11 Best Practices to Reduce App Development Cost

Developing your first app? Do you know the cost of developing an app?

We can’t say an exact figure, but developing an app might cost you a fortune. It depends on many elements, but there are ways to reduce app development cost. Still, it doesn’t mean completely ignoring essential aspects and focusing on the less significant ones to cut down prices. In this article, we will look at the best practices to reduce the app development cost.

In this highly competitive market, businesses face many challenges. One of them is the app development cost. Developing a high-quality app comes at a high price. Still, there are startups with limited capital and cannot afford to pay like well-established companies. So, here are some tips to reduce app development cost.

11 tips to reduce app development cost

Identify needs and requirements

Before developing an app, first, identify your needs and requirements. What are you trying to build? What features are you aiming for? Without knowing what you want, it will only create complications ahead.

What if the features you need are non-relevant and not feasible in the current market? What if they don’t go well with your business goals and objectives? It is essential to consider these before developing an app. Otherwise, the development process will go on, the cost will increase, and it might be too late to stop the process. So, list the exact features you need for your app and add more when its demand increases.

At Truemark, we understand the requirement, gather information, and plan thoroughly that aligns with their business needs and goals before kicking off the development process.

Understand your users

Identifying your users and understanding their needs is another way to reduce your app development cost. What if the app you are building doesn’t solve the users’ problems and isn’t actually what they need? Total waste of time, resources, and money. You will have to rethink and replan your strategies. Or, you might not have that much time again to strategize because you have depleted all your funds by this time.

By understanding your users, you will have fewer gaps and risks to focus on. To solve this problem, you can document your business and the users’ needs and stick to it to reduce delays and app development costs. Everyone will be clear about requirements, and you will get the expected results on time without wasting any resources.

Validate your ideas

Another way to reduce app development cost is by making sure your idea is feasible. It lowers the risk of how customers will look at the app and respond to it. You will have insights into how it will perform in the real world. And one of the ways to validate your idea is to build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

The MVP is a prototype of a final product that includes only the core features. You can build it at a very low cost. Most importantly, you will know whether customers are willing to use and pay for it. So, until you understand what your users want, building an app is the biggest mistake that leads to a disastrous outcome.

Additionally, there are other ways to validate your business ideas, like getting feedback from experts, entrepreneurs, or your friends and family. This way, you will reduce the cost of redeveloping the app.

At Truemark, we deliver prototypes before finalizing the work every week to the clients.

Hire the right company

You have decided to develop an app, and you are ready to hire a software company. But before that, you need to consider some points, like

• Developer skills and experience
• Type of contract
• Reviews, ratings, and testimonials

Hiring an inexperienced software company to save cost might actually increase it instead. What if the quality is not up to the mark? What if there are too many bugs and errors? However, experienced developers know how to deliver on time, resolve issues, and techniques to reduce cost.

If possible, go for outsourcing the development. You can hire developers or a software company from different regions at a lower cost who will deliver high-quality work compared to in-house development. In-house comes with many expenses, like rent, utility bills, salary, etc. These costs can be saved if you decide to outsource.

Don’t be confused about price and quality.

If you really want to reduce app development costs, then never get tempted by the price. Might not be all, but sometimes such schemes are too good to be true. They promise to even finish a website in $50-100. And when it is time to deliver, the result deviates from the expectations. They fail to provide what they say. It is a waste of time and money. So, beware of them.

If possible, go for the quality over price. It is best to hire a trusted app development partner.

Choose the platforms wisely

Choosing the right platform is the first decision you need to make before starting the development process. Some users use Android, whereas some use iOS. You don’t want to lose the opportunity to target the audience of both operating systems.

You can either go for Android or iOS. However, targeting both platforms will save you money. Otherwise, it will incur additional costs in the future if you decide to develop the app for the next platform.

And there is only one solution for such a situation: cross-platform. Technologies like Kotlin, React Native, etc., will help you build an app for multiple platforms. It is costly, but it is even more expensive to build different apps for different platforms.

Therefore, when it comes to reducing app development costs, cross-platform is the best option.

At Truemark, we use technology stacks like React Native to develop cross-platform apps.

Pre-made solutions

There are plenty of pre-made templates, libraries, APIs, etc., that help you build the app faster at a lower cost. Instead of making the app from scratch, if such pre-made solutions can solve your problems, it is best to use them. You can personalize and customize them however you want and integrate them into your app.

For example, if you want a payment gateway, you can use libraries and APIs to integrate it into your app instead of building a new one from scratch. This way, you will save time that would otherwise take weeks to complete. Most importantly, it will reduce the app development cost.

Go for Agile methodology

Instead of the traditional approach, the Agile methodology is superior in adapting and lowering app development costs. You can break a project into small iterations which are easy to manage. Each of these iterations will be tested and deployed based on Sprints. Moreover, needs and requirements change as time passes. With Agile, you can efficiently and quickly implement these changes at any time, reducing time and cost.

Moreover, Agile saves the time of redoing everything, which again reduces the overall development cost. It provides flexibility in adapting to changes effectively and efficiently.

So, use Agile methodology or choose a software company that practices it to reduce app development cost.

At Truemark, we practice the Agile approach for faster development, easy collaboration and communication, transparency, risk reduction, and high-quality products.

Keep communicating

If you want to reduce app development costs, keep communicating with the software company and its developers. Miscommunication is one of the key causes of project failure. And when it fails, all your investment goes down with it.

You always need to be involved in the development process. Weekly reports, daily standups, presentations, demos, etc., are some ways to check the project’s progress. Mistakes are inevitable. And if you are with the development team, everyone will be on the same page, and the project will be on the right track. Even if issues arise, you can identify and resolve them quickly. No errors will be able to bypass, reducing the app development cost and time.

Don’t skip testing

Always test your app in every phase of the development process. Sometimes, developers make the mistake of testing at the end or completely miss it. And when the app goes live, people report glitches and bugs. Ultimately, you have to bear the cost of resolving the issues later.

However, testing continuously in each phase will help us know what’s working and whatnot. You can then immediately fix the issues. So, invest in an experienced QA team to make the app bug-free, reducing any additional expenses ahead.

At Truemark, we use different testing approaches such as acceptance criteria and test cases to find any faults in the app.

Have patience

Never make a hasty decision. Sometimes, clients hurry the developers to finish the app. What they need to understand here is that it may lead the app to work the opposite of what you expected. Then customers will find it useless. Moreover, it may be full of bugs because the development team didn’t thoroughly test the app. Why? Because of your hastiness. In the end, you pay more for testing the app and make it bug-free.

So, it is best to take it slow to focus on testing and developing a high-quality app.

In Conclusion

Developing an app is never cheap. However, there are ways to reduce app development costs, which are explained above.

At Truemark, we have an experienced development team who can deliver quality work within the allocated budget. So, if you are looking for a software company that will provide you high-quality app at an affordable price, get in touch with us. We also offer a free consultation. So, don’t hesitate to contact us.

References: Lvivity

Image Credits: Pikisuperstar from Freepik