So what does an app cost?

So what does an app cost? We probably get this asked by every second person finds who that we are in the development space.

We develop apps, systems, API’s, Games and work with IoT and robotics with so much variety and experience you may think it’s easy to provide that number. The reason I love this question so much is it’s impossible to answer.

It’s not like an app is something I can just take off the shelf and give it to you with a fixed known price. It doesn’t work that way.

If you’re meeting a house builder and you ask “So what does a house cost?” They can’t tell you, even a volume builder only provides an estimate for a set house that they’ve built thousands of.

If you start making changes, your land isn’t the ideal land then that number loses it’s accuracy very fast. It’s the exact same thing for us when looking at custom development.

We can’t provide you with a quote up-front, the best we can do when provided with some very rough requirements on the fly is to throw out an extremely large number, by mentally throwing darts at a dartboard. This is the process we follow, what is something similar and how long has a similar component taken and then provide a guesstimate.

It’s really impossible to say the app or system will cost you $499,327.22 and provide a fixed price quote that is relevant and accurate, It doesn’t work that way.

We have a process that we follow that we’ve defined after years of experience, which helps us expand on your idea. It allows us to explore the risks and understand what is involved, what needs to be done technically. This then allows us to get a clear picture of what actually needs to happen.

It’s very hard to try and give you a price that’ll be anything close or representative to that final products.

If you are a startup or a found or know any that in the process of looking for people to develop their product this is something to keep in mind. They shouldn’t just start rattling off an idea or email to someone and go ask “Can you tell me what this will cost?”

It’s not going to get them anywhere, and it might only upset them if they get numbers thrown at them that are ridiculous. It’s best to find a team that will work with you to explore your idea and plan it out properly. You shouldn’t have to provide everything to your team to get a number.