It's the question we get asked all the time.
"How much will my app cost to build?"
The only honest way to answer this is, "It depends".
When you're designing and building software you're not creating widgets that you can later produce on an assembly line. You're creating something bespoke that hasn't been built before, and won't likely be built again (otherwise — why are you building it in the first place?).
And while there are definitely some things most apps or websites have which can be turned into reusable libraries and components, there will always be a unique set of features your app needs which makes it very difficult to anticipate how much time design and development will take.
We've previously written a short article on why good software takes time to make, and it's the main reason why it's so difficult to give a useful answer on how much a certain app or website will cost.
Very broadly, the cost to build your app will depend on the following four constraints:
- what your app needs to do;
- how well your app needs to do it;
- how soon your app needs to be finished; and
- how many people will need to use your app.
If your app has just one or two simple features, it doesn't require a fancy user interface, it doesn't need to be finished urgently, and it's only going to be used by one or two departments in your company, it'll probably require very little budget.
On the other hand, if you need a multitude of features, a stunning user interface, want it built as soon as possible, and expect it to be used everyday by millions of users, you're going to need a budget of millions of dollars.
App Development Price Guide
After discussing budget with countless startup founders and entrepreneurs, we've realised people that ask the question how much their app will cost, fall into two groups.
Group 1: Has an idea for an app/website and wants to build it, but has no idea whether they have the budget to proceed.
Group 2: Has an idea for an app/website and has a budget and time-frame and wants to ship a good quality product within that budget and timeframe.
We've written an App Development Price Guide which helps answer this question for either of these groups.
Three hypothetical Apps/Websites and how much they'd cost to build
In the guide, we take three hypothetical projects and outline how much it would cost to design and build the first version.
If you have a specific project in mind feel free to reach out directly and we'd be happy to take a look.
