How much time and money does it take to build an app like Uber?
One of the most common questions we receive from clients is, “How long will it take to build an app like App, and how much will it cost?” In order to accurately answer this two-part question, we need to have a thorough understanding of the features the client wants in their app, and the complexity of the design. In reality, most people looking to have an app created do not consider all of the planning, coding, testing, and design work that go into making it happen.In order to help demonstrate the work needed, let’s have a look at one of the most popular apps on the market: Uber.
Consider the Features
Before you can begin estimating the costs of creating an app, you need to consider its features and how complex it is.As a hint at just one complicated the process really is, consider that Uber isn’t just one app, it’s really two. There’s a driver-facing side, so that they can see their client’s location and ratings, and there’s a client-facing side, so they can see the drivers in their area and book a ride.This design automatically doubles the cost of the app’s creation, because it’s not just creating two apps: it’s linking them together.A simple taxi-booking app could run you about $25,000 to $40,000. An Uber-like app, however, with all of the bells and whistles would cost you around $100,000 to $150,000. The actual Uber app’s development is estimated to be around $1,000,000 to $1,500,000 (that’s the cost of being the business to do things differently first).
Determining how much your App costs
Here are the three main aspects that will determine how much your app costs:
- Which platforms are you looking to support? Are you going to only support Android, which is generally cheaper to develop for, or are you also looking to release an iOS version of your app? What about a web version? All of these have to be coded a bit differently to meet the platform’s requirements.
- How many user stories do you have? A “user story” details the persona of a target user and what problem they are looking to solve by using your app. Uber, for instance, has at least two obvious ones: Drivers looking to make extra cash and people in need of a ride (but it goes more in-depth than that).
- Do you want this to be ready to launch? Do you want a full-featured and functional app that can be released to the masses, or just a version for testing and idea validation? The latter might be the better choice if you are going to seek capital (funding) to help bring your test app to the real-world, which is the case for most businesses who can’t justify paying for a full-fledged app right out of the gate.
In conclusion, our team is all about transparency. When you ask for an estimate, we can estimate your app’s cost appropriately only if we have all the information, but hopefully this article helped you understand what we need in order to give you a fair and honest quote.Have questions? Drop in an email with your detailed requirements, budgets, timelines etc. to findus@focaloid.com