How Much Does it Cost to Develop an Android App?

On average, Android app development costs can range between $15,000 – $500,000. This is not to say that you can’t develop an Android app for lesser than $15,000 or that it can’t exceed the $500,000 mark. However, given the market average Android developer rates and all Android app development factors, it acts as a relevant guideline if you’re looking to develop a fully-functional, industry-grade, and market-ready Android app.

As you can see, that’s still a wide range and nowhere near helpful to estimate the overall cost of developing an Android app for your project. Let’s get to the good part and figure out how much your dream is. Android projects can cost in reality, and how you can reduce the overall costs to fit your Android app development budget.

Android App Development Cost Guide: TL;DR

If you are in a rush or need an immediate Android app development cost estimate, we have highlighted all the important Android cost factors here. You can directly jump here if you wish to dive deeper into detail.

Android App Cost as per App Complexity

• Basic Android App Cost: $5000 – $10,000 | 3-4 months
• Medium Android App Cost: $10,000 – $50,000 | 2-6 months
• Enterprise Android App Cost: $50,000 – $50,000 | 6-9+ months

Average Hourly Rates of Android App Developers as per Location

• Hourly Rates of Android App Developers in India $18 – $40/hr
• Hourly Rates of Android App Developers in Ukraine $100 – $150/hr
• Hourly Rates of Android App Developers in the US – $60/hr
• Hourly Rates of Android App Developers in the UK $200/hr
• Hourly Rates of Android App Developers in Canada $60/hr

Average Android App Outsourcing Costs as per Location

• Cost of Outsourcing Android App to USA: $20,000 – $150,000
• Cost of Outsourcing Android App to Germany: $40,000 – $120,000
• Cost of Outsourcing Android App to UK: $30,000 – $250,000
• Cost of Outsourcing Android App to Canada: $10,000 – $120,000
• Cost of Outsourcing Android App to Ukraine: $10,000 – $150,000
• Cost of Outsourcing Android App to India: $10,000 – $100,000

Android App Cost as per Development Phases

Android App Development Cost based on App Categories

Android Developer Cost as per Talent Required

• Android App Developer: $20 – $120
• UIUX Designer: $15 – $100
• SCRUM Master: $50 – $200
• QA Engineer: $15 – $120
• Business Analyst: $45 – $180

Cost to Develop Android App: Average Hidden Costs

• App Hosting Cost: $70 – $320/month
• Monitoring and Maintenance: $5000 – $10,000
• Updates and Upgrades: $1000 – $50,000
• Licensing: $25/One-Time Fee
• SMS Notifications: $20 – $30/month

Additionally, depending on the platform, the type of app, and the location where your team is located, development expenses can vary significantly. Since India has enormous resources, many businesses from over the world turn to it for its mobile app needs. This post is for you if you’re also curious about how much it costs to develop mobile apps.

 The Android app development industry has been experiencing an unprecedented rise in popularity and demand in the business world. Following stats back the popularity of android:

• Almost 8 out of 10 smart devices are powered by Android in today’s technological era.
• On the Google Play Store, there are more free apps than there are paid ones. Free apps made up more than 96.8% of all downloads in June of this year, while premium apps made up only 3.2%. (Statista)
• 2020 saw a $581.9 billion revenue increase for the mobile app sector. The industry’s sales will almost certainly hit $1 trillion in 2023 if this trend continues. (Statista)
• Google Play has seen a massive generated increased revenue of 58.2% to $10.6 billion in 2021. (Business of apps)
• In the second quarter of 2022, gross app revenue in the Google Play store amounted to almost 11 billion U.S. dollars worldwide, a small decrease compared to the previous quarter. (Statista)

Android App Development Cost Calculator

Any business owner’s first question for creating a mobile app would be – how much does app development cost? While there are various factors affecting the cost of Android app development, there are two primary factors that one needs to consider for getting a quick estimate:

Android App Cost = Development Time x Developer Hourly Rate

Development Time: The overall time taken or estimated for completing the project, depending on its complexity, time, urgency and talent requirements.

Developer Hourly Rate: The average hourly rate of Android developers that are working on your project. Their hourly rates would depend on how many developers you hire, their experience levels and other such factors.

Factors that Affect Cost to Develop an Android App

When it comes to evaluating the cost to build an Android app, there are multiple factors that you should consider before planning your app development budget. We have broken down the various important factors that you can use as an Android app development cost checklist for your reference:

#1. Android App Development Cost Factor – App Size

Naturally, the size of your app is directly going to affect your Android app development cost. The larger the Android app development projects are, more the resources go into building them and maintaining them. Confused about the Android app size category your ideal mobile app will fit in? Here, let us help:

#2. Android App Development Cost Factor – Online vs Offline

If you think offline apps have no value and all apps need to be online to be relevant in the market and useful to your business needs, then you are mistaken. Creating an online Android app attracts more development time and efforts, resulting in higher Android app development costs. In contrast, creating an offline Android app is cheaper and quicker to develop. For coming to the right decision regarding online vs. offline, you need to think about your android app development requirements.

When to choose Online Android Apps

• Access to real-time data and content updation
• Higher flexibility in comparison to offline android apps
• Allows various user transactions through online connectivity

When to choose Offline Android Apps

• Quicker to present data as it uses cached record sets
• Continuous operation without dependency on internet
• Easier to gain customer loyalty

#3. Android App Development Cost Factor – No. of Features

For deciphering any Android app project cost, you need to list down all the features you expect your Android app to have. Adding more and more features adds on the overall development time, and some features are more complex than others. Going with a list of features that best suit the interest of your target audience is the best way to ensure app success in the longer run. If you are unsure of all features your Android app could benefit from, you could always avail services of a top Android mobile app development company that could assist you in making the right choices.

#4. Android App Development Cost Factor – Complexity of Features

While number of features is directly proportional to your app development costs, there is another aspect that we must consider – complexity of these features. Basic Android app development projects like creating a simple photo app with multiple features like crop, filters, aspect ratio and other editing tools costs far lesser than creating a full-stack scalable Android app that needs cognitive technology integration such as Pokémon Go, IKEA furniture and more.

Android App Development Cost Breakdown – Complexity of Features

#5. Android App Development Cost Factor – Type of App

Your Android app development cost also greatly is impacted by the kind of Android platform you choose. Broadly, there are three choices to go with – Native, Cross Platform, Progressive Web Apps.

What is Native Android App Development?

By definition, native apps are designed for a specific OS by utilizing the operating system’s specific programming language. For instance, iOS native development is done on Swift, and Android native development can be done on Java or Kotlin.
Reasons to choose Native Android App Development

• Fast and Reliable
• Unique Features
• Sharper User Experience
• Higher chances of ranking better on Play store
• Increased scalability

Reasons to avoid Native Android App Development

• Highly expensive Android App Development costs
• Time consuming and tedious

Use Native Android App Development if

• Your application needs access to all phone resources and services.
• Your Android app needs to be more responsive.
• You want to leverage the mobile phone’s hardware potential to the fullest.
• You want a scalable app that can be easily updated and enhanced with additional features.

What is Cross Platform Android App Development?

As the name suggests, cross platform app development should be considered when you want to create an app that works on multiple platforms. For this there are many cross platform mobile app development frameworks like Flutter, React Native and others that can be used for creating an app that can be deployed on both – Android Google Store and Apple App Store.

Reasons to choose Cross Platform Android App Development

• Saves time and cost
• Quicker to market
• Utilizes single codebase

Reasons to avoid Native Android App Development

• Slower app performance
• Functionality limitation
• Limited User Experience

Use Cross Platform Android App Development if

• You don’t need a very responsive Android application
• The Android app doesn’t require complex animations or logic
• You are trying to test an app idea quickly in a niche app market

What is PWA Android Development?

PWA – Progressive Web Apps are web applications that create a native Android app-like experience that are fast, reliable and engaging. It is the amalgamation of design and functional elements of native Android app and bringing it to users’ mobile browsers at half the cost and development time.

Reasons to choose PWA Android App Development

• Progressive :- works for every user and browser
• Responsive :– easily adapts to various screen sizes and devices
• App-like :– behave like native Android apps
• Updated :– information can easily be updated at all times
• Secure :– uses HTTPs protocol for preventing connection from displaying/altering the information.

Reasons to avoid PWA Android App Development

• High battery consumption
• Not all devices provide support for full range PWA Android features
• Limited offline execution support
• Can’t be linked to Google play store
• Limited access to hardware components of the users’ devices

Use PWA Android App Development if

• You are in the initial stage of your business and want a simple Android app solution for your users
• You are on a time and budget constraint
• You aim to improve brand awareness and SEO

#6. Android App Development Cost Factor – App Design and Number of Screens

The number of screens your app will need will directly affect the work hours of your Android app designer. Secondly you need to also consider what kind of screens do you need for your app. Are you planning on adding many graphic elements in the UI and smoothen the UX by adding subtle animations? Such screens would cost a little extra. Most of the times, the number of screens needed for your Android app is directly related to its features and the coherence between them. If your app has many features that don’t have a logical coherence with each other, you will need to develop an app with multiple unique screens.

#7. Android App Development Cost Factor – API Integrations

API integration is a messenger that establishes seamless connectivity for organizations to automate various business processes. It helps two or more apps connect via their APIS which enables them to exchange data. When you create any android app, there are many possible ways and user cases where you would need to establish different API Integrations for adding various features to your app.

1. Payment Integrations – Payment APIs

If you are planning on developing an ecommerce Android app, or adding any product or services that you want your users to buy, you have to integrate a payment system that enables them to make payments through net banking, wallets or any other methods. There are many payment systems for Android to choose from:

Android developers can integrate most of these payment gateways directly in your Android app by utilizing payment APIs.

General time taken for integrating payment gateways in your Android app is 50 hours or more per payment system. Considering you’d at least use two payment systems in your Android app, the average cost of this feature would range from $2400-$5000.

2. 3rd Party API Integrations

There are many popular third party APIs that allows you to fetch their data and resources and use them for your Android mobile app. These integrations can help you elevate your app offerings tremendously. Some of the most popular 3rd party API integrations are –

3rd Party Integration Service Feature Cost

#8. Android App Development Cost Factor – App Development Stages

There are many steps in Android app development that must be followed thoroughly to get a properly functional, usable and appealing app on the Play Store. Each step in Android app development needs various inputs and processes to be carried out. All these processes have some or the other cost associated with them. Hence, by getting a clearer idea about the entire Android app development process and cost associated with each development stage, you can better estimate the overall cost to publish Android app on the Play Store or other marketplaces.

#9. Android App Development Cost Factor – App Categories

Another important factor to consider for getting a better idea of your Android app development cost is to identify the app category it belongs to. Different kind of apps serve different purposes in the daily lives of users. Some of them are more frequently used for day-to-day activities whereas some apps have lesser user visits like travel or holiday apps which would be used only when the users are planning to travel. Gaming apps generally require higher level of coding and skillset from the developers as opposed to a lifestyle app, so Android costs vary there too.

Note: We have broken down the costs of each app category for your quick reference. However, these are rough estimates and aren’t to taken as an absolute reference point.

#10. Android App Development Cost Factor – Development Location

One of the biggest factors to consider when getting your Android app development project started, is the location from where you’re getting your app made. Generally, different locations across the globe have different average Android app development costs as per the average pay scale and skillset of their developers. Finding a balance between efficient solutions and cost-effective solutions is key in developing a perfect Android app that fits your budget. The top countries for Android app development projects are:

• United States
• India
• Ukraine
• Australia
• Russia

Android App Development Cost Breakdown – Location

Platform	India	United States	Ukraine	Australia	Russia
Android Development Cost	$18-$40/hr	$100-$150/hr	$60/hr	$200/hr	$60/hr

#11. Android Talent required for Android app development

There is various aspect of android app development, which includes different positions. Following are a few key members of android app development.

Members	Hourly Rates
Android app developer	$20 – $120
UI/UX Designer	$15 – $100
SCRUM Master	$50 – $200
QA Engineer	$15 – $120
Business Analyst	$45 – $180

Why should you consider India for Android App Development?

As you can tell from the table above, India has one the cheapest Android mobile app development cost compared to any other countries. This is because India is the land of developers and one of the leading IT countries. Partnering with the best offshore Android app development company in India can help you save up on your project costs significantly, while still getting best-in-class Android development services for your individual needs.

Android App Development Costs – Hidden Costs

Apart from all the app development costs we discussed right now, there are also many Android app developments hidden costs that you should be aware about. Here is a list of such hidden costs –

Sr no.	Hidden Cost to Develop Android App	Description	Average Cost
1	Hosting	Your Android app needs a trustworthy and reliable hosting partner to store user information and ensuring proper functionality of the app. The cost of your hosting services would depend greatly on the kind of content your app generally uses. Video format are more intensive than static formats like text. Other than that, you will have to choose a hosting plan as per your number of active users, projected growth and other such variables.	$70-$320/month
2	Monitoring and Maintenance	Maintenance is a recurring expense that you need to consider when deciding your Android app development budget. It is important to ensure your app functions smoothly and doesn’t have any bugs or glitches that ruin the user experience for your clients. Your maintenance cost will depend on the scalability and size of your app.	$5000-$10,000
3	Updates	Your app needs to be updated frequently for it to stay relevant in the marketplace and for the users to see constant efforts from your end to improvise their user experience. Updates also help pushing new features, improving bugs and fixes and keeping the app appealing.	$1,000 – $50,000
4	Licensing	Android app license cost is an inevitable investment that needs to be done for publishing your Android app on the Google Play Store.	$25 (one time investment)
5	SMS Notifications	If you want to integrate SMS messaging services for your app, you can do it by using platforms like Twilio.	$20/month
6	Push Notifications	Push notifications increase user interactions and prompt your users to take desired actions. Depends on service provider	Depends on service provider
7	Email Integration	Email integration helps you send mail promotions, special discounts, and other such marketable material to your users’ personal mail id.	N/A

How to Cut Android Mobile App Development Costs?

Now that we have rounded up all the possible aspects and approaches to understand all the costs related to Android app development, you must be wondering how to cut down on these costs. Well, we will cover this aspect too for you to get a cost-effective Android app solution for your requirements. Here are some useful ways you can cut down on your Android app development charges –

1. Create Product Requirement Document

Efficient planning is the key to smooth operations in any field or industry. Even if you are a start-up or a multinational company, planning is important when it comes to kick-starting your Android app development process. For this you should create a PRD – Project Requirement Document that provides a structural understanding of your app features and the projected tech stack you would use for developing your Android app. This will help your Android app development agency to understand your product better as well.

Your PRD should include –

• Company background
• Thought & objectives behind the app idea
• Timelines
• App Features
• Platforms
• UI/UX requirements
• Budget estimates

2. Prioritize features carefully

In the planning stage of your Android app development project, sit with your team and discuss the key important features that should make the cut on the final app whatsoever. After collecting inputs from different departments and different individuals, filter down on the ones you get the most votes on or the one that feel logically correct. Run this test app in the field and get on-ground feedbacks to know how to move further with your Android app development process.

3. Build an MVP

If you want to save up on the substantial cost of launching an app in the market and hoping everything works out, you could save a lot of your money by first building an MVP – minimal viable product with limited features that app testers, inventors and general users can test out at the early stages of app development. Such an approach is best for concept-based applications that are experimental and don’t have much existing literature to study market risks or trends.

4. Choosing offshore Android app development

As we discussed above, region of development can greatly impact your overall cost to develop Android applications. The overall cost to develop Android apps varies significantly in countries such as the US, UK and Canada compared to offshore locations such as Ukraine and India.

5. Choosing the right level of App Development Company

Is choosing the ‘best android app development company’ automatically going to help you solve your Android app solutions? No. The ‘best’ android app development company could be a global Android app solution company that only focuses on providing premium Android development services at unaffordable rates. You need to match your app development company to your budget and preferences to get the best ROI on your investment.

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Why Companies Prefer Building Apps on the Android Platform?

Android is an open-source and royalty-free platform that allows businesses to publish their Android apps on the Google App Store as well as third-party marketplaces. They can also share it internally with their teams if it’s a B2B Android application or for internal business processes.

As an investor or business looking to gain the most out of a mobile application for their B2C/B2B requirements, the open-source nature of Android platform can be highly beneficial, considering every 8^th device in the world is an Android powered smart-device. Here are some of the most strategic advantages of Android application development –

1. Easier App Acceptance Process

Google Play Store and Apple App Store follow similar guidelines for developers to publish app on their respective marketplaces. However, getting your app approved on Apple is a complexed job which just isn’t the case with Android. Google is more flexible in understanding and welcoming developers to launch their app on the play store, while Apple would make you make many changes, solve bugs and make many additional expenses for publishing your app on their platform.

2. Economical Google Play Store Publishing Fee

One of the reasons Android is a popular mobile app development platform is because the average cost of Android app development is generally lower and more economical compared to Apple. The cost of publishing app on Play Store is a one-time-fee of $25 in comparison to cost of publishing app on app store which is $99/year that needs to be renewed yearly.

3. Access to a wider user pool

Android is one of the widely used mobile operating system across the globe. Hence, integrating your business app to the Android development environment opens up more opportunities for your business. As per BusinessofApps Android have over 3 billion active users, with almost three quarters of all smartphones running on the Android platform.

4. Technology Adoption

Android is based on Java, which is a robust, tested and scalable programming language. There are two native programming languages for Android – Java and Kotlin. So which programming language is used for Android app development? Most of the Dedicated Android developers prefer programming apps for Android using Java. Read our Kotlin Vs Java blog to get a clearer idea. Android app development in Java enables you to port your app to other operating systems like Ubuntu, Symbian, Blackberry and more. Hence by choosing Android app development you don’t just target the Android marketplace, but multiple other platforms as well.

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Note: With the upcoming Windows 11, there are speculations for them to add Android app compatibility support which can change the game for Android Development Source –Windows Developers

5. Android Monetization Support

Google announced the service fee for each developer will be revised at 15% for the first 1M(USD) of their earnings from their Android app each year, which is a massive drop from the initial 30% fee they used to charge from the start. This relaxation in Google play taxes will encourage more developers and companies to join the platform and maximize their earnings.

Now that we have understood the importance and relevance of Android development, we should now focus on the financial aspect of understanding the costs involved with launching your Android app to the marketplace.

Wrapping it up!
With this, we have reached the end of our in-detail cost-breakdown analysis of Android app development. Make use of this Android app development cost guide to be better prepared and informed about the possible development costs for making your perfect Android app. Choosing Android for your mobile app development is highly beneficial and you can get the most out of this platform when you are in control of the process and know the various factors affecting your app development costs.

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