Hourly Vs. Fixed Price App Development

“Should I opt for hourly or fixed price app development?” is one of the most trending questions people asked Google this year. 

This is because your budget requirements are one of the most critical factors when developing an application. As a result, most startups and small companies looking forward to investing in an application are looking for ways to make the right expense decisions. 

App development is not cheap, and neither is it an easy process. It involves many crucial steps and decisions that need to be taken to build an outstanding final product. Therefore, we decided to answer all your questions to make the process easier for you. 

This blog post will tackle all your queries and ultimately help you know how much it costs to make an application while keeping in mind both the approaches – hourly and fixed price app development.

Fixed Price App Development – When to Choose?

Suppose you have planned everything about your application already and are very clear about what you need, then fixed price app development can be a good option for you. 

As there is almost nothing left to decide or brainstorm about your application, you can simply hire a developer and provide the precise details you want in the form of a final product. Subsequently, you can decide in advance whether your final product should have complex or basic (MVP) features. 

In such cases, both the developer and client can come to mutual terms and agree on a fixed cost for the project. Likewise, the client can also ask for a specific date when the final product can be delivered if the project is relatively easy to accomplish. 

Although it sounds like a viable option, there are many factors that you should consider beforehand. For instance, you cannot decide to make any drastic changes in your product mid-way. This is to say that you need to be certain about the application’s features and functionality. As a result, your app’s overall ideation can get more challenging than the actual implementation of the features in the first place. 

To conclude, fixed price app development is worth a shot; however, there is quite a lot of risk factor involved as you might end up spending more than you had initially expected by making subsequent changes in your final product. 

Key Points of Fixed Price App Development

1. You need to pre-select the features of your project.
2. You cannot make changes to your product.
3. The deadline for the product is decided beforehand. 
4. There are usually higher costs associated with the fixed-price model.
5. The project’s scope is small. 
6. It follows the waterfall methodology.

Hourly Price App Development – When to Choose?

Sometimes we wish to make changes in our application and offer an ideal product in the market. Indeed, both these things are possible with this model. 

The hourly price approach is the exact opposite of the fixed price app development model. It is an excellent option if you cannot estimate the precise time and resources that your project will need. Moreover, this model comes in handy when you cannot predict whether your project will need changes over time. 

Therefore, if you wish to be in a loop with the development procedure, an hourly-model is your best bet. However, developing an app via this procedure includes the cost of developing and implementing, project management, communication with the development team, and miscellaneous work. We will discuss these factors later in our article “Hourly vs. Fixed Price App Development” in detail.

Key Points of Hourly Price App Development

1. There’s a higher degree of control in this model than fixed price app development.
2. It offers high flexibility for changing requirements.
3. There’s uncertainty regarding the application development’s timeline.
4. You need to be much more involved in the development process.
5. The project can become very expensive over time. 
6. It follows the agile methodology.

Here’s a Quick Overview of the Hourly vs. Fixed Price App Development

How Much Does It Cost to Make an App?

The cost of making your application is not just limited to coding and design. In addition to these, various other factors ultimately decide the cost of your project. 

Let’s give you a step-by-step answer to the question “How Much Does It Cost to Make an App?”

• Business Analysis

Many startups and organizations often overlook the importance of business analysis. In fact, most people don’t find the relevance or value of it in the app development process. 

However, this stage is crucial to your application and business’s success, especially if you don’t know how to implement your app’s idea. You may ask – is app development possible without business analysis? The answer’s no. 

Let’s discuss the key activities involved in this process: 

1. 1. Identify the problem faced by your target customers.
   2. Define how your application will provide a solution to this problem.
   3. Identify and define your value proposition.
   4. Understand and verify your business and application’s scope.
   5. Dive deeper and analyze mind maps, competitor analysis, etc.
   6. Conduct requirements elicitation.
   7. Come up with the best solution.
   8. Work on enhancements. 

• App Design  

Whether you opt for hourly or fixed price app development, your application’s design’s cost can vary depending on its complexity. All the applications are broadly categorized into three categories: simple app, a more complex app, and a complex app.

Let’s discuss the approximate design costs based on the categories mentioned above:

Note: These are rough figures and can vary from client-to-client and developer-to-developer. 

• App Features 

Your application’s cost (hourly or fixed price app development) depends on your application’s features. You can include MVP features as well as additional features. 

MVP Features

1. 1. Registration/Log-in
   2. User profile
   3. Chat feature
   4. Push notifications
   5. Payments
   6. In-app purchases
   7. Search option
   8. Help and support

Additional Features

1. 1. Geolocation
   2. Offline mode
   3. Audio streaming
   4. Video streaming
   5. Ads

Do you wish to know more about hourly vs. fixed price app development for your upcoming project? Reach out to us and know the cost of developing a world-class app today!

• Project Management

The cost of project management is included in both hourly and fixed price app development models. 

A project manager does the following tasks:

1. 1. Prevents budget overrun.
   2. Checks if there are enough resources and team members.
   3. Ensures that the team has the correct tasks and is on the right track.
   4. Looks after the timely-completion of the tasks.
   5. Makes improvements in the project and ensures that bugs are fixed immediately.
   6. Prevents risks and prepares a contingency plan.
   7. Ensures easy-flow of communication between each project member.
   8. Resolves issues quickly that occur during the project.

Generally, most software development companies offer project management as a service. However, the pricing differs (some charge hourly rates, others have a fixed price app development model)

• Quality Assurance

To ensure that your application’s quality is up to the industry standards, having a QA engineer test your app is a must. Quality assurance consists of the following steps:

• 1. Requirements gathering
  2. Test discussions and planning
  3. Test development
  4. Test execution
  5. Test summary report

The main goals of Quality Assurance testing are as follows:

1. 1. Ensure that the app works correctly in all circumstances.
   2. Ensure that the app meets the specified requirements.
   3. Provide updated information about the present state of the app.

• Cost of App Release

The answer to the question “how much does it cost to make an app?” also includes the cost of launching your application in the market. However, the cost of launching an application is not as high as other expenses. 

There are two main markets – Google Play Store and Apple App Store for Android and iOS users respectively. Furthermore, you will need a developer account to launch your application in the stores.

Here’s the cost of app release:

• Cost of App Maintenance

Building and deploying your application is not the end; you also need to update and maintain it regularly. 

App maintenance includes:

1. 1. Upgrading to the latest OS versions.
   2. Code improvement and optimization.
   3. Adding new features.
   4. Increasing scalability.
   5. Upgrading with new technologies.
   6. Finding and fixing bugs.
   7. Ensuring app stability.

Conclusion

Apart from making the hourly vs fixed-price decision, these were the factors that you need to consider to come up with the cost of your application. 

Besides, if you wish to know more about the costs associated with building your application, feel free to reach out to us and get started with a world-class app today!

Our applications are thoughtfully designed by keeping all your requirements in mind. By offering a great User Experience and User Interface, we ensure that your end-users love your application.

Do not forget to check out our portfolio of Mobile Apps!

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