One of the most common objectives that every business wants to achieve is to minimize the cost of mobile app development. A budget constraint usually scares prospective clients from their projects, leading to enormous business losses.

However, app development processes comprise many stages, and if one understands the specifics of each phase, they can save considerable cost and time during development.

This article focuses on practical and effective ways to minimize mobile app development costs while achieving the best quality in the end product.

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1. Complete Requirement Specification

Vague requirements are like raw material for unpredictable outcomes, as developers have no mind-reading capabilities.

Clearly define your project with details such as:

•  Purpose of the app

•  Problems it solves for the users

•  Supported devices/platforms

•  Key functions

•  Competitor app references

•  Unique value proposition

•  Design requirements and branding guidelines

Detailed project descriptions enable the developers to estimate costs and timelines and quickly answer the client's critical queries.

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2. One Platform, One MVP

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a working prototype that tests market interest before launching on a large scale. It tests the viability of an idea while saving money. Snapchat, Uber, and Foursquare started as MVPs and later developed into full-featured apps.

Instead of throwing all those dollars into an unproven idea, spend a little, but prove whether your hyped-to-the-heavens idea is viable. Manage to put 1 to 5 essential features for your target audience, which can be added in future stages.

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3. Cross-Platform Development

A mobile app can be developed using native languages or cross-platform frameworks. Native development provides the best performance and direct access to system features, but it also has drawbacks.

On the contrary, multi-platform frameworks result in a cost-effective, quick way of releasing software, but not without compromise. This can be helpful when budget constraints are a significant consideration. To learn more, refer to our comprehensive guide, "Mobile Cross-Platform App vs.Native App—What's the Difference?"

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4. Outsource Development

In conclusion, outsourcing your application project would significantly reduce development expenses. Development teams in Eastern Europe offer high-quality services at two to three times the cost of those in the USA or the UK.

Countries like Ukraine employ IT professionals at very affordable rates due to their low living costs. Read more in our article "9 Reasons to Outsource Your App Development to Ukraine."

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5. Optimize User Scenarios

This app functionality can be realized with different degrees of complexity. A strategic user experience can optimize the screen count for the design and development costs.

User scenarios will streamline the navigation process and save design efforts and costs.

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6. Follow Apple and Google Guidelines 

According to their specifications, those apps that comply with one platform's guidelines are user-friendly and beautiful. Since iOS and Android developers have provided ready-made UI components, doing them that way becomes simple and offers an improved user experience.

Using Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and Google's Material Design standards will make it more uniform and less of a custom UI cost.

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7. Use Ready-Made Offerings

Instead of building every element from scratch, you work with existing frameworks, APIs, and libraries. This speeds up development while reducing expenses.

An experienced team can tell you when a pre-built solution is better than a custom development approach for efficiently and cost-effectively improving applications.

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8. Follow an Iterative Development Model

Agile development divides a project into bits, manageable deliverables, rather than waiting to build a fully-fledged application and possibly risk spending.

Release early versions with core functions to collect user feedback and redirect development priorities to real-world insights. This will reduce financial risks and optimize resource deployment.

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9. Assign Quality Assurance

Most small projects deem quality assurance (QA) just as they see it as not being relevant. Not doing detailed testing, however, may lead to expensive bug correction post-launch and cause user satisfaction problems or reputational harm.

Comprehensive QA avoids possible failures that can cause an app to be tried and not work as expected.

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10. Avoid Rushed Deadlines

Rushing developers tends to turn out badly; the faster they are made to work, the more likely errors will occur. Then, they must redo what they did, which takes time and money.

Careful thought can be managed by allowing pacing in the development cycle. Costs can be minimized in the long run, and a final product can be more polished.

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Conclusion

App development is often costly, but several strategic approaches can help you identify ways to save while making a solid app.

Software development company like Introva can save costs while achieving the best possible result by using cross-platform technology, outsourcing, following platform guidelines, optimizing functionality, or using iterative development.

Are you looking for an experienced development team? Share your project details with us, and we'll help you realize your vision.