Here are some ways to develop great apps even when the developer is short of budget.
It is always better if the developer sets his/her priorities in the beginning, preferably right after knowing the budget. The developer must reflect on who the target audience is, which features can’t be omitted at any cost, on how many platforms the app will be launched and other such similar checkpoints.
It is true that cross-platform development can increase the user base. At the same time, common sense tells us that it would cost more as developing an app in more than one OS would increase the time and energy consumed by the coders and hence they would charge less for developing the app in one platform. This logic doesn’t stand true when one realizes that the coders can reuse the code written in one platform. Reusing a code also decreases time as well as the efforts of app developers along with the money charged by them.
When thinking of cross-app development, the developer will also have to choose between developing a native or a hybrid mobile app. If presence in multiple platforms is a priority then the developer should go for a hybrid app, but if the nature of the business requires the app to perform better and at the same time requires good UX, then the developer must go for a native app. The nature of the app will completely depend on the nature of the client’s business.
When on a budget, cost-benefit analysis is inevitable. The cost here being the development cost of a particular feature and benefit being the utility of that app to the user. This will also make the app compact and crisp, which is much appreciated compared to a huge app that lags in every two seconds. For instance, the developer can’t omit the scan to pay feature if he/she is developing a payment app because it is absolutely necessary. On the other hand, minor features like sending a personal message can be omitted as it is not a defining feature of a payment app and will bring unnecessary development costs.
When the developer is setting his/her priorities and running a cost-benefit analysis, he/she is incorporating only those features which are absolutely inevitable. Along with these tasks, the developer must also design an MVP or Minimum Viable Product, it is an almost complete product which allows the developer to validate the core idea behind the app with the real-time audience, collect feedback from them and analyze their demand. After building an MVP, the developer will know in which features he/she has to invest in the app. This feature is necessary because the developers might be sitting in their ivory towers, oblivion of their customer’s needs.
Every app needs maintenance, updates, bug fixes, etc in order to function smoothly. All of this also costs money. While allocating the budget, the developer must set aside a proportion of it to maintenance.
Hiring some freelance developers might be in vogue, it is also cheaper compared to hiring a mobile app development company, but there are some inherent upsides of going for the latter. The employees of a company are used to working together as a team; they collaborate to bring out the best work as they know their teammate’s strengths and weaknesses. Hiring a full-fledged team might come with some extra costs, but they are more efficient as they communicate and coordinate well, hence they can complete the work faster for the same reason. A bunch of unknown freelancers, on the other hand, might not be able to do the same. Ultimately a team will cost less as they will complete the task sooner, cutting the number of days and the payment made to them.
Developing an app is not a ‘one man’s job’, it needs a whole team for coding. At first, it might seem that hiring an in-house team is the best option, but outsourcing is much cheaper and hence a more budget-friendly option.