06/22/17

Is It Possible to Reduce the Cost of App Development?

Reduce app development costs

In the galaxy far far away it is whispered that one fearless hero could reduce the costs of application development! Believe it or not but he did that without losing the quality of his product and developed his app within suitable time and budget. This guy wasn’t a wizard, he just knew some lifehacks and used them while developing his app. We won’t keep you in suspense anymore, here are some not-so-secret tricks and tips on how to reduce app development costs and improve the creation process.

In MVP we trust!

If you use the agile methodology in application development, minimum viable product will come in handy. But how does it differ from a fully fledged app? MVP is a product with limited functionality, but it has enough features to represent the idea and main goals of the app. It is highly recommended for startups, projects with a limited budget and for those who want to introduce something brand new on the market.

According to the traditional development methodologies, first comes the stage of all features development, then comes a testing part and the last one is optimizing the product for the market. It is a long-term process, which cannot guarantee a full app success and profitability. So, in this case, you lose the most important parts of the business processes: time and money. To avoid such mistakes, it is better to create MVP.

MVP allows you to spend less time on the first stages of app development. You should define the main features of the application, implement them and avoid overloading the product with secondary elements and functions. Then introduce your product to the market or show it your investors. After this stage of work, you should estimate the market interest and demand for your app. Perform analytics research of how much your target audience is involved and engaged with your output. After the research, you can define if you will receive revenue from this project and if it is worth to be further developed or shouldn’t waste time and budget.

The main advantages of minimum viable product development are the following:

  • ability to test a product using minimal resources;
  • clear vision of the product’s future;
  • ability to reduce time and money resources;
  • ability to introduce the app to users as soon as possible;
  • ability to make revisions and changes according to users’ feedbacks.

Keep in mind, that sometimes, it isn’t necessary to reinvent the wheel. During your app development, don’t forget about a lot of ready-made solutions which can be efficiently integrated into your application. They will also prominently reduce costs and save your time.

In our fast-paced business world, if you want to acquaint the world with your product and be ahead of your competitors, it is really important to be agile, quick-responsive and flexible. The minimum viable product could be a reasonable solution in your app development. And the last, remember, that even such giants as Uber, Dropbox and Airbnb have started their way with MVP. In point of fact, the final product is just a sum of several MVPs.

How to reduce app development cost

So, we figured out what is the Minimum Variable Product and it’s clear. But how to reduce app development cost, are there other effective methods? And the answer is – yes.

Cross-platform apps

There are two approaches to creating apps in mobile development – native applications for each specific platform and cross-platform applications that are supported by all modern OS. The first option is the most expensive since it requires writing code from scratch for each operating system separately, so the second option is more suitable for saving funds.

Does cross platform app development have any other benefits except different platforms support? Yes, in short, it is worth highlighting such advantages:

  • Development tools have reached a level where it is already possible to create UI similar to native applications;
  • Quick new versions release – roughly speaking, one code is written for all platforms (so it’s possible to cut expenses on maintenance and scalability in general);
  • Well and as it was told above – support of necessary platforms, so – the wider scope of an audience and possibilities of monetization.

But it’s somewhat more complicated if we talk about disadvantages because for creating cross-platform applications developer can use different stacks of technologies and frameworks. Therefore, to select a specific approach it’s necessary to know final specifications and wishes in advance.

outsourcing reduce cost

Outsourcing

To reduce the cost of development, you can outsource your project. This approach shows itself well in the software development industry for a long time, but still, it is worth remembering several important points that can affect the course of development when choosing such solution.

Here are a few tips: to simplify communication and mutual understanding, try to find a contractor with a similar mentality or values / goals. It’s easier to do business with someone you can communicate and with whom you can negotiate, right?

Another tip – do not be catastrophic in saving funds, because there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. If you pursue the goal of hiring a team at the lowest price, then there is a risk of hiring inexperienced professionals, which may lead to increasing the deadlines or reducing the quality of the final product. The ideal option will be somewhere in the middle, for example, to find a company that provides mixed teams or teams according to the seniority level. Often the difference in the middle or senior developer’s code can be hardly found, though the second ones will be able to complete the project faster.

Remember about ratings of the company, because it happens that not quite honest team might estimate the time for the implementation of all functions incorrectly. And it does not matter why it could happen – because of an attempt to deceive (not often) or because of inexperience (what happens often) because when the deadline passed and the product was not delivered, hardly anyone would be satisfied. Therefore, it is worthwhile to avoid those companies that offer fabulously low prices.

Conclusion

Now, analyzing all of the above, you can reduce the cost of developing your app more efficiently and in the right direction. For example, giving your project to outsourcing or developing the Minimum Variable Product that will help your budget keep itself fit. On the other hand, there is nothing bad in developing a cross platform application. It’ll work great and will help to save well at the start (and a wider audience coverage can even help earn extra money). Of course, there are also other ways to cut costs, but many of them offer to accept either a loss of quality or an extended delivery time.

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