The Cost of Building a Mobile App

In a study published by Openxcell, How Much Does An App Cost?, the cost of building a mobile app was estimated in great detail. For the study, a range of app complexity was defined and the development schedule and cost were estimated based on the use of Native App coding technology (such as Apple XCode and Android SDK). The study assumed expert mobile software developers working in various global regions. The report finds these typical costs (not using ViziApps):

How Much Does an App Cost?

Cost Advantage

By comparison, ViziApps creates Moderate to Complex apps for our customers through professional services that typically range from $3,000 to $8,000, with delivery in 2 to 5 weeks. Subsciption fees can be found on our pricing page. A single ViziApps app design and subscription includes both iOS and Android distributions. Our customers experience a similar cost and schedule advantage when developing apps for themselves.

Skills Advantage

Highly effective mobile software developers are hard to find, which is why development with Native App mobile technology can cost $50 to $150 per hour in the USA and $12 to $25 in India. In contrast, ViziApps does not require mobile technology skills nor coding skills, greatly expanding the number of people in your company that can quickly create and publish feature-filled mobile apps. You won’t need to contract with external developers to create your mobile apps.

Publishing Advantage

Mobile Apps published through the public app stores incur the cost of developer licenses, but more critically introduce project complexity, schedule delay, and risk. Publishing to the Apple App Store can also result in several weeks of delay as your app may be rejected and require remediation. These costs and delays are solved with ViziApps Instant Publisher, which enables you to distribute mobile apps directly to your end users, literally in minutes.

Agile Advantage

The Openxcell report assumes a very well defined specification at the outset of the project, such that there would be very little redesign and rework during the course of development and testing. This is rarely the case, because new requirements emerge in the course of experiencing a user interface and testing the app’s functionality. In contrast, ViziApps supports a complete Agile lifecycle by allowing design changes and testing on real devices to be completed within minutes.

Update and Maintenance Advantage

The Openxcell report does not detail the cost of app upgrades and maintenance. A company’s ability to update their own Native App created through contracted development is dependent on that developer’s availability, and significant cost is introduced for every change. ViziApps customers enjoy a highly Agile lifecycle for mobile app modifications. Within minutes, a design change can be completed without coding skills and immediately tested on a real device. When satisfied, a single click pushes the design change to all users, whether the app was installed with ViziApps Instant Publisher or whether the app was downloaded from Apple App Store or Google Play.