This weekend I had a conversation, again, about “how much does an app cost”. I do sometimes get a little frustrated by this conversation, because it comes up so often, but I suspect it’s simply a matter of people lacking the experience to really think things through.
Since I do love a good analogy, the one I lean on the most for this question is… your app will cost as much as a car. And the conversation continues… “Well a car can cost anything from a few thousand to over 100 thousand, so what does that mean?”
Exactly, my friend, exactly. The cost of your app is completely dependent on what you want to do with it, and what your budget is. There are certain features that will cost you a lot more. Let’s carry on with this analogy and a more specific example.
If you want an app that needs direct access to native/hardware features on the phone like smart camera features using on-device machine learning (ie - object or facial recognition)…. you’ll need to be building a native application, and you’ll need to hire a more expensive and experienced developer. This will cost a lot more than a basic e-commerce app that could easily be a simple web-app, using “off the shelf” components. Kind of like if you want to purchase a vehicle capable of hauling a 5th wheel trailer vs just a daily driver to get you to work. You’re not going to get away with a tiny commuter car, you’ll need a truck, and a pretty powerful one at that.
So when you ask “how much will my app cost”, don’t be too surprised by the answer…. “It depends”. If you’d like to make use of Lori’s 30+ years of development experience, and get a better handle on how much your app might cost to create, you can book your mobile app consult today.