"What does it cost to build an app anyway?"
I can't speak for every consultancy in the US, but I can give you my take based on my personal opportunity-cost and overhead. I've put together this handy little ballpark-guesstimate-table on the typical app development costs for a single app on a single platform (iOS/Android/Windows Mobile). Notice that we don't talk about games, this is because we just don't do game development. We think we're better off solving business problems than making games, so that's what we do. Anyhow, these are the ballpark prices.
App Pricing Table
Light-weight
- Most prototype apps
- Line of business calculator apps
- Inspection apps
- Check-list apps
- Simple data-model
- No backend server
- No integrations
- Few pages
- 1-2 platforms (iOS, Android, or WindowsMobile)
Middle-weight
- Simple workorder tracking apps
- Apps whos primary function is to record audio or take a picture
- Simple dashboards / control panels
- Audio-streaming
- More complex data-model (5-10 tables)
- Needs backend server / sync [1]
- 1 simple integrations
- Push notifications
- 12-15 pages
- 1-2 platforms (iOS, Android, or WindowsMobile)
Heavy-weight
- Critical line-of-business apps
- Mutli-faceted dashboards
- Grapically-intensive apps
- Complex data-model
- Backend server / sync / admin panel
- More complex integrations
- Push notifications
- Many pages
- 2-3 platforms (iOS, Android, or WindowsMobile)
[1] We specialize in backend-development using Ruby or NodeJS, but can accommodate enterprise needs as well, such as simple .Net or Java endpoint implementations.
So, if you've come to decide that our prices are pretty reasonable relative to the market and you want to chat, lets sit down and talk about this over coffee. I have 1/2 hour slots every day of the week where I talk to entrepreneurs like you and kickoff projects that help solve their business problems. You know your business. I know technology, so lets meet and see if we can work together.