How to Reduce Mobile Application Development Cost

These days, mobile apps are becoming the dominant form of digital cooperation. People are used to doing things on the fly, and your business has to catch up and be at your clients' hands everywhere and at any time. Mobile applications are a better fit for this task than any other business channel. They allow companies to stay connected with their clients 24/7, 365 days a year. You can offer discounts or information about new products immediately via the push-messages, without waiting for a client to visit your website. Even more so, communicating with a client in a more private environment, you increase your brand's value. Today, the entire world is encased in one small device, and your business has to be there as well.

Whether you are a startup or a mature company, you are probably ready to dive into the highly competitive market of mobile applications. However, high app development costs may hinder your growth. The companies usually search for local mobile app development agencies or in-house specialists, and the idea about representing the business on mobile stays on the initial stage only. However, thorough market research can make a difference: the price for mobile apps changes according to the region. Choosing an outsourcing application development company will significantly reduce the app costs without affecting its quality and functionality.

Here are also a few more tips that can help you receive the product you want at a reasonable cost. Let's examine them in detail.

Write down your requirements

Mobile app development is a complicated process that requires a clear vision of a project. It is essential both for the planning of development stages and for the evaluation of the final results. If you are unsure about your requirements, no one knows what you'll receive. Formulate a detailed document with all application features and specifications you need for your business. The required functions will influence the size and price of the project. A list of requirements like this will help the mobile app development company evaluate the task, offer a solution, and count the project cost.

A project manager, together with the team, will analyze your business goals and, based on their experience, offer the most suitable solutions and technologies. After discussing details and working out the common product vision, you will create an official document where all app functions, technologies, UI requirements, main development stages, timeframes, budgets, and other project details will be recorded. This approach will help to avoid costly surprises in the future.

Opt for Outsourcing

When considering whom to entrust with mobile app development, businesses usually decide between employing an in-house team and project outsourcing. While the idea of having an in-house development team may sound quite appealing, it not always guarantees the best result but also is a more costly option. Even excluding the difficulty of hiring developers, ensuring efficient teamwork, and paying taxes, you still have to take serious expenses into account. These include salaries to employees who are not involved in every software development stage (but you still have to pay them), the price of hardware and software, office rent, and other resources needed for a team to work efficiently.

Choosing mobile app development outsourcing, you decide on the model where you pay a fixed price and have a defined timeframe. What is more, you have access to the experienced professionals required for your project. They not only develop an app in time and due to your requirements, but they can also suggest ways to improve and optimize it.

Consider Cross-Platform App Development

Native development is costly and time-consuming since it presupposes writing code for iOS and Android from scratch. And when it comes to mobile applications, the first thing to decide is the platform for your product. Many companies want to include both platforms, launch fast, and stay within budget limits at the same time. To satisfy all three requirements, cross-platform development seems like the best match.

Cross-platform environments allow developers to create hybrid applications compatible with several OS - iOS, Android, and Windows. They use a single code base for all products. There are a multitude of tools for cross-platform app development, but you still need a team of developers to create a functional and stable app that satisfies your users' needs.

Start from Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

One of the key mistakes many inexperienced entrepreneurs make is going for the full-fledged business app with that perfect design right away. And while the commitment to excellence is great, it backfires on the stage of launching a new product or business. Sticking to this idea, you risk losing time and money developing a product for yourself instead of your target audience.

Launching an MVP is the best solution for startups, and any experienced developer will offer it for a start. Everything you need at this stage of mobile application development is a product with a set of critical functions. This approach will allow you to evaluate market demand and efficiently distribute your budget. Improving your product step by step, you'll come up with a viable and profitable application that meets the target audience's needs.

Choose Some Pre-Built Features

The concept of using pre-built templates and functions plays an essential role in product cost reduction. Today, we can access a variety of plugins that can be tuned according to your needs and wants. By the way, access to the broad specter of pre-built features is yet another advantage of finding a professional team: experienced mobile app developers have ready environments from the previous projects.

Keeping It Simple

Bet on minimalism if your budget is limited. Your design has to be engaging, clear, and in line with the real user's needs. This is enough for the initial stage.

Keep your UI/UX plain and simple. It will help the target audience understand the key app features, and you will be able to track the user's journey, improve things that cause trouble, and come up with a better app experience. Also, the minimalist design will reduce architectural expenses and, therefore, overall app development cost.

Avoid Custom Graphics or Processes

Design is one of the essential components of any product. But wait a bit before you start adding any special effects and custom high-level tenderization. Сustom user interface is often a significant and unjustified expense item for a company with a limited budget. Besides, it significantly increases the product's time to market.

But it doesn't mean you have to abandon all attempts at individualization and create an impersonal product. To minimize your expenses, use design templates, elements, and functions to build a standard user interface. Professional designers, teamed with developers, will be able to finalize it to the necessary result.

If you can offer your clients a truly revolutionary product with the functions that solve their problems, a plain and simple interface will be even more viable. Open the Uber app, for instance.

Conclusion

Keeping an eye on the factors we've mentioned will significantly reduce the cost of mobile app development. Still, the choice of a provider remains the differentiator. Only professionals can come up with the optimal set of mobile app development methodologies and tech stack for the project, help to decide on critical functions, choose between pre-built solutions and native development, and more.

Owlab is a mobile app development agency that can become your reliable partner from day one. Having experience in app development, both from scratch and using pre-built solutions, Owlab efficiently works with different budgets and creates the products that perfectly fit the customers' business goals. Contact us, and together we will work our way from the idea to the product launch.