Technology is changing every day. Today, with technology it is very easy to reach out to people through mobile applications as almost everyone uses mobile devices in their everyday life for different reasons like communication, entertainment and for business amongst others.
This has led to a huge demand for mobile app developers across the world. However, the cost of developing mobile applications doesn’t come any cheaper. Without taking good considerations, mobile app development can be very expensive process.
Below are the best tips that can be used to reduce the mobile app development cost without affecting the quality of the mobile application:
Use open source code
Mobile app open source libraries are gaining popularity and most mobile app developers opt to use them than developing an application from scratch. They provide a pre-built structure and allows a developer to customize it to fit his/her application requirements.
There are a thousand of open source libraries to choose from in the internet and developers can select the best to start with. Using these libraries significantly reduces the development hence save your pocket a lot of cash.
Minimal viable product (MVP)
MVP is a prototype of your mobile application being developed, it contains the basic functionalities: user interface and the business logic. MVP allows you to assess the reaction of the target audience by giving them a prototype of the actual application.
Thereafter you can proceed to implement the fully functional application and release it to the market if the target audience has accepted and are willing to pay for it. Minimal viable product controls the cost of developing a mobile application and gives you an insight on the future health of your application.
Use simple designs
Most mobile app developers often come up with a model of the application before venturing into actual coding. The model design of the application will dictate the cost and the time you will spend in the development process.
A significant way of reducing the mobile app development cost is to use simple designs. This requires the developer to be creative and innovative enough to create simple and beautiful designs to fit the application requirements.
Think before outsourcing
Outsourcing is very popular in companies today; most app owners would prefer to hire an mobile app development team to develop product for them instead of giving the job to their internal developers for different reasons.
Many such will offer competitive prices in order gain more clients. Cheap is expensive, giving a development job to a firm just because of their lower prices can be very expensive in the future as most of these uses substandard development methods to develop an application with primary aim of making money.
Therefore, you should put in a lot of considerations before selecting which app development firm to outsource. Getting it right will save you a lot of money.
Make use of hybrid frameworks
A hybrid mobile app development framework enables a mobile developer to write code once and deploy the applications on the main platforms without any additional effort.
The resulting mobile application will be able to run on Android and IOS platforms, the code can also be used for progressive mobile applications. This saves the mobile app developers the cost of developing the same applications for each different framework.
There are a lot of mobile hybrid frameworks including;
1: Xamarin
2: React Native
3: Ionic Framewok
4: PhoneGap
5: Intel XDK amongst others.
Other tips may include:
1: Take advantage of DevOps (development and operations). Goal of DevOps is to build, test and produce applications faster and reliably.
2: Focus solely on the user’s application requirements and specifications.
Mobile applications have transformed our lives. With mobile you can do everything you want with just a click of a button. There is a great future that comes with mobile applications.
The above tips will help mobile application developers and app development firms to develop budget friendly applications to meet the needs and demands of their clients.
We cannot simply shy away from mobile application development because of its expensive and costly nature but instead we should minimize the cost that comes with it and develop mobile applications that will shape the world and positively influence our everyday life.
If I was going to be making a mobile app, I would for sure use open source code. Now as you said, it comes with a pre-built structure so that way, it would be a lot easier to customize. That in turn would cut down on the time needed to program the app, which would save you money.
I like how you suggested using simple designs. I am thinking of designing an app for college students. Thank you for the tips on mobile app development.
It is important to note that the average app can take up to 2-3 months to develop. Ask the question about development time and try and find an agency that will be able to provide for your deadline to go into the app stores.