How Much Does It Cost To Design An App?

8M+ people benefited from this article – A complete cost structure

The design creates value for content. If the design is a tragedy, there will be no attention for content, how wonderful it may be. A mobile app is no exception to that. Good app design may cost something extra, but worthy. It can turn users into customers and increase ROI exponentially.

The better the design, the better will be user engagement, and user retention rate. If you’re really looking to know how much it costs to design an app, let FuGenX help you.

FuGenX is providing the app design cost estimate guide after designing 500+ highly successful, eye-catching mobile apps across iOS, Android, and Windows platforms for global customers.

What are the trending app designs?

Skeuomorphism design, flat design, and material design are the three significant trending mobile app designs that are thrilling app users nowadays.

Skeuomorphism formulates a sense of familiarity by simulating materials, while flat design (Apple recommended design) stays adhered to its medium (Apple’s strict guidelines). On the other hand, Material design (Google recommended design) blends the aesthetic look of both flat and skeuomorphism designs.

Here is a simple example of these trending designs:

App Designing Process

A simple mobile application designing process involves various phases, where you need a fixed budget for every stage to fit in seamlessly.

If you are looking out for a fixed-budget kind design quote, we provide you with an estimated number of hours to design your application based on the requirements and multiply with the standard hourly rate.

Step 1: Information analysis:

User study, market research, stakeholder interviews, and competitive analysis

• Deliverable’s: Use cases, user stories and realistic behavioral scenarios
• Tools used: A/B test results, user personas
• Time took: 15 to 30 hours

Step 2: Prototyping:

Usability testing, concept validation, and UX design

• Deliverables: app screens’ wire-frames, interactive prototypes, and user flow diagrams
• Tools used: In Vision, Sketch, Flinto
• Time took: 35 to 70 hours

Step 3: Visual design:

Complete look and feel of the app

Deliverables: App logo, all icons, and selected screenshots for app stores

Tools used: InVision, Flinto, Sketch, Pixate, Apple Motion, After Effects

Time took: 70 to 280 hours

Android and iOS App Design Cost:

There is not much difference between iOS (iPhone & iPad) and Android app design cost, though, there is something to know. Designing for iOS is usually a bit costly because of Apple’s strict design guidelines that designers need to be adhered to. The cost to make app design wouldn’t be much expensive.

Factors That Decide App Design Cost:

• UI/UX:

Basically, a professional mobile app designer needs to pay more attention to UI and UX designs.

The UI (User Interface) shows how the user views your mobile program (or site) and what screen elements user interacts with. In short, Android or iOS app refers to the UI design visual application component.

UX (namely, User Experience) is the reactions that any user experiences while dealing with an image/product (in our applications, websites, case, etc.). For example, when designing a mobile application, you should consider the size of your user fingers. Incidentally, right? Of course, everything is very simple: not all of your targeted customers have mobile phones with big screens, that means the design elements have to be big enough.

• Designers’ geographical location: This makes a big big difference in app design cost. Indian app designers are known to create top-notch designs and high-quality apps at an affordable price.
• Design strategy: Identification and creation of use cases, behavioral scenarios, and the collection of user stories.
• Features: Mobile application development cost is majorly depending on the number of features integrated on the app. If the app has a more number of features/screens, it cost high.

Benefits of Good App Design:

• The first impression is the best impression. Attracting app design can create a long-lasting impression.
• Good and simple app design facilitates the app discovery
• Engaging design can increase user engagement by 200% compared to ordinary design
• Good design can encourage users to share your app with others, which can result in the doubled user base
• Good app design can turn users into loyal users, and loyal users into customers
• Good design can significantly reduce the cost that you spend on branding

How to Create a UI/UX Good Design?

Experienced companies like FuGenX can use the following best design practices to create a good design:

• Making simple, transparent, and attractive UI, keeping users in mind
• Creating engaging UI & UX design elements to make users engaged to the app
• Making the Navigation effortless
• Creating a compatible layout that fits the screen of multiple devices
• Keeping the icons semantically accurate
• Creating a uniform color format for all pages, which can make your app a brand app

App Design Cost by App Type:

Note: The cost given below pertain to the US market. Compared to it, the Indian market would be more attractive and cost-effective.

The cost/time is an average market cost/time. Our (FuGenX’s) charges and the time we take to design an app would be more convenient and attractive.

• Simple App:

Simple app means basic functionality app, which is mainly intended to give information. Some apps come under this category are calendar app and dictionary app. The simple app can take 100 hours to be designed and can cost around $5,000.

• Database driven apps:

Database driven apps can include user database, products database, real-time chatting, and payment option, etc. E-commerce apps Amazon, and Flipkart come under this category and even messaging apps like WhatsApp as well. Database apps can take 200 hours to be designed and cost more than $10,000.

• Complex App:

Complex apps are also database-driven apps, but they are focused on user-generated content. The social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, and blogging portal WordPress can be the best examples of this. Complex apps can take around 400 hours to be designed and cost more than $20,000.

Breakdown of App Design Cost by Country:

• US-based app design firms can charge between $100 and $150 per hour for a great design.
• UK based app firms are a bit inexpensive compared to the US, who can cost $65-130 per hour.
• Asia based, especially Indian app design companies can deliver the same great design at around $20 per hour. This is why businesses from US, Europe, and Australia are preferring Indian companies to design great apps.

How to Reduce App Design Cost?

The companies like us follow the following design practices to reduce app development cost:

• A result-oriented app design strategy can cut down app design cost to a large extent. So we plan well before initiating to craft design.
• As mentioned above, more features lead to more cost. So if you’re building an app first time, focus only on core features in version 1. Once your app is geared up, you can consider the remaining features to include.
• In order to reduce UI and UX app design cost, it is better to handover your project to an app design and software development company that has experienced development team and certified UI/UX designers. They can wireframe once and design once, which significantly reduces design time.
• Hiring UI and UX app designers and strategic design consultants would be a time taking process and costly as well, so you can consider outsourcing your project to a reliable and best app design firm to get a quality design at an affordable cost. If it is outsourced to emerging markets like India, you can expect maximum ROI.

How Much FuGenX Charges to Design a Mobile App?

There is no particular cost calculator to estimate the design cost of a mobile app. Application design cost is usually calculated based on the complexity of the project, the skill level of the designer, the number of platforms and the no. of features included on the app. FuGenx Technologies designs apps that attract a targeted audience and improve business growth.

FuGenX is a Deloitte award-winning technology services company, specialized in mobile app development and design Company India and the United States. FuGenX designs apps that people love to use and share with others.

FuGenX’s quality-driven app design service has helped India’s largest online grocery store Big Basket turn users into loyal users and loyal users into customers. Disney, Praxair, and Bharat Petroleum are other big brands who benefited from FuGenX’s world-class app design services.

Reach FuGenX at info@fugenx.com or fill-up the form for exact mobile app design cost.