Five Ways to Keep Your Mobile App Development Costs Down

You would agree that the idea behind launching a mobile app is to target a wider audience which could help in generating greater revenue. But, if you do not plan properly or do not execute the development process appropriately, the costs could become pretty high. And, it would then not matter whether you do the development in-house or get it done by a third-party mobile application development company.

So, how can you ensure that the costs are always under control?

You need to understand that the app development costs may vary, depending on the number of features, workflow, type of app, mobile platform, and so on. But, that does not mean that you should focus your attention on reducing the number of features or choose a platform simply because it is less costly. Compromising the quality or UX design of the app is not a viable option for any mobile app development company.

In this article, you will get a glimpse of some of the best ways in which you can reduce your mobile app development costs without compromising. Sometimes it can be easier and cheaper to convert Android apps to iOS and vice versa rather than pay a app development team to build two different apps.

1.  Well-Documented Requirements Analysis

The ideal approach for either an iPhone or Android app development company is to have an appropriately planned business requirements analysis, with the utmost attention to detail. The requirements need to be revisited a few times with the development and app strategy team. And, a well-documented app development plan will help the development team reduce the number of changes that might otherwise arise during the course of the project.

2.  Making the Choice between In-house App Development or Outsourcing

Before arriving at a pre-assumed conclusion that either an in-house or outsourced app development project will prove more costly, you need to evaluate the pros and cons of both these models.

In-house app development may prove to be the right choice if:

• You have excellent app developers at your disposal;
• You wish to keep the app idea a secret till it is launched; and/or
• You are not completely clear about the requirements and expect a lot of changes as the app is developed.

Outsourcing the work to an Android or iPhone app development company could be the ideal alternative if:

• You do not possess in-house app development knowledge as well as capability;
• You want to save on the office space and the time of your existing resources for other critical activities; and/or
• You have a thoroughly documented requirements analysis document.

3.  Deciding on the Most Essential Features

When developing an app, your objective is most likely to generate revenue. However, there is always some uncertainty regarding this. It generally, makes companies that offer mobile app services provide as many features with the app as possible. Now, every additional feature in your mobile app will consume the time and effort of the development team and so it will increase the costs.

It is, therefore, necessary to focus only on providing the most relevant features that relate to the central premise of your app. Analyze the features that do not fit the context of the app or can be included later as part of the mobile app updates.

4.  Timely Communication with the Development Team

Whether you have different teams for iPhone app services and Android app services or a single team, it is vital that you keep communicating with the team(s) at various stages of the app development project. An essential component of this communication should involve offering feedback on the development from time to time. You should try to identify any discrepancies at an earlier stage so as to avoid any last minute surprises near the planned app release date.

5.  Balancing Experience within the Development Team

Apart from keeping a watch on the time spent by the developers on your app development, it is critical to understand how many developers are working on the project, especially considering the cost aspect.

For example, if you are doing an in-house iOS app development project, using the entire time of three highly experienced developers, offering iOS app services, will prove costly.

You need to understand that the work will also involve some simple tasks, which can easily be done by junior developers. Even if it requires you to hire mobile app developers with minimal experience, you can do the same and get them working on a project under the guidance of your expert developers.

Similarly, if you are planning to outsource a few app development projects (say mostly iOS ones) to a third-party mobile app development company, you still need to get information about all the resources that will be used to work on the project.

If you feel that they are using less experienced developers to save costs on their part, you can always ask them to hire iPhone app developers with relevant experience for that assignment.

So, you should have the right balance of junior and senior developers in the team as this will eventually help you keep the costs under control.

In a nutshell, it is possible to reduce the custom mobile app development costs, without compromising on the quality or UX design of the app.

We hope that the above tips to keep the mobile app development costs down prove useful to you. Feel free to share your feedback or suggestions in the comments section below.