HOW MUCH

DOES IT
COST TO
BUILD AN
APP?
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 2

INTRODUCTION
For startups and established businesses alike, mobile apps are
powerful tools for engaging an increasingly online audience of
customers and employees.

The benefits of mobile apps are compelling and undeniable.

58%
Mobile app usage grew 58% in 2015 alone, and were currently
seeing a whopping average of 2,000 apps enter the mobile
marketplace each day.

Clearly, this trend isnt going to fizzle out anytime soon. But
with so many apps launching in an industry that is still so
green, the success stories are few and far between. MOBILE
The opportunity lies in hiring a development company that can APP
not only develop the software behind an application (thats
not hard) but create a researched platform that engages and USAGE
retains customers, with a plan for continuous optimisation long
after the launch date.
GREW
58% IN
2015
ALONE
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 3

IF YOU KNOW
This is why making the decision to build a mobile
app should be based on the following questions:

WHAT YOURE What problem am I aiming to solve?

GETTING Who am I solving it for (who will be using the app?)

YOURSELF Is a mobile app the BEST option to solve the problem I need to solve?
Could I possibly build the MVP as a web app to validate my idea?

INTO, YOULL Have I taken the time to understand the software development

UNDERSTAND process so I can understand the work that goes into managing,
designing and building an engaging software product?

THAT MOBILE APP Has my development partner produced apps with a track-record of

DEVELOPMENT long-term success?

ISNT CHEAP.
Do we understand how we will attract the initial users and then
continue to engage and expand the user base?
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP?
THE QUOTING PROCESS
In the app development world, there are many
assumptions as to how much an app should
cost for the first version of the product, often
known as a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
or First Release.
The assumption often goes You should
never spend more than $50,000 to build your
MVP.
The smartest thing you can do is understand
how software is built.
It has nothing to do with whether your app is
version 1, version 2 or version 55.
Your MVP should display your products core
functionality, and whatever that costs to
build, is how much you need to budget for.
The cost of that will depend on the
requirements of that functionality.
Think about it like this:
Imagine if you were a building contractor, and
someone came up to you and asked:
I want to build a house with 3 bedrooms, state
of the art kitchen and a garage. How much will
it cost?
Well Do you want a marble or vinyl bench
top? Whats the square metre of the bench
size?
Without knowing more detail about the
requirements of your project, its impossible
to give an exact dollar value.
4
What Im going to do for you today, is give
you a few tools to understand a rough
ballpark for the major development costs of
building an app in Australia.
These costs mostly come from the amount
of man-hours required to build an engaging
application, from professionals with years
of training and experience in different skills.
These skills include:
BUSINESS ANALYST
UX DESIGNER
UI DESIGNER
SYSTEMS ARCHITECT
IOS / ANDROID DEVELOPER
TESTER
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 5

COST OF STAGES

1
IDEATION, This initial phase is essential for taking
your idea and giving it a professional
STRATEGIC DESIGN analysis under the lens of technical
AND PRODUCT feasibility, UX, UI and marketing. This
clearly establishes what the requirements
DEVELOPMENT of your project are and delivers you a
PLANNING clickable prototype. As well as informing
the best possible solution, this prototype
$8,000-$20,000
is an invaluable tool for exciting potential
3-8 WEEKS
stakeholders and investors.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 6

COST OF STAGES

2
DEVELOPMENT Its important to mention that development costs can fall outside these brackets.

Assuming you want to build a custom, medium-sized app using the lean approach to app
$50,000-$150,000
development, you should set a budget between $50,000 -$150,000.
3-8 MONTHS
This price delivers a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) first to eliminate wasted resources, and
delivers concrete data from which future updates will springboard off.

If you are an enterprise, there will most likely be need to integrate with existing backend
systems, which comes with complexity and governance. For this reason, enterprises should
expect to be quoted between $100,000-$500,000.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 7

COST OF STAGES

3
MAINTENANCE COSTS Many businesses struggle to grasp that bugs and glitches are a normal part of software
development.
$5,000 - $20,000
Just think about how often you receive updates for an app on your phone and the only reason
given is Bug Fixes.

Furthermore, maintenance work often crops up simply because of the large requirement for
integration across different versions of systems and platforms.

Maintenance activities are required to ensure apps remain fast, powerful and run smoothly.

At a minimum, you need to ensure your app is current for:

OS updates to Apple or Android devices
API and other 3rd party software changes that your app utilises
Hardware changes/releases which may require modifications to your apps systems

Of course, how much these maintenance activities cost will depend on the complexity of the
system, and how your app integrates with other systems.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 8

COST OF STAGES

4
ONGOING COSTS For enterprise, ongoing maintenance of
a "system" is going to be a lot more than
$5,000-$20,000.

For example, if your business uses a branded

base integration layer platform, you are
looking at $50k/annum in licensing costs.
These are separate to maintenance and
updates costs.

On top of this cost, there can be other costs

to maintain the app if you update the backend
of a system it integrates with.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 9

COST OF STAGES

5
UPDATES If you are serious about achieving significant, ongoing growth and engagement or profits from
your app, you MUST be releasing app updates regularly. This keeps apps relevant and valuable
$5,000-$10,000 to their users!

These updates will be based on user feedback, in-app analytics, and quality performance reports
all released with the aim to increase customer engagement.

Of course, some updates are small (fixing a glitch or bug from first release) and others involve
ongoing iterations to fulfill the product development roadmap. The former may only cost $1,000,
while the latter could cost upwards of $200,000.

For this reason, updates will usually be quoted on an individual basis based on the requirements.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 10

WHAT
Here are the most common factors that affect the cost of app
development.

FACTORS
1. Device types it needs to be compatible with
(iOS, Android, etc).

WILL AFFECT
Of the 16 app platforms available, the 3 most common options are:

1. iOS

THE COST OF
2. Android

3. Web applications (Browser Based Applications)

YOUR APP?
The costs of apps are largely based
on features, complexity and platform.
Native apps need to be coded using the language that the system
understands. You cannot simply transfer the code of an iOS app onto
Android and expect it to function.This is why most people in Western
countries will only build their app for iOS initially, then move to Android
when theyre ready to expand (or vice versa).
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 11

WHAT FACTORS WILL AFFECT THE COST OF YOUR APP?

2. Screen Requirements 3. Data storage

Every single screen in your application needs to be individually Your requirements for the accessibility of the data being stored will
designed and coded. affect the costing. There are 3 common types of data storage, in order
from cheapest and easiest to implement, to the most costly and time-
intensive.

1. Apps that require information to be stored on the users device for

use at a later date.

2. Apps that only store data remotely (on a Content Management

System), meaning the app has to retrieve it each time its needed.
SMALL APPS: MEDIUM- LARGE APPS:
LESS THAN SIZED APPS: MORE THAN 3. Apps that have data stored both on the device and the CMS, and
35 SCREENS 35-50 SCREENS 50 SCREENS
this data is synced.

In addition to this, the TYPE of data stored (plain text, images, videos)
However, what is much more important than the number will also add to your development costs.
of screens, is the functionality that ties to the screen. This
encompasses back-end functionality, animations on the screen
and computing related to a function that is tied to the screen.
For an app like Facebook, for example, the logic that sits behind
just 2 of the screens would account for a large percentage of
the entire apps overall functionality!
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP?
WHAT FACTORS WILL AFFECT THE COST OF YOUR APP?
4. 3rd party API integrations
Most apps you use daily contain API
integrations that let you use other,
complementary software within the app. For
example, Uber uses the Google Maps API to let
drivers and riders track where theyre going.
The benefits of using 3rd party APIs far
outweigh the additional cost overhead to
integrate with them. Firstly, the 3rd party
has already done the heavy lifting for you,
so you dont need to re-invent the wheel.
Some of these APIs come at a subscription
cost, however this is a very small fraction of
what it would cost you to develop the same
functionality from scratch.
If youve struck partnerships with another
company to incorporate their data into your
app, this may require setting up a custom
API in order to successfully integrate this
datasource.
12
5. Need for integration with any existing 6. Any supporting backend
business systems requirements
Most startup apps are stand-alone, but Apps that require a lot of data to be stored
business apps typically require integration with and quickly modified usually require a
enterprise systems already in use. backend management portal or web app.
This is so admins can easily make changes
Enterprise integration will always significantly to the app without having to get code
increase the cost of development. Complete rewritten. For example, e-commerce apps
data integration includes the discovery, that contains millions of bits of product
monitoring, transforming and delivery of data information will always have a backend
from a variety of sources. Content Management System so they can
update pricing and stock availability in
The more data sources your app requires or
realtime.
connects to further increases the cost.
Your organisations enterprise architects will
advise you about the integration requirements
for supporting a mobile app.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 13

CONCLUSION:
As you can see, the cost of app development is hugely dependent on
the number and complexity of your requirements, which affect the
amount of man hours that are required to build your app.

Thats why putting together detailed requirements and specification

documentation may be time intensive but is the only guaranteed process to
establish an accurate fixed price quote.

If youre less concerned about a definitive fixed price and timeline for
development and are happy to work within an estimated cost, using a pure agile
method of delivery has proven to yield significant results.

Click here to view the key differences between

Hybrid and Agile software development.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 14

THE NEXT STEP

Once you have a clear understanding of the cost brackets that could
be involved in your project, the next step is to obtain a custom quote.

What any good app developer will do is:

1. 2. 3.
Talk to you about your app idea Flesh out the idea into a detailed Based on these specifications,
or your business mobile needs, Scope document, which will define you will then receive a quote on
and get a sense of whether it is technical requirements, conceive how much this app would cost to
feasible. user-behaviour flows and produce get fully developed, as well as a
a clickable prototype. timeline for completion.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP?
FREE ONE-ON-ONE STRATEGY SESSION
NORMALLY VALUED
AT $450
Take advantage and apply for a free
1 hour strategy session with one of
Buzingas Product Specialists.
In this session we will work with you
to identify key opportunities and next
steps for your concept.
APPLY HERE.
15
Includes:
-- Basic feasability analysis to assess
whether your idea is viable.
-- Application of lean thinking to create an
MVP focus
-- Improvements on your concept based on
our experience in the field
-- An estimate of how much it could cost to
build
-- A roadmap of suggested next steps for
moving forward with your concept.
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO BUILD AN APP? 16

Buzinga is an Based in Australia, Buzinga offers a range of services including mobile, web and cloud
solutions, as well as strategic consulting and planning, leveraging its wide network
award-winning app within Australias innovation and venture capital community.

development and Buzinga has produced some of Australias most popular apps including SteelDrive
for BlueScope, That Sugar App for Madman Entertainment (#1 on the App Store) and
innovation consultancy, Foodswitch for The George Institute of Global Health and Bupa (#1 on the App Store).
Since launching in Melbourne in 2012, Buzinga has been involved with more than 200
helping startups mobile app projects.

and enterprises Buzinga was recognised by BRW as a Top 100 Australian Fast Starter in 2015, by

commercialise ideas JobAdvisor as among the Top 20 coolest companies in 2014 and then as the fourth
coolest company in 2015.
and implement mobile- Buzinga aims to build Australias most influential mobile applications while providing
first strategies. customer experiences unrivalled in the industry.

To learn more contact us at:

logan.m@buzinga.com.au | www.buzinga.com.au | Phone: (03) 9039 9999