Every business, whether small scale or large scale, needs a strong online presence to be successful, and with every person using a smartphone, mobile applications are one of the most powerful marketing tools to reach a large group of people. From ordering food to booking a flight ticket, or even shopping, people prefer to do it at their own leisure.
How much does it cost to develop an iOS app, and on what factors does app development cost really depend? These are the two questions that are frequently asked by entrepreneurs willing to get a mobile application developed for their businesses.
The development cost is mostly based on the app’s complexity, and the time consumed to create the application. Along with these, the type of application that you are planning to get built determines the top mobile app development cost. Though there are various other factors too, we will be discussing them ahead in this article, on which the development cost of any application depends.
According to Statista, as of 2020, there are approximately 3.5 billion smartphone users across the globe. This number is expected to go up to 3.8 billion by the end of the year 2021.
Succinctly, the basic mobile app development can cost around $20,000-$30,000, and the one with more complex features can go up to $1+ million.
However, the hourly rates of an iOS developer are different based on location, so you can hire iOS developer which fits your budget.
Table of Contents
How to determine if your business needs an iOS app?
Revenue Generation
The United States of America is one of the largest users of iOS devices after China. As of 2019, it has approximately 57.42% of iOS users. So, for any business to grow in the American market, or even worldwide, it is important to have a mobile application built on iOS. Also, the Apple App Store brings in more revenue to the entrepreneurs as compared to the Google Play Store.
Better Security and Quality Standards
Apple gives powerful security to its clients against information breaches using a strong security layer that comprises information encryption. This makes iOS applications exceptionally secure as compared to others.
High Market Exposure and Scalability
There is no doubt about Apple’s presence in the international market. With iOS app development, the businesses get high exposure and reach a wider group of audiences without making many efforts, which makes iOS applications an apt choice to meet your growing business requirement.
High-quality User Experience and Time Efficiency
Native iOS applications offer an amazing user experience. Apple has established itself for having very reliable software, customer support, and a one-of-a-kind ecosystem. Also, the development time is comparatively less, compared to the Android apps, as there are too many Android devices on which the application needs to be tested.
Now, coming back to our main point, how much does iOS app development costs? The app development cost directly depends on, the total number of hours spent on the project, and its maintenance, multiplied by the average hourly cost of the development team. The development costs, again, depends on various other factors too, but in a nutshell, you can calculate the cost using the simple formula mentioned below:
Factors that determine the iOS App Development Cost
Other than the hourly rate of mobile app developers, there are other factors, which we shall be discussing below, that affect the iOS app development cost. We have broadly classified the following factors into five parts:
- Conceptualizing the idea
- Analyzing the scale of the app
- Designing the application
- Testing and Maintenance of an App
- Where the app is being developed
1. Conceptualizing the idea
Before jumping into the app development, firstly, the idea of creating the app is justified, known as Design Sprint, a five-phase process, which is conducted to determine the application-related risks. This process is usually done before introducing any new product in the market.
Appended are the few points which are followed to determine the feasibility of an application.
- Competitor Analysis
At this stage of the process, comprehensive market research is carried out. This research also includes competitor analysis, what your competitor is offering to the user, what features are there in his app. This is done to ensure that the app being created is practical, unique, and easy to use. Even factors like the number of iOS users’ targeted audiences, and their requirements, are considered.
- User Experience
Most businesses, rather all businesses, aim to provide the best user experience to their consumers. So before starting, and designing the application, the user’s requirements are taken into consideration. The target location, or the market in which the app is going to be used, matters a lot.
- Market Capitalization
This is an essential part of this process, in here, the revenue generation capacity of an application is determined. Factors like, will this app be able to attract users? Will it generate enough revenue? and most importantly, Whether, it could raise any funds of its own? All these points should be taken into consideration while estimating the average cost for your app development project.
Read Also: Tips to Hire iOS Developer
2. Analyzing the scale of the application
At this stage, developers decide about the major determinants like design, features, technologies to be used, etc. This includes finalizing two major factors:
- App Complexity
- Type of Application
App Complexity
A good application should have diverse features. The development cost depends majorly on its features and the complexity involved in creating it. The more the features, the more will be its development time.
Simple applications with basic features usually cost less. If you are looking for an iOS application that is developed using predefined templates, using standard design components will cost you much lesser.
Mid-level application, which has slightly more features than the simple one, is a bit on the expensive side. If you want an application to have customized templates, diverse UI components, some real-time chat options, and/or integration with APIs, it will surely cost you more.
If you are looking for an application with complex features like customized animations, complex database relationships, media processing, etc. it will cost you much higher as compared to the above two. Since the time required for the development process is more in such types of applications, the price is also high.
Type of Application
The type of application, whether it is a cross-platform app or a native application, determines its development cost. A cross-platform application offers an added advantage as it runs on multiple platforms, and also, the code is once written can be reused. Whereas, when it comes to Native applications, the code is to be written from scratch, and also, it is OS-specific.
Generally, businesses get both Android apps and iOS apps developed. Getting Cross-platform Apps developed saves money as compared to the Native Apps. In Native App development, you have to pay for two separate applications, one for Android and another one for iOS, whereas in cross-platform development, around 80% of the code is reused which saves time and money.
Read Also: Know Why Your Business Needs A Mobile Application
3. Designing the Application
An application’s design is another important factor that we should include while estimating the cost of iOS app development. It is believed the cost of getting the application differs even with the slight change in the designing idea.
The wireframe is the backbone of any project’s design. It helps create a better user experience for your consumers. There are various tools like Justinmind, Mockplus, Balsamiq, etc which translate the app to hi-fi design. It helps you decide your application’s flow process i.e. the user path, which determines the way, how a user navigates through your app.
UI design and hi-tech animation is also a prominent determinant for evaluating the cost of a project. To build an app with a complex design and animation, like in gaming apps, requires a lot of complicated coding and is a time-consuming process, which eventually adds to the cost of iOS app development. The more complicated the design and coding are, the more will be the cost for developing an application.
4. Testing and Maintenance of an App
The work of an iOS developer does not end with just the development of the website. The testing and maintenance of an application also take time. The developer ensures that the app developed is free from any bugs and runs smoothly. The app has to be updated according to the current need and scenarios. These continuous updates on your app will surely add to your iOS app development cost.
5. Location
Location, from where you are getting your app developed, plays a major role in the iOS application development cost. It is comprehended that the cost, which any mobile developing company charges, differ altogether around the globe. Also, the team size, and the number of mobile app developers working on your project, determine the cost.
For example, development companies based out of the US and UK charge around $200 per hour, whereas the companies based in the Middle East charges approximately, $50 per hour. If you talk about Asian countries like India, the cost can go as low as $15-25 per hour.
Android vs iOS App Development Cost
Most businesses get confused about choosing the right OS for their mobile app development. It is important to understand and analyze your target audiences, whether your audience is an iOS user or an Android user.
The development cost of Android app development services and iOS app development is more or less the same. Generally, the back end of an iOS app is robust and of better quality, when compared to Android, but it does not make much of a difference in the development cost.
The time consumed to develop an application on any OS cannot be exactly calculated. It all depends on the complexity of your application. However, Android apps use Java, which is comparatively a heavy language than Objective-C or Swift, which is used in iOS app development. This expedites the iOS development process a little bit.
Also, fragmentation plays a major role in determining the time involved to create an application. There are comparatively fewer smartphones that are based on iOS than the Android one, so this makes the testing process on iOS easy. Thus, the time required to create an iOS app is less, this also affects the iOS app development cost.
Testing is an essential part of the app development process. It helps determine the quality of the developed application. As already discussed, since iOS fragmentation is faster, the time required to test an app is much less. Testing an Android app can be a lengthy task, as it involves testing the same apps on multiple devices, and trust me, there are too many Android devices available in the market.
Conclusion
By analyzing each component, you currently realize that there are various elements influencing everything that indicates the complete iOS app development cost. Based upon your decisions concerning the innovation utilized, the area chose for development, UI/UX Design, unpredictability level, application type, and so on, there are various conceivable outcomes in regard to how most of your iOS application will cost.
You might have an estimated cost idea by now; however, your specific application needs a proper cost bifurcation, after which you will have the option to calculate how much the application will cost. We pay attention to every detail to ensure that you get the most optimal app development cost.
There are various mobile app developers available in the market. To get the right and fully functional application developed, you have to choose the right mobile application development company. Our expert iOS developers make sure that the app developed, meets all the business requirements, and create an app that will eventually help your business reach new heights.
