If you’re building a custom software application, you’re probably wondering how much it’s going to cost. Today, we will discuss five factors that impact that cost the most.
Size and Complexity
The first factor is the size and complexity of the project. This is where you’re looking at whether you’re building a simple app that is accomplishing one particular thing. For example, let’s say that one particular thing was e-commerce transactions.
Or are you building an internal back-end system with a complex user experience that has a lot of depth? What you want to do is look into the world and see if your app already exists.
You also want to see if there are tools out there that accomplish your goals. However, what do you do if you’re trying to build an app that doesn’t exist and needs to be created? So, you will need a custom build for your application.
Tech Stack, Integrations, and Data
The next section that will impact your cost will be tech stack, integrations, and data. Choosing your tech stack is going to have a significant impact on the cost of the project.
Therefore, when your app is evaluated for different frameworks to use, there will be pros and cons. Some frameworks are going to take longer to use, but there may be extensibility or performance reasons to go with them.
In terms of integrations, your custom software company will be looking at other services or databases outside of the application that we will need to integrate with. Then, they focus on the quality of the API that they will be using.
A lot of software companies have seen everything from extremely robust and amazing API’s that they can work with to very challenging things, which is going to take the custom software development a lot more time to integrate.
Are you going to have to migrate data out of an older database? Are you going to have to do work in preparing that data before it gets moved? Or do you have a new application that doesn’t need a massive data migration? All these questions you will need to be prepared for when thinking about the cost of custom software. With that said, those are the three critical components of technology that are going to impact the cost.
Design
Another factor that is going to have a significant impact on cost is the design. You need to think about the complexity of the user experience and the different interfaces. Therefore, when you’re thinking about the costs, you need to think about the design.
There’s a spectrum you need to consider. If you’re cost-conscious, you’re going to want to start with a minimum viable product with a good simple interface.
So, that means no animation, nothing super fancy, and just have a design that doesn’t get in the way of a user accomplishing the task that they can do.
On the contrary, there are cases where you’re going to need to design something elaborate, and that’s going to cost significantly more money. A lot of that cost is going to be in both the design time and the feedback time that it’s going to take to get design reviews approved.
You also need to think about the coding time that it’s going to take. For instance, animation from a desktop orientation to a mobile orientation is quite a challenge. Therefore, when you’re looking at design and the complexity of the user experience, you need to think about the design from a cost perspective.
So, think about it as simple as possible, and then the key would be to user test your way to something more enhanced. To AB test and use data over personal preferences will help you get your way to a more optimized experience.
How You Will be Charged
How you will get charged is under a timely material contract. This means you will only be paying for the hours it takes for your application to be completed.
Typically, you get billed in increments of one week. Therefore, your entire app developing process will revolve around monthly releases, that are broken down into weekly interactions and daily stand-ups.
Client Participation
The last factor we are going to discuss is you. This comes down to your participation in the development process. If you’re available for daily stand-ups, for reviewing code and features that the company is committing, then the project will run much more smoothly.
If you don’t, there will be a risk that it drags on and that blockers will start to hinder progress. Then, the feedback loop on critical decisions will take longer, and you won’t be able to let the company do their work as well as they could be.
In Summary
Hopefully, these factors have been helpful and given you a proper understanding of the custom software process and its cost. If you have any questions about custom software development, reach out to a professional. When it comes to custom software development, Ecodelogic is the right Orlando software company.
