders). On the other hand, going with freelancers can be risky as it is not always easy to trust them with confidential information associated with your app and business.

Thus, outsourcing to offshore developers is the way to go for lower development costs and quality solutions.

Conduct User Acceptance Testing

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is an app testing stage that includes testing your app through target users. It is a crucial stage in the app development process as it verifies the feasibility of your app in the market.

It helps confirm whether your app can meet market needs and expectations while preventing scenarios where your app fails to meet user expectations, leading to uninstallations and bad reviews. UAT helps avoid this by identifying coding and design errors, bugs, functionality problems, and ease of use issues. You can deal with such issues before you deploy the app for use by the target audience.

Choose a Minimalistic Design

A minimalistic design is easy to develop as it only includes only the core elements of your app. It reduces the amount of work UI/UX designers have to do. The minimalist design is creatively simple and improves the ease of use by removing all the unnecessary elements.

It lowers costs by decreasing the development hours while maintaining the design standards of your app. Such a design may not be popular with every target audience, but choosing it would help reduce development costs significantly.

Key Takeaways

We hope that everything you read in the article would help you find practical ways to bring the development cost manifold. Between all these different options, the easiest way to lower mobile app development costs is by outsourcing to an offshore development company that will follow all the necessary steps mentioned above to reduce app development costs. It would save you from the complications of managing all those aspects and help you develop an app that is beneficial for your business and budget.