Android applications are a terrific way to reach your potential customer, target your ideal audience, promote engaging content to users, and build a better customer relationship with them. You can either use your app as an extension of your website or as a separate native application altogether.
While building your app with an Android developer, add features and functionalities that make it different from other apps. Why? Because there is a good chance that an app similar to you is already available in the Google play store.
Thus, while building an Android app for your smartphone, you must have a unique selling point. Your USP can be anything from being rich in features, giving a secure environment for money transfer or a user-friendly interface.
No matter what you decide, you need to incur a cost to build your android app. However, if you choose India as a place to build android applications you can get access to experienced professionals, cost-effective solutions, responsive designs, and more.
Entrepreneurs see great potential Android apps can bring to their business worldwide and want to take advantage of all its benefits. However, building an Android application is an arduous task as you need to consider many things.
The first and foremost thing is the cost of developing an enterprise-level Android app with all the features. An estimation of the cost is required to market your app and gain an edge over your competition.
Considering both the cost and over 3.3 million apps on Google play, it is challenging to attract millions of consumers to use a business app developed by you. At the same time, you have to add features that make your app better than any existing app serving the same purpose.
The next thing on the line you should focus upon is how to build your Android application? Finally, you must decide whether you want to hire a developer in your company to make an application or you want to select a top Android app development company in India.
Well, you must be wondering: Why should you hire from India to build your customized Android application? Let’s answer this question in our next section!
Why Should You Consider India for Android App Development?
Be it Europe, America, or any other country globally; if your audience is using Android apps for your competitors, you want to build yours as well. The only issue is that you are on a tight budget and have difficulty finding an Android developer locally. So what will be your solution?
The most practical solution will be to outsource your work to an Android developer or company with the credibility, expertise, suits your budget, and delivers your app on time.
Hiring an Indian Android developer or Android development company will be cost-effective. You will get a budgeted app without compromising on features, so it’s a win-win situation for you. It will also help you strike a perfect balance between performance and affordability.
Have you wondered about the factors that determine the cost of your app development project? Let’s explore now!
16 Factors Affecting the Cost of Your Android App Development Project
Android app development costs depend on several factors. Here is a list of some of the factors that influence the cost of your application:
1. Type of Business Model
Be very clear about your business model to the Android developer so that they know about the:
- The audience you wish to target
- Devices your potential users must be using
- Social platforms they often use
- Marketing strategy for monetization
The most crucial factor is the monetization strategy for the development of your app. How? Through it, you can define whether the app will be free for users, in-app purchases, sponsored ads, showcase catalog of your products, and other content.
Once your developer knows the type of business model your business has, it will become easier to build an Android app rich in function and features. A free app will be easier to create, while an in-app purchase will take more work and might even render it a bit expensive.
2. Size of App Development Team
The size of your app development team can take a toll on your budget. Thus, you must decide wisely how many employees you need to hire for an app development team. Here are few options:
- Small Team
A small app development team is opted by startups, as it is the most affordable option. However, due to the small team involved, the groups need to play multiple roles, and the scope of having different project management teams, designers, and QA experts is less. Thus the chances are high that the existing team might be overburdened.
- Medium Level Team
The size of a medium-level team consists of 3-5 experts working in the app development team. Mid-sized companies usually hire medium-level teams. These teams have developers, designers, project managers, and senior developers.
- Full Development Team
The team size is around 5 to 8 designers and developers. They are an ideal fit to build an app for your business, like native and hybrid. However, a dedicated development team will be comparatively more expensive as you will require developers, designers, project managers, senior developers, backend developers, lead UX designers, quality assurance engineers.
3. App Building Platform
With a growing number of app-powered devices, it is now more challenging to determine which platform to use when developing an app. Designing and engineering user experiences for these platforms are very different. For example, we have traditional mobile apps for Android and iOS devices.
Android is home to so many different devices, thus developing and testing applications for Android devices is very expensive. However, good apps help you to reach your target audience faster. So are you ready to invest in building an application that can run smoothly on your platform?
4. App Size & Number Of Screens
The application’s size you are looking to develop determines how many team members are needed to accomplish it. Another essential factor to consider is the number of screens you wish to have on your Android application.
The cost of developing an app with an average of 11-20 app screens falls between $5K-$10K. Also, as the quantity and complexity of screens increase, so do the development time and cost.
5. App Features and Functionality
The cost of your app depends upon the features and functionalities you add to your application. Some of the costlier functionalities included in the mobile applications are:
- Backend support
- Database
- Security patches
- Video/Audio streaming
- Navigation and integration with Google Maps
- In-app purchases
- Third-party plugins
- Gamification
In the discovery journey of your app, you will get to know the technical requirements you must possess to customize your user’s experience and engage them with your application.
6. App Hosting and Security
From vast chunks of data to confidential transactions, your app has a lot on its plate. Thus, to ensure your business faces no vulnerabilities, it’s crucial to follow cutting-edge security to safeguard data, transactions, and business ideas.
If you have a higher traffic density, you must plan to have advanced servers filled with several multi-layer security measures. And this results in higher cost too, however, ensures that your application is secure.
A word of advice: It is advisable to employ multi-layer authentication systems because data is everything in the digital world. And if your app is not reliable, the audience won’t think twice before uninstalling the app.
7. App Updates and Maintenance
For every application, updating is a recurring task. Even if you have built a fantastic app following the latest trends, features, and security patches, you still need to update it. Why? Because even after that, your app can face some glitches and need fixing. Therefore, the need for app maintenance arises.
App maintenance is not only about resolving bugs; apps can also be upgraded and modified. The cost incurred on the maintenance of the apps depends on varied other factors like:
- The platform for which the app is built
- The technology used in making an app
- The complexity of the app
- Servers use to update apps
- Payment Gateways
- Push Notifications
8. API Integrations
Want to provide rich functionality to your users? Invest in API integrations to connect apps with payment gateways, messaging platforms, and more. These API integrations might cost a fortune in the developing phase. But in the long run, they are an investment you will be proud of.
These third-party integrations will give your app an edge over your competition and get you more downloads in Google Play Store. So are you ready to equip your app with all premium API integrations?
9. Online Or Offline Application
If you are planning to launch an app that works offline too, you need to invest in:
- Offline Data Storage and Access
- Local caching and cookies
- Storing user’s preferences with the help of Shared Preferences APIs
- Synchronization with a central repository
All these functionalities add up to the additional cost of mobile application development. Though it’s very appealing to have an application fully functional in offline mode, in comparison to the online apps, it requires an advanced and complicated coding approach, which means the cost of developing the app goes up.
10. App UI/UX or Custom Design.
The design of your application and its responsiveness is going to keep a user hooked to your application. Thus, ensure that you create eye-catching designs and a user-friendly experience for users because, ultimately, your applications will be used by them.
A complex and premium UX/UI will have more functionalities; thus, it will cost more than a simple or a standard UI/UX. However, a custom design interface will also get you more traffic and revenue. Thus, while investing in your Android app, make sure that a good portion of it goes into developing your UX/UI.
11. Hiring a Freelancer or a Mobile App development company
It can be a very daunting task to recruit an ideal Android developer from a pool of professionals. There are two options you can opt for:
- Recruiting an Android development company
Outsource your work to an Android development company to deliver you a fully functional application for your business. They will be responsible for hiring an app development team working on your application’s multi-faceted operations and providing a customized app for your business.
- Hire a freelancer
If you hire a freelancer, there will be no breach of the budget as they are very affordable. However, the quality of your application may suffer, as they may lack experience, skills, and a professional approach to deliver work on time.
12. The cost of development depends on team location
For building applications, the location of the team can either reduce the price or increase it. Since the cost of hiring developers depends on the location, which directly impacts the price, hiring people from the location that suits your budget is vital.
Check out below the cost of hiring app developers from the below-listed locations:
| Country | iOS (avg cost $/hour) | Android (avg cost $/hour) |
| North America | 150 | 168 |
| Australia | 110 | 110 |
| UK | 70 | 70 |
| South America | 43 | 34 |
| India | 30 | 26 |
The possibilities are high that the costs mentioned above could vary depending upon several listed and unlisted factors from time to time. But the fact is that the team’s location directly correlates with the cost of Android app development.
13. Taking the technical aspects into account
The technical aspects are all about the add-on features and functionalities of the app for its robust performance.
Some of the technical aspects of an Android app include:
- Third-party integrations
- AR/VR techniques
- Backend Development
- Admin panel to control, manage and track the performance of your application
To create rich functional applications, you need to include all these above-mentioned technical aspects in your enterprise application and reach more consumers. Then, however, you should be ready to incur extra costs on your Android application.
14. The choice between Native and Hybrid platforms
You must choose whether you want to build a native application (that works under a specific operating system) or a hybrid application (that works under the guidelines of multiple operating systems).
Logically, the cost of the application when operated in multiple operating systems will cost more, but you can also take it as a long-term investment. However, if you want to build a highly functional application in a short period, you should go for native platforms.
15. Cost of App testing
According to a report, almost 47% of apps need more testing time. App testing is one such hurdle that every application, whether native or hybrid, has to cross. With more functionalities and features in your application, there will be more things to test and analyze.
All this will lead to an increase in cost and the time that developer has to spend testing every minute detail of your application. However, if you want to be active and gain more good reviews, you need to test every aspect of your application.
16. Cost of publishing app in google store
Google play store is the premium platform to publish Android applications. To publish your account in the Google store, you should have a Google Developer Account. The registration fee for this account is a one-time amount of $25.
Once you have made this payment, you can publish all your apps on the Google store for free! The only thing that you need to focus upon is investing money to market your app and increase the number of downloads.
How Much Does It Cost To Build an Android App: Cost Breakdown
The app development process is usually divided into six stages by a mobile app development company. Costs associated with the development of phase-by-phase mobile applications are as follows:
| Stage | Budget |
| Business Analytics | 10% |
| UI/UX design phase | 15% |
| Development Phase + testing + quality | 60% |
| Project Management | 10% |
| Launch (excluding marketing and promotion) | 5% |
To have a better understanding, check out the below stage-wise cost breakdown. The below cost is based on research conducted by Clutch, wherein the researchers conducted a primary survey and collected data from 102 app development companies asking one question – what is the cost of developing an app stage-breakup.
1. Expenses for Business Analysis
For the business analysis stage, 51% of Android app development companies estimated a cost under $5000, while 22% estimated between $5000 and $10000.
| Cost range | less than $5,000 | $5k – $10k | $10k-15k | $15k-25k | $25k+ |
| Percentage | 51% | 22% | 7% | 7% | 13% |
2. App Design Cost
For the app design stage, the cost stays around $5000 to $50K. However, some companies even charge over $50k+ for developing an Android App. The reasons could be many, including complex app design depending upon the client’s requirements.
| Cost range | less than $5,000 | $5k – $10k | $10k-15k | $15k-25k | $25k+ | $50k+ |
| Percentage | 32% | 17% | 14% | 13% | 16% | 8% |
3. Cost of App Development
The actual app development process starts at this stage, where the team of Android app developers code for your Android app and ensure that your app has all the features and elements you asked for. This being one of the most time-taking processes, the costs are also higher than at any other stage. Generally, companies charge around $5k-30$k for the Android app development process.
| Cost range | less than $5,000 | $5k – $10k | $10k-20k | $20k-30k | $30k+ |
| Percentage | 9% | 33% | 25% | 17% | 15% |
The cost of development can even go high if you ask for additional features. For instance, check out the below-listed feature add-ons and the tag price they come with:
| Feature | Time Taken (Hours) | Cost (USD) |
| User Login | 20 | 500 – 1K |
| Payment integration | 50+ | 2.5K to 5K |
| Messaging | 80+ | 2K to 4K |
| Push Notifications | Up to 200 | 1.5K to 2.5K |
4. Price to Pay for Project Management
The companies following agile practices have a team of highly efficient project managers and project heads whose priority is to ensure that the app development process is going as per the desired sprints.
But there are costs involved, and therefore, companies include the cost of project management services in the overall Android app development costs, which falls approximately between $5,000 – $10,000.
5. Quality Assurance: How Much Would It Cost
This step involves testing the codes, functionalities, usabilities, and overall quality of the Android applications. The testing and quality assurance team ensures that the app has no glitches and lags. The importance of this stage is to ensure that the end-users have a seamless app experience. A majority of companies state that this cost falls under $20,000.
| Cost range | less than $5,000 | $5k – $10k | $10k-20k | $20k-30k | $30k+ |
| Percentage | 31% | 32% | 14% | 12% | 11% |
6. Cost of App Release
The launch, engagement, and marketing of a mobile app fall between the app release stage. Generally, the cost of launching an app on the App Store and Android store is different. The rest of the cost of marketing and promotion of an app depends upon the client’s budget.
Google Play App Store One Time Fee = $25
Apple Store Fee = $99 yearly
How to Cut Android Mobile App Development Costs?
1. Create Product Requirement Report
As your app requirements become more complex, your app development costs will increase. Thus, the first step to start with is to plan what features you require.
It may be beneficial to you to conduct a beta market test and learn more about your users’ needs to avoid unnecessary spendings. Having discussed your requirements with the app development firm is also essential once you are done with this process.
For this, the best way is to prepare a product requirement document, aka PRD, and share it with your team. These are the parameters that you must include in the PRD:
- Goals and ideas for the project
- Background information about the company
- Detailed timelines
- What features should be available in the app
- Platforms you are looking to launch the app
- User experience and user interface design expectations
- Metrics for measuring the project’s progress
- Developing the budget estimates (the development team could do this)
2. Identify features early on and prioritize them
As listed above, the more features you demand, the cost of developing a mobile app shoots up. Thus, you need to plan the details about which features you desire to have in your app. Some of the most preferred features include:
- Sign-up and login
- Onboarding
- Navigation/patient dashboard
- Calendar with available appointment slots
- Mailbox
- Appointment approval workflow
- Tokenization structure for data security
- Device hardware access
- Email integration
- Push notifications
But which one to go, which one to leave is a decision to make. If you are in a cost-saving mode, try using the Moscow (must, should, could, and won’t) matrix for defining the top-priority features in mobile app MVP. Further, focus on the following aspects:
- Pay attention to what the target user wants in comparison with what they need.
- Which features won’t make any impact on the users and don’t align with your business goals.
- Seek advice from the mobile app development team
3. Build an MVP
Like builders, creating a demo layout and an MVP offers the same benefits before starting the actual construction process. MVP acts as the prototype of your desired app, showcasing features and functionalities of your mobile app design. This is based on the six-sigma concept of creating a prototype, testing, and making the next actual thing even better.
Wondering how it helps save the app development cost? Check out the benefits this approach offers:
- This way, you won’t blow all your budget funds on the wrong model. And end up saving a full-size product that your target audience might not want to use.
- By researching your app tech structure first, you will discern which features are in demand.
- Should you find that your target audience is not enjoying the possibilities of generating the expected profits, then you will have the option of changing the startup’s course and app development idea at any time.
4. Involve Quality Assurance (QA) early on
QA is an integral part of both software and app development, and that’s why it turns out to be a significant aspect of cost-cutting.
To ensure the app development project is going on the right path, it is essential to check the quality of processes being followed and identify new ways of improving processes to prevent possible defects.
Involving a Q&A team in the initial app development stage can save from costly mistakes and spot potentially problematic functionalities in advance. As a result, developers concentrate on the needs of their customers. Hire Quality Assurance Early and enjoy the following benefits:
- Ensures efficient use of time, energy, and resources, thus saving cost
- Offers More action-oriented thinking
- Boosts the possibilities of identifying issues early
Further, the QA team can also use the experience and help you scale up your application more efficiently.
5. Hire An Offshore Development Team In India
Hiring an offshore partner for mobile app development can significantly reduce the total cost of iOS and Android app development. But, when it comes to choosing an offshore partner, the first question that strikes is, “is it worth hiring an offshore mobile application development company with Indian app developers!” Check out why it is an excellent choice to hire an offshore development team in India:
a. Cost-effective approach
Hiring an offshore mobile app development company from India is economically viable and is much lower when compared to a USA company’s cost of app development. For instance, the hourly rate in India and other Asian companies is between $18 – $40, which is much lower than locations like Washington ($55.01), and New York ($58.44)
b. Reasonable compensation for your lack of skills
If you are experimenting with a new feature that requires the intervention of highly skilled veterans, it’s recommended to dedicate the task to India. Then, you get cheaper solutions to your problems. And, ultimately you can focus on significant business objectives and worry no more about app development.
c. Increases efficiency
The Indian development companies are highly aggressive and continually improve the quality and deliverability of their mobile apps. The team of developers, designers, and testing experts are certified and highly skilled in handling the development of several complex functionalities, which helps increase efficiency and save development costs.
What Is the Average Cost of Building an Android App?
The average cost of an Android app depends upon many different factors, like business analysis, UX/UI designs, custom development, project management, and more.
Below is a table that explains the average cost incurred by these factors depending upon the time they took in to build an Android App:
| Simple Design (Time= less than six months) | More Complex Design (Time= less than nine months) | Complex Design (Time= more than nine months) | |
| Business Analysis | $2.5K+ | $10K+ | $15K+ |
| Design UI UX | $5K-$10K | $10K-$20K | $25K+ |
| Custom Development | $40K+ | $95K+ | $200K+ |
| Quality Assurance | $5K+ | $15K+ | $25K+ |
| Project Management | $7.5K+ | $15K+ | $35K+ |
| Total Cost (approx) | $70K+ | $160K+ | $350K+ |
Conclusion: How Much Does It Cost You To Build an Android App Today?
We assume you now know how much it can cost you to build a fully functional Android app in India. However, you must analyze the same depending upon your location, applicational goals, and budget.
Choose your platforms, API integrations, payment getaways, and security patches carefully. Focus on hiring the right Android developer from a company that has a great portfolio in building amazing Android apps.
