What Is The Cheapest Way to Develop a Mobile App

If you think that developing a mobile app is expensive, don’t worry, you’re not alone, mostly because a lot of young entrepreneurs think the exact same thing. Yes, there are apps that could take thousands of dollars to create, but this doesn’t have to be the case for your business.

This is why you might be wondering – what do I need to focus on in order to create a mobile app on a limited budget? Luckily for all people that are wondering the same thing, the article below can help. Let’s take a closer look at some tips and tricks that will help you develop a smartphone application with limited funds:

1. You Need to Clearly Define Your Goals

If you don’t want to spend more than you can, one of the first things that you must do is to define all the goals you have at the beginning of the entire process. To set your goals, you must determine a few things first, including who your targeted niche is, who will use the app, and who is your competition.

Once you’re done, you should also consider the functions of your app, meaning that you should know what problems could it solve, what features should it have, as well as the results you might want to achieve. When you go through these things, you’ll have a targeted audience, you’ll know what features the app needs to have, and you’ll know how much it’ll cost to build it.

2. Choose The Right Partner

Now that you have clear objectives, it’s important for you to choose the right partner that will help you create the app you need for your business. Depending on your budget and preferences, there are various platforms, tools, and programs that you could choose to use, all of which are affordable, yet they’ll allow you to quickly and easily develop what you need.

For instance, gappsy is affordable, yet incredibly powerful online tool that you can use for creating your app by yourself. All you’ll have to do is to opt for a design, drag and drop all the advanced features that you want the app to have, and simply publish it once you are satisfied with the results.

Of course, you could also opt for outsourcing to an app developing company, however, this will be more expensive – which is something that you’ll want to avoid. Hence, in your case, it might be best if you choose a program or online tool that will help you develop an app at an affordable fee.

3. It Might Be Best to Publish on One Platform First

As you know, the development and publishing of an app for both Android and iOS phones will be different and if you choose to publish it on both operating systems, it will cost more. To make a suitable decision, you should analyze the data you gathered from your targeted audience.

By gathering and analyzing from your targeted niche, you’ll easily determine which platform most people use. For instance, you’ll learn whether or not there are more Android than iOS users, and you could also determine what type of application they like best. Once you learn all of these things, you won’t have a problem with deciding which platform is best to use first.

4. Categorize The Features By Cost And Customer Needs

Let’s say that you’re planning on creating an app such as Aliexpress where you’ll sell your products. In this case, one of the most important features that you’ll have to add is a payment method – which is also expensive. Does this mean that you shouldn’t add it when you initially release the app?

No, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t add it, mostly because your customers won’t be capable of purchasing your products by using the app you’ve developed. This is why you must categorize all the important features by their cost, as well as what your customers needs.

Keep in mind, if you do choose to ditch some of the features at the beginning, you can always add more things in the future. Hence, once you have a budget that is a bit larger than the one you currently have, you can completely change how your app functions and looks.

5. MVP is The Right Way to go

If the features that you want the app to have cost a lot, you shouldn’t build a completely functional app right away. Instead, you might want to develop an MVP. What does this mean? Well, an MVP is a minimum viable product, meaning that it’ll allow you to gather important data and feedback from your customers.

This data is exactly what will allow you to know what you might need to add or remove from the app, and more importantly, you’ll know what your users like or dislike about it. This will also allow you to spend less of your budget, hence, you should choose a few features and test the app in the real world.

6. It’ll Cost to Maintain it as Well

Last on the list, but equally important to mention is the fact that it’ll also cost you money to maintain the app, which is something that you need to include in your budget. For example, if you’re building an app that’ll require you to send a message to your users, you’ll have to pay a fee to a third-party service provider. Of course, there are free services as well, but you’ll want to clearly know what you can provide and get in return.

Conclusion

Developing a mobile app for your business isn’t an easy task, and it will require both time and money. But, if you choose to follow some or all of the tips we mentioned in our list above, you’ll certainly make the entire process easier, less time-consuming, and more importantly, you’ll ensure that you stay within your budget.

So, now that you’ve learned what you should do in order to build an app in a cost-effective way, you shouldn’t waste any more of your free time. Instead, you might want to return to the beginning of our article, and start with the first tip we mentioned – which is determining and setting your goals. Check this blog Stormotion too for more information about Mobile App building.