How Much Does it Cost to Design an App?
Before designing any application, one of the essential questions that appear in anyone’s mind is, How much does it cost to design a mobile app? Right?
Ideally, the cost of designing an app depends on the process and the factors. Here, we have explained how the process affects the app design cost along with the timeline. Then, we have also listed the factors that affect the cost of designing an app.
By following our blog thoroughly, you will be able to calculate the cost of designing your mobile app on your own.
Without waiting much, let’s start:
Process that Affects App Design Cost
Here are all the steps on which the cost of designing an app relies heavily.
1. Requirement Gathering
Initially, the app design team schedules a meeting with the client and then lists all the app requirements. These include features, functionalities, target audience, and end-goals of the application.
2. Requirement Analysis & Feasibility
In this stage, the design team analyzes all the things gathered earlier. These include all the features and functionalities of the app.
The team then sorts features, functionalities, and screens based on the target audience and purpose of the application.
Then, it conducts a feasibility test, where it evaluates which features can be integrated into a mobile application.
For requirement analysis of an app design, many companies charge. However, we are providing this service free of cost.
3. Creating Wireframes
The designers create the wireframe of the app depending on their research to fulfill the requirements of the target audience.
Have a look at the wireframe of Quick Invoice Maker, which was recently created by the Guru TechnoLabs team.
Wireframes help the clients to understand the overall layout of their mobile application.
By creating a wireframe of the mobile application, you have an opportunity to make any changes in the early stage.
The estimated time required to create a wireframe based on the complexity of apps is given below:
| Simple Apps | Medium Apps | Complex Apps |
|---|---|---|
| 10-20 hrs* | 20-50 hrs* | 80-100 hrs* |
4. Creating Prototype
The next important step is prototyping or the user experience design. It represents the final version of how your app will look. Compared to wireframes, prototypes are detailed because the entire UI development is dependent on them.
In this stage, the design team converts the wireframe into the prototype. Also, the team carries out some iterations of the prototype for usability testing and validating an idea.
Moreover, improving the app prototype is really important to build an extensive prototype. You may have a question, why is it essential to create a detailed prototype? Because it reduces your cost in the long run.
By building a clickable app prototype that presents the entire user flow, the development team has all the things to start integrating features into the application. By this, the development team can rapidly begin working on building the app.
The estimated time required to create a prototype based on the complexity of apps is given below:
| Simple Apps | Medium Apps | Complex Apps |
|---|---|---|
| 10-20 hrs* | 20-30 hrs* | 40-60 hrs* |
5. Design an App
App designing is essential to present your idea to the users and solve their real-life problems. It is also referred to as the user interface design.
From the app’s design, a user can clearly understand the flow of the application from one screen to the next.
Here, an app designer team creates an app design that looks appealing and feature-rich. For this, they decide a lot of things like color schemes, branding, fonts, different shades, layers, etc.
In a nutshell, designers build an appearance of the application from start to finish. One of the most important things that designers have to do is the effective placement of text in the application.
The estimated time required to make a design based on the complexity of app is given below:
| Simple Apps | Medium Apps | Complex Apps |
|---|---|---|
| 30-50 hrs* | 40-80 hrs* | 100-180 hrs* |
Factors that Affect App Design Cost
Some of the common factors that affect app design cost are as follows:
Number of Platforms
Whether you want to design an app for a single platform, i.e., Android or iOS? or Do you plan to design an app for Android & iOS both? It directly affects the app design cost. If you want to design an app for multiple platforms, then designers will have to invest more time. Hence, this will increase the cost of designing an app.
App Complexity
In general, an app falls under the three categories listed below:
Simple App: An app with minimal features falls under this category.
Medium Complexity App: An app with attractive UI/UX with good features and content.
Complex App: An app that consists of comprehensive features and functionalities is considered a highly complex app.
The cost of designing a simple app is less compared to a large complexity app.
Designer’s Experience
The level of experience a designer has affects the cost of designing an app. A highly experienced designer will charge more money than a junior or intermediate designer.
Geographic Location
The cost to design an app depends on the country you wish to outsource your project. Various companies worldwide provide mobile app design services. Different regions have different prices for mobile app design services.
For instance, the cost of app design is lower in Asian countries than in any other part of the world. However, this doesn’t mean you should instantly hire any company from Asia. Your primary purpose should be to choose a development company based on the best quality-to-price ratio.
How to Calculate App Design Cost for Your App?
After knowing how the app design process affects the cost of the application, let us talk about the most important thing, i.e., mobile app design price.
As mentioned earlier, the cost to design an app depends on the number of platforms, app complexity, designer’s experience, and geographical location.
We have already mentioned the hours required to develop the wireframe, prototype, and visual design of a simple, medium, and complex app.
Now, here we will discuss how geography affects the cost of the application. The cost of a UI/UX designer varies heavily as per the country.
The app design hourly cost of the UI/UI designer in different countries in US Dollars is as follows.
Here, we suggest you select a country according to the best quality-to-price ratio.
| Country | Hourly Cost of UI/UX Designer Per Hour |
|---|---|
| USA | $100-200 |
| Australia | $50-150 |
| UK | $50-100 |
| Ukraine | $25-50 |
| India | $15-30 |
From the above price list, we can say that mobile app design cost in India is much less as compared to other regions. Moreover, the quality of apps designed in India is excellent.
Now, to calculate the estimated cost of mobile app design, you can consider the formula given below:
Total Number of Hrs * Designers Cost (As per region) = Total App Design Cost
From the hourly app design cost of designers in different countries, we can say that the average cost of designing a mobile app can range anywhere between $1,500 – $40,000.
For instance, if the total time required to design a mobile app is 100 hrs and the cost of a designer is $20, then 100×20 = $2000 is the cost of mobile application design.
Conclusion
By now, we hope that you have found the estimated cost of designing your mobile application.
The next important step that you can take is to hire a professional mobile app design agency like us. We have years of experience in designing mobile apps for clients across the globe belonging to different fields.
You are welcome to share your requirements with us and we will design your application at the best possible price.
