With a world full of Android apps and iOS apps, it would be pivotal to make your app stand out from your competitors. And for that to happen, it is important to choose the right strategy for developing an app and not to spend your entire funds just on a single aspect. Well, there’s a way and that is MVP — Minimum Viable Product.
Of course, now you might be thinking that you all are familiar with Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and how it is helpful for start-ups and SMBs in reducing the unwanted costs and gives a chance to market test your product-related risks. But nobody knows how much it costs for mobile app development in India.
Let’s dig a little into the details.
But do we need an MVP at all?
Well, the app stores are heavily loaded with numerous apps and typically, 8 out of 10 apps fail to impress their users. Whenever you are planning to implement your concept or idea into an app, you need to be a more little careful than usual when it comes to mobile app design, the whole development process, costs, customers, etc. as these elements consume a lot of time.
This is where an MVP comes into the picture. A MVP mobile app helps your business to take a look at the future reflection of your concept and to learn the customer market significance of the app with minimum development costs and time.
How to build an MVP?
Usually, when you are developing a mobile app, you would start the process with selecting the right and flawless design and then work all your way up to the usability, reliability, features, and then functionalities. But, this way, there would be no end to the development costs.
Instead what you need to do is start with choosing the essential functionalities and features that you think would make difference and help your customers in solving their problems and then finally, choose a design that fits with the present app.
Now, coming to the main question. How much does it cost to build an MVP mobile app in India?
Honestly, an MVP costs nothing provided you do it yourself. But then again, it might not be as efficient as it could be if got it done by a professional and when it is not efficient, it would miserably fail to impress your target audiences.
When you try to find the cost of an MVP mobile app on Google or other search engines, you would mostly find vague answers and numbers. That is why we thought of providing a lengthy, actually a bit lengthy answer to your question.
It is no surprise that the cost of an app development is the primary factor in deciding whether you would continue building the app or not. However, when compared to the cost of actual, complete mobile application, an MVP app costs much lesser.
But what is the exact cost of an MVP?
Coming to the options of building an MVP mobile app, there are typically 2 ways (Excluding DIY).
- Hire a freelance developer
- Outsource it an IT company
Just like any other usual mobile app, an MVP cost also depends on the type of method you pick. The cost of hiring a freelance developer varies from country to country.
But India is certainly one of the most cost-affordable countries for IT solutions. However, freelancers would charge you anywhere between from $10/hr to $200/hr and mid-sized IT companies charges range somewhere around $2500 – $11,000.
For a better understanding, let’s dig a little deeper. Even if you consider the shortest possible timeline for your MVP development which is 30 days —
40 hours*$30 = $1,200/week
$1,200*4 = $4,800 — The total cost of your MVP mobile app
So this total cost could be ok or fine for some people and it may not for others. Also, this would be the cost of your MVP considering it only takes 30 days to build. But there are cases where it would take months, maybe 2 or 3 depending on the features and functionalities just like a mobile app.
Nevertheless, there are some common issues that could prolong your MVP development process a little more than you anticipated.
Keep the MVP design costs to minimal
Even before checking out what kind of features and functionalities your app has, first your customers will judge your MVP mobile app based on the design and how it looks. The design of your MVP is just as important as any other aspect because this is what the final output of the mobile app is going to look like. Anything other than the outline cannot be considered in this process. Additional changes are only done, once the app is launched.
The UI of your MVP should be simple and easy to navigate so that your users won’t find it difficult to search for anything. Depending on the number of screens of your MVP app, you can get a fair idea of how much it is going to cost you.
Also, what you need to understand is that the initial design is altogether a different and separate expense.
The Total Cost of MVP App:
As I already said, to figure out the final value of your MVP app cost, you just need to multiply the number of hours required to build it by the price of the hour freelance developer charges you.
The below table will give an outline of how much your MVP is going to cost.
There are certain elements beyond the development process of MVP such as:
Elements Beyond MVP Development
- Initial release
- Taking reviews and feedback
- Data analysis
Once you launch your MVP, continue for a brief time as MVP is. If your customers love your app, then they will ask you to release a full-featured and functional app. By making the required changes and tweaks, you can release the final version of your app.
But, if your customers have mixed feelings about your MVP, then ask them which features they like and which they don’t so that you can improve their user experience.
In any case, you get totally negative feedback, and then stop the project for a while. Learn what your customers are expecting from your app. Otherwise, you would just be wasting a lot of money that would give you absolutely zero ROI.
Wrapping up
Now that you have understood how to proceed with your MVP mobile app development, this will surely give you an edge in negotiating with developers and IT companies. In addition to that, you know what to expect from your MVP, you can plan it in a better way on how to improve it and present it to your investors to raise more funds.