Before you begin building an app, it is crucial that you estimate the cost of your app building project. Failure to calculate the cost can land you in a lot of trouble because you can lose out on profits by spending more than you are making; or, you can risk not finishing your project as a result of running out of money.

To ensure that you do not encounter any of these disasters, you will need to follow the below guidelines that will help you estimate app building projects.

Determine Whether You Will Be Hiring a Team of Developers

The first step to estimate the cost of your app is to determine whether you will work with a company that offers custom development services or build the app yourself. Should you decide to build the app yourself, then you will not have to worry about calculating any monetary costs. If you would rather outsource the work to a company that specializes in custom development services, then further research is needed.

When you conduct your research, it is advantageous for you to compare at least five companies. First, you must check and see the services that each company offers. Some companies include testing and quality assurance as part of your package, while other companies will only focus on app development and leave the testing and quality assurance up to you.

Additionally, there are companies that will offer only the app development and testing services but leave you in charge of quality assurance. Some companies allow for package customization, allowing you to choose the services you want and exclude the ones you do not.

Along with checking into the services that are offered, you need to look at overall pricing. Prices will vary, depending on the company. If you have decided to go with a full-service company that sees your app from the development phase to quality assurance, then you will be able to skip the next three steps, as they will not pertain to your project.

Decide If You Will Use a Developer Toolkit or Do the Coding

If you have opted to build your app yourself, you will need to consider this step because it will factor into your overall cost. If you choose to build your app by using raw code, then you do not have to worry about spending any additional money. If you rather use a developer toolkit, you will need to compare various platforms since not all platforms offer the same features. Once you have found a platform that contains features you like, you will need to factor what you will pay for this platform into your budget.

Make the Decision to Hire Short-Term or Long-Term Testers

If you have chosen a company that only provides custom app development services and nothing more, then you need to take this step into account when you estimate the cost of your app building project. Should you choose to test the app on your own after development, then you will not have to factor this cost into your budget.

Keep in mind that if you go the route of testing the app yourself, then you will need to learn testing methodologies on top of focusing on the development of your app. This can be time consuming; however, if you are up for the challenge of learning the various testing methodologies, then you can go forth with doing the testing. Some of the most common testing methodologies you will need to learn are:

Accessibility Testing

This type of testing requires that the app be tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to ensure that the app is accessible to individuals with disabilities. When performing accessibility testing, it is critical to use assistive technology, such as screen readers, to make certain that your app is compatible with assistive technology to guarantee disabled users can also use your app. IOS and Android have built in accessibility features, such as screen readers, that you can use for testing purposes.

Because these accessibility features are built into these operating systems, you will not have to incur any extra costs. When testing for accessibility using a windows computer, you can obtain a free screen reader called Nonvisual Desktop Access. Any additional assistive technology tools, like Dragon Naturally Speaking or Jaws for Windows cost, so you will need to budget for these tools.

Regression Testing

This type of testing is performed in order to ensure that existing functionality of the application has not been impacted when code changes are made or when new functions have been added. During regression testing, the application is tested end-to-end to make sure there are no new bugs. All existing features are tested first, and then the new features or code changes are tested.

Usability Testing

This type of testing is designed to measure how easy the app can be used by end-users. Usability testing must not be confused with functional testing.

Functional Testing

Functional testing is a type of testing where an app is tested to guarantee that it satisfies functional requirements or specifications. During the planning phase of developing an app, requirements that outline how the app is supposed to function are laid out clearly. Once development is complete, all the requirements are reviewed, and the functionality of the app is tested against all these requirements to see that the app is working as designed.

Of course, there are many more testing methodologies to learn; however, these are the most common.

Now if you have chosen to pay for development services and want to hire testers later, then you will need to decide how much you will pay and whether or not you will hire testing staff on a short-term or long-term basis. If you are only going to create one app, then you will do fine hiring short-term testing staff. If you plan to make many more apps in the future, then you will likely do better to hire long-term testing staff.

Once you have made your decision on whether to hire short-term or long-term testing staff, you will need to figure out how much you will pay them. To make sure you pay a rate that is fair, do some research and find out how much testing staff generally get paid for their work.

If you hire long-term staff, you will also want to provide some incentives for working with you for years to come in order to make sure you retain your staff. Of course, you will need to factor this cost into your budget.

Decide If You Will Hire Quality Assurance Staff on a Short-Term or Long-Term Basis

If you are working with a full-service company that includes quality assurance as part of your package or you decide to perform quality assurance checks yourself, then you do not have to worry about this step because this will not need to be factored into your budget. If you want to hire staff to perform quality assurance checks, then you need to do some research to figure out what a quality assurance expert typically gets paid.

You also need to determine if you will need quality assurance staff on a temporary basis or for a long period of time. If you will only build one app, then you will likely need to hire temporary staff. If app development will be ongoing, then it is ideal to hire long-term quality assurance experts. You will also want to offer incentives for long-term quality assurance staff to make sure they will want to remain with you and not have a desire to work elsewhere.

Calculate How Much to Spend on Advertising

Your app is finally complete, and you have listed your app on a variety of marketplaces. What you need to do now is to advertise your app so others will know it exists. A surefire way to get your app noticed is to advertise on social media platforms. A social media presence does not cost much to maintain. Still, you will need to factor advertising costs into your budget. It is a good idea to set a monthly budget for your ad campaigns and adjust as needed.