The methodology for calculating the timing and cost of developing applications is given below. A more detailed description of pricing in the IT development market is in this article.

Calculating the cost of a mobile application

The calculation of the cost of developing a mobile application is based on the amount of labor – time. They are precisely the main difficulty in understanding this market.: Someone promises to complete the task in two weeks, while others claim that it is impossible to voice less than three months in sound mind and memory.

We analyzed a large number of reports from various organizations and mobile development studios, which, in turn, are based on the study of project evaluations by performers on Clutch, UpWork and other sites. There are many of them, for example:

These data give an understanding of the average time estimate for the development of typical mobile applications: social networks, instant messengers, utilities, and others.

Of course, the average price implies a fairly large range even in each segment. For example, the implementation of chat in applications can vary greatly:

1. Should there be statuses about delivery and reading of messages?
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2. Are there group chats?
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3. Ability to send images, video and audio messages?
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4. Is it possible to delete messages, including those of interlocutors?
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5. Should dialogues be archived?
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6. Is the encryption algorithm required and which one?
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7. In which country will it work: what local legal requirements must be met?
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8. Should there be stickers?
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9. If so, is it possible to upload my own kits?
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10. Should it be possible to reply to messages via push notifications?

And these are just the main questions, not affecting design, animation elements, support for various devices, and so on.

However, the average estimate provides a guideline for the order of labor. If it is a month and a half, then in fact it can be plus or minus two weeks, but not six months.

The resulting estimate of the scope of work is distributed among the number of specialists in the team. If a mobile application is being developed simultaneously for two platforms, iOS and Android, then the work is being carried out in parallel. The design also partially overlaps: the development of promotional materials, for example, can be carried out in parallel with the direct development of the product.

The calculation of the cost of a mobile application is based on the average cost of an hour of work of our Appcraft studio specialists. It is average for the market: the development office is located in Ryazan, which allows us to reduce the cost of maintaining the workspace.

In this article, we described the principle of cost formation for the development of a mobile application in more detail, gave a number of examples and described our vision of the algorithm for selecting a contractor.

And in this – the results of a survey of customers regarding their opinion on the timing and cost of developing mobile applications in Russia.