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Google Play had about 3.3 million apps as of March 2017 whereas App Store, Apple's store for iPhone users had approximately 2.2 million. As the numbers are growing every day, it has become inevitable that companies look towards investing in developing apps which is one of the best ways to engage customers.

But there are several aspects, which a company has to take into account before deciding on designing an app, one of the most crucial elements is its cost. The cost of designing an app would vary based on the complexity of the design, the features offered and also the firm developing it.

Let us have a look at the different types of apps in the market today and analyze in detail the various aspects of app development.

Types of Apps: How to Select Based on the Requirements

There are two types of Apps- Native or Hybrid apps.

In terms of user experience, native apps are way ahead of hybrid apps. But, let's evaluate on the basis of usage. Native apps are built for specific operating systems like android or ios, which means they would make the best use of all the internal features of the phone.

Comparatively, hybrid apps are built on a web platform wrapped in a native framework, using languages like HTML and Javascript. Though they work on different operating systems, they do not have the same functionality level and load much slower. If a company can invest 6 months of time on app development, native apps are the best bet. They have the best performance, high security and also provide good user experience.

APIs: The Most Inclined Interfaces

Application Programming Interfaces(APIs) are used for communication between apps. The two most popularly used APIs are discussed below:-

REST(Representational State Transfer) makes use of simple protocols like URI(Uniform Resource Identifiers) and HTTP protocols.It uses a single uniform interface, is optimized for the web and has terrific performance.

Whereas, when we look at SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol), it has its own protocol, which is a little complex to design. They have tighter security, reliable messaging functionality and greater integrity of the databases. Most App developers are inclined towards a RESTful architecture.

Screen design: MultiScreen Utility

While designing an app, it is necessary to make it compatible with multiple screens, ranging from small mobile screens to big television sets. But simply making it available in different screen formats is not enough, it is also equally important to make it optimised for each screen format. It is necessary to adapt to different screen sizes, screen densities, and adaptive UI flows. While getting involved in app development, it is necessary first to predict the target audience, telling us whether multi-screens are viable.

The Real Question: How Much An App Could Cost?

The answer is understandably the most argued one. A lot of factors come into picture while we go into the pricing of an app. We will discuss a few of them:

• Cost based on small firms or agencies or the app-development firms: Apps built by the largest app companies may cost between $500,000 to $1,000,000. An agency could do the same thing for about $150,000 to $450,000. Smaller shops with 2-3 people could charge you $50,000 to $100,000.
• Simple apps which are built only on a single platform could cost as low as $25,000 whereas more complex apps can go up to a staggering $1,000,000.
• Apps can be built with or without a server component or API integration. But using server component or API integration does not necessarily increase the cost. There are apps without using these that sometimes cost 6 figures. Mostly it all comes down to the specific feature set of a particular app.

So while thinking about developing an app, all or most of the factors mentioned in this article need to be worked on. But most importantly, research on the target audience, that will answer the basic requirements of the app.

Source: www.cswebsolutions.ca