App Development Time: Factors and Calculation

Building an application, or getting it developed, is certainly time-consuming.

People from all walks of life, especially businesses, have at least once thought about the time taken to develop an application or a project.

If you are someone aware of how the app development process works, you already know that it is not as simple as it seems.

Not to mention, the time taken to develop an app depends on various factors and the decisions that you make when deciding the development approach.

People planning to digitise their businesses by launching an app of their own always have concerns about the go-to-market time.

This is also the reason why the most popular question in the development world after the cost is the duration required to develop an app.

What if we were to tell you that it is you who can identify the timeline on your own? Rather than just believing what the internet shows, you can actually analyse a few factors and understand how much time it takes to build an app.

Want to know how? Well, keep on reading, as in this blog, we are going to help you understand just the same!

Without further ado, let’s get started!

Average Time to Develop a Mobile App: Market Practices

On average, the time taken to make an app ranges from 4 months to 12 months.

That is actually the market average. Which means there may be applications that can even be developed in a month.

So, while there are applications that even take more than a year to complete. The average time to market for applications significantly varies for different applications.

With almost every application upgrading its features and functionalities with new technologies, the time to develop and integrate them will certainly increase.

One of the main factors that helps you understand this range of services is the complexity of your application.

This includes everything from the app’s platform to extensive features that tend to affect the time to build an app.

These complexities have been classified into 3 types –

Basic Applications

These are the apps that have a limited set of features and functionalities, for instance, a calculator, a weather app, a clock app, etc.

Complex Applications

These applications are your regular apps with multiple screens and functionalities that allow a user to navigate through the app better.

Apps that usually require a sign-up, user profile, and similar features fall into this category.

Highly Complex Applications

These applications are full-fledged tech-oriented solutions that use complicated functionalities and workflows to deliver high-quality experiences to the users.

Any app that uses AI or any other technology can be placed in this category.

Here’s how the average time for these different apps looks –

While the complexity of an app is what the professionals use to define the time taken to develop an app, it is not that simple for a layman to identify the same.

Hence, to give you a better insight into how you should identify the app development time for your project.

Factors That Affect App Development Time

The first thing you need to understand is that a mobile application is not a one-size-fits-all solution.

Different applications need different approaches, and based on those approaches, there are several factors that you should consider when calculating the app development time for your solution.

What are these factors? Well, check out the list below as we have discussed all of them for you!

• Complexity of the Idea

What’s THE MOST IMPORTANT thing when it comes to mobile app development?

It’s the Idea.

Now, you can have an idea to build a taxi app like LYFT or a unique idea for an e-commerce app. Based on this idea, app development can be very complex or less complex.

For instance, while making an app like Uber requires somewhere between 1100 hours, meditation apps like Calm are much simpler, with a development time of just 880 hours.

So, the complexity of your idea affects product development time. This is just one of the factors, yet a major one.

Let’s look at the other ones.

• App Development Platform

When it comes to creating an app, you can either develop an Android app or you can create an iOS application. Or, if you’re into hybrid app development, there’s that option too.

Coming to the time it takes to create these apps, again, brings us to complexity. You see, Android apps are much more complex than iOS apps.

The keyword here is “fragmentation” in the Android platform. In any case, the main takeaway from the platform is that Android apps take much longer. And hybrid apps take even longer.

• Third Party-Integration

It goes without saying that when you are creating a mobile application, there are a lot of APIs that you will be using.

Hate to break it down to you, but depending on the API, the time taken to integrate them can be a lot. For instance, payment gateway integration in taxi apps is notorious for taking up to weeks.

• App Developer’s Experience & Expertise

So, if you want to create an app, the first thing you do is hire app developers.

But how do they affect development time? Well, the expertise and experience in mobile apps certainly do. Developers who are experts in their field reduce the app development timeline by a significant margin without affecting quality.

With all these factors discussed, you might have gained clarity on how important it is for you to make the right decisions when choosing your app platform, the set of features, and the development professionals.

Keep in mind that these factors are directly related to the time it would take to develop your app.

Breaking Down the App Development Timeline

Based on these decisions, the development process begins.

While the factors help you gain insights into how much time it is going to take for an app development team to finish the project, you can get a closer look and an exact timeline for your app development by analyzing the stages of development.

You see, the entire mobile app development process is broken down into stages, from ideation to final deployment, and understandably, each step requires dedicated resources and, more importantly, time.

Check out all the stages and the average time it takes to finish them individually –

1. Research

Mobile app research helps you identify everything you need to know about the idea that you have.

You need to identify several factors, such as the market need, market requirements, expected features, the gaps, and how your application is positioned.

Average Time Taken: 1-2 Weeks

2. Idea Validation

After you have researched the market, it is necessary to validate your idea.

For instance, when we got a chance to work on Maxpay, one of the leading cross-border e-wallets for remittance and international transactions, the client was quite skeptical about the idea that they had and wanted to know if what they were looking for was valid or not.

Our experts tried a different approach and created multiple real-life scenarios where Maxpay’s international transactions and remittance features could be placed, validating the idea before execution.

After all, several ideas often seem too good to be true, and it is always best to identify if they are valid before investing your hard-earned cash.

Average Time Taken: 1-2 Weeks

3. Planning & Wireframing

With a valid idea that you have researched thoroughly, you are now ready to take the app to the next phase, i.e., planning the process and starting with the mobile app wireframe.

All the steps forward from here are to be planned right here. From choosing the app platform to deciding the final deployment process of the application, all of it is decided in this stage of your application.

Hence, you should pay attention to this and let the experts take their time accordingly.

Average Time Taken: 2-3 Weeks

4. Create an MVP

Developing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) can take up to a month or so in the app development timeline, depending on the complexity of the app.

For those who aren’t familiar with the concept, an MVP is a basic version of the app with core features that can be tested by users.

This MVP can be a game-changer for the business, considering they now have a prototype that they can show to their investors for better opportunities.

Not to mention, it also helps them identify how their application will look.

Average Time Taken: 2-6 Weeks

5. UI/UX Design

Designing is one of the most important parts of the entire app development process. That’s why you can expect this phase to take a little longer than you expect.

You see, the app design is the key element that lays the foundation for the developers to define the workflow of the functionalities.

Hence, you cannot compromise on the mobile app design and how it will appear.

It also depends on the complexity of the design as well as the expertise and experience of the developer.

Average Time Taken: 4-6 Weeks

7. App Development

This is the part where a team of developers writes the source code of the application.

Being by far the most complex and time-consuming development process, it takes quite a lot of time.

Every feature, every minor functionality of your application, is developed by the developer from scratch.

Understandably, this is the longest phase of them all, and this is the stage that takes the maximum time to finish the application.

Average Time Taken: 8-20 Weeks

8. Mobile App Testing & Deployment

Once the developer makes the app’s final version, it’s time to test it before deployment.

This part of the product development takes 1-2 weeks to test the app’s final version for bugs, errors, and performance issues.

The final phase involves deploying the app to the app store, which can take 1-2 weeks for approval and release.

And that’s how much app development time it takes.

Average Time Taken: 2-4 Weeks

With all those things out of the way, it is now time to understand exactly how much time it would take.

If we simply try to add up all these weeks, we will get an average of 4 to 12 months that it would take to finish the application.

Now, when you are calculating the app development time, there are still a few things that can help you reach an accurate answer to the question of how much time it takes to build the application.

What are those things? Let’s find out in the next section.

Things to Keep in Mind When Calculating the Time Required To Make An App

It is quite difficult for anyone to get the exact timeline for the development, as there are various factors, including human error and other uncertainties that may occur.

You need to ensure that there are no loose ends. And how can you do that? By addressing the following factors –

Well, here’s the process you can use.

• Estimate the time required for each task
• Consider the level of customization required
• Consider the platform
• Account for testing and debugging
• Add buffer time

While this process is quite successful, it’s always highly recommended that you consult a mobile app development company that will be able to provide you with deeper insight into the same.

If you are looking for someone who can guide you through the entire app development process without making the process last longer than expected, you can rely on Nimble AppGenie.

We are one of the leading names in the market with highly experienced developers who can identify the time required to develop an app and give you a proper timeline after analyzing the idea.

Conclusion

The whole point of knowing how much time it takes to build an app is to plan the course of your business ahead of time.

You can try all you want to estimate the time for the application you are about to develop; however, if you are not aware of the factors as discussed, you may not be able to finish the process with accuracy.

We hope all the information shared above gives you clarity on how you can calculate the time required to develop an application.

If you have any questions, feel free to connect with our experts, as they can guide you through the process.

Thanks for reading, good luck!

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Niketan Sharma

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.