If we talk about the cost of development then it will include a website and Apps.
Apps - An Android app won’t work on iOS, and vice versa. You’ll need to build two separate mobile apps if you want to serve both platforms.
Apart from the development cost, releasing apps on app store also cost you something -
- Android App - Google play store costs one time fee
- IOS App - Apple store costs yearly fee
<p><b>Website</b> - Along with the mobile app, if you also need presence on the web (most probably you do), then also consider the cost of -
<ul>
<li>A mobile friendly website</li>
<li>Web Hosting charges</li>
<li>Admin Panel</li>
<li>Web app for clients</li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
<li><b>Cost of marketing</b></li>
<p>
Marketing of any app is the biggest challenge you will face in the mobile apps world. Convincing customers to download your app and most importantly retain it, is a tedious task.
Let us share some marketing methods and tentative cost -
- For direct installations -
- Paid advertising - Google Ads campaigns
- Facebook advertising campaign
- For IOS App - Search Ads, which is basically paid advertisements within the App Store. Basically, you’re able to bid for relevant keywords so that when a user is searching for apps using a particular term, your app appears first.
If you want to increase your app installations and want guaranteed results then it would cost you approx $1 per installation.
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Other approaches
- Pitch to Apple’s editorial team to be featured in the App Store
- Blogging
- Intro video
- Newsletter and emailing
Cost of Maintenance/Constant maintenance
Apps - Mobile apps require regular maintenance and need updates for bug fixes, security issues, to ensure the compatibility with the newly released OS of a different platform,etc. Not providing the updates may result in failure of your app or to be rendered unusable when a customer updates his phone to the new OS.
Website - If you also have a website then that also needs to be up to date with every new feature, improvements, bug fix. So its maintenance and web-hosting costs will also be added in your budget.
App Store Approvals Can Take Time
It’s a tedious process and can take a few weeks to secure approval from the App Store.
Download Required
Use of the app requires that a user download and install it on their device. Some users may not want to install your app on their phones.
This is all about challenges of mobile app development and the steps to validate the need of mobile apps. We hope it will help you make a decision quickly whether to go for mobile app development or a mobile optimized website can work for you in the first launch.