How to reduce the cost of mobile app development?
Introduction
With mobile applications becoming the cornerstone of every business, especially since the post-Covid season, it is almost mandatory to have a reliable and functioning mobile application that explains and promotes your business. Nowadays practically everyone has a mobile application, including startups and single entrepreneurs. Getting it done professionally will ensure that you have an application that stays trendy and remunerative. One of the major concerns that every company faces while planning for software development is the costs. Even when you are very meticulous about it, costs could spiral out of control as a result of several factors. Fortunately, having a strategy would help you control the costs and ensure that everything happens according to schedule. Careful planning is the key to proper cost control in software development. In this article, we will look at some of the ways in which you can control costs.
Tactics that help you control costs for mobile app development
Here are some workable ways in which you can control costs while developing your software app.
Defining the core value of your project
Having a proper strategy to understand the breakdown of the costs involved in software development will make it easier for your team to control the costs. Define the purpose of the project, the target, what features you need added to the software, and so on. When you have a well-defined value proposition, it would help you have a planned cost structure for the work. It would also help to document all the functionalities needed for the application, in a clear outline to ensure they align with the final product to avoid scope creep. This can lead to cost escalations and inefficiencies in the project.
Usage of open-source technologies would be a good idea
There are plenty of open-source libraries and frameworks that portray excellent code quality and reliability. You can reduce costs significantly with them, and accelerate development at the same time. Some open-source solutions that you can utilise are user authentication, certain UI elements, and database access.
Developing a Minimally Viable Product
Minimally Viable Product or MVP is the right way to build an app because it provides the core functionalities that will validate your app’s concept. It is also the easiest way to collect user feedback and test the product. You can iterate according to user feedback. MVP aids in faster development, and at the same time, sensible use of resources.
Facilitate cross-platform development
It is a very costly process to develop apps for both iOS and Android platforms separately. When you have a system where you can utilise cross-platform development frameworks like Flutter, Ionic, React Native, or Xamarin, you can develop applications that run on both iOS and Android platforms. Imagine how much development time that can save you, and of course, cost control as well!
Minimalistic approach and user-centric design
Users are not going to be impressed by intricate designs if it takes up a lot of load time. Information in their fingertips within a matter of seconds – that’s what people are looking for. Focus on creating intuitive and user-friendly apps and user-specific designs to avoid post-launch issues. Intricate layouts can confuse the user, and they might not be in the mood to decipher what you are trying to convey. Avoid the fluff and deliver straight. Why spend time, money, and resources on expensive redesigns when that’s going to be lost on the user, especially when they don’t want to twiddle their thumbs waiting for the app to load? Make the user interface equally simple so the users can easily navigate through it. The simpler your app gets, the easier it is for them to navigate and the faster the development time.
Planned resource allocation
Resource allocation helps control costs for mobile app development. When you understand the needs and wants of the target users, you can plan the resources accordingly. So start with proper market research to identify who the real target users are, followed by competitor analysis. Leverage the vital insights that you gather from it, and you can direct the funds to where they are needed. Making a comprehensive study of the market dynamics ensures product-market fit and efficient allocation of resources.
Competitor analysis
We already mentioned competitor analysis as part of resource allocation. It is very important to do competitor analysis to gain actionable insights from players who already entered the market. Learn from their achievements and mistakes. Use that as a benchmark to make your app better, in terms of user engagements, market penetration, features etc. Competitor analysis can help distil the essence of what users need. Learn from those who already navigated the market, minimise unnecessary expenses, and get ready to come up with a market-ready mobile application.
Plan some long-term strategies to maintain low development costs
Businesses can employ long-term strategies to control not only the upfront costs but their ongoing expenses as well. There are cost-effective measures like continuous integration and smart scaling that would help you evolve your mobile app without much strain on your budget. These two features will help maintain the integrity and performance of your app. It is possible to control costs by integrating regular code updates and testing regularly. This way, you can save time and money on extensive troubleshooting in the future and cut post-launch costs.
Chart iterative and scheduled updates rather than impulsive, large-scale, and sudden updates on your app because substantial changes on the app can make a hole in your budget. Iterative updates can aid in manageable and predictable expenses, so make it a point to include those in the long-term financial plans.
Outsourcing, of course
Leverage the benefits of external resources and expertise and outsource many aspects of mobile app development, especially the non-core functions. These could be backend development, graphic design development, quality assurance, etc. This way, you don’t have to hire full-time developers for your project and at the same time make full utilisation of the skills and talent available worldwide.
True that outsourcing would save on costs, but make sure to research well before you outsource because quality and reliability must never be compromised. Look for vendors that deliver within a budget, communicate punctually, and are transparent with their work. The updates from their team must be regular, so you know all the milestones are met.
Conclusion
The key to successful software development lies in the method of doing everything correctly – amplifying functionality and an optimised app development budget. Many software development companies are already successfully using agile methodologies to accelerate the development process since they can break down the development work into small iterations. These would be continuously reviewed and refined and will be done throughout the project lifecycle. Using all of the above-mentioned strategies makes it possible for companies to control costs in software development. Having a clear strategy in place would help maintain the high standards of the project.
Interesting Links:
Check out some of the ways to reduce mobile app development costs
How To Save On Mobile App Development?
Pictures: Canva
The author: Sascha Thattil works at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.