adam engineering

Number of Screens

The number of different views is a good indicator of the scope of the app and is therefore used as the base value for the calculation. Example: An app with an overview, a list view and a detail view would have 3 screens. A typical value for an average app would be 10.

Screens x 1'000

Operating System

The development costs for the different Operating Systems are similar. A choice of two operating system thus doubling the time.

iOS for iPhone and iPad
watchOS for Apple Watch
tvOS for Apple TV (4th Generation)
Android for Devices manufactured by HTC, LG, Samsung, Sony etc.

Devicetypes

One Device
Smartphone and Tablet x 1.6
Smartphone, Smartwatch and Tablet x 2.0
Smartphone, Watch, Tablet and TV x 2.4

Screen Orientation

Portrait- or Landscape
Portrait- and Landscape x 1.4

Languages/Regions

Language(s)

Supported Operating Systems

The more OS-Versions are supported, the greater the number of potential users could be, but also the cost of development and maintenance increases.

One x 1.0 Only the current Version is supported. (Coverage around 20% - 80%, depending on the OS)
Two x 1.3 The current and the previous Version are supported. (Coverage around 40% - 90%, depending on the OS)
Three x 1.6 The current, plus the two previous Versions are supported. (Coverage around 50% - 97%, depending on the OS)

User Interface

Using the Controls provided by the OS controls is the simpliest way to go. Everything else requires specific design and development.

Standard
Custom Made x 2

Security

If your App handles sensitive data, this has to be considered, tested and protected all the ways known.

Standard
Advanced x 1.5

Quality

The desired quality has a direct impact on the effort. Successful apps are often of high quality.

Low x 0.6 It should work most of the times. However, the app looks something unattractive and sometimes crashes. There is virtually no documentation and code quality is bad.
NormalEverything works. The appearance of the app meets the current conventions. The code is sound and the documentation adequate.
High x 1.8 Everything works perfectly and quickly. The app is very nice to look at and lovely to use. The code is very clean and modern, the documentation complete and well understood.

Deployment

App Store 1'000 Packaging, Signing, Preflight, Transmission, Store
Enterprise 1'500 Packaging, Signing and preparation for internal Distribution

Further Functionality

Basics

In-App Purchases 2'500
Remote Push Notifications 4'000 Receiving and processing notifications, even when the app is not running.
Keychain Access 1'500 Storing and reading of especially protected Login and Password Combinations.
Statistics 2'500 Statistical Analysis of user behavior.
Web-Interface 1'000 Display one or more Web-Sites within the app, showing its own navigation.

Maps & Navigation

Maps 3'000 Dsiplay a Map with Pins.
Geo-Location 3'000 Execute a specific function based on the Users Location.

Data & Communication

Database 4'000 Handle all the Data-Transactions directly on the Device itself.
Interface to Database Server 10'000 Transmit all Data via Internet Connection.
Data-Exchange 2'500 Exchange Data between different Applications.
Bluetooth Communication 7'500 Communication with other Devices via Bluetooth. (required min. V.3.0)

Graphics, Photo and Video

Play Audio or Video 2'500
Camera 2'500 Record Video or take Pictures.
3D 20'000 Representation of three-dimensional Content or Animations.
Image Recognition (OCR) 30'000 Creation and adaptation of functions for Image Recognition (Faces, Objects, Text)

Varia

Game-Center 3'000 Integration of GameCenter. Networklpay, Highscore and Ranking.
Personalized Keyboard 4'000 Custom keyboard for entering predefined sequences or with limited character selection.

Calculator

for Mobile App Development

The effort to create a good mobile app is mostly underestimated. This leads to a lot of stress, missed deadlines, poor quality and ultimately dissatisfied users.

This calculator should help you to get an idea of the context in which the costs (design, implementation and deployment) could be for an individual app.