Cost of app depends on design, number of users and programme, say developers

HOW much does it cost to develop a mobile app?

This question arose as more local councils are jumping on the bandwagon to create apps to extend their services.

StarMetro spoke to three app developers to get a better understanding on the cost of developing an app, and found that it varied and depended on several factors.

These included the design of the app, the number of users who can access the app at a time, security, and the Application Programming Interface (API), which is a set of commands and protocol that programmers used to create a software.

Other factors to be considered are whether the app needs maintenance and improvements once it is developed.

There are websites which offer free templates for building apps and there are also templates being sold by professional app developers for a price.

To get a ballpark figure on how much it would cost to build an app, websites like howmuchtomakeanapp.com help one to gauge based on factors like the type of app (Android or iOS or both), whether users have to log in (email or social media), and would you make money from the app (upfront cost, in-app purchases or free).

Lim says well-known app developers spend a lot of time and research to design an app.

Advanced Realtime Sdn Bhd managing director Daniel Cerventus Lim said it heavily depended on the clients’ requirement.

There are websites that offer to build apps using templates for free, with minimal customisation.

It gets more expensive if you have a lot of customisation, he said.

“Well-known app developers spend a lot of time and research to design an app.

“It (design) has to be well-thought of in order for people to use it,” he said.

Lim added that the costs of an app also depended if clients wanted a hybrid or native app.

A native app is a smartphone app developed for operating systems for iOS and Android, while a hybrid app is a web app, which can be used across different platforms and compatible with most devices.

He said it would cost about RM120,000 to make an app like the eDrive.

Asyrique says his first impression of eDrive was that he did not know what function the app served.

However, he said he was unsure of the various integration costs to feed the information from Integrated Transportation Information System (Itis) system to the app.

“The RM2.9mil could be justified if security level is high and servers were bought in for the backend system of the app,” he said.

Asyrique Asyraf Thevendran, who is the chief technology officer of a Malaysian technology company and has personal experience in building apps, said he was unclear of the function of the eDrive app.

In terms of user-friendliness, he found the CCTV images of traffic on the eDrive app unrecognisable, unlike the coloured lines seen in Waze and Google Maps.

The app had stability problems in terms of geographical locations and did not provide real time images, he said.

“According to the time stamp, the traffic photos are delayed by 30 minutes, and it is unnecessary for the app to require users’ phone number and email for registration.

“It does not fulfill its purpose of helping with navigation,” he said.

Asyrique estimated the cost of building a similar app to be between RM50,000 and RM100,000, which would take three months to develop.

“If one year maintenance is added on, it will cost about RM200,000,” he said.

Google Developer Group Kuala Lumpur founder Mohd Nazrul Kamaruddin, who has developed software and apps since 1999, said there were websites which offered free templates for app-building, but they could only achieve 10% to 15% of what the clients wanted.

“Development of apps can cost close to nothing, but with very limited features,” he said.