The answer is of course: “it depends”. This is certainly way too vague from a business perspective. To give you a ballpark estimation what app can cost, here’s a list of famous startups that got seed money to implement their ideas with apps:
- Uber: $200.000
- Instagram: $500.000
- Tinder: $485.000
- Postmates: $750.000
- Snap: 485.000$
Note that this is just an estimation, the actual cost in terms of payment for developers might be different, since developers often get shares in companies instead of payment. Also, this is the cost for what is commonly referred as minimal viable product. This kind of app features basic functionality that is good enough to see if a business model actually works. Over time, all apps underwent considerable updates with considerable additional cost.
So, how much does an app cost?
As a rule of thumb, building a very simple custom app from scratch means about 500 hours of development. With an hourly rate of 80€ this is 40.000€. Medium complex apps are easily 80.000€ and very complex apps are in the ballpark of 160.000€ and more.
What does simple mean?
A simple app typically includes features like user registration, user login, editable user profiles, push notifications, a newsstream and a backend with basic user management.
What does complex mean?
Complex apps integrate for example ordering processes, appointments, streaming, payments, location based messaging, etc. Generally speaking, as soon as you start integrating third party APIs for advanced features prices go up.
There must be another way
We offer White Label Apps that come with a set up built-in features like user registration, user login, editable user profiles, push notifications, a newsstream, etc. This takes away a lot of the cost that are typically involved when building apps from scratch, saving you 80% of initial costs. Contact us and get a quote!
