iOS devices make up more than 60% of the user base in the USA & Canada. The impact of Apple as a brand has truly opened an avenue for small businesses to reach the masses, as now they can simply tap into that audience by launching an iOS app.
You see, iOS is the most preferred platform due to its thorough security and accessibility. Businesses from across the globe plan to launch their iOS app first, as it is a more stable and reliable platform with fewer types of devices to cater to.
Whereas in Android app development, a developer has to optimize an app for hundreds of different devices with different screen ratios, different versions, etc., which complicates the entire process.
Hence, it is understandable to go for an iOS app. However, there’s one thing that you need to consider, i.e., iOS app development cost. The breakdown of the cost is really important.
And that is exactly what we are going to discuss. In this post, we will break down the iOS app development cost and help you plan your application better. Without further ado, let’s get started!
What is the Cost of iOS App Development? Cost Calculator
Generally, iOS app development costs somewhere between $25,000 & $250,000 and more.
You may be wondering why there is quite a range when it comes to the accurate pricing of the iOS app development process, then on what basis is the development cost calculated? Well, there is a set formula that can be applied to understand the cost.
Total iOS App Development Cost = (Total Development Hours) x (Hourly Rate of Developers) + Additional Costs
The additional cost includes all types of necessary resources required to complete the process. The range varies significantly, as there are several factors to be considered when building an application.
iOS App Development Cost Breakdown
The decision to build an iOS app comes with several responsibilities, the most important one being keeping the app on budget.
When we talk about the range of iOS app development costs varying from $25,000 to $250,000 and more, it is because of the choices you make when planning your iOS app. Usually, the range varies in terms of the app complexity and the components that are added into it.
Here’s a quick cost breakdown which shows how much the iOS app development should cost you based on the complexity of the app.
| Feature Complexity | Cost Estimate |
| Basic: Simple app with core functionalities (e.g., login, registration, basic CRUD operations) | $25,000 – $75,000 |
| Moderate: App with additional features (e.g., offline functionality, social integration, push notifications) | $75,000 – $125,000 |
| Complex: App with advanced features (e.g., real-time updates, custom animations, integrations with multiple APIs) | $125,00 – $250,000 + |
Knowing the complexity, let’s break down the cost estimate by addressing the steps that go into the process and how much every range costs individually.
► App Design
UI/UX app design cost can depend on the complexity of the project, the type of designs, along the number of screens you want to put in the application.
Here, it is important to consider wireframes and prototypes while deciding on the cost. Under app design, you should consider consistency, user experience, and navigation, along with app layout design.
Here’s a table to be considered for the same:
| Factor | Cost |
| Simplicity vs. Complexity | $5,000 – $15,000 |
| Custom vs. Template-Based | $10,000 – $25,000 |
| Interactive Elements | $5,000 – $10,000 |
| UI/UX Design Quality | $10,000 – $25,000 |
| Number of Screens | $5,000 – $50,000 |
► Tech Stack
Choosing the right tech stack that can go with your iOS app is crucial; however, it can change based on the industry size and accessibility. More importantly. The cost of the tech stack can directly impact the overall iOS app development cost for you.
Here, the programming languages used in the app are Swift and Objective-C. It is more specifically supported by Apple.
Keep in mind that while these technologies are directly supported by the ecosystem, finding experienced developers who work on them can be difficult.
► App Maintenance
When you decide to launch your iOS app on the Apple store, it’s important to consider after-launch services to remain in the competitive landscape.
If you aren’t aware of the importance of app maintenance, then it’s time to consider it. Several businesses make the mistake of not considering the cost of maintenance while planning the overall budget for the app, which indirectly makes the app go over budget.
When choosing app maintenance services for your solution, you should consider the following
| Factor | Cost Estimate |
| Frequency of Updates | $2,500 – $5,000 |
| Complexity of Updates | $3,000 – $5,000 |
| Third-Party Integrations | $10,000 – $25,000 |
| Bug Fixes and Troubleshooting | $10,000 – $30,000 |
| App Store Submission and Review | $1500 – $5,000 |
► App Security
Another important element to consider while deciding on the cost of developing an iOS app is mobile app security. It is a criterion that users can trust or even abandon the app based on its security levels.
Thus, you should implement high and robust security parameters, well this can impact the overall cost parameters. High-security parameters will demand high costs, too.
Here’s the table to be considered for deciding on the cost:
| Factor | Cost Estimate |
| Data Encryption | $1,000 – $2,000 |
| Authentication and Authorization | $1,500 – $2,500 |
| Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing | $1,000 – $2,000 |
| Regular Security Updates and Patches | $500 – $1,000 |
These were some of the factors to be considered here that can impact the overall cost of creating an iOS app.
Hidden iOS App Development Cost Factors Affecting the Cost
Till now, you learned about the overall iOS app development cost breakdown; well, there are different elements too that must be considered.
Let’s study some of the hidden iOS app development cost factors:
1. Development Team
Always look to hire iOS app developers who can help you achieve the objective by building an app as accurate as it can possibly be. The team should have knowledge related to UX and UI, along with great communication skills.
The developers should persist in adaptability along with collaboration skills, manage secure data communication, and many other skills. However, finding developers who meet your requirements comes with a cost.
The cost of hiring a mobile app development team for your iOS app also varies depending on different factors like the type of team and the number of resources hired in the team. You should also note two important areas here: one is location, and the other is the expertise of the developers.
Here are the distinguishing tables that can help decide the cost:
| Based On Location | Cost Estimate |
| Asia | $12,500 – $13,500 |
| Eastern Europe | $13,000 – $14,000 |
| Western Europe | $13,500 – $14,500 |
| UK | $14,000 – $15,000 |
| US | $14,500 – $15,000 |
| Based On Level of Expertise | Cost Estimate |
| Junior Developers | $12,500 – $13,000 |
| Mid-Level Developers | $13,000 – $14,000 |
| Senior Developers | $14,000 – $15,000 |
2. Complexity of Features
The more complex features will require high costs, such as the use of advanced technology for developing the iOS app can impact the complete app development process.
Here, it’s important to consider two primary aspects that include the number of features and the complexity of features.
A simple series of features within the iOS app will require less cost, such as login registration, text-formatting options, sharing notes for social media, and many others.
3. Costs of App Store
While building your app for the store market, there are a couple of important points that should be noted, such as the cost of launching apps on the store and learning about the app store license.
Additionally, when you create native apps and launch them on the store, you provide a certain amount of control over the app to the store. This might impact the complete cost of developing an iOS app.
4. Data Storage Cost
When you build an iOS app, where millions of users will input their information, one of the main protocols is where this data can be stored. These costs might vary depending on the provider and the amount of data stored.
To store the data in the cloud, you will be required to allocate an additional series of spaces, which can incur a high investment cost.
5. Mid-Term Project Changes
Another crucial component that can impact the complete cost of developing an iOS app is mid-term project changes. Here, you should adopt the cost estimation based on the initial specs.
Well, many businesses can underestimate this cost and how these changes may drive up the whole investment.
6. App Testing Costs
Before you launch the app in the market, it’s essential to go for testing. It is an essential process to identify the bugs and errors within the app and then reduce them with effective tools.
Well, if you avoid it, this can impact the complete budget and even the functioning of the app. Additionally, you should put a budget for different device types, OS versions, screen sizes, and many more.
7. Marketing Cost
Have you kept the budget for marketing your iOS app? Well, this is one of the important hidden costs that can impact the overall cost of creating an iOS app.
Here, you should decide on the type of platforms where you want to market the apps. The cost of marketing the app over these different platforms can have a large impact that shouldn’t be avoided.
8. Third-Party Integration Cost
When you connect your third-party apps with those of the other networks, it’s a great way to improve their functionality. With this feature, your users can easily access the other apps, even without switching screens.
Here, you should be aware that certain third-party services may charge fees for their use.
Additionally, they might require ongoing payments for continued access to the application.
These were some of the hidden costs that shouldn’t be avoided when you consider building an effective iOS app. Hence, it is advised that you keep all these factors in mind and accordingly take your decision to build the application.
Well, we understand that it matters to pay less for the service. So, in the next section, you will learn all about the ways and patterns for minimizing the iOS app development cost.
Ways to Minimize Cost to Develop an iOS App
What are the top ways to reduce the cost of building an iOS app?
Here’s a list to be considered:
➤ Research and Planning
One of the most important criteria that can help save the complete cost of developing an iOS app is efficient research as well as planning.
It is one of the important phases where you design and program everything from app development to maintenance.
Through a detailed and complete planning of the resources, you may divide the whole coding into multiple phases. This will help reduce the chance of errors and mistakes.
➤ Go with a Simple App Design
You can go with a simple, straightforward, and clean design that should meet the target audience’s requirements.
Along with this, simple designs can help create less confusion among the users and will provide them clarity related to all the functionalities.
It tends to save more resources and reduces bugs in the app’s functionality. Thus, it can be one of the important practices for minimizing the cost.
➤ Develops Prototypes
You should consider developing prototypes and then make a comparison of the preferences of the users over the app. Developing a clickable prototype is one of the important ways of keeping costs low.
This will help analyze the flow of the app and enhance the user experience by clarifying the users’ requirements at an early stage.
This practice is also helpful in validating the mobile app idea, as well as it is a simple technique to test the app before you invest the complete resources into it.
➤ Optimize the App For Scalability
While building the iOS app, you should include scalability parameters in the same. This can affect the iPhone app development price because scalability can help reduce the scope of bugs or even crashes when high traffic shows up.
When you design an app for scalable solutions in the future, it helps to easily handle more users as well as features to save more money. This process is quite helpful to minimize the requirements for major rewrites or any kind of large updates.
➤ Develop an MVP
You should go for a minimum viable product (MVP), which can be effective in minimizing the cost to develop an iOS app. Developing an MVP can help identify whether your app can address growing users’ needs or not.
It is one of the important processes to launch the app with enough features that can be helpful to release solutions as per the competitive market.
➤ Appropriate Testing
You should consider rigorous mobile app testing, which will be effective in addressing the errors and bugs to reduce app crashes. Testing the iOS app will be useful in spotting the issue in the development stage. This is useful in identifying errors even before they can cause app crashes.
This is a useful technique for measuring the user experience and ensuring that the app works simultaneously and efficiently. These are some of the common strategies you can adopt to reduce the iOS app development cost.
Are you still confused about whether to develop an iOS app or not?
Benefits of Choosing iOS App Development
Here are some of the reasons to consider why iOS app development is crucial.
♦ Improves User Experience
Apple is known for its effective customer experience along with rigorous testing standards. These apps are generally more polished, intuitive, and user-friendly.
Additionally, an impressive user experience may result in high customer satisfaction as well as high retention rates.
Along with this, when users find the app easy to navigate as well as pleasant to use, they tend to keep coming back. This will increase user interaction.
♦ Enhances Reach to High-Value Audiences
iPhones have a reputation as a premium product and are being used by people who value high-end devices.
Hence, by developing an iOS app, you are placing the business within the hands of a demographic known for high spending power as well as a strong preference for user engagement.
Additionally, this can be highly beneficial for you when the business offers a series of innovative products as well as effective services.
♦ Source of Monetization
Another and most important reason that you can’t skip is that developing an iOS app can help earn more revenue for the business.
Here, you can earn revenue from diversified sources such as advertisements, sponsorships, subscription plans, and offering freemium versions of the in-app purchases.
Creating an iOS app for your industry can provide you with access to exclusive features and help you connect to the changing technological trends.
♦ Helps to Offer High-Security Standards
When you develop an iOS app, it cannot be without features such as two-factor authentication, regular security updates as well as end-to-end encryption.
Launching an app on an iPhone can be a challenge as you need to keep up with the security standards; however, it can be a wonderful opportunity to build the trust of the users in your business.
This will ensure that the users know that their personal information is in good hands. This will help address any legal issues and any financial losses related to data breaches.
♦ Produces Global Market Reach
With the assistance of the iPhone apps, you can get access to the global market by launching the app on the Apple store. The iPhone app provides you with access to the global market with the assistance of the Apple App Store.
It is available in over 175 countries and regions. Thus, launching an app over the iOS platform can be effective, and here you support multiple languages as well as currencies to make it easier to address the global audience worldwide.
These are some of the benefits to be considered for selecting an iOS app.
iOS App Development Cost vs Android App Development Cost
After reading all the information about the iOS app development cost, you may be wondering how different it is from the Android app development cost. For example, is it beneficial to go for iOS app development over Android if you only have a budget for one operating system?
The answer can be derived after drawing a complete comparison between them. But that will take some time and effort. Well, we have already done it for you.
Here’s a series of comparisons based on multiple factors:
► App Design
The app design of the iOS app is higher than that of the Android. Here, the app design depends on multiple factors such as target market, features, security, and privacy, as well as budget.
Here you can compare factors such as time taken to develop the app design, as well as the cost of work per hour.
Android App Design Costs can be 20-25%; on the other hand, the cost of iOS app design can vary depending on intuitive design, along with the latest updates and technologies.
► Programming Languages
The programming languages that are being used in Android apps are completely different from those of iOS apps.
For iOS development, the most common languages are Swift as well as Objective-C; however, for Android app development, it is Java and Kotlin.
Thus, this cost can be 20%-30% of the total app development costs, whether it’s the case of Android or iOS.
► App Development Time
The time taken to develop the Android app can differ from that of the iOS app. Different elements at work may help identify the time efficiency of any kind of procedure.
This is the plus point within the iOS app that will get you ahead of the Android apps. Here, the iOS apps take much less time compared to the Android app developers.
Over the iOS apps, you need to check for 20+ devices; however, that can work with simple coding or similar programming languages. On the other hand, in the case of Android apps, the developers will need more time to address the compatibility issues.
► App Development Hourly Rates
This is one of the important points helpful in deciding the cost and your budget. Here, hiring iOS app developers can cost you much higher than that of Android app developers.
The major reason behind this scenario is that iPhone app developers who are using Swift or Objective-C charge around 10% to 15% more than developers who are Java experts.
Thus, this is one of the essential factors that cannot be avoided when deciding to develop an iOS app effectively.
Well, these were some of the important comparison factors that might have a large impact on your decision to decide the cost of creating an iOS app.
How to Get Budget-Friendly iOS App Development?
The ideal way to keep your iOS app under the budget is to keep track of all the factors shared above.
One of the most crucial decisions of them all is finding the right iOS app development company that can break each of your requirements down and guide you towards an optimized app development solution that fits your budget.
In case you are wondering who can help you do that, then you are just at the right place, Nimble AppGenie. With years of experience and top-of-the-line experts, we can help you develop the iOS app in the best possible way, while being cost-effective.
All you have to do is reach out to us and share all your requirements. Our team of analysts will research the entire concept and give you the best iOS app development cost estimate with a breakdown that helps you track the cost.
Conclusion
To develop an iOS app of your dreams, you need to evaluate your budget and decide on the amount you can pay. The cost of creating an iOS app can be evaluated with the help of identifying potential factors that might impact the process.
Hence, what you need is to break down the key processes and the cost associated with them. Also, keeping track of some hidden factors that affect the cost in any way, directly or indirectly, is extremely important too.
The best thing you can do to minimize the cost and maximize the output is to hire a professional iOS app development team that not only understands the idea but is also aware of all the right practices. Lastly, evaluating your business needs and taking the right decision is also crucial for application development.
Keeping unrealistic expectations is also not advised, as there will be some costs that just cannot be minimized. With that said, we have reached the end of this post. Hopefully, all this information helps you keep your iOS app under a budget as decided by you.
FAQs
There are multiple ways you can opt for in order to reduce the total cost of developing an iOS app. Given lists define the measures:
- Research and planning: With complete research and planning, you can decide on the right ways to develop an iOS app.
- Simple App Design: A simple app design can be useful in identifying appropriate costs and will be useful in reducing confusion among users.
- Create Prototypes: One of the effective and essential measures is creating prototypes, where you will be able to evaluate users’ flow.
- Develop an MVP: You can build an MVP and may reduce the cost by launching it to early adopters.
- Optimize App Scalability: You can optimize the scalability of the app so that it can handle the growing traffic over the platform effectively.
Niketan Sharma, CTO, Nimble AppGenie, is a tech enthusiast with more than a decade of experience in delivering high-value solutions that allow a brand to penetrate the market easily. With a strong hold on mobile app development, he is actively working to help businesses identify the potential of digital transformation by sharing insightful statistics, guides & blogs.
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