Hey everyone,
I have a friend that is looking to get an app developed. They just met with a app development company yesterday and that company told them it would cost $250,000 to develop this app. Dont know specifics on the app but i guess its more of a social media app.
Anyhow this seems like crazy expensive to me and was wondering if anyone here can help me steer them in a less expensive option to develop this thing. I saw a couple years ago there were programs that could develop apps for you but dont remember what those were.
Any ideas?
Thanks!
App like mobile app or web app?
Sorry didnt specify....mobile app.
Thanks!
$50k for a high end app (not game) is already a lot. They are wasting their money. Its far better to spend $25k on developing the app and $225k on marketing.
There are some very good freelance developers out there. Just need to spend the time to find them.
Games are more expensive to make because you have the added expense of the graphics (and sound).
Wow, 250k? That sounds more like an acquisition or buy-out sum rather than development costs.
I'm a mobile dev at a small start up that was just acquired, so this is somewhat my area of expertise.
It all depends on how intricate your friends app is and his requirements. If you go the cheap route you can get burned, if you go the expensive route you can get burned.
My advice for your friend, boil his idea down to the one core must have feature that defines his app. The feature that sets his social media app apart from the sea of VC funded others.
Once you have this, go one of 2 routes. The trendy route is building the app for iOS, VC's get a juicy hard on for this. The other is finding a developer who can prototype it in Phonegap/JavaScript. I recommend the later, it's FAST, cheap, and will give you an overview of what your idea feels like in the flesh.
Just be careful, I've watched multiple talented affiliates crash and burn app/technology projects. It requires a different set of skills and a different mindset to bring valuable/useable technology to life.
Thanks everyone! So I talked a bit more about it and that price they were quoted ($250k) was for development and marketing....basically the whole shebang. When I get more details I will let you know. Thanks!
If you find an app that is similar or has the features you want, just ask get a dev to copy it and change it around a bit. It cost me $1,500 for an IOS and $1,500 for Android. The apps together make around $400 a week in ad rev, so not bad ROI.
But, they were quite basic compared to what you're probably after. Get lots of quotes and a clear idea of what you want. Draw a basic story board in MS paint if you need too.