Top 10 Tips to Reduce Your App Development Costs

Developing your app may seem exciting at the beginning, but things can go awry when it comes to spending your hard-earned money on your app development project. The challenges will be more stressful if you’re looking to build your app faster with a limited investment. 

In this blog, we will save you from the future financial headache by sharing 10 practical tips that will actually reduce your development costs. 

Let’s do some cost-cutting!

Factors  impacting the cost of app development

The app development cost is not universal; it is in different ranges based on various factors.

According to the GoodFirms survey, the average cost of developing 

• A simple app is between $12,960 to $30,240 with minimum features
• A complex app will be between $34,560 to $60,480 with essential and extra features
• An advanced app will cost between $56,160 to $82,080 with top-edge features

When you prefer to build custom-made or enterprise mobile apps, then the cost will surely increase. 

So before we cut the cost, we need to know why the cost increases.

Let’s look at the factors that influence app development costs.

• Number of features in the app
• Level of app complexity
• App infrastructure
• Depth of app Security
• Required customisation
• App development team – In-house or Outsourcing
• Desired app platform
• Maintenance and support after release

You can read more about the factors affecting the development cost here.

10 practical tips to reduce the cost of app development

At some point in app development, many companies search for who is that money eater and how they can I kill them. 

But looking for that money eater should be at the early stage, not at midway.

Developing an app demands a lot of iteration and changes, which will be hard to achieve on a limited budget. 

But we can use some of the smart ways to reduce the app development costs.

Look at these ten ways to reduce the app development costs for budget-friendly apps.

Even though there is no easy way to cut that costs, you can do better with these tips.

1. Research beforehand – Dive with knowledge

Yeah, research is the first step! Never skip your research. 

The ultimate aim is to create a product that customers like to use. If you don’t understand your customer, you can’t build what customers need.

App development costs increase by developing the different products, realising it midway, and changing the app according to the user’s need. 

It will lead to unwanted stress, resource wastage and costs going high. You need to understand for whom and why you are building.

Research is the only way to have a deeply analysed answer to these questions. Understand your customer and competitors to avoid some pitfalls in the development process. 

Proper research will give you answers and guidelines to 

• What does your customer need?
• How your product should be?
• What features are essential?
• How your app is going to be different from competitors?
• Where did your competitors fall while they developed their apps?

Do different research using.

• Customer one-to-one interview
• Online surveys via social media or email.
• Using online survey tools or websites.

After completing and analysing the research, with the results, you should document

• Purpose of the product
• USP (unique selling point)
• KPI

Research is vital, as also the results. Have elaborate research to lessen the errors in advance and reduce app development costs. Learn how to perform a perfect research for your software development. 

2. Plan effectively – Be prepared

“Precaution is always better than cure”. It’s an old saying, but it applies even to  app development.

Planning  is one of the best ways to reduce the cost of your app development. 

Plan how you will approach the software development; which method you will use – Agile or waterfall. Set timelines with developmental milestones. What tech stack you are going to use and more.

Document it clearly so every team member can use and understand it.

Plan your software development using a perfect software development plan for effective cost-cutting.

3. Curate the app features – Stick to the need

Yes, you are developing your first dream app, you want to have all the features in it. But you can’t do that at the early stage.

When you develop your first initial release or MVP, you can’t go large. Stick with the very needed features.

Every feature you add or cut out will have an impact on your development cost. 

List the app into two different categories. 

1. Want

2. Need

Categorising the app features may be tricky sometimes, look into this blog to know how you can prioritise your app features.

Try to build your initial product with want features, not with need features. Make the product as simple as it can be. 

4. Build an MVP – Go with minimum

MVP is the rescuer for the question – How to reduce mobile app development costs.

You need only a limited budget and resources when you build a minimum viable product with essential features and design. 

Then you start to find the success or feedback of your app; you can easily find out that investing in that lump sum is worth the risk. 

When up build your MVP, you create the product one by one, and you don’t have to include it all at once. You can add the money step by step after seeing some specific results.

5. Choose the right stack – Consult your team or an expert

Choosing the right tech stack will help you drastically  reduce the cost of app development. 

You have two different options. 

• One is to create separate apps for two different platforms – Google Play Store and App Store. 
• The anther is to create two apps with single coding using native languages like javascript. 

You can look into the examples like Clubhouse, where they created an app first only for the App Store. After they found the demand, they built an app for Play Store. 

If you are considering covering a large customer base, then choosing hybrid app development will be wise. 

When you choose native app development, the cost of hiring developers for different app development will be reduced. 

Suggested read: How to Choose the Best—Native vs Hybrid App

Before you choose the tech stack, you have to consult your development team and utilise their expertise to make crucial decisions about your tech stack. 

This will reduce a lot of time and resource wastage. 

Here is something to help choose the appropriate tech stack for your web app development.

6. Maintain top-notch documentation – Have a reference point

Software development is prone to changes. Sometimes after the initial release, you may find out you need changes in your UX design; after that, you make the changes your customers may like the previous one. 

Now you have to go back on what you did earlier. If you document your design requirements, it will be easy to go and revert them. 

Clear and specific documentation will act as a reference point when you have any downfalls or unclear communication. 

There are many chances for developers to leave the project; you need to hire a new one. Then the documentation will play a more significant role for newbies to understand the project better. 

Which saves a lot of time and money. 

Document everything from how you start to how it is going. Never skip any step without documentation. Make it clear and specific. 

7. Start testing early – Test, test and test again

Testing is vital; many think to avoid testing to reduce the app development cost, but without testing your cost will actually increase. . You save money by testing, not by avoiding testing.

 Testing saves not only money but also your product’s reputation and image. 

You can’t expect software to work perfectly because you built it perfect. It is software, and there will bug creeping in  from nowhere. 

Try to perform all types of testing to ensure your app is perfect in many dimensions like usability, quality, security and more. 

Never stop testing.  Before every release, ensure that your app went through testing of all types.

8. Keep it simple – Simple is good

Make the app very simple, with no complicated features or design, especially at the early stage. 

When you create your app, you know how it works, but not your customers.  Also,  adding a lot of features takes  a lot of time and effort. 

Make your app it with a simple yet intuitive UI/UX design. A simple design will make the onboarding of new users very easy. 

When things are simple, you don’t need many resources at an early stage. When you choose a minimalist design, you can easily cut the cost. 

Simple is good when you have all the essential features in it. 

9. Optimise team effectively – Delegate skillfully

When selecting a developer for a specific work, consider their previous experience and take advantage of it. 

Many apps have similar features like navigation, adding buttons and building carts. Make sure that your developers possess the right skills to deliver your project. 

Also, when you choose your team for development, ensure that they can understand the vision of your product. 

10. Outsource your development process – Just handover and watch

If you are a non-tech person looking to develop your app, outsourcing will be a opt choice to reduce app development costs. Also, for tech persons who think to concentrate on the other aspect of business like marketing, sales, etc., outsourcing will save you a lot of money and time. 

You can look for some excellent software development companies with expertise in similar app development processes. 

You can hand over your entire app development to an outsourcing company, and you will only be involved in the discussion process. 

Many companies offer maintenance services even after release. You can see how your app gets shaped. You will get a quote in a single package which will be very low compared to building an app with an in-house team.

Final thoughts

Developing a mobile app for your business is a good decision if you want to leverage the power of the internet. But many in the trap of high cost. 

To develop a custom or good quality app, you need resources and money, but you can substantially reduce the cost of app development using these tips.
Still worried about developing your app? Contact any software development company and get a quote.