How You Can Avoid Hidden App Development Costs

Custom mobile application development is often expensive and it takes a lot of time and resources, but if you have the sufficient budget allocated, you don’t really need to stress yourself and figure everything out on your own. There are reputable app development agencies who can help turn your vision into a high-quality app that is tailor-made to fit your requirements, your idea and your budget and it’s just a matter of choosing right technology partner whom you can trust (You can view our blog here to choose the best technology partner).

There is a die-hard competition in the mobile market for you to compromise with the quality of your application. But with high quality comes high costs and when we say high costs, we mean it. This may be a reason why most people avoid app development altogether – which, in turn, does more harm than benefiting.

The number of smartphone users around the world is rapidly increasing and it becomes important to make your place in the same world. Businesses have nearly doubled their sellings and revenues with the help of their custom mobile app. So, when you see at the long term benefits, these initial investments seem quite worth it.

Here are some of the ways you can save yourself from having to cough up money for hidden app development costs:

Know your budget and timeline ahead of time

Before you get too deep into app development planning, make sure you have a well thought out a financial plan. Mobile app development is often a lengthy process and many entrepreneurs don’t realize everything that’s truly involved when it comes to app development prices. Typically taking anywhere between 3-6 months to complete for a mid-scale app. But, depending on the complexity of the app to be developed and the features to be included, it varies, and the time could also exceed accordingly. Do an analysis of your budget and time, and list what you want to be accomplished before you start calling up app development companies. Keep in mind, there are multiple things you should do before hiring a development company.

List down all your requirements and document them

As a technology partner and app developer, we’ve seen a lot of business owners who don’t have the technical capability to understand the full cycle of the app development process. Sure, you are done validating your idea, might have competitor knowledge and created a strategy for your application, but still, if you cannot clearly communicate exactly how you envisioned the app to be, then the development process may drag on and the cost of building the app may increase.

That’s why working on the planning stage is important and provides the vision of the end goals of the mobile app. When you start working backward, you can see the level of complexity required to complete the task on mobile app development. This should help you define your mobile app from a holistic to a specific level. While the planning stage may be time-consuming, it’s critical to perform as variable costs can become increasingly out of hand when not controlled well.

Here is the list of things you should have before contacting any company for development.

• Application requirement documentation
• Wireframe or basic sketch of your idea
• Actual designed if you have already hired the third party designer

Before you give the project be sure to ask your app developer the following things.

• Which design methodology they use for the app development?
• Do they have any reference of an app they have made (maybe similar app)
• Which technology is going to be used in the development of the app?
• How is the app going to design if you already do not have designed it?
• How is the app going to be tested?
• What are the terms for the maintenance of the application?
• What will be the communication medium and preferable schedules for calls?

Changing the scope of the app mid-way is costly; your app development company will definitely charge you more for adding features that were not in the initial contract. Hence it is better to have a thorough understanding of the features you want in your app and not deviate from it once you have finalized the features.

Hire a reputable freelance app development company

When choosing a development company, you need to think about how it will affect your overall costs. In such a scenario, most firms consider outsourcing to India, through which they get the quality mobile app development solutions and that too at affordable costs. This helps them save costs.

A reputable development company should have the experience and expertise you need. They need to understand your goals and your business and put themselves into your shoes so they can build the app from your perspective. They should be able to guide you and answer all your queries about the app development process. Make sure to get a breakup of every module that the company will be charging you for, this way; you will have a measure of the costs involved in the app development process.

Before paying any fees or signing a contract, ask the company about their experience building an app similar to what you intend to have them build. Ask them to narrate some of the challenges they experienced and how they were able to overcome those challenges. Do some research about their organization and see what people are saying about them. Developing a custom mobile app takes a lot of time, effort, money, and energy. Mobile development companies know the business processes, and they understand your needs.

Stay focused and Good communication

To ensure that the project will be completed on time and within your budget, you have to communicate well with the development company on regular basis regarding the progress, completed items and any hurdles they might be facing. This regular communication will make things more clear for both you and the developers. It also helps in keeping a track record of how the process is going.

You also need to be proactive in providing your feedback on the completed items to make sure the developer has what they needed to move ahead. It is very common when you ask the team to add more features while doing your review or due to another factor like competition. But make sure you do not deviate from what is the initial requirement to stay within the budget and time.

Let’s Talk

Do you want an awesome mobile app for your business? We can help you take your business to the next level with custom mobile app development.

We work with startups and enterprises to build custom web and mobile apps. If you’re looking for a technology partner to create a custom mobile app in the budget, get in touch with us.

---

Suggested readings